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FRAGMENTS OF A PRISONER'S DIARY
simply marvellous. They really enjoy life, and regard it as a grcat joke, though in reality it is anything but that. What to a superficial observer or a supercilious moralist appears to be criminal callousness, is really a sublime philosophical indifference to the conventional values of life. The expert pick-pocket, for example, is not so much concerned with what he picks. He is proud of his skill. He relishes the joy of plying his trade skilfully. And he looks upon his victims as so many fools. He does not steal, but pulls the lcg of the socicty which has thrown him to the scrapheap, and to the tender mercies of the police.
These jolly members of the brotherhood of gamins are the only honourablc exceptions to the gencral rule of fatalist resignation, cither sincere or pretended. They do not submit to, but defy, fate. They have no fear for prison. Why should they ? Only in prison they are given those most minimum neiessities for bare physical existence that are denied them anywhere else. Outside the jail, they are "free" to go hungry, to get wet in the rains, to shiver in the winter and to be eventually picked up by the police. Asked why he comes back to jail always after his relcase, one of my particular friends gave the disarming and thoroughly convincing answer: “Freedom does not fill my stomach, and the police do not let me alone." And he added with a charming candour that he was glad that they did not. Two full 186
