this cross and go if once more invited, the burden lifted.

About two o'clock the next Sunday afternoon I found myself, with a band
of about twenty workers, behind iron bars, looking into the faces of
nearly two hundred men and boys and a few women. Oh! but the tears
flowed from my eyes, especially for the boys, many of whom were so
young, as I wondered what would be the outcome of their present
association and environment. It seemed awful! awful! I sang song after
song; then I was invited to speak. My heart was too full for many
words, but when the invitation was given to seek our Savior, many hands
went up for special prayer. The meeting soon closed. Then as those
terrible but necessary iron doors again unlocked and the prisoners
filed past us one by one to their lonely, cheerless quarters, I made up
my mind to come whenever I could, and, whenever permitted, to do and
say what I could to help he "whosoever wills," also to use my influence
in certain quarters for the betterment of the children prisoners, not
one of whom but doubtless had been cheated out of his birthright by
untutored, ofttimes wilfully ignorant parents or guardians.

Let me call your attention to one of the women prisoners, whose
peculiarly repulsive countenance was so remarkable that when we came
away from the jail I interrogated one of the workers concerning her. To
my amazement, I was informed that the woman (Nell) was regarded as a
hopeless case, and also that she had enjoyed musical educational
advantages, her people having sent her to Paris to complete certain
accomplishments. There, in that wicked capital, she became very gay,
soon acquired the absinth habit, and rapidly descended in the social
scale, and now she was scarcely ever out of prison. It was very
difficult to realize that this poor soul, who now was never known to
use any but vile language and oaths, was once a beautiful young woman,