The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1898-10-20
~ Six Months SO cents.

TERMS: seG SIX MentYHs MRs1 tYsa5 g. a oenss. asvan'
self-sacrifice are there practiced which
would put to shame many of the vaunt-
ed deeds of more fortunate individuals
deeds which display a nobility of
character which rises above unhallowed
conditions and most adverse circum-
stances.
Think of the blighted hopes of these
unfortunate beings; think of the thwart-
ed ambitions; the years of misery, un-
loved and uncontrolled by all who
made life dear to them, and upon whom
their hearts fed and were nourished;
note the agony that speaks through
dumb eyes and faces wan and haggard.
Is it any wonder that sullen despair
takes possession of their souls and that
they settle down into a rut of bitter re-
sentiment and evil thinking which, in
time, makes of them simply beasts
which no future influence can ever
reach? Their better nature has been
gradually crushed out and little by
little has succumbed to the desolation
of their environments.
In all the category of human influ-
ences there is none more potent than
kindness. The gruffest nature, the
most forbidding countenance will relax
at a direct act of kindness; and one
kind word, one smile of real sympathy
will go further to soften a wicked
heart than whole sermons of fine spun
logic, or the expatiating on the hideous-
ness of crime. Whatever appeals to
the better nature, causing it to domin-
ate even for short periods of time
keeps alive and strengthens the higher
instincts which in time come to SUBJ
serve the lower, and the reformation is
effected. There never was a graver
mistake than the idea that bad man
is wholly bad. There is honor even
among thieves; and many well planned
escape from prison has been abandoned
through feeling of gratitude towards
kind keeper and an unwillingness to
bring upon him the censure which
would fall upon him by the escape of
those prisoners entrusted to his keep
ing. Further it has been shown that
criminal may have been such for the
time by the unconscious influences of
other minds and wicked thoughts; and
on return to his normal mood be ap-
palled by the act he has just committed.
Outlines the shock of such an expert
ence is sufficient to deter him forever
from committing another wrong act.
He must, however, suffer the awful
consequences of a broken law. But is
it we'll in meeting out his punishment
to resort to measures which are calcula-
ted to numb and vitiate the better in
stincts of the man, and bring him in
time to the state of a hardened GRIMM
al? Where lies our responsibility in
these cases of hardened criminals
Let us ask ourselves what has made
them such.
Many there are, perhaps the majority
of those inside prison walls, who are not
criminals at heart They have in the
mad rush of our wildly speculative bus
mess methods, and pernicious competi-
tative systems, simply ventured beyond
their depth and have been caught by
the undertow and dragged beneath the
waves of condemnation. Judged by
motive and not by act they are far
cleaner at heart than many whose hands
we grasp every day on the streets and
in the circles of society. Could they
have been placed under kindly, though
rigid reformatory measures and con-
ditions which appealed to all the better
instincts of their natures, nine out of
every ten of them could have been
saved to society and to their friends;
have walked forth in the recognition
of their manhood, instead of being
obliged to face the world, after an in
generation in prison with a burning
sense of shame and with no stock in
trade but branded name and the reflex
of hardened life written in all the
lines of their faces and engraved upon
the tablets of their hearts, crushing
out their confidence, both in themselves
and in the world at large.-From an
article in Freedom, by LAJJA BANDHA.