The Nation Behind Prison Bars

BY

GEORGE L. HERR, Prison Evangelist

Author of "Light in Dark Places," "You Are My Prisoner,"
"The Life Line," "Man's Worst Enemy," "Nothing
Better," "The Missionary," "The Bethel,"
"Lost and Is Found," and "A
Glorious Rescue."

THE WORLD OF PRISONERS UNKNOWN TO MANY
BROUGHT FORWARD IN DESCRIPTIVE
SPEECH AND VIVID PICTURES

There are enough people in prison in these United States to furnish a citizenship to a considerable territory, or to populate a good-sized city. For the psychological student, they form the most interesting of all objects of study. For the philanthropist, and for the Christian missionary, they constitute a wonderful field of activity. How to lift them out of the criminal strata is the question to which Mr. Herr is devoting his life, in an effort to answer. In a good measure he is answering it. Many prisoners to whom the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation, will rise to call him blessed.—Rev. Jno. Paul, Mississippi.

Foreword

Gathered within these pages are recitals of scenes and incidents in a field of existence fortunately unfamiliar to the majority of our readers. The subject has been handled without any attempt to embellish the hard facts or gloss over the cruel details—the paramount desire upon the part of the author being an endeavor to show the crying necessity for a constant, earnest labor among the unfortunates who are shut away from God's sunshine; whom God still loves, despite their sins of omission and commission. If the perusal of this volume brings to the reader a belief that the cause is worthy, that labor in this field brings a reward which amply compensates for the time and effort expended, the author will rest in the knowledge of a duty well performed. There has been no effort at exaggeration in presenting these sketches of daily experiences among the outcasts of society, no straining for effect, no striving to paint word pictures that may touch the heart. It is simply the story of everyday life in the field of the prison missionary's labor, and is given to the public with a fervent prayer that God, in His infinite wisdom, will instill in the hearts of our readers a feeling of charity toward those whose burden is almost greater than they can bear.

Contents

Illustrations

Commendation from Louisville Ministers

• R. D. SMART,
  • Pastor Broadway Methodist Church.
• CHARLES R. HEMPHILL,
  • Professor Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
• W. N. BRINEY,
  • Pastor Broadway Christian Church.
• W. J. CLARKE,
  • Minister Clifton Church.
• A. R. KASEY,
  • Pastor Clifton Crescent Hill Methodist Church.
• S. G. SHELLEY,
  • Pastor Jefferson St. Methodist Church.
• THAD. S. TINSLEY,
  • Pastor Third Christian Church.
• W. F. IRWIN,
  • 4th Ave. Presbyterian Church.
• E. B. PATTERSON,
  • Pastor Trinity Church.
• W. R. HENDRIX,
  • Pastor Methodist Temple.
• J. T. RUSHING,
  • Pastor Virginia Ave. M. E. Church, South.
• D. B. GREGORY,
  • Pastor Woodland Pres. Church U. S.
• G. W. NUTTER,
  • Pastor Parkland Christian Church.
• B. F. ATKINSON,
  • Pastor Rivers Memorial M. E. Church, South.
• C. F. WIMBERTY,
  • Marcus Lindsay Memorial.
• CHAS. A. HUMPHREY,
  • Pastor Portland M. E. Church, South.
• J. D. SIGLER
• E. L. POWELL,
  • Pastor First Christian Church.
• S. H. LOVELACE,
  • Pastor Oakdale Methodist Church.
• C. R. CROWE,
  • Pastor Highland Park and Hill Street.
• T. R. KENDALL,
  • Lander Memorial Church.
• T. L. CRANDELL,
  • Dumesnil M. E. Church.
• C. E. CARTER,
  • Asbury M. E. Church.
• ARTHUR W. BROOK,
  • M. E. Church, South.
• W. B. BEAUCHAMP,
  • Pastor Fourth Ave. M. E. Church, South.
• J. R. McAFEE,
  • West Broadway M. E. Church, South.

Story of the Life of Geo. L. Herr

When asked if prison work paid, Mr. Herr said: "Who will ever know the vast number that will attribute their first impulse to a better life, formed while in the seclusion of a prison cell, while reading this book. The world will never know how many, when sitting in judgment upon themselves, have learned the great secret, that it takes an omnipotent power to change the current of their lives and give them deliverance from the power of sin, and enabling them to go forth, not to live a new purpose, but a new life."

In 1909 Mr. Herr published 150,000 sermons, books and tracts.

The Rev. George L. Herr, whose address delivered in our chapel last Sunday morning was charmingly refreshing, is a man whose vicissitudes of life lead through a labyrinth that would require a half century of years to make its journey at an ordinary pace.—Rev. D. J. Starr, D.D., Ohio Penitentiary.

Bro. Herr knows the prison work as few men do. He is a man of large sympathy, and having had an experience of fifteen years as an evangelist, knows how to reach the hearts of the men. He has the entire confidence of both prisoners and officials and is always given a most hearty welcome by all.—Jos. Severance, Chaplain.

"The large number who have been helped by hearing your message will be still further benefited by reading your book."—Rev. Albert J. Steelman, Ph.D., Chaplain, Illinois State Penitentiary.

Get Rev. Herr's book for your good, but chiefly for the good of others.

Rev. C. R. Hemphill, D.D., Louisville, Ky.: "I believe Rev. George L. Herr especially equipped for the difficult work of an evangelist to those in prison and to the neglected."

Rev. Wm. Edmond Foster: "His love for lost souls and his zeal knows no bounds. I bespeak for him a life of great usefulness to his fellowmen without hope and without God."

Rev. Horace G. Ogden, D.D., New York: "I have been placed where I have known intimately his work as prison evangelist. I can say he has made a superb record. He has taken an enlarged field of work, and I have every confidence in his increased usefulness. His book merits a large circulation."

Rev. Ed. Ferguson: "For years he, with his most estimable wife, have given their time and talent to the uplifting of the down-trodden of this great metropolis and they have the respect and hearty co-operation of the best people in Louisville."

Rev. James M. Taylor: "The story will warn the reckless, encourage the 'outcast,' and put desire in the hearts of thousands to lead better lives."

Rev. T. T. Taliaferro, Chaplain Kentucky State Prison: "Your sermons are blessed of God to the furtherance of the works of grace in our midst. May God bless you in your noble work."

Rev. W. O. Vreeland, Chaplain Kentucky State Prison: "You are worthy of the highest commendation."

Men's Bible Class, James Lee Memorial Presbyterian Church: "Rev. George L. Herr's talk at last Sunday's session was a treat."

Rev. George L. Herr, 195 Coral Avenue, Louisville, Ky.: "Who will ever know the vast number that will attribute their first impulse to a better life, formed while in seclusion of a prison cell while reading this book."

The Rev. George L. Herr is bringing out a book on prison life which is abundantly capable of two effects, namely: Enlisting the attention of readers, like a romance, and benefitting the class of whom he writes. It is a two-hundred page book, illustrated with pictures of prisons, and scenes behind the bars.

Dear Friend:

We know you will rejoice with us in the work being accomplished behind prison bars. Many thousands we are preaching the gospel to every year. There are converts all over the United States that we hear from. The outlook of the work was never more encouraging. May we submit to you our plan to secure auxiliary memberships at $10.00 each?

Will you be one?

Departments of Work.

Distribution of thousands of papers, tracts, and other religious reading.

Visiting the sick and poor.

Street work in the slums.

Evangelistic work in the different penitentiaries a specialty.

CHAPTER FIRST

At the age of three months, the death of his precious mother caused him to be given into the keeping of his aunt, a noble Christian woman, and it was due to her teachings that the seeds of reverence for God, belief in his dearly beloved Son and faith in the promise of a life of everlasting happiness were planted deep in the recesses of George Herr's heart, while his father, a Christian gentleman, spared no efforts in his endeavor to bring up his son in the way he should go.

At the age of eighteen years, through the death of his father, he came into the possession of a large estate, but lacking the experience which usually comes with maturity, he developed a spirit of independence which soon brought in its train of attendant evils.

The story of George Herr's experience is the recital of a man's gradual surrender to the power of drink, until the enormity of his fall can but be depicted by contrasting his condition with that as it was a few years before. Then he was a well known young man of Louisville's elite society, wealthy, respected, esteemed and sought after. Friends without number, well wishers innumerable, the door of any refined home in the city would have swung wide open in welcome at his knock. Now the other picture: A drunken outcast, a prey to the buffetings of every chance wind of fate, deprived of friends, stripped of wealth, position and reputation; exposed to every form of evil, subject to the cruelty of every character of temptation that assails human nature. Ostracized from society, barred from contact with any self-respecting acquaintance of former days, can you imagine a more potent example of the victory of Satan through the agency of his chief field marshal, Drink? God grant that this may come as a warning to some one of the thousands of young men who, with prospects as bright or even more flattering than were those of George Herr at the age of eighteen, are at this moment entering upon the path which will lead them, as it has countless thousands, into the abyss of eternal destruction! God grant that the moral to be drawn from this picture will burn itself in indelible letters of fire upon the very soul of each young man who reads this.

These were indeed dark days, the past a record of sin, the present a nightmare of misery and shame, the future black with the darkness of despair, with not the faintest gleam of hope to pierce the gloom. "Poor fellow," you say, "only one of a multitude." Yes, only the prototype of one of the thousands who are traveling the same broad thoroughfare at this moment.

It was at this critical juncture, when reputation was blasted, hope departed and the future barren of promises, that a remnant of respect for his home and the associates of better days awakened the residuum of pride remaining and brought the determination to remove his unwelcome presence from the scenes of former pleasures. He went West, but his hopes were blasted, and penniless, homeless, wretched, obliged to accept any kind of menial work in order to eke out a bare living, he wandered about until an overwhelming homesickness brought him back to Kentucky. There was, perhaps, a flickering intention to do better, to cut loose from the bands that bound him, but good resolutions were made only to be broken, and the cords of sin drawn tighter than ever.

None but God can realize the extreme bitterness of that bondage, the depths of that dark and unrelieved despair. Without light, without hope, without rest, and worst of all, without Christ? With not one friendly hand held out to greet him, with not one word of encouragement, but rather the cold glance of scorn, the bitter sneer of contempt, it is not strange that there stretched out before him apparently nothing but a drunkard's life, a drunkard's death and an endless eternity in a drunkard's hell.

Then the fearful temptation of suicide met him; but God, in his infinite mercy, destined him to pass through even this fearful ordeal unharmed and spared him that he might carry the gospel of a Savior's love to a lost and ruined world. Then a helping hand was extended. A lifelong friend, meeting him one day, and overcome with pity, gave him one more chance to make a man of himself, fitted him out with clothes, gave him a railroad ticket and money, advising him to leave Louisville and start life afresh elsewhere. But the fetters of sin were riveted so strongly that the well-meant advice of his boyhood friend was unheeded, and a few hours found him in as fearful a plight as ever. Then there came into this, the darkest hour in all his life, the experience of the prodigal son. A determination came into his life to sever forever all ties binding him to the life of degradation he was then living and to take the first step back into the narrow path of righteousness.

It was then that the Rev. Steve P. Holcombe of Louisville, Ky., took him to the Union Gospel Mission.

At this critical period there came within the radius of his sphere of existence a noble, devout woman, who proved to be the one thing needful to round out the life now worth living. In spite of all remonstrances on the part of her friends, she was greatly interested in the welfare of this man and prayed earnestly that God would make him a strong Christian man.

Her tireless energies, endless prayers and earnest teachings were ever present to hold him up and help him onward in the new life. God placed her in the sphere of George Herr's experience at a critical stage, using her as a medium for cementing his faith and determining his purpose to devote his remaining years to the work of redeeming unfortunates sunk in the darkness of sin. Their destinies were welded together by mutual interest in the work of saving lost men and the affinity of feeling between them developed into a bond of love, each seeing within the other those qualities necessary to happiness in wedded life, and on the 14th of April, 1898, George L. Herr and Miss Lillie M. Joyce, the woman who was such an essential portion of his existence, were joined in the holy bonds of matrimony by the Rev. Carter Helm Jones, D.D., pastor of the Broadway Baptist Church, Louisville, Ky.