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24 A HOUSE OF MERCY.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
. At A Few This High Days Institution Ga...
had left the establishment , and so far he could not avoid being full of hope . Naturally there were instances of failure in all attempts
to reclaim this unhappy class of transgressors ; there were instances of a kind of middle course of partial success ; but there were also
not a few cases of most wonderful regeneration , and such were indeed " pearls beyond all price , " worth , any labour and sacrifice .
No cases did the Warden appear to regard as utterly hopeless , except cases in which the confirmed habit of intoxication had been
contracted . It is not permitted for girls who have left the institution to
correspond with their friends amongst the penitents ; and this for various reasons , but especially for their own sakes , the fact of their writing
to a Penitentiary being at once likely to betray their former condition to their fellow servants , or others around them . As this
institution never willingly forgets or loses sight of any who have found refuge within its guardian walls , the girls who have quitted it may
on any emergency , or when desirous of strengthening and encouraging counsel from a friend , write to the Warden ; but they must
address to him at his private residence . This permission is frequently made use of . Various of the letters the Warden kindly read
to me ; they evinced a sincere love for the institution , a great attachment to the Sisters , and frequently a yearning after the
religious services . One letter "was very beautiful , from the tender manner in which the writer spoke of the affection shown her by the
child placed under her charge in her new situation . It was curious and interesting to observe how , in compliance with the injunctions
given upon leaving the Penitentiary , these poor girls avoided all reference to the institution in their letters , even in the messages of
remembrance and dutiful affection sent to the Sisters ; they were sent to Mrs . or Miss , although these ladies' surnames had never
been used in the institution , they having always been spoken of as Sister so-and-so , and addressed as " lady . "
In speaking of letters , the Warden told me that the girls are permitted to correspond with their own families whilst within the
Penitentiary , but that all letters must , before being sent , be read . Most generally the letters were such as could be forwarded without
comment , but occasionally passages were met with in the letters which , being objected to , had to be re-written . It was curious to
observe , he said , how frequently these letters were terminated in rhyme . There appears a latent love of poetry in many of these
poor hearts , which shows itself strikingly in undeveloped poetic efforts . Generally the tenor of these rhymes is religious , sometimes
so full of good feeling , that the Warden said he had occasionally taken copies of them . It happened not _^ infrequently that he thus
obtained a new insight into the writer ' s heart , and was enabled to pluck up some rising weed of evil thought , or point out some rock of
danger . This had been the case either that very morning , or a few
24 A House Of Mercy.
24 A HOUSE OF MERCY .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), March 1, 1858, page 24, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01031858/page/24/
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