AS the cool weather gains upon us, lying about on the bare floor, en deshabille, must be foregone. It has never entered into the calculations of our keepers to furnish our prison-home for us ; so, we must set to work, and by a desperate effort of our ingenuity, furnish it ourselves. Every day I observe great improvements in this department of our housekeeping ; diminutive, unpretending stools, made from spare ends of shelf-boards and blanket racks, have given way to more aspiring attempts at chairs ; boxes from home have been worried into rickety, phthisical looking little tables, or hung up to serve as cupboards ; commissary barrels have been sawed and hammered into unsightly, and somewhat uneasy " easy-chairs ;" a stray piece of blanket makes, here and there, a tolerable table-cloth ; a suspended barrel hoop replaces the long lost luxury of a clothes perch ; a splinter forced into the wall in the interstices between the bricks, will support your hat in a cheap and decorous manner ; an empty can, once the receptacle of some highly prized delicacy, makes an admirable lamp, in which, with a wick made from the nether extremity of a cotton garment, and fed with the waste fat of sundry pork rations, diffuses a fair amount of light, backed by its compound metallic reflector. With a seat, a table, and a lamp, at the prisoner's disposal, the long winter evenings will not find him totally unprepared. Indeed there is at times experienced in the midst of the long room, scattered all over with little squatter-like colonies gathered round a cluster of their rude furniture and pork-fat lamps, a something almost akin to a faint resemblance of comfort. Such is the force of habit, that we conceive our few feet square of mess room, to possess something of a home character-if that can in any manner be coupled with the name of home, which is, in the world, perhaps the least like it.

Some of us at the foot of a post, some near a window, some against a wall, or even in the centre of the room, with our clothing hung up on every projecting angle, our eatables perched upon all manner of shelves and ingenious contrivances, and our rough little table and chair, we look like so many gregarious Crusoes; a large invoice of poll-parrots from one of the many Societies at the North, would render this last illusion complete.

In order to lessen the tedium of the winter evenings, recourse is had to all sorts of games, in which the majority participate with great zest. Sometimes it is a ludicrous imitation of a country show, in which figures an elephant represented by throwing a blanket over the shoulders of two officers, or a grotesque female giant, in which one is mounted upon the shoulders of another ; these are paraded through the rooms, preceded by torch bearers and a band of music performing favorite airs on hair-combs-the whole headed by some comical genius carrying a broom, in the character of an absurd drum-major. At other times a grand cock-fight is inaugurated, in which the two combatants selected, having patiently submitted to that arbitrary process known as " bucking," butt at each other around the ring in fine style, the defeated " rooster" being overset in the most ludicrous manner. Bets are made, and great faith exhibited in the fighting qualities of the several " birds."

Another species of amusement is that barbarous one called " raiding," which consists in that some twenty of the most desperate characters dash through the room, sweeping before them all they meet, oversetting card-tables and chairs, and throwing into confusion everything and everybody that comes in their way. This heathenish practical joke is the terror of the more sedate portion of the community, for the raiders respect nothing and no one, and the just complaints of such as do not relish the rude sport only adds to their zeal and contributes to their merriment. Gymnastic exercises are also much indulged in ; an old hickory broom suspended at each end from one of the cross-beams furnishes a trapeze, which although not very safe is perhaps not much more dangerous than a sharp skirmish, or a desperate cavalry charge.

There has been great rejoicing of late in the prison, owing to the arrival of numerous boxes from the north, containing clothing and eatables for the prisoners. There is an almost child-like delight exhibited over these timely bounties from home. An officer with a " box" becomes at once the admired of all admirers, and receives congratulations as hearty as if he had just " married a fortune."

Truly, "men are but children of a larger growth." Shut a man up in a prison, deprive him of his habitual comforts, torture him with hunger, and it is singular how soon he " remounts the river of his years."

There is considerable excitement here about the gubernatorial elections going on at the north iii Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana. To-day being the 13th of October, polls have been opened to test the political sentiment of the prison. The excitement waxes high; for several days past there has been stump speaking, there have been torchlight processions, much canvassing, and cheering, and spirited debates as to the issue. The Curtin, and Brough parties are sanguine ; Vallandigham stands but a poor chance.

There is quite a crowd at the polls, and considerable challenging and quizzing.

The polls have been closed. The returns show the following results

PENNSYLVANIA.
Whole number of votes cast......................................114
For A. G. Curtin, (Union).........................................  95
" G. W. Woodward, (Democrat)..............................  18
Scattering.................................................................    1
    Majority for Curtin................................................ 77

OHIO.
Whole number of votes cast......................................161
For John Brough, (Union).........................................160
" C. L. Vallandigham, (Democrat).............................    0
Scattering.................................................................    1
    Majority for Brough............................................. 159
                                                                                ----
    Total Union majority.............................................236

This result proves how scarce among us in the prison is the "copperhead" element. Indeed, any one who has been even but for a short time in the Southern Confederacy, learns that the Rebels despise no class of people more heartily than they do their own sympathizers at the North. They shrewdly say that if these "copperheads" are "for" them they ought to be there "with" them, to help them fight their battles, and to share their privations ; and they look with a well-merited scorn upon these prudent patriots who would revolutionize the country from the luxurious precincts of cozy back-parlors, and who seek to disparage and to disgrace, by stealth, that old flag which they have not the courage openly to forsake !

Two officers* have lately escaped from the hospital, under rather amusing circumstances. It appears that one of them, who had been a tailor in his pre-military life, offered to make up a uniform coat for one of the Confederate surgeons on duty at the hospital. The unsuspecting surgeon -procured the materials, and the " Yankee" kept his word and made the coat ; lie did not intend it for the surgeon, however, but for himself; for, one bright afternoon, donning the gray garb of the Confederacy, he coolly walked out of the hospital, accompanied by another Federal patient also disguised as a rebel, and not only walked out of the door, but all the way down the Peninsula into the Federal lines. He had the admirable impudence to adopt his victim's title as well as his coat, and assuming considerable airs, gave him.. el f' out as a Confederate surgeon on duty in the Richmond hospitals !

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* Major Halsted, 132d N. J., and Lieut. Wilson, 1st Md. Cav.