Connecticut western news., 1879-12-17
A Convict on Penal Reform.
A SHORT LECTURE WELL WORTH READ1N

WA0u Jean FaIloaus CAo AuALo0 cou- viot, crawls out of the black mouth of the Paris sewer only to confront the cruel majesty of the law in the presence of the police spy Javert-who has not felt in his own veins the numb horror that seized upon the man In the romance and the play these things stir or chill the very blood in our hearts, but in real life how many of us are un- selfish enough to be moved by them ? It is a strange fact that mankind, as a rule, begrudge oven the gift of their emotions, and, by one of Natures con- tradictions, those who are quickest with the words of charity are sometimes sloYest with it's deeds. Truth is stranger that fiction, but far less attractive. Jean Vatican translated from Paris to New York, his background of romance stripped away, his magnificent Hugoian dialect exchanged for the rude grammar of Baxter street, his name transformed into Mike or Pat-Jean Valjean standing before the bar of a dull and gloomy criminal court in New York and not be- hind Paris barricade Jean Vatican with the bad smells of the slums about him, with bad eye, and reported by the police as an inoorrigible thief-ah, that is very different thing
 It was only this last week that he was arraigned there, and told his story with 8 sort of eloquenoe to the kind-hsarted Judge. Jean admitted-we forget his American name, and it is of little con- sequence-that he was an old offender he had been in prison before, and now was on the point of being sentenced again. But what could he do? "A man comes out of State Prison" he said to the Judge, "with a five-dollar note in his pocket. Almost always he wants to lead better life. He begins to look for work. He can't go back to the old place because everybody knows he is an ex-oonvict, and everybody shuns the ex- convict, your honor. If he finds work, !" he goes on to say, "in new place, the
 police give the hint, and out he goes.
 His money goes, and he has no friends
 to go to-I haven't friend in the world,
 Judge-and 80 he turns back to the old
 life." Perhaps it was all speech, and
 nothing more. Perhaps he was merely
 trying to melt the heart of the Judge.
 Perhaps he had been incorrigible from
 the start. Perhaps it is fairly impos-
 sible to reclaim man or woman who
 has once been led into crime. All these
 things, which the practical man will at
 once suggest, may be true, and still the
 story itself will be true-shockingly
 true. Let the State and the prison
 reform societies exert all their power to
 prepare the criminal for an honest life
 let the usual machinery, such as it is.
 be put in motion to give him respectable
 employment when he emerges, and yet
 the chances are that by the memorable
 operation of certain social laws, because of "man's inhumanity to man." he will be driven in spite of himself along the
 road this ex-convict had travelled, an6 end at the goal he had reached. There
 are morals here in plenty; but for the present let them go. while we tell an other story which will serve as seque and argument both.
 This time Jean is woman. She hac served long sentence in a New England Penitentiary, and had deter
 mined to lead new life. After her dis charge she was enabled in some way tt
 obtain position in 8 dry-goods shop l xyHn ch %oit fy,11x
 quietly and modestly. But the socia
 Fates were on her track. Well-brei
 morality learned that the woman hat
 been convict, that those quick hand
 had expiated crime by years of labor il :. 8 prison. Was this to be endured 8 The representative of outraged sooia {: decency-she was woman, and one o B the wealthiest in the town waited upol 8 the proprietor. Did he know that thi t woman had been 8 convict2 He did = but she did her work we'll, and he fel ? that it was his duty to help her to regain t foothold in the world. Then he re 8 ceived the ultimatum-either he mus l discharge the ex-convict or lose tn S patronage of one of his best customers t The rest of the story need hardly b @ told. The traditional cowardice of shop - keepers decided the question. Tn t poor woman was discharged, but wa : said, at last accounts, to have found l. place in 8 Lowell factory, where sh a was still brayely and quietly workin v her way.
 o When, therefore, M r. Dividend, tn banker, sits in his cushioned pew to-da F or rolls down town in his coupe to.morro0 r morning, or when his brother merchan a counts up the profits upon his cargoe
 fran the Brazils, let each ask himsel whether he can afford to be incredulou . about the convict's speech. Let hir '. consider also what would be likely become of him if he were turned loos = with dark social brand upon him, wit every policeman's finger pointing 6 /. him, and without friend in the world. n There is something wrong here. Tn world will never be what it ought to be in our time, at least but it can be mad ; better than it is. MT. Dividend, whs are you going to do about 1t ?-N.
 Tribune.
 l. Giving to the Church.
 U The Little Rock Gazette says: Som Il T To--