The Nation Behind Prison Bars Part 18

"Several years ago there was a series of hotel robberies in New York that baffled the police. The thief always worked with keys, opening doors and then unlocking baggage left in rooms, and he always got away with the goods. At last one night the word came to headquarters that a man had been caught in one of the big hotels who was suspected of being the author of all the robberies. I was visiting Chief Devery at the time and he asked me to go with him to the West Thirtieth street station to look the man over.

"The man arrested was a well dressed, respectable looking little man, with a white beard--the last man who would be taken for a thief if seen in a hotel corridor. His face was vaguely familiar to me, but I had some difficulty in placing him. Finally it struck me. I had seen him nearly thirty years before on the occasion of a big prize fight in New Orleans, when he had been arrested for the same trick. It came over me like a flash and I told him I knew him.

"'What's the use of making trouble?' he asked. 'These fools don't know anything about me unless you put them wise.'

"I told Chief Devery what I remembered about the man, who protested violently that he had never been in New Orleans in his life. Then another thought struck me.

"'You've been in New Orleans more than once,' I said. 'The last time was about six months ago, when you got Denman Thompson's diamonds in the St.

Charles Hotel.' I remembered the report of that case, but it was a chance shot on my part, for no one had seen the thief. The old fellow denied this vigorously.

"He was wearing a new derby hat. I don't know what impulse prompted me, but I took the hat off his head and looked inside. It bore the mark of a New Orleans hatter.

"The Chief and I left the station and had just turned into Sixth avenue when I remembered the old fellow's name. We went back to the station house and I confronted him again. I told him his name. He denied that it was his.

"'What's the use of making trouble, Mr. Pinkerton?' he pleaded. His inadvertent use of my name, which had not been mentioned there, gave him away.

"'I don't know what kind of a case the police here have on you,' I told him, 'but we are retained by the Jewelers' Protective a.s.sociation, and if you get after any jewelry drummers I'll make it hot for you.' And as a precaution I got his photograph from the New York police. They didn't have much of a case on him and he got off.

"Not long after a jewelry drummer was robbed in a Chicago hotel of about three thousand dollars' worth of diamonds which he had carelessly left in his grip instead of putting them in the safe. The same day a friend of mine who was stopping in another hotel lost his new overcoat and told me about it. I thought of the old man in the first job, and found a chambermaid and bellboy who had seen him on the floor, but didn't connect him with the second because he had never stolen anything but very valuable articles, so far as I knew. My friend had to leave for New York that night, and some time in the evening I got a telegram from him which had been filed in Fort Wayne.

"'Positive man who got my coat is in same sleeper, ticketed to New York,' it read. I wired my friend at a point further along the line to get off at Pittsburg and hold a white handkerchief in his hand so he could be identified and be prepared to point out the thief. Then I got in touch with Pittsburg by wire, and sure enough back came a wire after a while to the effect that they had got the man, whom my friend identified, and found on him besides the overcoat about $3,000 worth of diamonds. I asked for a description and the one they wired fitted that of the man I had seen in New York. I referred Pittsburg to the man's photograph, which had been published that week in a police periodical, and they were sure they had the same man. And so it proved. He was brought back to Chicago and convicted of the jewelry theft. He served a short sentence, and when he got out he came to me.

"Mind you, this was an old man, who had been a thief all his life--I had known him as a thief more than thirty years before. It is criminals of that kind that are commonly regarded as the most difficult to reform, but even hardened and lifelong offenders like this man will go straight if they get the right kind of encouragement. I found this old man apparently anxious to be honest, but he had never had a chance after his first slip as a young man. I determined to do what I could for him and I got him a job in New York. He is more than seventy years old now, but he is still holding that job, and he hasn't made a false step since he got out of prison the last time.

"Do criminals ever reform? I think I have told you enough to prove that they do--and I could tell you of hundreds of other instances if you needed any further proof."

A LETTER FROM EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF THE "STAR OF HOPE" PAPER PUBLISHED IN SING SING PRISON.

Ossining, N. Y., April 9, 1906.

Dear Brother Herr:

Your book, "Light in Dark Places," received. I do so much appreciate your kindness in remembering poor me in durance. I not only voice the sentiments expressed in this precious book, but add thereto my message of Christ's power to cleanse the wicked one and bring back into G.o.d's path the weak and unfortunate. May G.o.d spare you and yours many years, and give you manifold blessings in your great work.

Sincerely yours, 54179, Editor in Chief.

"Lost and Is Found"

Noted Prison Worker issues an Interesting Book

(Louisville Herald)

An interesting booklet containing the sermon "Lost and Is Found," the newest publication of the Rev. George L. Herr, the noted prison evangelist whose home is in this city, has just been issued from the press. The sermon is one of the strongest yet issued by the Rev. Herr, and is written in the characteristic vein which marks all those issued by the prison worker.

Rev. Herr holds a unique position in the evangelistic field. He is considered the greatest evangelist among prisoners in the United States.

Scarcely a big prison in the country has not been visited by him in his work, and the number of men in stripes who have been reformed by the indefatigable prison worker reaches into thousands.

Some of the most notable redemptions of so-called "hardened criminals"

known to evangelistic work have been accomplished by the Rev. Herr. All of the booklets by him have been extensively read and quoted, and it is probable none will attract more interest than that which has just been issued by him.

Christmas at Frankfort Prison

The prisoners had what was unanimously voted the best Christmas dinner in many years. There were 1100 lbs. of turkey, cranberries, mashed potatoes, oranges, and bananas. There were about 75 fine cakes, 68 of which were sent from Lexington by Mrs. Frances H. Beauchamp, Pres. W. C.

T. U. The entire dinner was well cooked and heartily enjoyed by all.

At 11:30, Bro. Jos. Severance, Chaplain, Bro. Geo. L. Herr, of Louisville, Mrs. M. B. R. Day, of Frankfort, and Miss Nellie E.

Williams, Junior C. E. Superintendent, of Maysville, entered, and took seats on the stage; these are four of our truest and strongest friends and are most heartily welcomed.

Bro. Severance opened the services by reading the Christmas lesson, i.

e., the 2nd chapter of Matthew, which gives the most beautiful description of the birth of the lowly Jesus.

Bro. Herr then offered a fervent prayer.

Bro. Severance' remarks were few; he is still grieving over the loss of his two children, and simply said that this Christmas had lost all of its charms for him, for instead of feeling joyful, he felt sad all of to-day and yesterday, and that we understood why, for instead of four little girls, he had only two. He felt his inability to proceed further, and gave the meeting over into the hands of Bro. Herr to conduct as he saw fit, and catching an idea from the foregoing remarks, Bro. Herr referred to the fact that years ago, Christmas was very sad to him. That he was lying in a saloon in the city of Louisville without friends and without hope. Then in a jovial manner showed by comparison what a difference then and now.

He then said: "I am so glad that Jesus said: 'Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out; I am so glad that he is the same yesterday, to-day and forever. He said: 'Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. There is not a man behind prison bars that Jesus Christ cannot clean up and make him a man."

The audience sat up and took notice when he mentioned a man who had been a homeless wretch, and a degraded sinner, who had spent thirty-two years of his life behind prison bars, but had been converted in the Louisville jail and was now a man of G.o.d, the leader in a Rescue Mission in one of our largest cities, and had the financial support of eight of the wealthiest men in that city. He said that whenever a man goes blind, or deaf, or is afflicted in any other way, he is sent to a hospital for treatment, and that this prison is a sort of hospital, and that some of us are so blind that we cannot tell the difference between our own and other peoples' horses. This simile was put forth in such a humorous manner as to cause much laughter.

He then launched into an earnest exhortation to the men to do better. To quit their meanness, as Sam Jones said. "Cease from evil and learn to do well." That to quit one's evil ways was only half the duty, and that the remainder consisted in doing the right thing, and you may have this a.s.surance that the man who is serving the Lord will not get into trouble. "An idle mind is the devil's work-shop." In this connection he gave a very pretty ill.u.s.tration of how one's energies are used in either the right way or wrong way; that if you build a fire under a steam boiler, place the proper quant.i.ty of water in it, and then open the throttle and allow the steam to get into the engine, the entire machinery will perform a good work, but if you shut off the steam and tie down the safety valve, the steam is going to exert itself in a disastrous manner by an explosion, and the killing of several men.

"The wages of sin is death, and if you can only open your eyes and see that, you can also see that "The gift of G.o.d is eternal life." The only way under heaven by which a man can be saved, is to come over to the service of G.o.d and begin to do that which is right.

Now what is the purpose of Christmas day? The world has agreed that this is as near the birth of Christ as we can possibly figure it; it means that 1907 years ago Jesus was born into the world, and the star of Bethlehem came and stood over the place where the young child lay; the angels sang "Glory to G.o.d in the highest, and on earth, peace, good will towards men," and we celebrate the day in memory of that event.

What is the trouble to-day that causes all these penitentiaries over our land; why all these jails and the strong arm of the law? It is because men will not allow the gospel of Jesus Christ to reign in their hearts.

As long as the children of Israel served the Lord, they were happy and prosperous, but as soon as they turned to the flesh pots of Egypt, they began to despair and shame came upon them.

If you were asked what you would rather have above all things, you would say, Just a piece of paper with the great seal of the state impressed upon it, and the signature of the Governor attached. Why? Because prison life is a hard life and you are tired of it. If I were a prisoner, I would want to make my confinement as pleasant as possible and I would become converted immediately, for of all men on earth the man in prison should be the quickest to accept Jesus Christ. I would not want to be a prisoner all my physical life, and then a spiritual prisoner throughout eternity. Did it ever occur to you that h.e.l.l must be infinitely worse than it is pictured? We read of a place "Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." If this is a picture of h.e.l.l, then what must the reality be? There is a chance for every man to get out of this prison, but there will be no chance whatever to get out of h.e.l.l.

-------- The Spirit of the Lord G.o.d is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.--Isa. 61:1.

Oh, my friend, there is hope, Will you come this hour; For Jesus is yours With all His Power; Look upward, not back.

Or in, or around; But up to Christ, Where hope is found.