in a gust of passion, and he could not help it.  I tried to convince him that he had power to control his temper, if he would only exercise it.  A year and a half afterward, on First Day, after meeting, he asked permission to speak to me.  He then told me he was convinced that what I had said to him was true; for he had not given way to anger since I talked to him on the subject.  He showed me many certificates from the keepers, all testifying to his good conduct.  I hardly ever saw a man more changed than he is.”

I often heard my good old friend describe these scenes in the Prison Chapel, with much emotion.  He used to say, the feeling of confidence and safety which prevailed, was sometimes presented to his mind in forcible contrast with the state of things in Philadelphia, in 1787, as related by his worthy friend, Dr. William Rogers, who was on the committee of the first Society formed in this country “for relieving the miseries of public prisons.”  That kind-hearted and conscientious clergyman proposed to address some religious exhortation to the prisoners, on Sunday.  But the keeper was so unfriendly to the exertion of such influence, that he assured him his life would be in peril, and the prisoners would doubtless escape, to rob and murder the citizens.  When an order was granted by the sheriff for the performance of religious services, he obeyed it very reluctantly; and he actually had a loaded cannon mounted near the clergyman, and a man standing ready with a lighted match all the time he was preaching.  His audience were arranged in a solid column, directly in front of the cannon’s mouth.  This is supposed to have been the first sermon addressed to the assembled inmates of a State Prison in this country.

Notwithstanding Friend Hopper’s extreme benevolence, he was rarely imposed upon.  He made it a rule to give very little money to discharged convicts.  He paid their board till employment could be obtained, and when they wished to go to their families, in distant places, he procured free passage for them in steamboats or cars; which his influence with captains and conductors enabled him to do very easily.  If they wanted to work at a trade, he purchased tools, and hired a shop, when circumstances seemed to warrant such expenditure.  After they became well established in business, they were expected to repay these loans, for the benefit of others in the same unfortunate condition they had been.  Of course, some who expected to receive money whenever they told a pitiful story, were disappointed and vexed by these prudential regulations.  Among the old gentleman’s letters, I find one containing these expressions:  “When I heard you talk in the Prison Chapel, I thought there was something for the man that had once left the path of honesty to hope for from his fellow-men; but I find that I was greatly mistaken.  You are men of words.  You can do the wind-work first rate.  But when a man wants a little assistance to get work, and get an honest living, you are not there.  Now I wish to know where your philanthropy is.”