The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-03-13
|impSeS of Prison Audiences :

soft and balmy, sweet with fragrance OF
roses. Siolets.- and many other unseen
blossoms; II is a day when one instinc-
eively takes deep breaths and the words
OH IL is good to livc.'' break forth un
bidden But here in the midst oil beauty
and freedom rises q stern gray building,
we cross the threshold. and behind us
resounds the clank OF the closing iron
door and the echo OF shooting bolts and
turning key. What Il contrast, Freedom.
life, beauty without. and here, heart
ache. loneliness and Incarceration. This
Is the prison OF San Quentin. In few
platform of the prison chapel, while be-
fore us. crowded OF the benches are
rows and rows and almost countless
lows ii seems TO us. of men dressed In
barred windows that look upon the court
yard comes the shuffing sound of the
eyes ever alert. stand the armed guard
Do these things apal our hearts the
most in that sad scene? DO they make
The shadows darkest and the atmospherf
hcavy with the impotency Of help? No!
II is something more. something that
tightenS around our hearts, dims our
eyes, and seems to clutch at our throats.
IT is the expression of utter hopelessuess
despair. or sullen desolatlon that can be
read. all too plainly. on those many up
turned faces. Some OF them are pitiful-
marred by the past life OF desperate
crime and wckedness Yes, | can see
them now as II II were yesterday. and
yet that was my first days experience
OF prison audience. and il was there
in old san Quentin that gave my prom.
Use 10 God TO serve and suffer, TO love
and hope that ] might help TO lift the
shadow of hopelessness and bring some
Of heavens sunshine 10 our countrys
prisoners.
Come with me again. 1t is the 9th
Ut %a,js Nay lSSS: l,gS: We have entered the
Passing the long galleries OF 1860 cat
acomb-like cells in the great. dreary.
sunless cell l-house; We have gained the
Tor the crowd that is packed into every
available space. At first there is skcp-
ticism. curiosity and interest only, then
wave of emotion sweeps over The au-
tho deathlike stiffness. half stincd sobs
are heard, telling OF hearts broken but
not hardened beyond the touch OF love.
as the old. old story of an all tender, all
powerful Divine message is told There
has come the moment of decision, the
call for surrendering OF the old life
new a man stands up among his fel-
lows, pale. stern. but dauntless. \
laugh. swelling into howl of derIsion.
sweeps around him. but he stands firm,
tears coursing down his checks, his lips
moving in prayer and as he stands
others whose conscienccS have awakened.
rise and stand with him, and the laugh
ter and mochery die away in great
hush OF awe. Twenty, forty, fifty, have
made their decision. and marching back
in the long-striped. serpentine line TO
their dark and dreary cells, IL is with
joyous faces. TO new life where hope
and strong courage are TO battle with
the curse and shadow OF the past That
was the starting point Of our league,
known today as the Volunteer Prison
league. Only sixty men in Sing Sing
when I presented the first white stand
ard emblszoned with our emblem, the
Star Of Hope, but it was the nucleus
of great things for the future. Since
that day We have enrolled between sixty
and seventy thousand.
Follow me again. But now ] cnn
show YOU no hopeless or earnest faces.
We have no inspiration from the real
ization OF the earnest appreciation. OF
the audience. We are in q prison again
one of the oldest in this country the
Eastern penltentiary. but our audience
is Invisible. Stand beside me at the ex-
trenle end OF the long white washed cor
ridor. see the iron-cclled doors ajar !
Now let us send ringing down the bare |
walls and past these dreary cells the |
message OF freedom and hope. for be- |