The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1890-07-10

blessings. consultations and lasting benefits
consequent on the acquisition of knowledge.
While they seek no remuneration or equiv
alent in money or kind for the services so
cheerfully rendered. are they not entitled to
expect the proper appreciation of those serv-
ices, not only by the prisoners receiving
those services, but by the public. in the re-
turn of that esteem and confidence which
has been so long withheld from them?
What they do for their fellow prisoners is
purely labor OF love and genuine sympa-
thy; in endeavOring to build up the charac-
ter and improve the mental and moral con-
ditiOn of their fellOw-inmates. they give
tangible and incontrOvertible evidence of
their ability to control themselves. and their
fitness to resume their duties as citizens of
the world. They feel that their efforts are
gratefully and thankfully appreciated by
those whom they teach; and they only de-
sire and hope for the recognition and en-
cOuragement of their efforts to reclaim their
lost position as good citizens and honorable
men.
In conclusion. we would briefly call the
attention of your readers to few of the
many benefits which this school and it's in
structiOns have conferred on it's attendants.
which may not at first suggest themselves
to their minds. Could you but walk through
the corridors of this prison, in the evening.
you would see numbers of men who. prior
to the establishment of this school were
rapidly sinking into hopeless dependency,
or frantic with reckless despair, now, in
place of the scOwling brow, the lustreless
eye, the shiftless, lounging gait of the hope
less, aimless idler, you will see the quick.
bright glance of a soul awakened by nteli.
gence and hope, the firm springy step of
resolution and determined energy, that
beaming serenity of feature which betokens
thankfulness for escape from past evils and
dangers. and joyful anticipations for the
futuse. And why this change? The brief
period in which they have received these
educational advantages, has snapped the
chains of ignorance, vice and despairing
apathy which previously bound them: they
see within their grasp limtless possibilities
OF honorable and remunerative employment
forever separating them from the loose and
vicious associations of the past. the liquor
saloon and gambling rooms of former days.
is now suppanted in their minds by the an
ticipated pleasures of the happy family cir
Gle. of intellectual interchange of thought
and of the glorious fact that they are no
longer animals. but men-men with all the
impulses and aspirations of true manhood,
men who can boast of and fully appreciate
the blessings and happiness which accom-
pany true independence of thought and ac-
tiOn and integrity of purpose; men who
have acquired that true and indomitable
courage which will enable them to sur
mount every difficulty.
Such are few of the ineStimabe results
which have accrued from the first nine
months operation of the Massachusetts,
State Prison Evening School! Is not edu-
cation. after all, the real Archimedean
lever which shall lift the overwhelming in
cubus of crime and woe which has hitherto
so grievOusly distressed the philanthropists
and social refOrmers of the state of
Massachusetts? Fred'k j. Garbit.