ABSTRACT
The Digger treated his new job of reading and criticizing new books with great seriousness, and his reports for the Librarian were constructed with meticulous care. Some books were dismissed in a few words, as, for instance, one written by an enterprising New York journalist on information supplied by a notorious gunman and murderer. “This,” wrote the Digger, “is a bandit's vade mecum." With others, whose merits as literary fare for prisoners were considered doubtful, he elaborated the arguments for and against at length, and left it to the Librarian to make a final decision.
