Across the space between the gratings it was a common practice for the
prisoners to push wooden spoons, fastened to long sticks, in order to
receive the contributions of friends. Disgusting in its ways, vicious in
act and speech, the social scum which crowded Newgate was repulsive,
dangerous, and vile in the extreme.

It is evident that the circle to which Mrs. Fry belonged was still
interested in philanthropic labors on behalf of the criminal classes,
because we find that Sir Thomas F. Buxton, Mr. Hoare, and several other
friends were busy, in the interval between 1813 and 1816, in
establishing a society for the reformation of juvenile thieves. This
matter of prison discipline was therefore engaging the attention of her
immediate circle. Doubtless, while listening to them, she remembered
most anxiously the miserable women whom she had visited some three years
previously.

It seems that Mrs. Fry succeeded with the women by means of her care for
the children. Low as they were in sin, every spark of maternal affection
had not fled, and they craved for their little ones a better chance than
they had possessed themselves. To a suggestion by Mrs. Fry that a school
should be formed for the benefit of their little ones they eagerly
acceded. This suggestion she left with them for consideration, engaging
to come to a decision at the next visit.

At the next visit she found that the tears of joy with which they had
welcomed the proposition were not feigned. The women had already chosen
a school-mistress from among themselves. A young woman, named Mary
Cormer, who had, although fairly educated, found her way to prison for
stealing a watch, was the person chosen. It is recorded of this young
woman that she became reformed during her stay in Newgate, and so