The Springfield herald., 1901-12-27

In an address before the Social
Science Department OF the Woman's
CIub in Denver recently Mrs. Maude
Ballington Booth made an earnest plea
In the interest of her work among the
prisoners of the United States.
Mrs. Booth began by telling some
thing of the causes which LED 10 the
forma tion of the Volunteers Of Amer.
lea at the head of which stand she
and her husband She emphasized tho
fact that the organization Is ulsthct
from the salvation Army. she siio
that 1t is purely American IN all lts
characteristics. having for Its watch.
words For God and Country. Ihep
she told of the Volunteer PRISONERS
League. which she has now established
In thirteen prisons of the United States.
She painted in touching words the pic
rnre Of the men in the prisons and the
absolute hopelessness and pity of thei'
lives. How when the prison door
clangs behind them they are entireiy
cut OF from life. its love, its rush ana
Its sunshine. and that when they come
forth again they come with a brand
ms ii were, upon their foreheads. NO
one will trust them enough to give
them employment, no one VIII heip
them TO a shelter, and therefore 1t ls
that they become what is known as
habitual criminals.
There may be many within the
prison who have transgressed the law,
she declared. There are many, are
there not who have tranSgreSsed tne
law who are still in the world? A Grim.
| inal is one who perpetrates crime, and
there are many such who do not stand
behind the bars of n prison. For the
people who say Once a thief. always
thief have no patience. l know, and
l have suffered and felt and prayed
with my boys. and know it is not so.
| could not come closer to them except
| commit some off fense and be Sentenced
to prison, and / know that what are
known as habitual criminals, men OF
whom wardens have said, DO for them
what you will and they will be here
again in three months are three and
four years after their release, leading
honest. upright, industrious lives. II
one of our Christian ministers should
come into his pulpit some morning,
open his Bible. read a verse and then
begin, My dear people, you are selfish
1t is too bad and / am sorry for 1t, but
| there is no hope and am sorry for 1t,
but there is no hope for you; once sell
| fish. always SELFISH and to another
portion of his flock say, You are hypo-
critics. sinful lot. But have no word
of cheer for you. Once hypocrite, al
ways hypocrite-if minister should
do this some day you would all be
amazed. yet he would be no more illos-
! ical than those of you who say, Once
n criminal, always criminal After
all, are not the little crimes just as Of
fensive in the sight of God?
There are many righteous people.
! righteous people whose integrity is so
4, intense that they can feel no atom Of
sympathy for those who have been
weak or unfortunate, yet even these
people cannot help but at least pity
the struggling wives and the helpless
children of the men who are in prison. :"
Mrs. Booth then told something of
her two Hope halls, which are, she
says, homes for men who come from
prison, where they are screened just as
surely from curious and morbidly in
quistive people as though they were
living in their mothers home, No re-
porters have ever crossed the thresh-
hold; no one except those who have
served at least one year in the peniten-
tiary.