I AM repeatedly struck by the fact of how much prisoners become like children. The importance of momentous events is given to the merest trifles, and in order to elicit that most contrary and problematical result ironically styled killing time, recourse is had to the most insignificant and primitive pastimes. Unwearable finger rings, and sacrilegious looking crosses are sawed and filed out of ration bones ; the handles of brushes and the backs of combs are carved with touching mottoes ; gray heads become speculative over jack-straws ; and, sedate and dignified patriots indulge in the grotesque antics of "leapfrog." Then, to see them crowding up, tin-cup in hand, to receive the meagre allowance of pale, ambiguous soup ; to watch them lying about the floor in unique groups, or sauntering through the rooms, bored to death with ennui,-a host of shoeless, shirtless, shameless spectres, each one wandering wildly about in the preposterous effort to get away from himself!
It is laughable-and in that mirth there is a moral -to see a brigadier-general, sitting down philosophically to peel onions for a stew ; a colonel of cavalry, sweeping the floor; or, a Division Quartermaster in carpet slippers, and become irascible in a violent controversy about the distribution of spoons.

There is a new arrival of prisoners. The cry is started of  "more Yanks!" " Fresh Fish!" and there is a general rush to the windows to obtain a glimpse of the new-comers, followed, in all likelihood, by a spirited interchange of amicable recognitions.

The "Fresh Fish" are taken into the lower passage, where they are formed in line, their names registered, and their pockets searched. They are then, if they be offcers, conducted up-stairs into their future domicil, and, if enlisted men, into a lower room, or they are sent to Belle Isle, or to one of the other prisons in Richmond.

In the general thirst for the latest news, the hapless "Fresh Fish" who just enters, is beset by the whole bevy of jail-birds, whose haggard countenances, dishevelled hair, and supernatural attire, are sufficient to inspire him with feelings not the. most enviable, either as to his personal safety for the present, or as to his personal comfort for the future. A number of questions are asked him, all at the same time, whilst one pulls him this way, and another that:,, What news From the Army of the Potomac ?" "Where is such a Corps, or such a Division?" "When were you captured?" " Where were you captured ?" How were you captured ?" And so on for a quarter of an hour, until at last the poor fellow, breathless and exhausted, drops his haversack out of one hand, and his coat out of the other, that lie may wipe away the torrents of perspiration that stream clown his face. There is then a commiserative counter-cry of "give him air!" "don't crowd him!" and so forth, during another period of noise and confusion. At length the unfortunate man recovers his breath, and silence is enforced, that not a word falling from his lips may be lost, when he informs the gaping listeners, to their utter discomfiture and dismay, that he comes from the southwest, and was captured five months an o ! This provoking revelation is likely to elicit some such charitable suggestion as "put that fellow out!" which being impracticable under the circumstances is probably modified to "dip him in the bath-tub!"

Once let alone, the new arrival proceeds to enquire about his "quarters," a term which he soon discovers is only applied by courtesy to six feet by two of bare floor ; he is perhaps furnished, in addition, with a blanket which many a captive has here, during the past two years, wrapped like a "martial cloak around him," and which is pretty sure to be colonized. Being now provided for, to the full extent of the prison charity, and having sauntered about the rooms to satisfy his curiosity as to the peculiar features of his new abode, he finally stretches himself out on his " six by two," arranges his haversack comfortably under his head, and does precisely what all the new arrivals have done before him : he begins to think.

Just at the culminating point of some wild revery about his far-off wife and innocent babes, he is suddenly aroused by a terrific commotion in the room ; the prisoners, with a savage halloo, are rushing frantically to the windows. What can it mean ? "What is the matter?" asks the new arrival, as he springs to his feet, in accents tremulous with the excitement of terror. Will no one tell him ? no ; every one is in a hurry, and no one tells him. The most frightful suspicions dart through his brain. Have the prisoners mutinied, and are they slaughtering the guards ? He has read a barbarous article in the " Richmond Enquirer" about retaliation, and the raising of . the black flag-no ! would they dare to-and he grasps his throat convulsively. Perhaps the building is on fire. A horrible thought ! Five hundred human beings struggling through one contracted doorway ! The alarming narrowness of the staircase also recurs vividly to his memory. He rushes madly after the crowd ; in his blind career he treads upon the countenance of a slumbering convalescent, and materially retards the recovery of the afflicted man ; or he puts his foot into a coffee-pot and overturns its contents ; or ruins some choice and expensive preparation of stewed apples ; or plays the deuce with some valuable collection of tin-ware, thereby subjecting himself to the violent abuse of a "private mess." At length, after much spirited elbowing, during which he regrets the necessity of being rough upon a reverend member of the clergy, he finally reaches a window. Are the prisoners leaping madly into the street to avert an agonizing death amid the flames ? This would be a fearful alternative for a man with a far-off wife and innocent babes ! By a desperate effort he obtains a full view of the street ; the extraordinary commotion is satisfactorily accounted for. He laughs outright. The frightful phantoms which haunted his brain but a moment since, have fled. He beholds the mysterious cause of this wild excitement : it is a woman Passing along the pavement below.

So he goes sauntering back to his "six-by -two," a wiser, if not a better man.

As night approaches, the situation of the fresh arrival becomes somewhat critical. He succeeds, after awhile, in bringing about a not altogether satisfactory compromise between' his blanket, his haversack, and himself; after lying, first on one -side, then on the other, then on his back, and then on no side in particular, he finally falls into an ambiguous slumber, and dreams unutterable miseries. But he has not yet emptied to the dregs the bitter cup of his first day's experience in the Libby. In the midst of a thrilling night-mare, he is awakened by startling and confused yells in the distance ; they approach, rendering the night hideous with their echoes ; nearer and nearer they come, repeated at short intervals, by weird voices, and wafted up from the street by the night wind. But this suspense becomes insupportable; ' he leaps to his feet, and makes his way to the nearest window ; it is raining, and the sidewalk below is shrouded in impenetrable darkness, but a shrill Confederate voice informs him, as it takes up in piercing accents the diabolical refrain, that it is " Twelve o'clock," and that at " Post . o. 10, all's well !" This gratifying intelligence restores the alarmed prisoner's presence of mind, and chastened and subdued by the Christianlike resignation and buoyancy of spirits of " Post No. 10," he once more returns to torture himself into an unresolvable problem of chaotic anatomy, and falls asleep for the last time that night, with the pleasing reflection that to-morrow,- thank Heaven, he will have ceased to be a "Fresh Fish!"

The first thing we hear in the morning is the stentorian voice of a certain fertile colored genius, familiarly known in Libby as "Old Ben." This voice daily announces to the half-awakened prisoners that there is " great news in de papers ! Talagraphic dispatches from ebery whar ! Kase I'm bound to trabel !"

Old Ben is followed by the General," another colored attaché of the prison, whose chief duty is to go through the rooms every morning and fumigate them with tar-smoke. The " General" is a staunch supporter of the old flag, and qualifies his fumigatory process by calling it " a good Union smoke!"

The next announcement is, that of " Mess number so-and-so-breakfast!" There is then a general rush of the members of said mess to their morning repast, which is spread in true alms-house style, upon a long, bare, pine table. To the casual observer, the meal would appear to consist wholly of deformed tin plates and pewter spoons, but an oniony odor which pervades the premises is a welcome earnest of " hash" to come. If a newly arrived member in the mess has been unfortunate enough to oversleep himself-which will never occur to him twice-he may rest assured that his slumbers will not be disturbed ; this would be the very height of madness, because, by a shrew algebraic calculation, we arrive at the following gratifying result

a = total members of mess.
b = slumbering ditto of ditto.
x = rations of hash.

Now then, we have the quantities 1b-1x, and 20a-1b, from which will naturally be deduced the following equation :

20n-lb=l9a + 19x 1- 1x.

Various little episodes diversify the monotony of Libby life. There are two roll-calls daily, when the prisoners are counted ; there is the Sergeant, who every morning conjures up a host of dilapidated spectres with the necromantic words, " Fall in, sick, and go down"-which means down to the Surgeon's office-but which the uninitiated might imagine to imply a diabolical desire, on the part of the Confederate authorities, that the sick might fall into some dreadful place-perhaps the canal-and go down never to rise again.

Each prisoner must serve his tour at policing, and putting things in order, during which he is in all likelihood dispatched by the chief commissary on a spirited reconnoissance in quest of secreted 'spoons. Of course there is your little washing to be done, also ; you rub and soap away for dear life, like a male washer-woman, and the difficulty of getting things to look clean teaches you a wholesome lesson ; you learn thereby to duly appreciate the merit of lavatory labors, and you behold in all its glaring monstrosity that mean and criminal practice of palming off counterfeit six-pences upon hard-working laundresses.

The last days of summer !-All our hopes of being exchanged or paroled, have been dissipated one after another, and our captivity is passing with rapid strides from the last green of summer to the sere yellow of autumn ; from faint hope to settled despair. Rumors of battles which are being fought, and of victories which are being won, reach us from time to time, and cheer us in our seclusion. The hopes of the Confederacy are paling fast, and its social status, if we may judge by that of the capital as portrayed in its daily journals, deteriorates with a steady downward course that must soon lead to utter anarchy.

Among the prisoners are quite a number of chaplains. This time the rude grasp of Mars has not respected the inviolable sanctity of the holy robe. Sermons, and prayer-meetings are of frequent occurrence ; the minister .takes his position in the centre of the room, and the congregation sit, or kneel, around him on the floor. It' is a service well befitting the prison-house, with its prospects of long suffering and self-denial, and its menaces of weary hours, and days of languishing tedium. The spirit of the Almighty is ardently invoked to descend to us in our gloomy abode ; to pour the sunshine of Its glory upon the dismal prison-walls, and the balm of Its mercy into the weary heart ; to give to the mind of Its holy strength, that looking wistfully out through the prison-bars at the light and the liberty without,
the captive may temper his complainings with faith, and his despair with hope.

In the room under the one we occupy, are confined a large number of Federal non-commissioned officers, and citizens captured in Maryland and Pennsylvania during the late invasion by General Lee's Army. They are even more poorly fed than ourselves. Through a chink in the floor we pass them down crackers, and pieces of bread, whenever we can spare them from our own slender store. It is pitiful to see these starving men struggling with their thin, lank hands, at the hole, to catch the bits we drop through to them. We often see them fight desperately over a morsel of bread, even beating and knocking one another down. I never look through that chink, but I can see below some anxious, wasted face, and a pair of sunken eyes, peering up in wistful supplication for a crust ! The Confederate authorities assert that they are doing all they can for us ! If unavoidable, this system of starvation would be frightful enough if intentional, it is too revoltingly cruel to ever meet with its full punishment upon earth.

The water we use, is drawn at a hydrant, under which a bath-tub, or rather brough, has been constructed, which serves for all washing purposes generally. This tub, which would under ordinary conditions of comfort inconveniently hold one bather, is often made to accommodate three or four at a time, with a crowd in waiting and ready to squeeze in at the first opportunity. A misty spray of muddy soap and water constantly envelopes the tub, so that it presents somewhat the appearance of a rock by the sea-side, against which the rising waves dash themselves incessantly. In this unusually hot weather the prison is heated into a huge oven, in which several hundred human beings are thoroughly baked in the most approved style of a first class steam bakery. Of course under such circumstances, the pressure upon the tub is tremendous-for it is a well in the prison-sands, and the splashing and spluttering which take place there, may readily be conceived.

A prisoner lately arrived, and not yet well acquainted with the prison rules, was, some days ago, anxious to take a bath, and wash away the accumulated dust and mud gathered during a journey from the banks of the Rappahannock. After several abortive efforts to achieve an ablution, he shrewdly resolved to wait until after dark, and in the silence and secrecy of the midnight hour, when all should be soundly asleep, to creep stealthily to the tub, take triumphant possession, and scour himself to his heart's content.

Night creeps on apace ; one by one the bathers retire ; the " all's well !" is cried by the sentries ; the prisoners are all asleep, laid out snugly side by side over the whole superficial extent of the floor, as if it were an unearthed cemetery originally distributed into private lots; a variety of naso-orchestral sounds, alone breaks the profound stillness of the hour. Everything proving propitious, the "newly arrived," rises, on tiptoe, soap and towel in hand ; steps out cautiously between the heads of the sleepers ; takes breath and steps again, within the eighth of an inch of a captain's ear ; next plants his bare heel within a hair's breadth of a colonel's nose; steps forward carefully again and feels something soft under his foot,-easy ! it is the head of a second lieutenant of cavalry. He has at length reached, in comparative safety, a window which is near the tub,-is startled by the intoxicated appearance of the moon, just seen looming above the horizon, and no doubt staggering down to bed with a glass too many in her head ; he experiences a half superstitious and guilty feeling. Finally the tub is reached, and the goal won. With a tremulous hand he turns the water on fizz! froth I splash I out it comes, gushing in a powerful stream. What a thundering noise it makes in the stillness of the night ! a cry goes up from among the awakened sleepers ; a fearful cry, followed by loud yells, and shouts of " Stop that water !" " Come out of that tub !" " Strike a light I" " Boot him I boot him!" If any doubt is created in the mind of the terrified bather as to the precise definition of the last exclamation, this doubt is soon dispelled by the storm of heterogeneous missiles, which pour upon him from every quarter of the room ; panic-stricken and unable to understand the meaning of the frightful uproar he has originated, and only able to comprehend distinctly that he is the radical cause of it, by the boot which whistles past his nose in fearful proximity like a grape shot, and by the broomstick, which cuts him across the legs in the manner of " rail road iron." He makes his way back as best he can to his blanket, never stopping, of course, to check the water. The tumult in consequence, increases, and there is, finally, a general rush to the tub to seize the offender. The greatest confusion prevails in the room. " Who is it ?" " Stop that water I" "Put him out I" " Strike a light I" A light is struck, and a large crowd has gathered about the tub.

It is, of course, found empty. Loud denunciations are uttered, accompanied with violent threats of bringing the offender to justice, whilst the half distracted cause of all this mischief, lies closely enveloped in his blanket, snoring with unnatural ferocity.

Gradually the tumult ceases, and ere long, all are gathered once more to slumber under the raven's wing. There is one, however, who. sleeps not,-it is the "new arrival." "Why should I have created such a diabolical commotion ?" he asks of himself. " I am sure I was only going to take a bath, without doing a particle of harm to any one." Yes, poor fellow I you are " green" yet in the prison. You do not know that it is one of the strictest rules here that the wash tub shall not be used after 9 P. M.; you little think you have been guilty of a crime, the penalty for which is to be locked up in the dungeon for a week on bread and water !

There is a certain captain who is a great stickler for the enforcement of prison rules and regulationsa dignified and retiring gentleman, and a great favorite. He is very severe on the subject of the tub, near which he sleeps. Woe unto the offender who turns on the water after nine P. M. All are in the habit of looking up to the captain on the subject of the tub ; it is his favorite battle ground, and all are too cognizant of the astuteness of his strategy to risk a nocturnal skirmish with him. Many will long remember one memorable night in which he attacked no less a personage than a full quartermaster, and after a bloody and obstinate conflict, routed him with great slaughter, cutting off his communications, and capturing his trains. This action is humorously related in the prison as " The Battle of the Tub."

Not the least amusing incident to which the tempestuous history of this devoted tub has given rise, is the trial by a mock court of one of the most discreet and dignified of the officers, charged with endangering the peace and discipline of the prison community, by an attempt somewhat of the nature of the one just related, to enjoy the secret raptures of a clandestine bath. Much humor and mirth were created by this comical trial. A gray headed cavalry officer acted as judge upon the occasion, and the mock gravity and professional air he assumed, as well as his shrewd wit, convulsed the court with laughter during the proceedings.

The empanelling of the jury was rendéred amusingly difficult by the fact that nearly all who were subpoenaed had been selected out of the foreign element French, Germans, and Hungarians, especially those who knew but little of the language. The accused of course became the target at which all the mischievous witticisms were aimed ; but he bore himself throughout the trying ordeal with the most admirable good-nature. Among the many amusing arguments urged by the defence was one, sustained by powerful evidence, that the accused had never been known even, to wash his face, since his arrival in the prison ; one of the Faculty was produced who testified to the effect that the accused suffered from frequent attacks of hydrophobia ; another in assisting him to an alibi, testified that he had seen the prisoner on the night in question coming out of an ice-cream saloon on Main street, in Richmond, with a Confederate lady on his arm ; a fragment of a letter had been picked up by another, near the tub, signed by one " Susan," the contents of which aspersed the fidelity of the aged warrior, and brought to light - some highly amusing incidents of his amatory experiences. The prisoner at the bar listened to these jokes with charming good temper, and none seemed to relish more than himself the drollery 'of the whole affair.

A verdict of "guilty" was brought in, with a recommendation to the mercy of the court ; and the sentence, which terminated the proceedings, was to the effect that the accused should be drummed out of the prison into the Federal lines, and that, in view of the recommendation to mercy, the prosecution should pay all the costs !