THE EARNEST PHILANTHROPIST. "You seem unhappy," said Mrs. Fry, "you are in want of clothes. Would you be pleased if some one were to come and relieve your misery?" " Cer- tainly, but nobody cares for us, and where can we expect to find a friend ?" was their reply. "I am come with a wish to serve you," she continued, " and I think if you second my endeavours, I may be of use to you." When she was about to depart, the women crowded round her. "You will never, never come again ! " they cried, weeping. "I will come again," said Mrs. Fry. On her next visit, the condition of the neglected children, pining for food, air, and exercise, attracted her attention. She appealed to the mothers, and asked them to join in a plan for establishing a school. The right chord was touched; the women acceded with tears of joy to the proposition, and an unoccupied cell was granted for the scholars. The prisoners elected a schoolmistress from among them- selves ; and, with the aid of a committee of ladies, who gave a day alternately to the apparently hopeless task of instruction, the scheme was fairly set afloat. Many women asked to be admitted, but were refused for want of room. The scene on one of the early visits is thus de- scribed by Mary Saunderson, a friend of Mrs. Fry, whom she accompanied : -" The railing was crowded with half-naked women, struggling together for the front situations, with the most boisterous violence. I 17
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=