an efficient lady superintendent placed in charge. The results reached,
even at this short period, have been encouraging in the highest degree,
and emphasize the wisdom of the arrangements, which are largely due to
the persistent efforts of women in philanthropic circles. We quote from
report of “Standing Committee on Reformatories,” of which Josephine Shaw
Lowell is a member: “To any who have visited even once one of the county
jails in this State, and know the condition of young women in them, kept
in idleness, in the midst of degraded companions, under the charge of
male keepers, frequently not out of sound, sometimes not out of sight of
the male prisoners, nothing can be more affecting than to see the young
women in the House of Refuge, neatly dressed, always occupied, and
constantly under the care of refined and conscientious women.”
WOMEN ON STATE BOARDS.
In New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Wisconsin there are women
on the State Board of Charities.[201] In Pennsylvania, the board
appoints women visitors to public institutions, and in Rhode Island the
Governor appoints a board of women visitors to all institutions caring
for women and girls. Massachusetts stands alone in the honor of having
women on “Boards of Commissioners of Prisons.” This was inaugurated in
1880, and their gracious womanly influence is felt in all the
institutions of the State.
In some other States women are coming to be recognized factors in these
lines of work, and are cordially invited to fill places of trust. The
_Journal of Prison Discipline and Philanthropy_, published by the
Pennsylvania Prison Association, in its issue of 1886 says: “This
society has profited largely by the recent admission of competent women
into the acting committee. Their suggestions have proved of marked
advantage, and with the time, intelligence, and high moral force they
have given to the work, both in and out of the prison, there has been a
gain which promises incalculable good.”
DEPARTMENT OF PRISON, JAIL, AND POLICE WORK OF THE NATIONAL WOMAN’S
CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION.
This department is in the eleventh year of organized work, which, under
the same Superintendent, Mrs. S. H. Barney, of Providence, has steadily
increased until now her parish is the entire country. The plan of
national, State, and local superintendents insures system and
supervision all along the lines, and brings out annually the general
summary of work attempted and work accomplished.
In the spirit of the department’s motto, “_Not willing that any should
perish_,” the investigations have extended to State prisons,
penitentiaries, convict camps, city prisons and jails, houses of
correction or refuge, police stations and lock-ups, and reformatories
for adults and juveniles.
In many of these places were found a brutality and neglect of the common
decencies of life which were disgraceful beyond description. Criminals
of all grades herded together irrespective of age, sex, or degrees in
vice. Youths of both sexes confined with those hardened in crime, while
awaiting trial, became schooled in vice. Thousands, who for some first
and trivial offense were lodged in the calaboose or the county jail,
exposed to the contaminating influences of indiscriminate companionship,
became hardened, and lost all self-respect as they yielded, day by day,
to this mind-poisoning, moral miasma.
The first visits of the women to many of these places, where they went
unheralded, were unwelcome, and they were sometimes repulsed by
officials with, “We don’t ’low any women round here; leastwise, only
them that’s sentenced.” Entrance at last secured, it would have been a
picture worthy of some master hand when these women stepped, pale-faced
but brave-hearted, into those miserable, crowded corridors. The lewd and
profane conversation was hushed, but it could _be felt_, as plainly as
could be seen the vilest of obscene prints and the most dangerous kinds
of literature.
Nothing was more disheartening than the condition of _women_ in these
places. Having become criminals, they were generally deemed hopeless,
and, on being released, it was expected they would drift back again
after a longer or shorter period.
The _call_ to the work gained emphasis as it was realized how little
this age of boasted civilization and philanthropy had done for
unfortunate and degraded women. Arrested by men, given into the hands of
men to be searched and cared for, tried by men, sentenced by men, and
committed to our various institutions for months and even years, where
only men officials had access to them, and where, in sickness or direst
need, no womanly help or visitation was expected or allowed.
In one of the New York cities, in a jail, eleven women were found to be
in the care of men, and the keys of “the women’s quarters” in the hands
of one of the _male convicts_. The women, with the intent of being ready
for their release, which was near, had removed most of their clothing
“for the wash,” and were in a semi-nude condition.
A visitor to a county jail in Pennsylvania, writes: “The scene that met
our gaze when we entered the jail was indescribable. The
prisoners—twenty-six men and two women—were allowed to associate in the
open space between the vestibule and the cells. In appearance, they
might have been a gang of bandits in a cave. The men were in groups,
playing cards on low boxes on the floor. The jail was deficient in
ventilation, also in light and cleanliness.”
In a New England jail two boys were found under fourteen years of age.
The months which would elapse before their trial would be ample time to
complete their crime education under the tutelage thus provided for
them. Similar sights may be seen in many of the prisons and jails of our
land, proving conclusively the need of womanly forethought in these
matters, which from a merely economical standpoint need prompt
attention. The better care of our juvenile offenders cannot be deferred
without irreparable loss, for in a few years we shall have missed our
chance to save them, so they will then be found in the ranks of
confirmed criminals. Perhaps no work of the department will prove more
fruitful in results than the effort to secure _Matrons for the Police
Stations_. The movement began in 1877 and has been adopted in one or
more cities in twenty States, while in Massachusetts, New York, and
Pennsylvania all cities over a given number of inhabitants are required
by law to provide matrons to care for arrested women. We quote from an
article furnished the _International Review_ in 1888 by the present
writer:
POLICE MATRONS.
Shall we have police matrons? seems no longer an open question. With the
reform inaugurated in twenty cities, and under advisement in as many
more, the _idea_ may be said to be established. How wide is to be the
influence of such an officer, and how effective her work, depend upon
the place and the woman. “The place” should be central, with requisite
accommodations for the comfort and convenience of the matron, in order
that she may economize her time and strength. Official recognition of
her work and its importance, with ready co-operation in various ways,
will necessarily have much to do with its success; and these have
sometimes been won under very trying circumstances. Other points, more
or less essential, will occur to those interested, for every conceivable
objection and obstacle will be presented, emphasized, and duly magnified
while the effort is being made to secure a place.
That secured, then comes the question, “Where is the woman to fill it?”
There will be applicants enough, and for them “friends at court” to push
their claims, but “the right woman” will have to be sought; and it is
better to wait for her, than to inaugurate the movement under too great
disadvantages. A middle-aged woman, scrupulously clean in person and
dress, with a face to commend her and manner to compel respect; quiet,
calm, observant, with faith in God, and hope for humanity; a woman
fertile in resources, patient and sympathetic. She could hardly be all
this without possessing a generous endowment of “good common sense,” and
she cannot possibly do the work required unless that is sanctified. It
will be seen at once that “the place” is indeed, in a very real sense,
“missionary ground,” and that “the woman” must necessarily have these
qualifications and spirit in order to fill it and meet the demands of
the time. Competent and conscientious, the influence of such a woman, in
such a position, can hardly be overestimated. Her duties, serious and
responsible, but legitimate to the office, will naturally develop as she
is given opportunity to work out the problem, “What can be done for
women in police stations?” under methods demanded by Christian
civilization.
Of course, she will be “on call,” and every woman brought to the station
will be committed at once into her care, and every duty connected with
search, locking-up, and necessary attendance, will be performed by her.
The cells for women (entirely separate from the men) will be in her
charge, and she will be accountable for them and their occupants. Just
what she will need to do in every case, no one could possibly outline.
Said the chief of police in ——: “I wish you to state definitely all the
duties of a police woman.” For answer, I said: “Will you first describe
to me the duties of a policeman?” “Impossible,” was the reply; “he must
be ready for everything.” Just so, within the limitations of her office,
must the matron be ready for everything.
Women brought to stations are not all drunk, or even bad. Girls or women
suddenly set adrift; one who has lost her train and is penniless; or who
finds herself deserted; or who, by reason of sudden illness, fainting,
or temporary aberration, cannot give her name and residence; the
partially insane; attempted suicides; persons arrested on suspicion (and
frequently found innocent); young girls taken up for disorderly conduct
or because found in questionable company,—all these are liable to be
brought to the station-house, a place which officials represent as
“wholly unfit for a decent woman.” These arrested women are often
irresponsible for the time being, careless of their person, and
regardless of the commonest laws of decency. Their clothing is often
disarranged and unfastened, and they are liable to be in a condition
totally unfit for appearance in court. The matron should be provided
with such articles as womanly thought will suggest, and she should
accompany her charge to the court room and remain by her until release
or sentence removes her from her care. Among these will be found some
for whom the matron may intercede, and who, upon her representation, may
be taken to some “home,” and life for them thus receive an upward lift,
instead of the almost fatal plunge downward of the police court. There
will be children of varying ages, from the babe born in the
station-house to the poor child in short dresses, the victim of home
neglect or of some one’s vile lust; and drunken women with infants in
their arms, who need some woman to rescue them, for the time being, from
their own unmotherly grasp, and to prevent them from nursing the
alcoholized milk which would be offered them. Night will sometimes be
made hideous by women raving with drunken delirium, or maddened by the
fiery draught to foulest deeds of rage and shame; but “the right woman”
will not fail in such emergencies or be dismayed by such depths of
degradation, but rather see in it the _why of her calling_. Any one of
the classes named will be better off for the matron’s presence, and the
worst will be found more amenable to her touch and voice than to the
average policeman, be he ever so well disposed. How far police duty and
supervision may be combined with the missionary work needed, both in the
station and in following up special cases, will depend, of course,
largely upon the locality, the number of arrests, and the general
demands of the service.
Whatever else may seem uncertain at the beginning of the work, there is
one thing sure—“the right woman” will find her time occupied, and
exercise for all her tact, patience, and consecration; and any one who
takes the position merely for the salary or from sentimental notions,
will pretty surely resign at the end of the first quarter, or those
interested in the success of the movement will seek for some one else to
fill the place. Difficult as it may seem to secure one who combines
these qualifications, yet it will doubtless prove, as in many another
important position where much is demanded, that the best available
person is selected who, under the emergency, develops unexpected
fitness, and who in time comes to compel approval and indorsement even
from those who hesitated in committing to her this trust.
In every city where the appointment of a police matron is secured, there
should be a committee from the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, upon
whom the matron can rely for such help as she will assuredly need, and
an “Open Door” or “Temporary Refuge” will prove an absolute necessity if
much rescue work, which was the primary thought in the reform, is to be
undertaken.
In time, there will be womanly supervision in the transportation of
women to the various institutions to which they are consigned; and the
police matron will hasten the day, by her womanly forethought, for the
women passing from her care, besides strengthening her influence over
them. Indeed, _the presence_ of the police matron will often prevent
carelessness on many points, and deliberate wrong in others. Ten years
ago the movement was sneered at; ten years hence no city will be without
one or more such officers.
All along the lines of the National Department advanced plans are yearly
sent forth, and every State and Territory made some attempt to carry
them out. During the last year hundreds of services have been held in
hitherto neglected places. These were of a varied nature, preaching,
prayer and conference meetings, Bible classes, Sunday schools, literary
and musical entertainments; in some of which young people and children
assisted. Said the keeper of one of the most desolate places: “It’s
funny to see how the men try to clean up for the women’s meetings.”
One of the convicts told an officer, “I can stand the chaplains
preaching, but those women, with their tearful pleading, break me all
up; home and mother seem realities again.”
The Prison Flower Mission, cared for and directed by Jennie Carsuday,
from her sick room in Louisville, Ky., has proved a blessed ministry to
hundreds, and an opening wedge for the gospel message of hope and help.
Great numbers of bibles, testaments, helps for Bible study, prayer,
hymn, school, and library books have been supplied, and millions of
pages of gospel and temperance leaflets and papers distributed, thus
displacing dime novels and cards. Book-cases, wall-rolls, illuminated
mottoes, and pledge cards have been furnished, with Christmas boxes and
Easter offerings by the thousands. Organs have been given, and others
loaned for chapel services.
Petitions for needed reforms have been widely circulated, co-operation
with other organizations gladly given, and scores of articles furnished
the press, all of which have helped to arouse to action those not
identified with the W. C. T. Union, and who perhaps had larger influence
in certain directions.
Letter writing, to and for the inmates, has proved helpful. Visiting the
friends of prisoners, giving sympathy, advice, and aid, have proved a
practical illustration of the words, “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and
_so_ fulfill the law of Christ.”
Several States have inaugurated the “Prison Gate Mission,” which is an
important branch, and aims to have its missionaries meet the prisoners
on their release, with _help_ and _hope_, in the most practical ways.
“Temporary Homes” and “Open-Doors” are offering shelter and work, and
thousands of lives redeemed attest the genuineness of these varied
efforts put forth in quietness but with great faith.
Many of the State superintendents of this department have given years of
untiring labor, often furnishing their own supplies at great personal
sacrifice. Brave, true-hearted, and practical, they have disarmed
criticism, walked unharmed in dangerous places; never dropping into
sentiment or refusing attention to established rules, they have won
recognition from all right-minded officials and citizens.
PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE.
Thus, glancing backward, and passing in hasty review what has been
attempted and accomplished since 1830, we catch a glimpse of what is now
waiting to be done, and the call is so imperative, that we must express
our thanksgiving for the past by bringing all the force of combined
action to bear upon needed reforms in the present. We believe that woman
has special endowments for these lines of work, and that her absence
from them has been a source of weakness and failure.
We must familiarize ourselves with the questions of penology, the
relation of the State to its vicious and dependent classes; contract
labor and the lessee system with their attendant evils; congregate and
separate imprisonment; prison discipline, with reformatory measures and
institutions.
We should demand the absolute separation of the sexes, and juvenile from
older offenders; also _matrons_ to care for women arrested or committed.
Visit unannounced police stations and courts, with county jails, where
women are under care of men, or “left to themselves,” and compare their
looks and manners with those in similar places where the right kind of
matron bears sway with a firm hand and dignified presence. Women should
be associated with men as prison inspectors, and women physicians on
boards to care for women and children. Greater efforts should be put
forth in the lines of _reclamation_, opening the way to a return to
honesty and self-support; but double diligence should be given to
_removing the varied causes_ of _crime_, thus proving ourselves wise
citizens in the truest sense of the word.
XV.
CARE OF THE INDIAN.
BY
AMELIA STONE QUINTON.
The work of women for the Indians within our national limits has been
important and of many kinds. It would require much more than the space
of a single volume at all fitly to describe the labor, self-sacrifice,
and heroism of women in connection with the various missionary
organizations in behalf of the red man. Some of the stories of such work
read like heroic romance, are worthy to be recorded in an epic, and glow
with delineations that reveal exalted unselfishness,[202] divine
self-devotement, and sometimes a success that seems a fitting crown for
such labor, albeit the crown, as so often to high souls in any vocation,
comes after the martyrdom.[203] In the East, in the Southwest, and in
the Northwest thrilling annals might be gathered from two centuries,
oftenest of those unknown to fame and without even public recognition,
who have laid down life in work for the Christianization of Indians, and
of some women who as overworked secretaries or other officials have no
less laid down life in labor to sustain such missionaries. But this is a
realm for the biographer and for the historian of Christian missions,
and must not be entered upon or even gleaned from in a sketch so limited
as the present one must be.
In the educational work of various types done for the native Indians,
noble women have been engaged, and this is notably true of the Hampton,
Virginia, and Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Indian schools, where gifted women
of high culture have devoted some of their best years to the elevation
of the red race. It would seem invidious to name a few where many have
wrought so well, and this department of labor, like that of missionary
effort, should be chronicled elsewhere.
A few women have made philological, ethnographic, and archæological
studies among North American Indians and have added the results to the
aggregate of scientific knowledge, doing also more or less to preserve
Indian records and material objects of value connected therewith, thus
increasing the sum of human interest in the red man, and, by the same,
his self-respect and therefore his elevation and progress. But the
request for this paper was for one regarding the late and general
philanthropic work of women in behalf of Indians rather than for one
giving the data referred to above, and which are less familiar to the
writer.