The Prison Chaplaincy, And Its Experiences

IN TWO PARTS.
CONCORD, N. H.: PUBLISHED BY D. L. GUERNSEY BOOKSELLER AND STATIONER. 1873.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, by D. L. GUERNSEY, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
MORNING STAR STEAM JOB PRINTING HOUSE,—DOVER, N. H.

1. Emotions at the idea of assuming the position, and object of these pages. The proposal of friends that I become chaplain of our State Prison at first struck me with much disfavor, from the idea that the position, instead of affording the encouragement and satisfaction attendant upon my former labors in schools and churches, must be up-hill work, and repulsive to the finer feelings of the heart. Still, having been no little accustomed to laying aside personal tastes and conveniences for the good of others, I yielded, and commenced the work on the first Sabbath in July, 1869.
The experience gained in this connection, with the hints and suggestions on collateral subjects, is set forth in the following pages, not for the purpose of personal notoriety, but for the sake of correcting important misconceptions by giving the true facts, and making a humble effort towards awaking in the public mind a deeper interest on a subject in which every citizen should feel a concern, and on which he should become duly informed, and thus be prepared to act intelligently. For this preparation he needs light, which light the real working of things, properly set forth, would surely give. Experience is ever regarded as the best school-master, the proper touchstone to all our theories.
Never was the community more widely and deeply stirred than now on the questions, What course will prove the most corrective of crime with the least public burden? What is the true method of managing penal institutions?
These are questions of no trifling moment, questions which bear largely on the public weal. From the days of Howard, the philanthropist, they have been rising in the public estimate, now to stand among the more prominent of the age.