The age-herald., 1899-12-26
ooo ooo0oo0oo6eooeoco6e0eece .


standing at the threshold, must have ob- served a very happy precedent established by her Ei-edecessor.
 There was, 1t is true, the contrasting side to be looked upon, for the old year be- queaths to the new the sorrows as well as the joys, ard the new will bear upon her young shoulders the burdens left by the old. Of the incidents of joy and the incl dents of pathos of which one hears at Chris tmas tide, there was one, which was told me yesterday, that seemed indeed like 0 benediction of the old year, and l might say, shrine at which the incoming year might kneel with reverence.
 It was an incident of a young lad. who had just completed his time as a convict at Pratt Mines His hcme was in a western city, and his homecoming was, as fate would have 1t, at this Christmas tide Dur ing his term at the mines there came fateful day when his comrades in stripes picked his poor crushed body from beneath a huge pile of caved-in rocks.
 He was blind for days They said he would be a cripple for life But because ne was a convict probably, and wanted to die, he lived through the suffering days He was a member of the Sunday class at the mines, and there on Sabbath evening he heard the heart to heart talks, which so many prisoners learn to look forward to through the passing weeks and the hope dess years.
 A Birmingharn woman, who for years has visited the prisoners at the mines, and whose class there on every Sunday num- bers fully fifty men, talked frequently with this boy, as she has talked with hundreds of ill-fated men in convict stripes. And as she told me yesterday of the great interest that he had taken in the work among the prisoners and how sincerely and honestly he desired to lead a better life, and then read a letter that she had received from him, since his return home I wondered at the indifference the average person appa- rently feels toward the work of reforma- ton among the prisoners.
 The letter of this lad so impressed me with it's simplicity and so unconsciously drew the picture of his homeward journey, the environments at his home and the later influences which had been brought to bear upon his life that l asked permission to publish 1t, knowing that 1t would speak most eloqueatly of the needs of prison work. To read the crude expressions of this lad as he describes the temptations which beset him. is to see most vvld!y the pathos and the horror of 1t all. and his simple expression of thankfulness to the "best woman 1 ever seen' stands out as clearly as the slhouetted figure of the lad
 with his hands in his pockets and saying to former comrades. "I am different than i used to be- His letter Is as follows: My dear -.
 It affords me Great Pleasure to write you these few Lines arrived home in find health and found my folks well and do hope this will find you eroying the very best of health for 1 have been all over the world and you are the best Person i ever seen. May God be with you and the good People
 of Alabama for you have made a better man out of me and thank you q thousand | times over forever and forever, for God | knows was going to the dogs until you | nut Gods word in.my heart was reared q | Catholic but never Lived up to it have | just had my eye operated on yesterday and 1 if will be strait in a week intend to stay l home and live a good sober and honest life | was tempted on the way home had sev-