The state herald., 1901-12-27

In an address before the Social
Science Department of the Woman's
Club in Denver recently Mrs. Maude
darlington 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 to the
formation of the Volunteers of Amer
lea, at the head of which stand she
and her husband. She emphasized the
fact that the organization Is distinct
from the Salvation Army. She said
that 1t is purely American in all Its
aracteristics, having for Its watch
words For God and Country" Then
she told of the Volunteer Prisoners
League. whichshe has now established
In thirteen prisons of the United States.
She painted in touching words the pic
ture of the men in the prisons and tho
absolute hopelessness and pity Of their
lives. How when the prison door
claflgs behind them they are entirely
cut off from life, its love, its rush and
Its sunshine, and that when they come
forth again they come with brand,
as it Were Nlpon their foreheads. No
them xdbsalnnt, no one will help
them to i shelter, and therefore 1t Is
that they become what is known as
habitual criminals.
There may he many within the
prison who have transgressed the law"
she declared. "There are many, are
there not, who have transgressed the
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 thief, always Il
thief have no patience. know, and
l have suffered and felt and prayed
with my boys, and know II is not so.
l could not come closer to them except
commit some offense 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 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 sclfish;' and to another
portion of his flock say, You are hypo-
critics, sinful lot. But have no word
Of cheer for you. Once n hypocrite, al
ways i hypocrite-if a minister should
do this some day you would all be
amazed, yet he would be no more illog-
lcal than those Of you who say, Once
Il 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
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
quisitive 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.