CONTENTS OF THIS VOLUME This is a short guide only to the principal contents of this volume. It is not possible to Miscellaneous: The King of the Cucumbers A Railway Train Built up from Squares 1344 1345 1348 1505 1506 1507 .. 1510 1607 1720 1722 1723 1724 1813 1824 1921 1923 How to Do Long Division 1807 More About Long Division 1934 Music: The Beautiful Land of Sound 1928 1405 The "Sleepy Arm " Game of the Fairies 1501 COLOURED PLATES The Resting Game of the Fairies 1712 The Wonderful Colours of Birds 1741 1744 1857 1858 Picture Stories 1408, 1504, 1624, 1715, 1812, For full list of special plates and pages in colour see index Elizabeth Fry visiting the prisoners in Newgate Prison THE GENTLE LIFE OF ELIZABETH FRY PERHAPS And How She Reformed the Prisons DERHAPS you have never visited a prison. It is strange CONTINUED FROM 1200 to hear the great gate close behind you, and to find yourself standing inside of the high spiked walls which prevent criminals from making their escape into liberty. If you have known this experience, you will understand how pitiful are those words in the Church Litany: "That it may please Thee to have pity upon all prisoners and captives." It is terrible to be a prisoner. But it was worse, infinitely worse, to be a prisoner a hundred years ago; and for poor women it was so horrible that no language can describe their sufferings. Women, innocent or guilty, those who had been tried by the judge, and those who still were awaiting their trial, women of education and gentleness, and women so low that they were lower than animalsall were thrown together into one prison, among desperate and evil men. And all this was changed by one noble-hearted woman. In those days there lived a Quaker lady named Elizabeth Fry, who was deeply religious, and lived her religion by trying to help others. She believed that bad people would become good if they were helped. She herself had once been vain and fond of frivolity. She had known the difficulty of becoming serious and good. When some one asked her about the crime of a certain prisoner, Mrs. Fry would answer, "I never ask the crimes, for we have all come short." It was not of the crimes she thought, but of the soul; she looked into the eyes of prisoners, not into their records. This noble lady had heard about the prisoners in Newgate, and asked permission to visit them. The first time she went among them the turnkey accompanied her; the second time she went alone. The governor told her of the danger, and advised her to leave her watch behind, saying that he himself would not dare to go alone into that seething yard of crime and sin. But Elizabeth Fry went alone, and she won the hearts of the women prisoners by sheer kindness and sympathy. For the first time they looked into the eyes of a good person, who believed that they could be good. That helped them. She set herself to start a school among these terrible prisoners. The officials scoffed at the idea, and told her it would be a failure. The school became a great success. Then she set her heart upon giving the prisoners interesting employment. Again, the officials said the idea was impossible. But the industry also became a great |