imperfect record, — will show the temper in which she spoke: —
‘I have passed other Christmas days happily, but,
never felt as now, how fitting it is that this festival
should come among the snows and chills of winter;
for, to many of you, I trust, it is the birth-day of a
higher life, when the sun of good-will is beginning to
return, and the evergreen of hope gives promise of the
eternal year. * * *
‘Some months ago, we were told of the riot, the license, and defying spirit which made this place so wretched, and the conduct of some now here was such that the world said: — “Women once lost are far worse than abandoned men, and cannot be restored.” But, no! It is not so! I know my sex better. It is because women have so much feeling, and such a rooted respect for purity, that they seem so shameless and insolent, when they feel that they have erred and that others think ill of them. They know that even the worst of men would like to see women pure as angels, and when they meet man’s look of scorn, the desperate passion that rises is a perverted pride, which might have been their guardian angel. Might have been! Rather let me say, which may be; for the great improvement so rapidly wrought here gives us all warm hopes. * * *
‘Be not in haste to leave these walls. Yesterday, one of you, who was praised, replied, that “if she did well she hoped that efforts would be made to have her pardoned.” I can feel the monotony and dreariness of your confinement, but I entreat you to believe that for many of you it would be the greatest misfortune to
