The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1889-10-24

practice; as you pray so Will the reward be.
There is great difference between charity and
charity, these days.
Some are for reforming the world according to
their own idea The last words of Rev. Frederic
w. Robertson were, Let God do his work" The
more every humanitarian adopts this line of duty
the more he will accomplish and the better will
the world progress.-Knight's Sword and Helmet.
We are glad to have the Pythians think
SO we'll of our paper. The kind words of
our contemporaries are powerful incentives
and encourage constant renewal of the
determination to make our paper the repre-
sentative voice of the convict. The Sword
and Helmet is mistaken about the number
of editors pardOned, as well as to the grounds
upon which their pardons were granted;
but that is of no consequence. What the
writer says about the treatment of convicts
is true and directly to the point. Too low an
estimate has been placed upon the charac-
ter of cOnvictS as class. and thus it has
shake off the stigma of having once fallen.
1t is this discOuragng prospect that deters
So many from commencing life Alright on
leaving prison. Notwithstanding the eight
ity, the great mass of humanity is anything
but charitable outside of the giving of
money. Of course, it is always understood
that cOnvicts. as class, are little below
the average in virtues. We know that many
will ask what will become of the example Of
the disgrace consequent upon crime unless
the eX- convict is ostracsed? We can only
say that so long as such examples are de-
handed. just so long will men continue be-
coming habitual criminals and propagators
of crime. These conditions exist and will
continue until changed by gradual evOlu-
ton. But so long as the present conditions
exist between the eX criminal and the rest
OF mankind. men of spirit will rebel and
waste their lives harassing society in retail
iation for its sneers They will not pas
sively submit to becoming examples of dis
grace for parents to point out to their chill
dren as the result of disobedience to the
law. The student of human nature knows
that man is so constituted that examples of
cruelty arouse the spirit of cruelty in his
breast The most marked manifestation of
this is seen in those who serve for long
time as executors of the penalties of the
criminal laws. These very persons who
are daily brought face to face with the lv-
ing examples resulting from violence and
cruelty, in time become hardened: their
n1i,,rrc oI,o
ence, then often to brutality far greater
than that of the victims of the law given
into their hands to be punished. Only the
strongest characters are capable of with
present examples of wrong doing without
themselves becoming debased in the scale
OF humanity. The examples of the degrad-
ing results of intemperance seen in the per-
son of the drunkard wallowing in the filth of
the gutter does not deter the beholders from
becoming drunkards; but, on the contrary,
the more such examples the more men fol-
low in their footsteps. Most men would
prefer defying the world as criminals to 60
ing about humbling themselves as repentant
ex-cOnvicts begging mercy and forgiveness.
1t is far harder to submit to sheer than a
bold stroke of the fist and man will
more readily forgive the blow than the
scornful sheer. True. man is fool to fly
in the face of fate and destroy his life's
happiness because society will not take him
back into full membership, but no amount
OF argument OH the score of policy will
prevent him doing so. 1t is becoming