Chapter III: Introduction

This world is, to a large extent, a great prison house. Nearly all of its inhabitants are prisoners surrounded by walls of sin and darkness. Many are bound down by the curse of rum, others by the besetting sins of lust, unholy temper, envy, revenge, malice, hatred, jealousy, prejudice, pride, covetousness, or selfishness resulting from a carnal mind. Out of the vast multitudes that are led captive by the devil at his will, a few that have violated human law have been sentenced to various prisons and reformatories. This book has much to say about the men and women behind prison walls. It records the sad story of many prisoners in a way that very few can read without being moved to tears and that will awaken sympathy in the hardest hearts. It also tells of the work of God among prisoners both in this and other countries. It records some of the brightest of Christian experiences on record, showing how many prisoners that have been slaves to worse than human law and have lived in greater darkness than in the prison dungeon, have been made free by being translated into the light that outshines the noonday sun, and how they have been enabled to live noble, Christian lives behind the bars.

We are well acquainted with the author, having known her for several years and having had the privilege of entertaining her in our home more or less during that time. This acquaintance has enabled us to know something of the burden that rests upon her soul for prisoners. She has doubtless spent more time in the work, visited more prisons and traveled farther than any other living prison worker. She has visited practically all of the prisons of the United States and Canada and most of them many times, and twice she has crossed the sea. Her mission has been a mission of loving service, with but little financial reward. But the Master who laid this work upon her heart has given her rich reward for all her toil and privation and suffering, for many have been converted through her instrumentality. Some have gone to their reward. Many others, both in and out of prison, are living honest, useful lives.

Had this work been written only for the hasty reader who has but a few hours at the most to give, much that it contains might better have been omitted; but such as these can easily select from its pages that which is most to their liking, while those who are deeply interested in the work of soul-saving, as well as the prisoner whose spare hours drag heavily and slowly, will here find food for study and encouragement that will repay for many days of careful reading.

In many respects, such a work as is here represented has never been done by any other person. For these hundreds of pages give but a few glimpses, as it were, of the work "Mother Wheaton" has done. We have assisted her in gleaning from the many hundreds of letters still in her possession (though much of her correspondence was destroyed by fire) and in arranging and preparing matter for publication. We have listened as with eyes filled with tears she has told us of the needs of the work, and with every day thus spent we have become more deeply interested in the work to which her life has been given. In a memorial service it was said of the late Bishop William Taylor: "He was not an organizer nor an administrator; not a statesman, in the ordinary use of those terms. He was rather a great religious pioneer. He blazed pathways through unknown moral wilds, and left the work of organization mainly to those who might follow after." Such, in her field of labor, has largely been the work of Mother Wheaton.

No place has been far enough away, no stockade hard enough to reach, no day warm enough or cold enough or stormy enough, no prison official or stockade captain sufficiently abusive, to discourage her when she felt that the Master bade her go forward.

With a burning love for all the sinful and all the needy, she has gone from north to south and from east to west, seeking the lost as one seeks for hidden treasure. Through nights of weariness and days of toil she has sought them and loved them and wept over them, man or woman or child, as a mother weeps over and loves her own. She has borne their burdens and shared their sorrows--ever bringing to them the cheering word, the testimony or inspiring song, the faithful warning, the earnest prayer, the plain gospel message, the hearty hand-clasp, the loving "God bless you."

We believe and pray that these pages may be greatly used of God to reach thousands of hearts and stir up many to carry forward the work so dear to her, when "Mother Wheaton" has crossed over to meet those that are waiting to welcome her on the other side.

Yours, in Jesus' love,
ETTA E. SHAW.
S. B. SHAW.

Chicago, Ill., 1906.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

BIOGRAPHY AND CALL TO THE WORK.

Birth--Left an Orphan--Conversion--Marriage--Sorrow--
Sanctification--Call to Prison Work--Family Reunion--Sketch
of My Life by My Brother 23

CHAPTER II.

LETTER TO MY PRISON CHILDREN.

My Limited Education--Disappointments--A Friend in Jesus 38

CHAPTER III.

A PLEA FOR THE PRISONER.

In the Shadow of the Wall (poem)--Letters to Prison Officers--
Worth While (poem)--Prejudice--A Look into the Cell--Insane
Prisoners--All Prisoners Not Criminal--Prepared to Die 43

CHAPTER IV.

A BRIEF PEN PICTURE OF PRISON LIFE.

The Buildings--Entrance--Chapel and Dining-room--Chapel
Service--The Cell-house--Workshops--Hospital 59

CHAPTER V.

LETTERS OF INTRODUCTION AND KIND WORDS FROM GOVERNORS, PRISON
OFFICIALS, ETC.

From Governors--Prison Wardens--Chaplains 67

CHAPTER VI.

SOME OF MY PRISON BOYS.

A Prisoner's Conversion as Shown by His Letters--A Talented
Young Man--Under Death Sentence--Commuted--Finally Pardoned--
Letters--Sentenced for Life--His Letters--Faithful Inside and
Outside of Prison Walls 87

CHAPTER VII.

LETTERS FROM CO-WORKERS AND MY PRISON GIRLS.

Letters from Sister Co-workers--From My Prison-bound Girls 117

CHAPTER VIII.

INCIDENTS IN MY PRISON WORK.

Letter from the Prisoners at Chester, Ill.--Extract of Chaplain's
Report--Suicide of a Prisoner--"I Have no Friends"--Letters
from Chaplain Starr--A Way Opened in Answer to Prayer--A Letter
from a Governor--A Woman Converted and Healed--A Change
Wrought--A Chaplain in My Audience--Impressed to Tarry--
Encouragement by the Way--Cruel Neglect--Another Suicide--Just
Out of Prison--Dying in Prison--Does It Pay?--Saved and Preaching
the Gospel--In Solitary Confinement--Crape on the Door--In a
Police Station--Burned in His Cell--The Innocent in Bonds--
Confessed Her Guilt--Under Sentence of Death--"The Religion
Mother Had" 135

CHAPTER IX.

CONVERSION OF DESPERATE PRISONERS PREVENTS A TERRIBLE MUTINY.

Welcomed in Prison--An After-Service--Plan of the Mutiny--Havoc
of Sin--Letters 161

CHAPTER X.

REMARKABLE CONVERSION AND EXPERIENCE OF GEO. H. COLGROVE.

His Own Story--Infidel Literature--Burglary and Murder--Life
Sentence--Conversion--Study of the Scriptures--Bible Class
Teacher--An Enemy Kindly Treated--A Pardon Refused--Second
Effort to Secure a Pardon--Letters--Final Illness and Triumphant
Death 169

CHAPTER XI.

WORK IN STOCKADES AND PRISON CAMPS IN SOUTHERN STATES.

Race Question--Letters of Introduction and Recommendation--A
Stockade--Letter to a Governor--Reply of Prison Manager--Plea
for Women Convicts--Bloodhounds--Coal Mines--A Touching
Incident--First Meeting in a Prison Camp--Ride on Engine of
a Coal Train--First Railroad Pass--Ride on a Mule 187

CHAPTER XII.

STOCKADES AND PRISON CAMPS CONTINUED.

Novel Conveyances--Assisting a Colored Minister--Through
Danger Alone--Prostrate Among Prisoners--A Meeting at Day
Dawn--Helping to Bury a Prisoner--Wreck of a Coal Train--Sugar
Camps--Ride in a Cart--In a Gambling Saloon--Condition of
Convicts--Unjustly Condemned--Need of Reform 212

CHAPTER XIII.

WORK IN FT. MADISON, IOWA, AND SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO.

My First Effort for Service in a Prison--Kindness of Officers
and Men--Letters from Officials--Work in Santa Fe, N. Mex.--
Three Christian Men Pardoned--A Forty Years' Sentence--Kind
Words from Governor and Superintendent 241

CHAPTER XIV.

GONE HOME FROM THE SCAFFOLD.

Special Mission to Doomed Men--Indifferent but Finally
Converted--Letters--Mother's Prayers--Claimed to Be Innocent--
Hardened in Crime--Ten Men under Death Sentence--Conversion
of a Jewish Boy--Mysteriously Guided--In Long Expectation--
Sentence Commuted--A Man Deceived--Interceded for a Boy--Went to
the Scaffold Singing--A Prominent Official--Recent Cases 254

CHAPTER XV.

WORK IN CHURCHES AND MISSIONS.

Provided with Food in Answer to Prayer--A Great Revival--A
Man Saved from Suicide--Letters from Pastors and Others--Church
of the Redeemer in Baltimore--Successful Meetings--Young
Man Called to the Ministry--A Colored Woman Saved and
Preaching-- Incidents--Saved by a Hymn 294

CHAPTER XVI.

PREACHING THE GOSPEL ON RAILWAY TRAINS.

Accidental Death of My Nephew--My First Trip by Rail--Experience
of a Railroad Man--Transportation--A Kind Conductor--Interesting
Services--Train Saved from Wreck--A Train in Danger--Impressed
to Leave the Train--Helped to Care for a Wounded
Man--Conductor's "God Bless You"--A Woman's Faith Encouraged--
Riding in a Parlor Car--Favor to the Railroad Company 313

CHAPTER XVII.

STREET AND OPEN AIR.

Poem--Permits to Hold Street Meetings--From a Missionary--My
First Street Meeting--A Wonderful Conversion--Became a
Preacher--The Blind Encouraged--Forbidden to Preach on the
Street--Thought They Saw a Ghost--Hurt by a Saloonkeeper--Warned
to Leave the City--In Jail 328

RESCUE WORK.

"A Mother's Plea" (poem)--A Plea for our Sisters--Drunken
Women and Men--Assaulted in a Dive--Attempts Suicide--A Girl
Saved--A Girl Rejected at a Rescue Home--Neglected by the
Churches--Visits to Hospitals--Kind Tributes--The Prodigal
Daughter (poem) 349

CHAPTER XIX.

WORK IN CANADA AND MEXICO.

Street Meetings in Hamilton--In London, Ontario--A Girl
Rescued--In Kingston--Stoned in Quebec--Victory in Toronto--
In Victoria, B. C.--Work in Mexico--A Bull Fight--Wept with
Condemned Men--Attacked by a Fierce Dog--Ministered to a
Sufferer 365

CHAPTER XX.

ACROSS THE SEA.

On the Ocean--In a Foreign Land--Preaching in Glasgow--My
Life in Danger--A Song Stops a Row--Arrested for Singing--
Tumult in a Dive--Mob of Drunken Women--Letter from
America--In Paisley--Return to America--Second Visit to
Europe--Experiences in London--Safe Return to America--
Letter from Scotland 372

CHAPTER XXI.

TRAVEL AND TOIL.

Two Nights' Service--One Weeks' Work--A Profitable Trip--Six
Weeks' Service--Recent Work--Another Trip 395

CHAPTER XXII.

LETTERS FROM PRISONERS. 431

CHAPTER XXIII.

KIND WORDS FROM FRIENDS.

From H. L. Hastings--Mrs. H. L. Hastings--E. E. Byrum,
Author and Editor--Mother of a Prisoner--Prisoner's
Daughter--An Editor--Ex-Prisoner--Miscellaneous 477

CHAPTER XXIV.

SKETCHES FROM PRESS REPORTS. 491

CHAPTER XXV.

FURNISHED UNTO EVERY GOOD WORK.

"Who Will Man the Life Boat?" (poem)--Adaptation Needed--The
Masses Not Reached--My Boy in India--Preaching the Gospel
in the Pesthouse--How the Lord Provides--Miscellaneous
Incidents 530

CHAPTER XXVI.

SELECTIONS FROM MY SCRAPBOOK.

Author of Flower Mission Day--Flower Day at the Prison--Lines
by a Prisoner--Take This Message to My Mother--Not Lonely
Now--Jesus Is Looking On--How God Calls Missionaries Out of
Prison Cells--Outside the Prison Walls--If We Knew--Little
Graves--The Mother's Warning--Harry's Remorse--
Twenty-Thirty-Four--His Mother's Song--Perfect Peace--Sweet
Revenge--No Telephone in Heaven--A True Hero--Perfect Through
Faith--The Kid--Charged with Murder--Mother's Face--Only
Sixteen--The Dress Question 547

SONGS.

1. "Life's Railway to Heaven."
2. "Meet Me There."
3. "God Bless My Boy."
4. "The Great Judgment Morning."
5. "My Name in Mother's Prayer."
6. "Over There."
7. "This Way."
8. "She's More to Be Pitied."
9. "Some Mother's Child."
10. "Tell My Dear Old Mother."
11. "When the Death-bell Shall Toll."
12. "The End of the Way."