At noon prisoners were marched into the dining hall to partake of a meal of watery stew and brown bread. To prevent talking and to enable the guards to see their faces, they were only allowed to sit on one side of the narrow tables. The man standing in the middle probably earned the privilege of serving food through good behaviour. His uniform resembles those worn by pre-Confederation inmates coarsely woven wool, coloured yellow down one side and brown down the other. Such a uniform made the convicts recognizable if they succeeded in escaping and helped to degrade them while they remained in the institution. This drawing appeared on 25 September 1875 in the Canadian Illustrated News.
