"It was not yours; you had no right to it, and that ought to have been sufficient for you. If he wasted it in drunkenness that was his sin, not yours. You could have restrained him through the laws that punish drunkenness. You could have told him how wrong he was doing, and set him a better example. Instead of that you stole, and he got drunk. You made yourself as bad as he."
"I hope this has taught you a lesson that you will never forget,--one that will make you think. Before you had this punishment you had not the strength to resist the temptation to take the money. Now you will always remember what you have suffered here, and you will not be likely to do it again."
"No, ma'am, I don't think I shall. This is harder than working for a living outside, besides the rough handling we get. A poor living at that, and poorer clothes. And you officers don't fare much better. You get a little better feed, and a better bed, and a little pay; but not so much rest; and you are in as close confinement as we are."
"But we are not prisoners; we can go if we like."
"What do you stay here for; you don't seem fit for such work, and you might earn a great deal more outside, and not work so hard?"
"I may be able to teach a few of you, poor things, to live right when you go outside, and that will be better to me than money."
"God bless you! that is what we want. There is many a one of us would be glad to live right if we knew how."
"There are some that only grow harder for coming here, and do as bad again, and come back."
"O, yes! they think they're prison birds, and there's nothing more for 'em in this world, and they don't care. Nobody likes to have such as we about 'em."
"But there are people that would help you to lead a better life, and earn an honest living, if you could find them."
"They might find us, but it is hard for us to find them."
That was a very true remark. Our prisons are prominent institutions in the land. It is easy for any one who is interested in the cause of humanity to find them; but to get access to them is a more difficult undertaking, as many can testify who have attempted it. I leave them to tell their own tale, and let it bear its own testimony. It is easy to find the poor wretches who are compelled to take up their abode within them, and do them good if one wills.