year just past, giving an account of 776 visits to the Penitentiary, and of an aggregate of 8942 interviews with the prisoners—6149 of which were inside of the cells, and 2793 at the cell doors. These interviews are believed to average about fifteen minutes in length, though each case is governed by its own circumstances. With some, very little more than a friendly salutation seems called for, as there is no ground to work upon, with hope of being serviceable; while, with others, a half hour, or in some instances even an hour, may be profitably spent. In performing these visits with the hope of doing good, it is deemed essential to approach the prisoner in a spirit of kindness, and thus convince him that, although the world may have cast him off, and notwithstanding the degraded condition to which his crimes and depredations on society have brought him, there is one at least who cares for his soul, and who feels that, although he has justly forfeited his liberty, he is still a fellow being, and a candidate for Divine Mercy, and therefore entitled to such a measure of the common comforts of life as the law allows him. When the prisoner, by this means, becomes fully assured that the visitor has no sinister purpose in view, but is alone prompted by desires for his good, he becomes willing to hear freely, even if he does not assent to the importance of such counsel as may be addressed to him. Under these circumstances, the visits sometimes become deeply interesting occasions, both to the visitor and the visited. Here, where no human eye sees, and no human ear hears them, the overshadowings of Divine Love are sometimes witnessed to soften that heart which had been so long hardened, that even the criminal himself had believed that it would never again be susceptible of feeling; and the visitor acknowledges that, through the same influence which softened the heart of the prisoner, he has been enabled to hand forth counsel suited to the case before him. Some of these interviews, are mere kindly, social opportunities, in which no religious instruction is attempted. The prisoners are encouraged to be obedient to the rules of the prison, and respectful in their deportment toward the officers; and in the daily reverent reading of the Holy Scriptures, and committing portions of them to memory. They are also recommended to adopt and maintain habits of cleanliness, both in their persons and cells, which is entirely in their power, as each one has a hydrant at his command.