438                   A.M.E. REVIEW.

school are held each day.  At the session I attended seven
negresses and four white women were at work upon a com-
position in the form of a letter to their teacher, Mrs. Stone,
the letter to tell how they had enjoyed the Christmas gifts
and entertainment provided for them the day previous by
the ladies of the W. C. T. U. of Auburn. I quote one of the
letters which was written by a young negress serving her
first term:
Mrs. Stone, Dear Teacher:
  I have not much to write about, for I did not go to the Christmas
entertainment. I had to stay in my cell for misconduct.  At first I
cried and felt badly, but when I heard the singing from the chapel, I
knelt down and asked God to forgive my sins and I promised Him and
Mrs. Welshe that if I was here next Christmas, I would not be in my cell
for misconduct on X'mas day.  The dinner was fine; we had turkey
and everything we had outside. I did not expect to get anything as I
was bad, but they brought me the pretty calendar and the box of
candy and the orange, for which I thank the kind ladies very much.
I think more of these women than I ever thought of people on the out-
side before; they did something for us not in return.
  This simple letter brings out two things; first, the per-
sonal influence of Mrs. Welshe over her "girls" (they always
make their promises to God and Mrs. Welshe), and, second,
the little negress' discovery, for the first time in her life,
there in prison, that all the amenities of life were not in the
nature of a trade.
                      REFORMATORIES.
  These facts concerning two State prisons for women show
what may be done in the way of reformation under ordinary
discipline for the care of serious offenders. The class of
penal institutions for women now receiving most at-
tention from men and women who are working un-
selfishly for the public good, are the reformatories
for older women and first offenders between the
ages of seventeen  and  thirty.       There  are  but four
of these in the United States, one in Indiana, one in
Massachusetts, and two in New York. The women admitted
to penal institutions in New York State reached the total




			

OHS/National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center Serial Collection

African Methodist Episcopal Church Review, Vol. 28, Num. 1

Volume:  28
Issue Number:  01
Date:  07/1911