A pleasant-faced little woman was talking to many persons in a great
hall. She wore a dark dress. On the front of it were three white stars
joined by slender chains. In the center of each one was a blue letter.
The first letter was V, the second was P, and the third was L. Their
meaning is Volunteer Prison League.
The little woman was Maude Ballington Booth, and she was explaining
the work of this league, for she founded it. She said that she had
come from England to the United States many years ago. Upon reaching
here one of the first places she visited was a great prison in
California. There she saw so much sadness and misery that she could
not rest until she did something to help the men and women who were
shut behind iron bars.
She began her work by holding a meeting in Sing Sing Prison on the
Hudson River in the State of New York. She told the men that she was
their friend and believed in them. She declared that there was no one
so cast down or disgraced that he could not rise and make something of
himself, if he would only try. Many of the men who heard Mrs. Booth
that day had no families and had even lost trace of all their
relatives. She said they could write her letters and she would answer.
They had never before had any one treat them so kindly, and so letters
by the hundred reached Mrs. Booth. One young man scarcely more than a
boy, wrote her thanking her for the kind letter she had sent him. He
called her "Little Mother." Soon this title became known, and all up
and down the prisons of the United States men came to talk of the
Little Mother and look for her coming; for her first work in Sing Sing
Prison was so successful that she went from state to state organizing
Volunteer Prison Leagues.
[Illustration: MAUDE BALLINGTON BOOTH
Founder of the Volunteer Prison League]
It is not always easy to do right even when one is well, happy, and in
his own home. Think, then, how hard a task the men in prison found it
when they became members of the new league! The day a man joined, he
had given to him a white button with a blue star and in the middle of
the star was "Look Up and Hope." He promised to do five things: