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                           Transcriber’s Note

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                           _The Room with the
                              Little Door_

                                  _By_

                       _Roland Burnham Molineux_

                             [Illustration]


                       _G. W. Dillingham Company_

                      _Publishers_      _New York_

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                             [Illustration]

                          COPYRIGHT, 1902, BY
                                 ROLAND
                            BURNHAM MOLINEUX

                         _All Rights Reserved_

                              _Entered at
                            Stationers Hall_

                          ISSUED JANUARY, 1903


                           _The Room with the
                              Little Door_

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                                  _To
                               My Father
                             General Edward
                            Leslie Molineux
                                  With
                               Reverence_

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                               _CONTENTS_


       CHAPTER                                              PAGE

                 _Introduction_                             _17_

       _I._      _The Room with the Little Door_            _19_

       _II._     _The Little Dead Mouse_                    _26_

       _III._    _A Forbidden Song_                         _30_

       _IV._     _The Murderers’ Home Journal_              _34_

       _V._      _Fads_                                     _54_

       _VI._     _The Mayor of the Death-Chamber_           _62_

       _VII._    _A Psychological Experiment_               _67_

       _VIII._   _Me and Mike_                              _79_

       _IX._     _Old John_                                 _82_

       _X._      _Her Friend_                               _94_

       _XI._     _Life_                                     _97_

       _XII._    _My Friend the Major_                      _99_

       _XIII._   _A Dissertation on the Third Degree_      _108_

       _XIV._    _It’s Just Like Her_                      _145_

       _XV._     _Shorty_                                  _158_

       _XVI._    _An Opinion on Expert Opinion_            _180_

       _XVII._   _Prologue to a Little Comedy_             _195_

       _XVIII._  _Impressions: The Last Night and The      _197_
                   Next Morning_

       _XIX._    _Impressions: Dawn in the Death-Chamber_  _208_

       _XX._     _Impressions: While the Jury is Out_      _211_

       _XXI._    _Impressions: The Friendship of           _234_
                   Imagination_

       _XXII._   _The Last Story_                          _241_

       _XXIII._  _The Story of the Ring, by Vance          _243_
                   Thompson_

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                             _Introduction_


Most of the following is true, or founded on truth. A few are
waifs—products of my imagination; little stories that came into my mind
from time to time. Some of them are from letters written home while I
was confined in the Tombs Prison in New York City, and in the
Death-Chamber at Sing Sing.

In them I have not inflicted myself to any great extent upon the reader.
Herein is chiefly what I saw when trying to look upon the bright side.
There are also glimpses of the side which cannot be made bright, look at
it as one may.

But if anything in these pages leads some one to think of what must be
endured in either place, let me say, that no suffering was ever
willingly caused by the officials with whom