The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-12-21

tender touch. claiming no right to arralgn IN
judgment the religious conscience OF the
weakest and most defenceless soul.
Difficult work it is to cleanse mind and
heart, to reinstate both in their primitive IN
heritanee of purity. go to buiid up ana
strengthen character as to enable 1t to defy
henceforth the severest temptations. In this
work HEROIC patience the love OF mother, the
wisdom and the prudence of wisest guide and
stand how difficult It is who from long OBJ;
servation know the sullen power or evil
habit, the darkened mind and the whimsical
will which evil habit creates in its victims.
Complete isolation from previous ASSOCIATIONS
is necessary; the visit Of a dangerous COM
panion, the whisper Of voice calling back
memories Of sin, the written message from a
yice-tainted atmosphere, reaWakens passion
and addressed the strugglings OF returning
virtue. Idleness must be prevented; idleness
incites the fancy to riot, and, moreover, often
lit is idleness, whether idleness from defect OF
personal character, or from outward lack OF
opportunities for labor that first leads the
way to misery, and in school Of reform pu-
pills must be accustomed to labor so that they
be safe from peril in the future. The air that
is breathed must be redolent OF the fragrance
of virtue; virtue flows from heart to heart;
more potent for good than precept, or exhorta-
| ton. Is the quiet example of the devoted
| guide. whose own life Is absolutely stainless
whose every word. whose every motion is
| ruled by holiest modesty. With example must
! come the direct appeal to conscience-that
powerful monitor OF Righteousness which the
| bedded in every human breast and which,
| properly enlightened and vivifed, sternly COM
mands good and forbids evil. And. as no
other influence awakens and fortifes con-
| science like that Of religion, God and the
| Saviour Jesus must reign wherever the work
| of moral regeneration is to be done.
| The work Of moral regeneration is slow and
gradual. Precipitancy only irritates the sore:
! Often there Is resistance; passion does not
subside without angry protests. The physi-
clan of the soul will bear with unreason, Will
coax and pray when counsel is spurned, will
| try at least to win delay, when evil threatens
| to regain it's power If ever love, and pa
| thence, and tact are needed, 1t is in the task
Of compelling vice to make room for virtue.
| From the opening Of the House of the Good
| Shepherd Of st. Paul in 1869 to the present
| time, 1910 persons have entered the reforma-
| tory department and POT the preservation de-
partment. There are today in the reformatory
department TO- and in the preservation de-
| partment, %. To these must be added "a 9TH
ers who are classed as members Of the Mag
dalen department, into which are admitted in
mates from the other departments, who are
| thoroughly reformed and who, instead OF 60
| ing back to the outside world, express the
! desire to spend their whole life within the Sc
| cure shelter of the convent.
| The expenses Of the convent Of the Good
| Shepherd including interest payment OF
ST. 900 upon debt Incurred in the erection OF
| it's buildings, amounted in 1895 to S14, 259. To
meet these expenses the sisters obtained from
| the labor Of themselves and their wards S6,-
| no. from contributors Haue III pdyIueul VI
board by the parents or friends of some Of tho
| inmates, $1,57S, and from collections and do
nations $500. This statement for 1896 gives
a fair average Of annual expenses and re-
| celpts in other years. The Sisters are much
! indebted to business firms and to nd-hearted
| families who give to them orders for sewing
| and laundry work. At times more work
could be done than the orders call for. Many
| of the inmates Of the institution are not capa-
| BILE of profitable labor until they have served
| in the convent an apprenticeship OF several
| months. The sisters themselves do much OF
| the finer and more remunerative work which
comes from the convent. Sisters, who are not
| engaged in teaching and caring for inmates,
| labor with their hands during long hours each
| day to earn the means wherewith to support
| the institution. school is maintained in the
| convent for the benefit Of girls who have come
| to it, deficient in the elements of common
| school education.
A small percentage of the wards Of the
| institution, 1 have already indicated,
choose to spend their whole life under its
roof. Many are taken back by parents and
friends and with their help are able to
able careers. Others unaided must try again
the battle Of life, for which they are, how
ever, now fitted as never before, by means
Of an awakened conscience and of habits Of
industry. For persons of this latter class the
sisters are not seldom able to find situations
in places that are remote from the scenes
of previous misfortune and in which the con-
seriousness that no one points at them the
finger of scorn increases the force of their
resolve TO keep themselves IN the future
safe from the perfls Of the past. Frequent
ly it happens as journey the country that
meet persons in most respectable conditions
of life ready to tell me what is for their
neighbors an impenetrable secret, that at one
time they had been wards OF the House OF
the Good Shepherd Of st. Paul. And If
were to give all Of my personal observations
many persons l could name who, to my own
knowledge, entered the House Of the Good
Shepherd from the lowest depths of degrade
ton with souls dark as pitch, who afterwards
rfo1e orth ha
clothed with the whiteness of angels. And
1 have knowledge only of small number
of those who have entered the House Of the
Good Shepherd. Conversion from evil read
fly confess, is difficult; but to say that it Is
impossible, or that it does not often occur,
is to deny the recuperative strength of wo-
manhood and the power Of the grace of Jesus
Christ, and to ignore manifest facts.
There are in the work Of the Sisterhood
of the Good Shepherd failures as there are
failures in every work intended for the up
lifting of humanity, into which enters as
condition of success the play Of Individual
free will. Some do not remain in the con-
vent long enough to permit its saving infu-
ences to permeate their SOULS others, leaving
the convent in the best intentions, again
overpowered by temptation. The failures.
however. in the work Of the ssterhood are
the small minority, the successful results the
great majority. So far l may attempt to
give statistics, where exact statistics not
possible, statements made to me by the sis
tiers and confirmed in a measure by observa-
lions Of my own, justify me in saying that
so per cent of those who become inmates of
the House of the Good Shepherd are per-
manently reclaimed to virtue and to social
usefulness.
The wreckages of humanity-how painful
to think of them! And Of all the wreckages
the most distressing, the most dtsgraceful, are
those Of souls Of the daughters Of humanity
despoiled OF holy purity by bestial lust. Shall
we pass them by unheeded, and, with no
hand reaching out to cleanse and to save.
bid them perish forever in the gloom OF sin
and despair? Our common humanity forbids;
He who stopped to uplift the Magdaene for
bids. And for very special reasons we should
turn in pity towards the victims Of sensual
passion.
Often the passion that drove the woman
to ruin was not the passion of the woman
herself but that OF the cruel slayer Of her
virtue, who deceived her. and then in her
strom Of vice and sorrow. while he himself
! dares hold high his head among his fellow
men. Often, too. grinding poverty has wrest-
| ed from the woman the strength OF resistance,
and that, poverty Is not seldom the conse-
quence OF our present social system-and the
| responsibility for this social system lies more
| or less with all of us-which refuses to wage
earning women sufficient means Of honest
| livelihood. No, we must not stand Indifferent
| and idle while the poor and the weak go
| not the question; whether we do our share
| towards saving many as may be saved by
| us Is the question which we must ask
| selves. and the answer to which will be one
| day demanded from by the Supreme Judge.
The special rescue agency put before me
| as the theme of my discourse by the circum-
| stances of this evening Is the Sisterhood of
| the Good Shepherd. 1t must not, however,
be believed that 1 do not look beyond this
| sisterhood. when l make to you my appeal
the moral regeneration Of unfortunate
| Womanhood The appeal that I make Is that