Prisons and Prayer; Or, a Labor of Love. Elizabeth Ryder Wheaton
sympathetic heart. I have often thought of and prayed for you. I still feel that God will open the way for me to re-enter the prison work. I am trusting Him. He is my all and in all.
I hear occasionally from the boys at Fort Madison. God has used you marvelously. May you be spared long to tell to those around what a dear Saviour you have found.
Your son in the gospel,
C. S. Laslett,
Former Chaplain Fort Madison, Iowa.
Eph. 3:18–21.
Anamosa Penitentiary.
Anamosa, Iowa, Oct. 5, 1899.
Dear Mother Wheaton:
At last we have your handkerchiefs finished, and can send to you. The girls did not get those tiny slippers finished in time to have them at the turnkey's office the evening before you went away, so will enclose them now. They are very small, but we know you will appreciate the motive rather than the result.
They are all doing nicely and I feel quite encouraged with the present outlook.
I trust that you are better and that your general health may remain good for years of usefulness yet in life.
With best wishes from myself and my father, the Deputy Warden,
I am sincerely yours,
Mrs. Angie M. Waterman, Matron.
Kansas State Penitentiary.
Lansing, Kan., Oct. 5, 1899.
Dear Mother Wheaton:
Your card of yesterday reached me today, but too late to attend your service at the Home, which I would have been pleased to do. Accompanied by our daughter we went to Kansas City, Mo., Monday evening for a short visit and returned home yesterday noon. I examined eight new prisoners just before starting and upon my return found sixteen more. Then two more today. Twenty-six in all this week! So I have been very busy.
Your handkerchief was found in Chapel and my sexton and night watch want you to know that you have found "two honest boys in the pen." I send it enclosed.
Are you going to remain here over another Sunday, and if so, will you be out again or do you go to the Military Prison?
The little book to Baby Esther, the poem and a tract, came this evening, for which please accept grateful thanks. May the blessed Lord greatly bless you in your noble work. May He comfort, strengthen and keep you.
Sincerely yours in Jesus,
R. A. Hoffman, Chaplain.
Iowa Soldiers' Home.
Marshalltown, Iowa, July 18, 1901.
Mrs. Elizabeth R. Wheaton.
Dear Sister. Your card came, after a little delay, duly to hand.
We regret very much your being sick and especially with that dreaded disease, the smallpox. There has not been a case of it at the Home and not any in town that I know of.
Our family is well. Matters at the Home in usual shape. Thirty-four of the boys have died since January 1, and so we are being mustered out, because of service no longer needed. It will be a wonderful relief to us all to be invited to that "house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."
Your visit here was well received, much enjoyed and very profitable. Your coming again will be hailed with delight.
Very truly, your brother,
Jesse Cole, Chaplain.
Michigan State Prison.
Jackson, Mich., Sept. 9, 1903.
Dear Mother Wheaton:
The work still progresses nicely. Many of the men speak in the highest terms of the services you held here and wish to hear you again and those who pray often remember you in their prayers.
We are very thankful to you for your interest in the inmates of Jackson Prison. God bless you in your mission of love. We send the sincere wish and offer the earnest prayer that God may make your book a strong influence in the upbuilding of Christian life and character.
Sincerely,
Frank McAlpine, Chaplain.
Rusk, Tex., April 7, 1904.
Mrs. E. R. Wheaton.
Dear Sister: Your kind postal was read to "The Boys" last Sunday and I was requested to answer it. They enjoyed your words of love and sympathy very much. The "old timers" remember you well, and the new men know you through the old ones.
John B. Reagan is Assistant Superintendent, J. H. Meeks, Warden or, as he is called here, Underkeeper; J. H. Walker, Assistant Financial Agent, and I am Chaplain.
We would like so much for you to visit us. If you make arrangements to come let me know and I will meet you at the depot.
Yours in the work,
J. L. Dawson.
Accompanying the following tribute from Bro. Munro, chaplain of the Mission to the "Tombs" Prison in New York City, we give cuts of the old "Tombs" where I have held services a number of times, and of the "New Tombs" which has not been occupied a great while. Also a short extract taken from the annual report of the chaplain.
Gospel Mission to the Tombs.
Rev. J. J. Munro, Chaplain.
New York City, June 24, 1904.
Dear Sister Wheaton,
Prison Evangelist,
Chicago, Ill.
I am glad to hear that you are writing a book on prison labors. You certainly have had much experience in that line. I trust your book will have a wide circulation in which the marvels of God's free grace to men and women behind the bars will be fully seen.
I take much pleasure in commending your prison labors for the Master. For when you came to the Tombs it gave me great joy to hear you speak to the prisoners. And your earnest words for lost souls will not be soon forgotten. Success to you and may God's richest blessing be with you.
In the Master's name,
John J. Munro.
EXTRACT.
"Crime among boys and young men has increased greatly during the last few years. I cannot account for this except on the ground of a noticeable increase in the social high pressure.
"The temptations today are greater than ever and swamp the young men by the hundreds before they reach their majority. I meet these boys in prison—white and colored—and talk to them. I find out their needs and try to help them.
"Nowhere in the wide world can the power of sin be more clearly seen than in the Tombs Prison. It is a wreckage pool where hulks and derelicts that have been abandoned in the ocean of life come to a standstill. What an army of fallen humanity! They can go no further. When they realize their condition they weep, groan and bitterly lament over their misspent lives. Can these men be transformed by the power of the Gospel? These moral and physical wrecks, with bleared eyes, sunken and emaciated cheeks and many other marks of sin. What a besotted multitude! Yet the Gospel of Jesus can reach them. 'He can save to the uttermost all that come unto God through Him.'"
Nebraska State Penitentiary.
AD Beemer, Warden.
Lancaster, Neb., May 22, 1905.
To Whom It May Concern:
I have