Show THE PRISONERS FRIEND results of a little giha ain inano act thirty ago a little girl maimed linda gilbert began a thought fill and most useful work where such work had not been done by other and older people her fathers house was in chicago opposite to what was then the old arluk prison on her way to and fi om school she passed directly beneath the grated windows of the city prison many were the rude faces she saw peering out of these windows as she hurried by one morning an old man who was serving a sentence in the prison and who had noticed the child passing daily spoke to her through the bars or iron wont you bring me something to read my dear he asked plaintively 1 I am very lonesome here and nave nothing to do bring me any kind of book a good girl no prisoner had ever spoken to the ten year old child before and half interested she hurried home and told her father the incident he immediately gave her a book from his library to take to the prisoner in a short time the little messenger had made friends with the old man who seemed to be touched for the first time in his life every sunday after that the child carried a book to the prison asked for the man who talked to her through his grated window and gave him a new book to read several months later the prisoner became mortally ill and sent for his little benefactor before she went away the dying man said promise me child do as much for my comrades in prison as youve done for me 1 I will said linda solemnly she kep tiner word and for a long time confined her labors to prisoners in her own state hundreds of discharged convicts came to her she had been their prison friend and was their only hope when they were released no one went away without assistance to some she gave money to others clothes and shel ler and employment the first county jail library in chicago was established by her soon she reached out into other states she interested te her friends in the work and gave a library of 2000 volumes to the county jail in sl louis Thousand sofi books began to be sent to her from peo pie all over the country and these she distributed to many prisons now she began to be known throughout the as the prisoners friend ludlow street jail the tombs the house of detention in nefa york have each libraries due to miss gilberts efforts it is impossible to estimate the far reaching influence over depraved people that this consecrated woman exerted and when she died in october 1895 the prisoners of the country mourned the loss of their best friend the resolve of a child produced this wonderful result youths companion |