"I assume at the start that every woman who obeys the moral law and earns an honest living is a benefit to the world; that, disregarding higher motives, to make of a discharged prisoner such an individual, rather than an outcast, a pauper, or a confirmed criminal, is, as a matter of business, profitable; that the average prisoner at the time of discharge, standing at a point where the downward path opens smooth and broad and the upward rugged and narrow, requires assistance — assistance of such a kind and given in such a manner as experience has shown that each particular case requires. This assistance the State has generously given to the cause of humanity, and for humanity's sake the Redeemer suffered.
"As to the desired end, there is, among civilized people in a Christian land, no chance for controversy: the only possible contention is, how that end may best be attained.
"There are women to whom imprisonment has meant something, who if they have sinned have also suffered, whose repentance is sincere, and who desire to live blamelessly in the future. Of this class I recall sixty-seven cases. This number may appear small, but the future of every one of these was in peril; and who shall place a value upon a human soul? It was the one lost sheep, and not the ninety and nine safely within the fold, for which the Shepherd concerned himself. I recall three instances of the power of divine love. One case was that of a girl who came to me a year ago, somewhat under the influence of liquor, and asked me to save her from her friends. I took her to a place of safety, where I could watch over her, and in due course of time sent her to a Christian home in Kansas, where she is making for herself a name above reproach.
"Another case was of a girl now being educated for a missionary. Still another started last week for the South, to become a teacher in a school for girls. These living testimonies and the thought of my Master's example give me courage to press on with renewed effort and watchfulness over these hopeful causes, to make for them a living reality of the words of the Master when he said, 'Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.'
"Do this, and to many a storm-beaten spirit the midnight darkness of despair will be illumined by the bright sunshine of hope fulfilled. Of one thousand five hundred and seven women who have been helped this year, eight hundred and ninety-three have been furnished employment, four hundred and twenty-six sent to home and friends, one hundred and two sent to hospitals, seven sent to insane asylums, fifty-eight have died, and twenty-one have been married."
Miss Russell is a Roman Catholic in her religious faith. She is a member of the Monday Evening Club of Boston. She is greatly interested in the Twentieth Century Club and in all well-advised efforts for the advancement of woman.
MARGARET J. MAGENNIS is one of the best known and most highly respected and beloved among the newspaper women in Boston. In her honor a room was dedicated by the Massachusetts Flower Mission of the W. C. T. U. at the New England Home for Deaf Mutes, Allston, on July 11 of the present year, 1904. This tribute is significant of one among the many worthy benevolent enterprises for which Mrs. Magennis has worked with pen and voice. Her literary aptitude was inherited, and she drifted into the work almost as her birthright. Her father was Archibald McMechan, of Norman and Scotch-Irish ancestry. He was widely known over the country for liberalism and defence of the tenant farmer. Her mother
was Mary Nelson, of Norfolk (England) stock, of which Lord Nelson was a famed member. From her grandmother, Mollie Morehead, she inherited her Scottish blood. Mrs. Magennis was born in Greater Belfast, Ireland. She married young, and was left a widow at an early age.
Mrs. Magennis was one of the first representatives of her sex to engage in the profession of journalism in Boston. Her first contributions to the press appeared in the Watchman and Reflector in 1868. She was afterward en-
