Page:Famous Living Americans, with Portraits.djvu/68



HE great prison chapel at Sing Sing was packed to the doors. Even in the aisles and windows gray garbed men crowded, eager and expectant. The low hum of whispered conversation held a suggestion of suppressed excitement. Suddenly a small door at the rear of the chapel opened and all attention was riveted as a little woman, dressed in a simple gray gown, stepped onto the rostrum. Her coming was the signal for a burst of applause which, in the genuineness of its welcome, told eloquently the place which the "Little Mother" holds in the hearts of those who live in the shadow of the prison bars.

As she stood before the cheering audience, her face alight with the joy of her mission, there could be no doubting the unchanging faith which she holds in this work of bringing a new realization of hope to so many tens of thousands of the imprisoned, for Maud Ballington Booth has not only been the bearer of good tidings within the walls, she has also carried to the outside world the story of the redeemability of the prisoner and shown that all men and women have a responsibility with regard to this phase of our social problem.

It is no sentimental or impractical religion that this little woman preaches to the thousands to whom she ministers; nor does she present any tangle of unproven theories to the public. Her efforts are based upon the foundation of a faith in the redeemability of every man through the Divine Power, provided that he will at all times second that Power by a determination to do what is right.

From a study of her life of almost constant travel, with its round of great public and prison meetings, and detailed office activity, we turn to view those years when she was preparing for the undertaking of the mission which has proved her crowning joy. In those early days of her life, spent in a quiet corner of England, we find no suggestion of the