"The papers and tracts you have been kind enough to send me have
been given to prisoners, and they have been passed from hand to
hand until literally worn out. There are a great many very
intelligent men among the fifteen hundred and fifty convicts now in
our prison, and they (or many of them, at least) are very glad to
get such papers and tracts as you have sent me; and I am only too
glad to place such reading matter in their hands. You asked if old
'Registers' and 'Unities' would do any good. They would be
thankfully received by many of the unfortunate men, and would be
carefully read by them. Reading is one of the very few privileges
granted convicts.... I to-day received from Mrs. Thacher, of
Boston, a bill of lading for two barrels of papers and magazines
shipped for distribution among prisoners; also a kind and very
interesting letter from Mrs. Thacher,--for all of which I am
indebted to you. I am glad, indeed, Unitarian people understand
that convicts want and appreciate something more in reading matter
than chilling tracts. We are constantly receiving for distribution
the strongest kind of Orthodoxy, but the prisoners do not seem to
take kindly to it.... An old colored man, who was sent here eleven
years ago under life sentence, said to me yesterday, 'I tell yo',
sah, it seems mighty ha'd to sarve in hell all yo' life in dis
place, an' den have to take it for sartin' su'ah in de nex' worl'.'
He seemed to think that a sentence to the penitentiary was merely
carrying out a part of the divine plan; in other words, he was
foreordained to eternal suffering, and has got eleven years on his
way.... We found the books and papers to be all that could be
desired, and have taken great pleasure in distributing them....
Could you have heard the genuine thankfulness expressed by the
unfortunate prisoners as I passed along the galleries distributing
the reading matter, you surely would have felt amply repaid for
interesting yourself in them.... Many said, 'God bless the ladies
who thought of us!' with an earnestness and sincerity which
indicated clearly to me that they felt and appreciated the kindness
and the motives of the donors. My experience among convicts has
convinced me that kindness shown toward them is never wasted. There
are in this prison several noted criminals,--men who have the
reputation of being brutal desperadoes,--with whom I have
frequently talked, and have invariably found to be easily touched
by a kind word and act."
Last June Mr. Beach dropped dead in a Chicago depot while on his way
home. It seems proper to copy here portions of a letter written to his
family by the chaplain of the prison.