West Virginia freeman. (Parkersburg, W. Va.) 1881-1886, 1884-05-14
Prison WOrk.-A w. C. T. Z. in
the Penitentiary.

DEAR SISTERS: To those who
have been appointed Superintend.
ents of Prison Work and have felt
at loss to know what can be done
to help the unfortunate inmates Of
our prisons, I would say; never in
nay fife before have the response
bilities of this department Of our
w. C. T. U. work SO impressed me
as last Sabbath morning, when l
sat facing the $50 convicts in our
State Prison at Moundsville.
In company with Mrs. Jackson,
l attended chapel service, or at
least, part of it, for the regular
service was nearly through when
Captain West kindly admitted and
conducted US to the chapel. We
did not hear the text from which
Rev. A. Linkletter drew the con-
illusions that honesty of purpose
had in itself a purifying power
which together with Gods grace,
could make the greatest transgres-
sor of both legal and Divine law
an upright, faithful Christian. In
deed, l could hardly listen to his
earnest words for watching the ia
ces before me.
had never before seen the in
mates of a prison, and expected a
mass of crime-hardened faces to
scowl upon me. | was much mis-
taken, for whilst there were some
faces that bore the impress of sin
and shame, the greater portion
were such as you and | meet every
day. There were gray headed
men, and what was to me the sad
est, boys not older than my own
alf-grown son. thought of the
wives and mothers whose aching
hearts were doing penance for these
erring husbands and sons; I also
thought of the lives of loneliness
and labor to which they were
doomed by the sins Of these who
should have shielded and kept
them and 1 thought of ruined
manhood that through life must
carry the mark of Cain upon its
brow and with joy my thoughts
went back to Calvary where He
who came mot to call the right
eous but sinners to repentance"
said to the penitent thief, "This
day shalt thou be with me in Par
adise." And as the voices of these
men rose in singing that blessed
hymn, "Wash me and I shall be
whittier than snow" my heart went
up in earnest prayer that God
would wash some of these sin stain
ed souls, there that morning.
In response to Capt. Vests invi-
tation and to the longing within
us to say some helpful word, Mrs.
Jackson and | spoke to them.
And dear Sisters, if you could
have looked upon those great
strong men, weeping like little
children if you could have heard
their sobs at reference to Home,
Wife and Mother, you would have
felt with US that there was need to
reach out the helping hand; that
here, shut out from the world, there
was work for the Woman's Chris
tian Temperance Union.
THE FREEMAN IN PRISON.
For two years through the ef-
forts of that earnest Christian Tenn
perance man, Bro. ]. G. Bardall,
the FREEMAN has had 20 paying,
yearly subscribers among the con-
yicts. I thanked them, and ex-
pressed the thrill of hope l felt
that some good might come to
them through its columns, and
scarcely had l finished my thanks
when the suggestion that perhaps
there were others who would
like to have the paper
brought the ready response of Is
hands, which meant 10 more year
ly subscriptions to our Temperance
paper. And this l believe was
largely because I told them 1 rep
resented band of women one hun
bred thousand strong that la
boring to save their sons and tx
save them that have fallen.
ONE WORD JUST HERE,
Could I have gotten such hear
j e. i