Regulations Concerning Letters and Visits
The prisoners were also allowed to receive three photographs of near relatives and to keep them in their cells. Previously these had to be returned within twenty-four hours. Best of all, the intervals between letters and visits were reduced by a month. The number of letters permitted to be sent by a prisoner varies according to the stage she is in. In the fourth stage a letter is allowed every two months, and a “special letter” occasionally, if the prisoner’s conduct has been satisfactory.
The following is a copy of the prison regulations concerning communications between prisoners and their friends:
“The following regulations as to communications, by visit or letter, between prisoners and their friends, are notified for the information of their correspondents:
“The permission to write and receive letters is given to prisoners for the purpose of enabling them to keep up a connection with their respectable friends, and not that they may be kept informed of public events.
“All letters are read by the prison authorities. They must be legibly written, and not crossed. Any which are of an objectionable tendency, either to or from prisoners, or containing slang or improper expressions, will be suppressed.
“Prisoners are permitted to receive and to write a letter at intervals, which depends on the rules of the stage they attain by industry and good conduct; but matters of special importance to a prisoner may be communicated at any time by letter (prepaid) to the governor, who will inform the prisoner thereof, if expedient.
“In case of misconduct the privilege of receiving and writing a letter may be forfeited for a time.
“Money, books, postage-stamps, food, tobacco, clothes, etc., should not be sent to prisoners for their use in prison, as nothing is allowed to be received at the prison for that purpose.
“Persons attempting to clandestinely communicate with, or to introduce any article to or for prisoners, are liable to fine or imprisonment, and any prisoner concerned in such practises is liable to be severely punished.
“Prisoners’ friends are sometimes applied to by unauthorized persons to send money, etc., to them privately, under pretense that they can apply it for the benefit of the prisoners, and under such fraudulent pretense such persons endeavor to obtain money for themselves. Any letter containing such an application received by the friends of a prisoner should be at once forwarded by them to the governor.
“Prisoners are allowed to receive visits from their friends, according to rules, at intervals which depend on their stage.
“When visits are due to prisoners notification will be sent to the friends whom they desire to visit them.”
While in Woking Prison, under the privilege of these rules, I wrote the following letter to the late Miss Mary A. Dodge (“Gail Hamilton”)—she who was my most eloquent and steadfast champion in America:
P 29, June 24, 1892.
Dear Miss Dodge:
I feel that I owe you such a debt of gratitude for the truly noble, beautiful, and womanly manner in which you have used that glorious gift of God—your genius—in the cause of a helpless and sorely afflicted sister, whose claim to your compassion was but that of a common humanity and nationality, that I feel I must send you a few lines, if only to disabuse your mind of any lingering doubts of my gratitude that my silence may have caused to arise. My dear mother has, I believe, explained to you the almost insurmountable difficulty I find in writing to friends abroad, with only one letter every two months at my disposal, and which I do not feel justified in depriving her of. I can, therefore, only express through her from time to time my heartfelt thanks for all that has been and is still being done in my behalf. I utterly despair, however, of finding words that shall convey to you even the faintest idea of the fulness of a heart completely overwhelmed by the sympathy, kindness, and generosity of my friends. My feelings of love, however, and admiration for you and them is simply beyond all power of expression.
The world may and does bemoan the gradual extinction in this generation of those finer and nobler traits of character which our forefathers so beautifully exemplified; lays at the door of a higher civilization the terrible increase of selfishness, pride, and indifference to all the higher duties of Christianity. But, I ask, where can a grander exception be found to such apparent degeneration than that displayed by the conduct of those truly noble men and women, who, without a thought of self or of the trouble involved, have stood forth to plead the cause of their countrywoman? Could man do more than he is doing? Could woman do more for her nearest and dearest than the ladies of America are doing for me? No! a thousand times, no!
Some day, my health and purse permitting, I shall hope to tell them face to face, if mere words can tell, how greatly their faithful, unwearying efforts, their undaunted energy, their sympathy and kindness and generosity have helped me to rise above the depressing influences of the injustice I am suffering under, to endure patiently, to bear bravely the hardships of this life, and to feel through all that the hope and comfort afforded me by their help is but a beautiful example of the way in which God answers the prayers of his people.
I would now fain beg of you, dear friend, to express my deepest and most heartfelt gratitude to President Harrison, Mr. Blaine, and the other members of the Cabinet. Also to all the distinguished gentlemen who so generously attached their signatures to the splendid petition sent lately from Washington to the Hon. Henry Matthews, Secretary of State, London, and to assure them of my great appreciation of the honor and justice they have done me in thus espousing my cause. Oh, how wretchedly I have expressed what I really feel and would like to say! But you, too, have a woman’s heart, and you can therefore realize the feelings I find it so hard to express. It would be a still more hopeless task to try to tell you what I think of you—noblest and truest of women; that must wait until we meet. Until that glad day, believe me,
Yours gratefully and sincerely,
Florence E. Maybrick.
P.S. My next date for receiving letters is 19th July.
To Miss Dodge,
Washington, D. C., U. S. A.