No reporters have been permitted to visit Hope Hall. I was assured that
the accounts I could thus secure of the work, would be most helpful and
would give our Movement wide public recognition, if I would consent
to waive this rule. On the other hand it would do incalculable harm
in prison, making the men feel that the work was done more or less
for the advertising of the Movement, and it would keep from us the
most self-respecting and earnest of the men. In this work the foremost
thought has been and must always be the "boys." We view questions
through their eyes, try to enter understandingly into their feelings
and in so doing the work must be kept on lines that hold their approval
and endorsement.
No discrimination as to crimes is made in the welcoming of our guests;
that is a matter of the past. Sin is sin, and we do not ask if it has
been little or big, when the sinner has repented. The number of terms
served, the nationality or the color of the man make to us no more
difference than their creed. All men who come straight from prison and
need Hope Hall are eligible. When they have come, they are expected to
behave as gentlemen. The rules are only such as would govern any well
regulated family and are made for the protection of the men against
those who might spoil the peace and comfort of the Home. We strongly
urge silence regarding the past and as far as possible the forgetting
of its sad memories. During the day all the men able to work are busy.
We have no industries such as mat or broom making, which we feared
would spoil the home aspect of the place, besides robbing the men of
their ambition to strike out in work for themselves. They are employed
in the work of the house; some are busy in the laundry, some at
painting, carpentering or building; others have the important position
of cooks; still there is also the garden, farming and care of horse and
cow to be remembered. The extension to our building with the twelve
new rooms was built entirely by the men. When there is no building or
farming to be done other occupations can easily be found.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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