Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1917-02-11
MAUD DARLINGTON
BOOTH HERE TODAY
Speaks for the Volunteers at
the Municipal Auditorium
at 8 O'clock.
GREAT JOY TO PRISONERS

Mrs. Maud Ballington Booth, COM
mander-in- OF the Volunteers of
America, arrived in Omaha last even
ing. She is the guest of the Rome
hotel during her stay here,
This hne-looking, distinguished
woman who has done and is doing
more than any other woman in the
world to alleviate the condition of
convicts and to reform them and get
them work when their terms expire,
is very modest withal She doesn't
like to talk about herself.
She will address an open meeting
in the Auditorium this afternoon at 3
o'clock. Admission is free. Mrs.
Booth will deliver her address, Hope
for the Hopeless which is said to
be remarkable in many ways and an
eloquent presentation OF the case OF
the prisoners and others who are
down and out. A collection will be
taken for the general Volunteers
work .iere, the prison work and the
nucleus of permanent building fund.
Little Mother.
Mrs. Booth is known as the Little
Mother" among many thousands OF
convicts. Her work is established in
twenty-six state penitentiaries and she
visits her boys" and speaks to them
and holds services.
"As | have studied the question
within the walls during fifteen years
Of close friendship with the prisoner
and have come in contact with the
great public of America in pleading
his cause, have come to see very
clearly some of those aids that are
needed to solve this great problem,
she said. There is certainly needed
a widespread education and enlight-
eminent of the public as to its respon-
sibility toward the prisoner.
an the past it could truly have been
written over the doors OF our prisons,
Abandon hope all we who enter here.
The one idea of prison officials seemed
to be that a convict was turned over
to them to degrade, punish, drive, hui
initiate. On his arrival his head was
shaved, he was dressed in the hideous
stripes, made to walk in the branding
lock-step, put at hard tasks without
any regard to his physical condition,
shut up to sleep in an unclean and I'M
healthful cell and often punished at
every excuse with cruel brutality.
Driven Like Slave.
He was often the butt of ignorant
and brutal keepers who swore at him,
aggravated him, goaded him past en-
durance, driving him like slave at
his work and then if he resented the
treatment or failed in his tasks, he
was punished with the utmost injus-
tice and sometimes with great cruel
ity. 90,
the other members Of society from
which they were taken because of
some mis-step, but they crept out
some years afterward poor wrecks,
cowed, nervous, diseased. or worse
still, dangerously brutalized and BIT
ter against the world. Many men en-
tered prison strong and robust and
within few years died in the prison
hospital OF tuberculosis or came out
to die of that scourge contracted in
the dark germ-infested cells.
"These things existed, and thou
sand voices could be called in testi-
mony of the fact today, but alas. few
knew Of it in the great outside world
and few cared. Sometimes men were
Aogged to death by brutal guards;
men were shut for days, even weeks,
in the dark cells where neither light
nor sound could reach them and
where they lay on the stone floor
without mattress or covering. In
Some states other cruelties too hor-
rible to repeat were practiced upon
them, that MANNED or broke them in
body and mind. 1t could truly be
said that the state took human be-
ings into its charge and btutalized
them instead of taking the brute in
society and humanizing him.
Nov, | do not charge that this
was done with the support OF the law:
I do not say that this was purposed
by those in high authority, but do
say that neglect and lack of interest
allowed conditions to develop which
seemed to be nobody's special brsi-
ness, so nobody cared"
Men Are Reformed.
Most OF this has been changed
nov. Prisons oitca reform men. |
have heard them exciaim; i am thank
full that ] was sent to prison. 1t
showed me where | was going and
helped me to turn about.
Mrs. Booth has established Hope
halls" where discharged Gonvicts are
received and given help and new
start tow ard respectable life.
The Volunteer Prison league, of
which Mrs. Booth is the leader,
started in Sing Sing prison fifteen
years ago, and has spread so that il
is a national movement Through which
more than $4,000 men have been
helped.