The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-01-06
Mj(ll} Eagle
REFRIENDs WOMEN PRISONERS.
Mrs. Foster, of New York, and Her Pc
cuIiar Position in the Courts.

Mrs. Foster, of New York, and Her Pc
cuIiar Position in the Courts.
There Is woman in this town who
makes it the business of her life to haunt
the police courts and prisons in search Of
unfortunate women whom she may be-
friend. She has been doing this for years,
and yet has escaped notoriety. The first
object of her life is to help women in mis-
fortune Her SECOND. object seems to be to
avoid publicity
Go into any prison or any police court
you choose in this city, however, and ask
lany official what be thinks of Mrs. Foster,
and he will reply earnestly in words of al
most extravagant praise. 1t is really very
surprising how powerfully she has i'm
ipressed them all with a sense of her good
ness. Jailers who look upon the most pitt.
full scenes daily with supreme indifference,
and from much practice talk habitually in
hard, authoritative tones, soften their
voices perceptibly when speaking of her.
She is the widow of General John A. Fog
ter, a war veteran, judge advocate gen
ieral in the south after the war, a lawyer
land once a United States district attorney
in this city. He died few years ago.
| His widow lives at AL Park avenue She
adopted her present work after her hus-
bands death. She is connected with the
protestant Episcopal city missions, and
gives her whole time and most of her in
icome to her missionary speciality of helping
arrested women. Mrs. Foster is about forty
Years old, tall, slender, gentle spoken
woman, as brave as she is gentle, and with
capabilities of great resolution on occasion.
She is one of the women whom other wom-
en- inVoluntarily trust and confide in
Mrs Fosters headquarters are tha
iTombs and special sessions, for here center
most of the unfortunate women who get
lentangled with the law. The prisoners
from all the police courts, if held for trial,
eventually come to the Tombs prison, so
this is naturally her base Of operations.
but sometimes she visits the other courts,
and the Rev Brockholst Morgan, in his
rounds through the courts and prisons,
often sends for her to cheer and comfort
unfortunates. Even the jailers in the pris-
.ons attached to the police courts send to
the Tombs for Mrs. Foster sometimes when
they have unmanageable women in their
care whom they think she would like to
see.
Mrs. Foster has great influence with the
police justices. She gets acquainted with
the women prisoners before they are sum-
Imoned before the bar, and she has made up
her mind what should be done in the case
of each one. If she says nothing when tn
woman is arraigned the justice knows
without asking that Mrs. Foster thinks
lthis woman would not be improved by be-
ing freed
If she steps forward and asks the justice
TO release the woman or to commit her to
isuch or such an asylum or retreat her re-
iquest is pretty sure to be granted, for her
opinion is respected. Her object is to soften
every evil minded woman's heart, and to
have her so disposed Of that the influences
around her will be for the best. There is
no woman so depraved that Mrs. Foster
will not attempt to save her. What she
regards as her special mission, however, is
the influencing cf women who are involved
with the law for the first time, and who
therefore stand in a very critical position.
I A first arrest Mrs. Foster believes, is
often the turning point in a woman's career.
She may not have been bad before only fool
ish, careless, reckless or unfortunate but
now she may go down. But taken in time,
here in her trouble, when she most needs a
friend she may be switched upon the right
track for good and all Mrs. Fosters sue
cess has been such that she is more than
satisfied that she has found her mission in
life.-New York Sun