THE SUNDAY OEEGONIAN, PORTLAND, :MARCH 19, 1905.
t - jsI
PFOM such raw material as the most
hardened habitual criminals In twenty-two
of our gTlm state prisons
Maude Ballington Booth, the "Little
Mother" of the convicts, Is, day by day,
turning out Jean "Valjeans and starting
them In the world afresh.
A woman who can take in hand a no
torious burglar who has served many
terms for safe-cracking and the like, and
who can get this man employment as
night watchman at a bank whose offi
cials know his career, is. indeed, per
forming miracles, you would say. And
a woman who can go to employers who
have put a man in Sing Sing for abus
ing a position of trust and persuade
them to take that man back, at his old
desk, you would call equally wonderful.
Maude Ballington Booth is performing
these and scores of equally amazing mir
acles, week In and week out. How she
succeeds, prison authorities wonder. It
is simply because she has the true psy
chology of crime down pat; because she
combines with a motherly heart the fac
ultywhich so many of us lack of see
ing the spots on the barn door without
losing sight of the door itself. And
above all,-sbe is a consistent Christian
Hugo's good bishop of "lies Mlserables"
coma tp life in the form of a woman.
To her three homes, established in the
past few years. Mrs. Booth Is taking dis
charged convicts and keeping them un
til they have had a fresh start in life.
Of the more than 4000 ex-prlsoners to
whom she has thus bidden "godspeed"
on their new road 75 per cent have
proven to be Jean Valjeans. SO per cent
are uncertain and have been lost track
of. B per cent have perhaps returned to
prison. Out of the last 600 men' started
afresh only three have deliberately lapsed
into crime.
Hard to Begin Afresh.
A vast proportion of these men would
have eltror to steal or starve, just after
leaving prison, were It not for these in
teresting institutions developed by the
"Little Mother." The only hand of help
offered to them would, in most cases,
be that of a past fellow in crime.
First to greet the liberated convict is
very often the published announcement
of his discharge, supplemented by a re
view of his crimes. Even escaping this
blow, his very nervous demeanor marks
him as an object of suspicion. The
street, to his unaccustomed cure, is a
roaring torrent. Every car appears bent
on running him down; every pedestraln
on colliding with him. His eyes are daz
zled by the unobstructed glare. He im
agines that every one met on the street
can tell whence he came. His face is
blanched by the tell-tale prison pallor.
About his legs still clings the shuffle of
the lock-step. Instinctively he folds his
arms when spoken to.
To the policemen patrolling the streets
or the detectives mingling with the
crowdB these signs tell too plainly where
the freshly liberated convict wa3 last
employed. Ho has a shifting eye be
cause in the months behind him he has
been forbidden to look up from his prison
labor, should any one pass through
ris shop, or because discipline has de
manded that his eyes be dropped and
kept down while anyone has passed him
in prison corridor or yard. Indeed in
sorao prisons convicts are required to
turn their faces to the wall whenever
approached.
Worst Punishment After Prison.
His stutter and rtammer are the resultr
of long silence. If he does find employ
ment some ever faithful Javert prob
ably informs his employer that he Is
hiring an cx-convict. These are some of
tho conditions which excited the pity of
the "'Little Mother." "The real punish
ment of the prisoner commences after
the liberty he has so long sought for
tomes," wroto one of these unfortunates
to her.
In the course of her work Mrs. Booth
makes many addresses in the prison
chapels. In one of these she volunteered
to correspond with any convicts who
had no friend to write to. Noting how
eagerly many men In tho stripes embraced
this opportunity to outpour their hearts
to some one, she repeated the offer at
each prison visited. One day she re
ceived from a long-term prisoner in
Joliet a letter, which, he said, was tho
first attempted In seven years, for he had
r.o one in the world who cared whether
bo lived or died.
"You said you loved us," the communi
cation began. "Nobody ever said that to
me before in my whole life. 1 hardly
know what tho word means. You spoke
of home. The nearest approach to it I
eor had was my time la the kitchen of
one of the state prisons, where the officer
was very kind to me."
"If Someone Cares, I Will Try."
Born In an Irish poorhouse, this un
fortunate had never known father or
mother, love or sympathy. Put to work
when a small child, he had immediately
'alien among evil companions, and since
tl-cn had spent his whole life In state
rrlsons, except for short holidays in the
4ums between one discharge and the next
arrest. "Now that I know somebody
cares, I will try." his letter closed. This
and many. like It set Mrs. Booth to think
ing She decided upon her homes for just
such men as this, and this very one. In
tact, after becoming one of her benefi
ciaries, now has a happy little home of
his own and is a useful member of so
ciety. "The "boys' needed a home, and the
need called for speedy action." paid she
the other day. "When we first started
the plans were all talked over in prison.
I took the men, not the public, into my
confidence. Our Idea was to have a place
that would be a real home and not an In
stitution. We did not want,a mission In
the city with Bleeping rooms attached;
certainly not a place placarded 'Prison
ers' Home.' 'Shelter for Ex-Convicts,' or
such. It was to be a home hidden away
from the public, and as much as posslblo
patterned after that to which the mother
would welcome her boy were she living
and able to do so. In Sing Sing prison we
named our home, and the name chosen
was "Hope HalL "
The house which she first opened was a
large frame building on "Washington
Heights, once used as a club. Then she
found a ten-acre farm In the country
which Is better shut off from the public
gaze. This Is her "Hope Hall No. 1."
That It might be a veritable barrier be
tween the past and the future she spared
nothing on its equipment and appoint
ment. The first "Hope Hall" inmate was re
called by Mrs. Booth. He was a hard
ened ex-convict just out of prison, who
had come unannounced to her office,
handing over a sandbag, revolver and
some cartridges, which ho had got after
many futile efforts to find honest work.
She took him in. and sotm he worked
himself up" to the trusted office of "ser
geant" of the home. But the dread
"prison consumption" already had taken
root in his lungs,, and he was found open
air work on one of the .railroad lines.
The disease could not be curbed, and he
came back to Hope Hall to die. His own
mother had refused to see him or own
him since his return from prison, nor
would she even come to his deathbed.
Two other "Hope Halls" have lately
been established, in Illinois and Iowa.
The latter was fouaJJed and given to the
ex-convicts by L. 8. Coffin, a co-laborer
of the "Little Mother." . Tho maintenance
of the Eastern home, however, has forced
Mrs. Booth to spend much of her time
on the lecture platform. All of her earn
ings have been given to the work.
When the writer asked permission to
visit the nearest "Hope Hall" Mrs.
Booth firmly but courteously refused it.
"No newspaper men have been permit
ted to visit the 'Hope Halls';" she said.
"From the first we have wished the sa
credness of their home privacy to be
respected. All too long have these, our
friends, been marked men, pointed out
and associated with their crimes and
made to feel that they are the lawful
prey ot the morbidly curious." One of
her workers had, however. Just taken
some photographs of the homes, which
the writer was permitted to publish.
That the "Little Mother" la a practical
psychologist, so far as' reform Is con
cerned, is best proved by the rules which
she has adopted for her "Hope Halls."
There are no public meetings, no experi
ence meetings. "Talk of wrong-doing is
often the first step to feeling one can do
It again," said she. "The shame and
humiliation that should be felt are soon
lost to those who talk much of what they
have been, and a spirit of exaggeration
and almost boastfulness takes Its place.
We strongly urge silence regarding the
past, and, as far as possible, tho forget
ting of its sad memories."
The rules of the Hope Halls now require
all Inmates' to- come direct from a state
prison. This Is to .guard against those
who might come as a last resort after re
visiting old haunts. The Catholic Is as
welcome as the Protestant, the Jew as
the infidel, the negro as the white man.
Contrary to the general notion, member
ship In Mrs. Booth's Volunteer Prison
League now 25,000 strong Is not a pre
requisite. No discrimination is made
in regard to crimes or the number of
terras served in orison. No limit is put
on the length of stay. Every Inmate Is
welcome until he has thoroughly built up
his strength and found satisfactory work.
Some are found to need but a fortnight;
others months, to strengthen and nerve
themselves, for a life struggle. All in
mates are started again In life with em
ployers who know of their past. This Is
a great safeguard, and they need not work
in the fear that their dread .secret may
at any hour become known and cost them
their positions.
Tho able-bodied mechanic or laborer is
found to have the best chance for finding
work under these circumstances; but the
man who has been a bookkeeper, or has
held some other position of trust starts
his new life with the greatest obstacles.
Mrs. Booth says she is not confronted. wRh.
laziness In this work. On the contrary,
her difficulty has always been to instill
patience in inmates who become discour
aged because they cannot at once start
upon their labors.
All inmatos are employed In some neces
sary work about the hajls;. some in the
laundries, some at painting, carpentering
or building; some as cooks, gardeners,
farmers, hostlers, etc There are no in
dustries, such as mat and broom-making.
These, in Mrs. Booth's opinion,
would spoil the homo aspect of the Halls
or rob men of their ambition to strike
out in the world for themselves.
The buildings are environed with well
kept lawns, with flower beds, rose bushes,
vines and shrubs; orchards of fruit trees
and fieds well ploughed and cultivated
In the farming season. The sleeping
rooms contain white enameled iron beds.
The floors are strewn with rugs, lace cur
tains hang at the windows, and pictures
adorn the walls. The dining tables are
always immaculate with white linen, while
plants bloom in the windows, and waiters
in white jackets and aprons serve the
food. In the parlor, lecture-room and li
brary there are all of the comforts and
cozy appointments of the average prosper
ous citizen's home, a piano, which the
men gather about in the evenings; a
phonograph with a large megaphone,
bookcases well stocked with the standard
literature, potted plants, bright-colored
pictures, tasteful draperies and comforta
ble furniture. There are also tables on
which games may-be played and" broad
piazzas where all may gather on Summer
nights.
Has Men on Parole.
Convicts are also sent from the state
prisons to the Hope Halls, on parole. , un
der Mrs. Booth's .sponsorship. ,Many of
hose are men who would have no chance
of gaining such liberty did she not vol
unteer responsibility for them. She finds
them work, keeps in touch with them
from month to month, and reports regu
larly to the prison authorities until she
finally has the pleasure of nandlng them
their final discharge papers.
"In Illinois most of our 'boys' are taken
from the prisons on parole, owing' to the
indeterminate sentence law in force in
that state," said Mrs. Booth. "Most of
these men would have had no chance
had we not taken tham home, being of
tho utterly friendless class, for whom
no one else would stand sponsor. Of
these we received there during last year
171 men, of whom only SO proved unsatis
factory." Hope Hall "graduates" working within
reach often run "home" for a visit during
the holidays. " At a recent anniversary -of
the New York home 70 sat down- to sup
per together. Two teams, composed re
spectively of ."home boys" and "gradu
ates." competed on the baseball grounds,
while little children whose fathers had
been given back to them romped in the
shade of the big trees, and grateful wives
looked on with glad, hopeful faces.
But what of the women in our prisons
or the women and children left behind
when husband and father are taken away
by the grim minions of the law? Dis
charged women convicts are taken to
Mrs. Booth's volunteer rescue homes.
They are so few in number that Hope
Halls on the scale afforded for men are
not needed, but they receive the same
care and are given a start In the same
way as is given their fallen brothers.
Starving wives and helpless- children of
men in prison are fed and clothed by the
"Little Mother" as soon as she discovers
them through letters from her "boys."
The mothers are found wholesome em
ployment, and the little ones. If need be,
are sent to one of two children's homes
provided by the "Volunteers of America,
the. well-known philanthropic organization
of which Ballington Booth husband of
the "Little Mother" Is general-ln-chlef.
Speaking in general of her work of re
form Mrs. Booth said:
"The Judge and Jury take cognizance
only of the offense; the police and prison
records note the list of charges and the
number of returns to prison; but those ot
us who seek to know the man beneath the
criminal have a right to go back and ask
ourselves, 'What chance did this man
have to do right, to act and to be as we
arer " JOHN ELFRBTH WAT KINS.
Racing System and the Consequent Poverty
Divers Ways for Not Beating the Bookies, Told in Slang by a Wise Guy.
"ft
FEW minutes- ago," observed
the race-follower with the out
standing ears, the alert eyes.
and the four-karat, blue-white, shirt-front
boulder, "I hove alongside a fat-conk,
who was worrying hlmelf by doing things
with a pencil on a pad.
"He was whittling common arithmetic
down, to shavings by figuring how much
he would have yanked down if he had
parlayed ein buck on all of the geergees,
including a couple of G0-to-l babeskys,
that sklddooed first under the wire at Hot
Springs yesterday.
"When ne got through with that pad-and-pencll
dope, he had John D. Rockefel
ler looking, for a soup handout at a
Homeward Bound Mission.
"The combination ticket on the whole
six would only have paid about eighty
two billion bones, with a few Amalgama
ted coppers over to buy papers, peanuts
and gum with.
"In milk-tickets or rain-checks, a little
bank-roll like that would stuff a line of
freight cars that would reach from here
to Hong Kong.
"When he got through making those
figures, this arithmetlker I'm mentioning
prodded me for the price of a shave and
enough to get his laundry out. I fell for
the touch," because his scroll work on the
pad had amused me a whole lot.
"But I felt like taking him down to
Wing Moy's and staking him to a new
yen-hok. It looked sad to me that such
a high-smoker should have such punk
tools, and a blunt yen-hok is bound to
hash a smoke.
"This pencil parlayer believes in that
run-it-along-on-the-hull-slx system, and
that's the reason he's been feeding on
ginger-snaps and cheese, purchased in
nlcklc lots, for so long that, if he ever
fqund himself sitting in front of a sure
enough steamy beef stew at an honest
Injun table, he'd get the gibbers and im
agine he bad 'cm.
"But they all believe In their systems.
I used to believe in the system thing my
self. Td hang on to a system till I be
came ho anemic that I'd have to fasten
my galluses to my shoulders with- safety
pins for fear they'd slip down and then
I'd go and dig up another system-
"if there's any known or unknown sys
tem of not copping the kale on the Shet
lands that I have not had a wallop at. I
want somebody to whirl along quick and
put me next to the name and .number of
it. so that I can spin out and get lost
until all danger of my taking a hack at
the new one is over.
Thc first system that orer rocked me
In the cradle of the weeps was that.play-to-nall-so-much-a-day
thing, and that
HAD ROCKEI"ELLER LOOKING iOR A HANDOUT.
seems so long ago that I feel as If I
ought to be Oslerized for even - mention
ing it.
"All I wanted out of the game was that
se miiqh a day and expenses. " Gazing
back now through the drift and discard
of yesteryears. I can remember that I
used to frequently pull out that so much
a day and expenses as often as once in
every forty-nine days.
"I never came so close to having to ship
in' the Navy, to get some" place to sleep.
as I did while I was playing that I-only-want-so-much-a-day
system.
"The system itself is all right. If any
thing. I'd call it pretty nigh as good as
United States of Columbia bonds. The rea
son why it was not a dividend payer while
I waa toying along with it is a long, pain
ful narrative, little Brighteyes, which
your weary old Uncle Jabez would fain
not dwell upon. One thing that system
did teach me, and that was how to Ink
away the bum spots on a hat. But almost
any old system will teach a gee-gee
player how to do that if he stays with It
long enough.
"The next system that I used as an
obesity cure was that thing of desiring
the favorite to run second for you, and
getting the spinach down that way.
"I went along with one for nearly an
entire Summer, and I often knew myself
to pull out as high as $1.30 per diem at it.
On the majority of days, however, I got
pulled in for everything but the buttons
on my tunic.
"When they tap your nerve so that
you'll hand the grinning layer six hard
wrung aces on the even-money favorite to
skate second at 1 to 3 for the place, the
transaction standing to slip you just a
two-case note if It goes through, then it's'
time for you to hunt for a Job as floor
walker In a ten-cent store, mess-mate,
and that isn't any flugelhorn fantasie in
F flat, either.
"If there is any lightning calculator that
can dope It out where the player of that
favorite-to-run-second system geta off
when 18 favorites in a straight row run
eighth, I want to know what kind of a
hoptoy he uses and if he rolls and cooks
'em himself.
"The only reason why that system
didn't nudge me into the midnight bread
line was that the line wasn't going at
the time I am speaking of.
"The next system that engaged my
rapt and tapped attention was that neat
and tasty little plan whereby you play
the one thing a day that you like' as far
back as you can grab even money.
"This one works out on paper as pretty
as the balance sheet of a Chad wicked
bank published four days before Cassie
was pinched. But when you begin to push
In your ker-tlsh on it, you find out that
all this talk about there being such
things as rebates Is caloric atmosphere.
There's no rebate, even of what you stuff
in on that as-far-back-as-you-can-get-even-money
system. The whole success
ful operation of that gag depends upon
you going to the gee-gee that you 'like,'
and there's always at least one In each
of the six prints that.you like If you
could fix it up so that you could find
out with a goose-bone or a divining rod
which one of 'em you 'liked best, and go
to it, you'd probably drift down to the
water-front barrel-houses even sooner.
"I stayed with that system until I
looked like the reclining figure in the
foreground of a flashlight picture of the
famine In Hlndoostan, and then I stopped
'liking anything and dug up another sys
tem that had to be purely arbitrary' to
get by.
"This was that connin .little consensus
system that you may have heard a rumor
or two 6f The consensus is one of those
you-can't-loae systems. I mean, when you
play It with a pencil and pad. But when
you fall for it with the rag carpet and
the kitchen oilcloth because you need the
cush to keep them from hanging a com
bination padlock on your door while you'r
around the corner staking yourself to a
stogie, the consensus system is just as
good and game a loser as any of the rest
of them, and if I don't know, Alcwyn,
good old Doctor Consensus himself isn't
there with the wisdom about his own pre
scription. "In playing the consensus, all you've
got to do is to pick out the stingaree that
the majority of the newspapers pick out
in their regular selections to deliver the
duff. Then you wrap up a piece of gaff
pipe in a piece of an abandoned shirt and
go out to hunt for the price to pay that
one.
"After you've traipsed along with the
consensus system for about three months,
you'll know how to write a -series of ar
ticles for a ten-cent magazine about 'How
to Get By on the Eat Thing Without Pro
ducing.' "I played the consensus syetem consist
enly for three months, and at the end of
that time I stepped on one of these
weighing machines that announces your
weight through a phonograph. The best
that the machine would stake me to for
my slot Investment was, "Nothing doing
you don't weigh enough to register get
off.'
"From the consensus I zephyred along
to the jockey system. I guess that's per
fectly miserable on paper, that jockey
system.
"The dub who worked it out foe me in
a note-book had fringe on the bottoms of
his trousers that reminded me of lambre
quin tassel?, but at that he sounded so
good as he uncoiled those figures about
the workings of the jockey system In real
life that I fell into 'the habit of rubbering
around Jor a pair of coupon scissors.
"But when I went to the Jockey sys
tem, the rboys who'd been nailing four
wins and two seconds a day out of six
races would bring 43 also-rans under the
tape, and the minute I'd cut a boy like
that off my list, the next race out he'd
fetch a 40 to 1 crab home In a two-step,
and that's bow I was flagged and fanned,
coming and going, both ends from the
middle, by the favorite jockey thing.
"As soon as Td frame up a mash-hunch
on a coming boy. just signed by Sidney
Pagot or Jack Doyer or J.-.R. Keene at
a salary of whatever the turf . writers
wanted to scratch It down at, the kid
would develop Into a stretch-ekulker or
a-rum-fighter or they'd get him from
the outside, and. then I'd have to prowl
around for a new dead one in the riding
game to become enamored of for gamb
ling purposes.
"All that I ever got out of playing the
jockey system was a knowledge of quin
tuple entry bookkeeping that would get
me a job any time I needed it as fourth
assistant accounter for & dog-catcher.
"Then I stumbled on that follow-the-inoney
system, and when I got hold of'
that one my pals asked me who had been
leaving me money, I looked and felt so
glad.
"I'd just keep the duff right down at
the bottom of my clothing until I saw
how the boys who soaked $20,000 to a
race got down. If I saw Pittsburg Phil
or Riley Grannan or Dave Gideon or
John W. Gates dingo commissioner romp
ing along the bookies line eating up the
price against something- that even didn't
look to have an outside chance to me,
I'd shut my eyes to my own line of thinks
and go to the played one with all the
enthusiasm of a periodical sudser getting
a high-ball light-up for the first time
in a year.
"Then the played mutts would lose.
"I hadn't any sooner begun playing the
follow-the-educated-duft system and chas
ing the plungers and their commissioners
around, the rings than the turf reporters
began to print stories of how much cush
all of the noted plungers were losing.
They didn't print anything about how
much I was losing, because they were
callous, or something.
- "One day I saw Joe Yeager In the act
of getting down 340,000 on an even-mo'ney
crustacean in his shed that bis boy H1I
debrand was to pilot, and I all but
broke 11 strong mens arms In getting
down my 332 on that one. When the
race was over and Mr. Yeager's thing
showed dazzling speed after it was all
oft and the numbers were up, the plunger
person, I observed, cooled out by applying
a quart of the hissy amber-juice to his
covered works, and I heard him laugh real
loud over the contretemps. Then he
stepped Into an 318,000 Mercedes and was
chaffed home by his Imported- buzz-wagon ,
motorman.
"I staked myself to a high-collared beer,
and then beat my way back to. town on
a trolley-car.
"The system thing is all right -hen
you are just feeling around and don't need
the money.
"But if you try to show, me that It
ever fetches anything to a merry-go-round
follower who stays with the game
all the year 'round and who has found
out the difference between a package of
dope-charts - and a pound of side-meat,
rm from the state that Jde Folk resides
in, and you've got to produce the speci
fications and blue prints." Copyright,
1S05, Washington News Association.
CLARENCE It CULLEN.
A railroad constructed by one party
upon the land of another from materials
furnished by the latter, under an express
agreement that the road should be the
property of the owner of the land, and
should remain so until paid for by the
party constructing It, when a bill of sals
should be made to the latter. Is held in
Webster Lumber-Co. vs. Keystone Lumber
& M. Co. (W. Va.). 66 L. R. A. 33, to be
a fixture and a part of the . realty.. The
question of the nature of a railroad
whether real estate or personal property
is treated in a -note to. this case.-