where there was thrown on the screen in the sight of a thousand prisoners half a dozen different times pictures of crimes and escapes. Did a man try to emulate these actors? Not one. On the contrary, when in the picture the crook got what was coming to him, the prisoners cheered!

As to the matter of letter writing-why should the privilege be limited for those who can bear the expense of extra postage? I am well aware that "special letters" are freely granted in most prisons now, yet a man is often embarrassed in asking for them very often.

A man does not lose all his interests when he comes to prison. At least he should not lose them. How can he keep up his friendships, which may be invaluable to him, on the two letters a month. which is the allowance made by the average prison? If the men who devised the rule of "two letters a month" for the good of "prison discipline" had to spend an average sentence of two years and four months in a six by nine cell they would come to view the letter writing privilege from the prisoner's standpoint, understand why an unlimited letter writing privilege is one of the prisoner's wants and would conclude that it was a legitimate want.

Though I have heard it expressed less frequently than any of these other wants, another longing of the prisoner is a fair wage for what he does. When a man commits a crime he does not lose his right to work nor his right to profit by his labor. Yet the State largely confiscates the labor of the prisoner or permits him to be exploited by a contractor. There is no greater source of discontent than this. Nothing in the prison strikes the prisoner as more unjust than that he should be compelled to work hard for the State for nothing or for some contractor at sixty-five cents per day. Any real discussion of compensation for prisoners would make this address too lengthy, but I hope the time will come when all our prisons will make provision to pay every prisoner a fair wage for whatever work he does, then oblige him to pay the cost of his maintenance and guarding, and permit him to have and to use the balance of his earnings.

When a prisoner is fed and clothed and furnished with even the stamp he puts on his occasional letter and has for the term of his imprisonment no compelling thought of earning and paying

his way he is not being fitted to go out into the conditions which he must meet in society when released. Even when in prison the prisoner should be taught to earn and spend wisely and to save, that he may be fitted to do just that when released. Instead of being subversive of "discipline" this would make for the truest discipline and would meet one of the most real wants of the pris

oner.

There are many other reasonable wants of the prisoner. Time forbids further discussion. We close here. Let it be the privilege of the chaplains to bring such matters to the attention of those in authority, and if need be let them be wisely but persistently persuasive in their efforts to aid in securing for the prisoner any legitimate privilege which will help preserve or revive his selfrespect, put him more and more on his honor and develop his faculties of discrimination and his powers of self-control. Any chaplain may do this with good conscience, well assured that he is not interfering with "prison discipline" but working for a truer and far more constructive and worth-while discipline.

From the vantage ground of ten years of close study and experiment I venture to say that the chief weakness of our prisons is what might be expressed as too much paternalism. The task of the remaking and mending of men will never be solved by anything superimposed on them from without but only by revealing to them powers they already have within and helping them in the sanest way to develop those powers.

The old practice of medicine dosed the patient all he could stand, and if he recovered the treatment was considered efficacious and if he died it was believed nothing could have saved him anyway. Modern practice is to establish a capacity of resistance, to assist nature where that is possible but to let nature perform the miracle of healing. I fear that the majority of our prisons. are still conducted along much the same lines as the old practice of medicine and I very much doubt if such a method can produce one good man. You cannot "discipline" goodness into a man by any wooden scheme of discipline which seems to deny the most of a man's reasonable wants any more than you can give a man health by dosing him with a whole lot of nostrums.

THE CHAPLAIN'S WORK.

A. J. G. WELLS, WARDEN, STATE REFORMATORY, FRANKFORT, KY.

The Chaplain's proper work presupposes a proper condition for work. Before he can do his best work, he must have favorable environments. Blackberries do not grow in the winter-time; butterflies are not numerous in the Arctic zone; even the old family horse, that is known to be true and tried, can pull but little if hitched up with three others that are out of harmony with his efforts.

Brother Bell, a good Methodist minister, after a most powerful Holy Ghost sermon, had given the command to his members, on the beginning of a song, to go out among the sinners, and invite them to the altar. Uncle Fred Wilson, a gray-bearded patriarch, proceeded up the aisle, radiant with glory, clapping his hands, and on seeing his nephew, Virgil, a half-wit, said with much emphasis, "Oh, Virgil, don't you want to go to Heaven?" The response came with deliberation, "No, sir."

If the prison chaplain is the only one in the official family of the prison who believes in, or cares about, the Gospel of Christ, then indeed will the fruits of his labor be anything but satisfactory. Add to this a little positive opposition on the part of the warden and other officers, and the chaplain is placed in about the same position as the farmer who attempts to raise a crop in the Sahara desert. I make this statement with all due reverence, not forgetful of the fact that God is able to accomplish His purposes in spite of adverse surroundings, but with a knowledge of the further fact that it is His purpose to use human agencies.

I do not say that every prison official should be a devout Christian, but I am willing to say that every prison official should reverently acknowledge the power of the Gospel as the greatest force known among men for the reformation and rehabilitation of fallen man. This belief should be broader than any creed, dogma, or formula of religious cult-it should be of that full measure represented in the fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man. This faith, translated into daily action, will soon find expression in those helpful and elevating agencies which are but the hand

maids of religion. There has existed, and does now exist, in some degree, a coarse and false idea that such sentiment is but a portrayal of weakness-very good for old maids and decrepit women, but impractical for the warden and other officials who have the very practical problem of dealing with criminals. The Christian religion never made any warden, or other official, weaker. "Religion is not a method, it is a life, a higher and supernatural life, mystical in its root and practical in its fruits; a communion with God, a calm and deep enthusiasm, a love which radiates, a force which acts, a happiness which overflows."-Ward.

"Religion gives a man courage-I mean the higher moral courage which can look danger in the face unawed and undismayed; the courage that can encounter loss of ease, of wealth, of friends, of your own good name; the courage that can face a world full of howling and of scorn-aye, of loathing and of hate; can see all this with a smile, and, suffering it all, can still live on, conscious of the result, yet fearless still."-Theodore Parker.

The simple truth is that there has been too great a gulf between the warden's ideals and the chaplain's ideals. The chaplain has been regarded in too many prisons as a kind of vermiform appendix-a part of the prison anatomy, but really not necessary, and sometimes harmful.

The principal work of the warden is to arrest evil tendencies in the prison life, and create, foster, and develop, within the prison, all those agencies possible which are reasonably calculated to cure defects in character, and develop manhood-hard work, exercise, education, and religion, in their broadest and most practical sense, are the agents the warden must employ if he shall answer to this, his highest, mission. If this be true, then it follows that the chaplain's work fits in nicely with the general plan of the institution.

The chaplain's work? Given these conditions, what may the consecrated man of God accomplish? What a fertile field for the redemption of fallen man! "Man's extremity is God's opportunity." The chaplain should, indeed, be "As wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove." He should be a good listener, a man of sound judgment. He should neither read the mail, keep the library, teach the school, nor act as parole officer. He should not permit

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himself to be sidetracked, by prisoners anxious for parole or pardon, into parole or pardon attorney. If he should, in purely exceptional cases, depart from this general rule, it should be done free from solicitude, and without the prisoner's knowledge, either before or after the parole is granted. Even the Master complained, on one occasion, that some of His followers were more attracted by the loaves and fishes than by His teaching.

The chaplain's business is to create new impulses, inculcate new purposes, stimulate good impressions, and help the prisoner build himself a new life. This is enough for one man. It is the noblest business ever committed to the hands of men or angels. Knowing and realizing all this, the chaplain would not exchange duties with anybody this side of the Kingdom of Heaven.

A severe test to the chaplain sometimes comes from the prisoner who has been subjected to proper discipline. A single false note, born of weakness or lack of judgment, at this juncture, will do more to hurt the prison than can be imagined. If the chaplain is wise, it will only furnish him an opportunity to better instil into the mind of the prisoner a larger respect for law and discipline, which is of the very essence of religion.

What the chaplain may do with propriety is, at the proper time and in the proper spirit, discuss with the warden in private, any matter which directly or indirectly naturally affects the moral, intellectual and spiritual interest of the institution. If each have a common object, the general betterment of the inmates, they will find themselves in accord after an unbiased discussion, but in the event that they should disagree as to plans simply, the chaplain should yield to the head of the institution, keeping in mind always that they are headed in the same direction, working for a common purpose, and that eventually all branches of the road must lead again into the main thoroughfare.

What a world of information, what a world of misinformation pours into his ears! The wisdom of Solomon, as exemplified in the proposed division of the child between the two reputed mothers, is needed to separate the true from the false, the material from the immaterial. Nothing short of the grace of God and that "wisdom, awful wisdom, which inspects, discerns, composes, weighs, separates,