"The papers and tracts you have been kind enough to send me have been given to prisoners, and they have been passed from hand to hand until literally worn out. There are a great many very intelligent men among the fifteen hundred and fifty convicts now in our prison, and they (or many of them, at least) are very glad to get such papers and tracts as you have sent me; and I am only too glad to place such reading matter in their hands. You asked if old 'Registers' and 'Unities' would do any good. They would be thankfully received by many of the unfortunate men, and would be carefully read by them. Reading is one of the very few privileges granted convicts.... I to-day received from Mrs. Thacher, of Boston, a bill of lading for two barrels of papers and magazines shipped for distribution among prisoners; also a kind and very interesting letter from Mrs. Thacher,--for all of which I am indebted to you. I am glad, indeed, Unitarian people understand that convicts want and appreciate something more in reading matter than chilling tracts. We are constantly receiving for distribution the strongest kind of Orthodoxy, but the prisoners do not seem to take kindly to it.... An old colored man, who was sent here eleven years ago under life sentence, said to me yesterday, 'I tell yo', sah, it seems mighty ha'd to sarve in hell all yo' life in dis place, an' den have to take it for sartin' su'ah in de nex' worl'.' He seemed to think that a sentence to the penitentiary was merely carrying out a part of the divine plan; in other words, he was foreordained to eternal suffering, and has got eleven years on his way.... We found the books and papers to be all that could be desired, and have taken great pleasure in distributing them.... Could you have heard the genuine thankfulness expressed by the unfortunate prisoners as I passed along the galleries distributing the reading matter, you surely would have felt amply repaid for interesting yourself in them.... Many said, 'God bless the ladies who thought of us!' with an earnestness and sincerity which indicated clearly to me that they felt and appreciated the kindness and the motives of the donors. My experience among convicts has convinced me that kindness shown toward them is never wasted. There are in this prison several noted criminals,--men who have the reputation of being brutal desperadoes,--with whom I have frequently talked, and have invariably found to be easily touched by a kind word and act." Last June Mr. Beach dropped dead in a Chicago depot while on his way home. It seems proper to copy here portions of a letter written to his family by the chaplain of the prison. JUNE 30, 1885.