American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1873-11-15
VOL. XXIII.
JOHN HOWARD.

IT is just one hundred years ago since
John Howard was initiated into his life
work of Prison Reform by his appoint
ment to the office of Sheriff of Bedford.
1t may not be an inappropriate centen-
NAL commemoration of that important
event to trace briefly the principal Incl
dents of his life and to note the results of
| his philanthropic labors.
John Towards father was successful
London merchant, in religion Noncon-
| formist, of respectable Puritan stock.
| Having amassed considerable fortune in
| trade, he retired to the little village of
Cardington in Bedfordshire, where the
subject of this paper-early orphaned by
| the death of his mother-spent the years
| of his childhood. The date of his birth
| is not definitely known. 1t was probably
| in the year 1926. He was gentle, shy,
and sickly child, giving no augury of that
strength of character and force of will
| which he afterwards evinced.
Young Howard had good masters, but
exhibited no genius for learning. He was
early placed in London counting house,
where, among ledgers and day-books, in
voices and bills of lading, he formed that
practical acquaintance with business, and
acquired those habits of industry which
characterized his afterlife. At the age
of seventeen he became, by his fathers
death, the heir to nearly the whole of his
large fortune But Towards health was
poor, and a change of air and occupation
became imperative. He therefore forsook
the leaden skies of London for the balmy
atmosphere of France and Italy. While
on the Continent his Puritan training and
his high moral principles preserved him
from the fashionable vice and folly of the
gay European capitals in which he So
jOurned.
On his return to England, after an alb
Of la obi 1xr
precarious health, to live the quiet life of
an invalid at Stoke, Newington. Here an
event took place which gives an insight
into his character He lodged with a
widow, Mrs. Loidore. She, too, had
been an invalid for years, was in humble
circumstances, homely in appearance,and
fifty-two years of age. While in her house,
Howard became dangerously i'll. She
tended him like a mother, and nursed the
sick stranger back to life. On his recov-
cry he astonished his simple landlady by
the offer of his hand, his heart, his for
tune. She refused his rather portentious
offer, alleging as reasons, her age-more
than twice his own-and their disparity
in social position. He was urgent; he
felt it his duty to marry her, he said and,
having overcome her scruples, marry her
he did.
The welded life of this singularly
matched couple-one of calm and quiet
-jOy-lasted only three years, when How
ards grave and gentle spouse, always in
firm in health, died. His domestic ties
dissolved, his empty heart yearned for
employment to fill its vacuity. Action
was habit and necessity of his soul.
The fearful earthquake of 1875 had just
occurred. The city of Lisbon was shaken
20 its foundations, and 10000 of its inhab-
itants were buried in its ruins. Howard
FASTENED to relieve the distress of the suf-
ferers, but his generous purpose was frus-
trated. The Seven Years War was rag
ing. French privateers swept the seas.
Howard was captured, and suffered the
barbarities inflicted upon prisoners of war
in the French dungeons of Brest; and
those sufferings he never forgot. The iron
of affliction entered his own soul, and
made it ever thereafter more sensitive to
the SORROWS of others. He was released
on parole, obtained an exchange, and rest
ed not till he had procured the freedom of
all his fellow prisoners.
In three years Howard married again;
and this time the choice of his heart was
in age, rank, person and character
every way worthy of the woman of the
good man whose life she was to bless.
Mild, amiable, pious and philanthropic,
she ably seconded his benevolent designs.
With spirit answering to his own, during
the first weeks of their honeymoon she
fund for the relief of the sick and desti-
tute. Richer jewels in her husbands
eyes, and fairer adOrnment of her char
acter, were her aims, deeds and charities,
than any wealth of pearls or diamonds
that could bedeck her person, and in the
sight of God an ornament of greater price.
After seven years of welded happiness she
was snatched away untimely in giving
birth to their only child.
The blow fell with apDa1lipp force on
the bereaved husband. Towards dream
of joy was over. His hearts love, with
cred at the core, never budded again. His
thoughts dwelt with the past The ami
versary of his Harriets death was a day
of fasting and prayer, and the whispered
pulsings of his heart till it grew still for
ever. On her tombstone, in grateful recol-
lection of her virtues, her husband in
scribed the touching tribute of praise:
- She opened her mouth with wisdom
And in her tongue was the law of Kindness
Towards health gave way beneath the
intensity of his grief. He again sought
the balmy air of Italy for its restoration.
But the glowing skies, and lovely scenery,
sessed no longer the absorbing interest
they once had. A noble purpose filled
his will as the moon the tides of the ocean.
A new zeal fired his heart; not the passive
contemplation of pathetic dead Christs on
canvas, but succoring his living image in
the person of suffering humanity, was
hencefOrth the purpose of his life. So, on
partial restoration of health at Turin, he
abandoned his design of wintering in Ma
pies. "As 1 feared,'' he writes in his jour
nal, "the misimprovement of talent spent
in mere curiosity, and as many donations
must be suspended for my pleasure. Oh,
why should vanity and folly, pictures and
Daubles, or even the stupcndous noun
tains, beautiful hills, or rich valleys, which
ere long will be consumed, engrOss the
thoughts of a candidate for an everlasting
kingdom. Look up, my soul. How low,
how mean, how little is everything but
what has "A view to that glorious world of
light and love"
The immediate occasion of his entering
on his great life-task was, as we have seen,
his acceptance of the office of Sheriff of
Bedford in the year 1773 He entered up
on his duties with energy. To him the
sheriffalty was no mere matter of gold lace
and red plush, of petty pomp and ostcnta-
ton, but of earnest work. He forthwith
commenced his inspection of Bedford
Jail That old historic prison thus be
comes invested with two-fold interest
AT its gate, padlocked by the leg, John
Bunvan often sold the tags and laccs, by
making which he won his bread. Yet to
his rapt soul its gloomy vaults were glor-
flied by the beatiiic vision of the New
Jerusalem, and there airs from the Land
Beulah" breathed.
The appalling horrors of those hideOus
cells which had been thus hallowed with
the lipht of pcuius Smotp the heart of