Page:The Feminist Movement - Snowden - 1912.djvu/114

 and submitted to the women for them to adopt or reject as they thought fit. The rules forbade swearing, drinking, lying, and abuse; but the women accepted them, and undertook to keep them and to see that they were kept. With the help of the authorities, who gave her permission to experiment, and of those good men and women who helped her in the work, Mrs Fry secured good clothing for the women, and appointed them to some useful work. An old disused laundry was granted to her for a workroom, and a matron was appointed to assist. For many weeks Mrs Fry and her devoted band of helpers almost lived in the prison, but the revolution they were the means of bringing about in the behaviour of those poor, unfortunate souls more than paid them for the temporary discomfort they endured. The women became quiet and orderly, decent and restrained to a degree that no man living had believed it possible for them to become. Triumphantly Mrs Fry pointed to the improvement a little easy employment had effected in the character of the women, and begged that this might be made a part of the ordinary prison scheme.

In time this was granted; as were other improvements which Mrs Fry suggested—more light, air, space, and privacy. Doubtless much remains to be done before this country equals the United States in its treatment of