New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-09-03
4 SUNDAY SUGGESTION.

Many good Christians nowadays are per-
picked as to the proper mode OF observing
Sunday. They Lave discovered that it Is not
:he Jewish Sabbath, and try to strike the MID
die line for their families between the ascetic,
grim gloom in which the Puritans wrapped 1t ana
the gay frolic of the French and German holiday.
From some private letters we gain an account
of an experiment tried in keeping 1t which may
interest such of our readers as are anxious 10
find the right way in this matter.
clergyman IN the capital of one of the CUR
States was appointed five years ago chaplain
Of the State Prison. 1t contained over
Thousand cOnvIcts, most of them black, ana
was probably as dramatic a presentation or
hell in miniature as could be found in this
world. Most State Prisons are, in the South.
Negroes are imprisoned for nominal offences,
for a long term, in order that the State may
have tho benefit of their labor without wages
on roads and railways. If let to contractors,
their profit lies, of course, III feeding the con-
victs as poorly and getting as much work out Oh
them as possible before they die from exposure
and cruelty. They come into the prison lgnO-
rant and degraded they are treated like Gagged
brutes in it and they 60 out with the certainty
that only death awaits them and grave in
some hole by the waysde The chaplain could
do nothing with them. They hOwled, jeered,
threatened him. One Sunday afternoon in
1873 he took with him large body OF the
members of his church. principally women and
children, into the hall of the prison, where the
convicts, sullen and c0ntemptuOus, were as
sembled. They were divided into classes some
of tho most hardened criminals being placed
under the care of little children who had just
learned to read, and who began with zeal to
teach them their letters. When the chill
dren showed fright they were invariably
soothed and quoted by some of the poor tel-
lows, who perhaps had little ones of their own
in the homes which they should never see again.
The work has now gone on for four years,
the material constantly changing and Offering
every phase of Indebtedness, vice and degrade
ton. 1t has been thoroughly successful.
Many of the convicts have been changed as
much as a sincere trust in God and a steady
effort to live honest and pure lives can change
men imbruted from birth. The whole atmos-
phere of the prison is cleaned and elevated,
the men are more cheerful, swear less, and have
gained the consciousness that they are human
beings One slight but significant change Is
the universal desire to keep themselves and
the prison clean fit for the ladies and children
to see"
These good effects are due, it is stated, to
the bringing them in direct contact with the
innocent and gentle side of human nature.
IT there be a saving spark of life III the soul
of a man, however deprayed, it will he kindled
by n woman or a child. No man is so keen to
appreciate purity or sincere devotion to God
"a the man who has neither. The clergyman
who tried this experiment tells a touching
story of IN old lady who was one of his teachers
coming on the platform of the railway station
from which large body of cOnvicts were about
to be sent to work in the swamps; as She and they
well knew, to their death. AS she passed along
the ranks they scrambled up to their knees be-
ing chained together, stretching out their hands
with the tears rolling down their cheeks, beg
ring her to "shake hands once more" She
never saw one of them again. 1t may be
urged that the experiment of bringing innocent
babies and young girls into srch companion
shin il too dangerous. We do not believe it.
Dorothea Dix, Elizabeth Fry, and later Dor
otbv Pattison gave up their lives to the service of
the toughest and most brutal OF men, and never
received n disrespectful word. Let any woman
90 down into the depths where her purity and
faith are so desperately needed, not out of
curiosity, but from earnest desire to serve her
Master, and she will come out with her gar
ments winter than when she went in.
There Is Sunday work waiting for all of us
in every town and village in the country