Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1903-04-11
WORK FOR Ey-CONWCTS'
Mrs. BaIlington Booths Efforts to
Reclaim Men.
HER EXPERIENCE IN PRISONS

HER EXPERIENCE in PRISONS
Stories Of Those Who Reformed Told at !
Meeting IN Interest Of the Under
taking.
In the rooms Of the board Of trade
and transportation, In New York, a
meeting III the interest Of prison work
was addressed by Mrs. Darlington
Booth ana Mrs. L. a. McAlpin, says
the New York Times. VI. ]. schieffe-
lin introduced Mrs. Booth, who said:
There is a great responsibility to be
| faced by tie state or the Christian
church in the fact that there are s4,-
| 600 prisoners III u state prisons.
believe, after seven years work, that
the enormous expense to the state
could be lessened largely and that the
problem Of the prisons can be solved
by closely looking into the lives of the
prisoners ana particularly their strug-
giles when they get out again into the
world. 1t is my joy that there are hun
dreds who have been hopeless who are
now beyond the reach of temptation.
good citizens who are splendid KAN
pies to the others who feel that, having
been prisoners, they are beyond hope.
II have seen them Swallowed, drawn
back and railroaded to jail simply be-
cause they were ex-convicts. We don't
go to governors for pardons and solicit
names begging for pardons. We be-
lieye that those sentenced must suffer
for their crimes. We do believe, how
ever, that the man punished need not
necessarily be punished again after he
is free.
in the state prison at Trenton there
was d prisoner who was a mar of edu-
cation. He was a noted forger, and
one day lie believed in Jesus Christ,
and from TIE worst he became the
humblest and the best of the prisoners.
The warden, who was not a Christian,
after watching the mar for a year. told
me that all work would be sufficiently
recompensed If | really changed the
man. He was sure that the mar would
be back soon after serving his sen.
tence. We took him to one of our
homes Of hope, and he is today an hon
ored and trusted man. He has a rec
ord Of five years faithful service, and
L think that enough to prove his real
reformation.
There was a mar in Sing Sing pris
on, and when | asked to see him the
warden said that he was the worst
man there. t%reacherous even to his fell
lows. lie had tried twice to burn the
prison and was guilty of two assaults
with a knife. When ! saw him. tried
TO get under the mass of damaging tes-
timony against the man and at him
self. lie glared and told me his rec
ord. lie said that he was sick of him
self. Some time later he told me that
he was going to try. He tried and he
triumphed. He has been reunited to
his family and so changed for the bet
ter that be proudly boosted to me not
long ago he had talked to the detective
who arrested him twice and that the
detective did not recognize him.
Il know that The strongest man, with
the best purpose on leaving prison,
even If at orce given a position, is al
most sure to break down In a few days.
He doesn't get over the prison nights
and days, the agony of conscience and
weary brain until he has been cheered
and treasured. OF the 5000 men who
have been out Of prison for some time
and whom we interested and pledged to
better lives | don't besieve that 8 per
cent have gone back to the old ways"
Mrs. McAlpin told of the need of help
for the work and how Mrs. Booth was
hampered in her work because she
could not give her time exclusively to
the prisons, but had to travel, lecturing
| throughout the country, to gather
funds for the support of her work.
Mrs. McAlpin, who deyotes the great
err part Of her time to prison work, told
| the story OF three boys who had in
| childhood been sent to a .protectory
where they had met bad companions.
| Afteryvard they started on careers of
crime.
'They had wonderful affection and
LOYALTY TO one another" said Mrs. Nc
Aipin. zone was lazy, hopelessly lazy;
| the second was delicate and apparently
dying. When one was in prison, the
others would aid him. using of their i'll
| gotten means. 1t came about that the
lazy man and the delicate man saw the
light, and the lazy man went to work
ana the delicate one regained his
strength. for the Lord of miracles is
not gone. The third man said that 1t
was too late TO turn back, and he is
now in Sing Sing prison waiting for
the day of his e-lectrocution."
Mrs. Booth. the Little Mother" made
one OF the men tire driver of a wagon
of a Hope home, and when he would
drive through his old haunts some
would yell at him:
"Hello. Halleluia Bill!' Guess you're
on the way TO glory
you're dead right, sure, and IL you
wasn't I'd get off dis wagon and smash