The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-12-25

| Religious and moral influences brought
to bear upon inmates of prisons are i'm
portant factors of reformation. The at
tendance of inmates upon Iheosophical
lectures given in prisons is larger by lar
than upon all others of whatever kind,
and prison officials have repeatedly recog-
nized the elevating influence of such lee
lures. The theosophical tenets of Karma
and Reincarnation appeal to the sense OF
reason and justice in marked degree.
| A given individual is a changed man
when he once realizes that his present as
sociations, environment and conditions.
happy or unhappy, are results of his own
thoughts and actions of previous lives on
this same earth; that then and there he
sowed the seed of which his present life is
the harvest; in other words, that there is
no possibility of escape from consequences
OF his own thought and action, good or
| evil. With the realization that his present
is product of his past comes the further
realization that as he now thinks and acts
he is making his many future earth lives
happy or miserable. He is UNNECESSARILY
changed for the better, for he perceives
that his own success and happiness, here
efforts to help othors attain the same.
This is the finding of the Christ, the mys-
tic birth of all the ages, for in himself is
born the Christ child, for which his lower
nature has been crucified, and he thus
becomes one with his Father in heaven"
This true conception that his present
good or evil lot is the just award of merit
or dement, for his own past gives him bal
ance in fortune, fortitude in adversely, and
courage under all circumstances.
The universe is governed by law. not by
within and caprice. The teaching that
man may violate law and by any means or
at any time escape corresponding conse-
quences is not only fallacious, but offers
premium upon vice, outrages enlight-
ened conceptions of reason and justice, is
subverslve of all forms of law and order,
and deadening blight upon all attempts
to reform lawbreakers.
! (c) The relation of citizen to ex- convicts
is problem only second in Importance to
the greater one, How to prevent crime.
On this coast there now exists no organi-
cation or systematic effort to help those
who, while having discharged their debt
to the law for its infraction, are still I'M
justly and uncharitably held under public
ban. When prisoner is discharged from
California penitentiary he is furnished
with one suit of clothes, SIS in money and
a ticket to any point in the State. Under
the present state of affairs, the prison Off
cial, by SO equipping the ex-convict, has
done all that is required and washes his
hands of him.
| San Francisco is the usual destination of
| the ex-con. He is practically compelled
! to come to this City, either to remain or to
take passage for other parts. Previously
discharged convicts know this fact and
trade upon it. They also know about the
time when terms of certain inmates expire
and are in waiting for them on arrival.
That So, the sole capital of the dis
F., charged, is the principal magnet of attrac-
! ton.
| The new arrival is expected and as he
steps upon the dock is surrounded and
welcomed by his erstwhile associates, who
congratulate him upon his release, unfold
various schemes to beat the law, usually
| winding up with tale of woe about pres
ent lack of funds and immediate necessity
for the same, which, of course, are to be
supplied from the liberal (D allowance of
| the States EDWARD. The end is certain
and not long deferred. The victim has
been long shut out from the great world
| and now feels the first exuberance of free
| dom.
| This is moment he has long antici-
pated Maybe, in the solituo of his cell,
he made certain high resolves and marked
! out an honorable career, fully intending
to follow it, and which he would follow
were his reception to freedom different.
But it is not. No strong helpful hand is
extended to him no word of encourage
ment greets him; no sympathetic heart
beats for him, and to quiet the trembling
of his own now all a-hutter with strange
experiences. How long it seems since he
breathed the air OF freedom! Years, many
years, have elapsed; so many that he can
not realize their flight. Everything is
| strange, confusing, and like dream
| thoughts flood in upon him and all but
memory is oblivious, except, perchance,
faint STRINGS of his high resolves.
| He strives to hold them, to anchor to
them: but they elude his grasp, and he
/ feels his footing insecure and himself
a1oat again in the treacherous waves.
The voices of his companions fill his ear,
| tempt him, craze his mind with confusion,
and with a despairing moan, unheard by
all but himself, he is wbirled into the sea
of vice again and-lost
| VINO are the accessories to these daily
| tragedies if not ourselves, upon whom they
surely react with terrible disaster? AS
consequence of our own folly and negli-
gence the waves of vice and crime beat
| the very threshold of our homes; nay,
force entrance and engulf our sons and
daughters, who sit IN fancied security
about the family hearthstone
| No universal panacea exists. No all
round remedy has yet been discovered to
cure diseases of both body and mind. And
while immediate perfection is impossible
partial and present success is attainable
through well-directed efforts to improve
present conditions.
Reformation consists not in attempts to
| mold all men upon the same model, but in
helping each individual help himself
realize his own ideals. Each man makes
his own world and peoples it with his own
creations, which are the 'counterparts of
those existing in his own mind. There
fore, all efforts at reform of individuals