organizing
Volunteer Prison Leagues.

[Illustration: MAUDE BALLINGTON BOOTH
Founder of the Volunteer Prison League]

It is not always easy to do right even when one is well, happy, and in
his own home. Think, then, how hard a task the men in prison found it
when they became members of the new league! The day a man joined, he
had given to him a white button with a blue star and in the middle of
the star was "Look Up and Hope." He promised to do five things:

1. He would pray every morning and night.

2. He would read faithfully in the little Day Book the league sent
him.

3. No bad language should soil his lips.

4. He would keep the rules of the prison.

5. He would try to encourage others, too, in right doing, and when
possible get new members for the league.
From the moment a man put on a button, his guards and fellow prisoners
watched to see if he would keep his promise. A framed copy of what he
promised to do was hung in his cell as a daily reminder. If a man was
strong enough to accept these five conditions, he came to be a changed
person. He wanted to do right, and he looked forward to the time when
he would be free and could once more try anew in the big world.

Many persons told Mrs. Booth her plan would never work, but one by one
men began to prove that it did. First there were dozens, then there
were hundreds of men returning to their homes or going out to succeed
in the business world.

By and by Mrs. Booth saw there should be places where the men with no
families could go when they left prison. So she started "Hope Halls."
These are homes in the different large cities of the United States.
The Volunteer Prison League has officers who manage them but the
general public is never told where these houses are.

In bygone days many men upon leaving prison have been led away by old
evil companions. Others have found no place to stay and no work open
for them because a cold, unthinking public had called them "jail
birds." Mrs. Booth wanted these men to have a chance. Today a man who
belongs to the league can, upon leaving prison, be directed to the
nearest Hope Hall. There he can stay in comfortable quarters until he
gets work. Kind friends help him and many business firms have come to
take the word of the manager of Hope Hall. They give the man work and
he goes out to take his place as a man among men.

Mrs. Booth has given her life to building up this league, and for many
years