ADDRESSES, PAPERS AND DEBATES.

OPENING SESSION.

Monday Evening, September 24, 1883.

The Tenth Annual Conference of Charities and Corrections met in the Library of the Polytechnic Society, at Louisville, Kentucky, Monday evening, September 24th, at 8 P. M., and was called to order by the President Fred. H. Wines, of Springfield, Illinois.

Rev. E. T. Perkins, of Louisville, Kentucky, opened with prayer, as follows:

Most Gracious God, our kind and Heavenly Father, we pray Thee, that of Thy great goodness Thou wilt grant unto us the blessed presence of Thy Holy Spirit to . guide us in all our deliberations touching the things that are right, and to enable us to do those things which are well pieasing in Thy sight. We pray that thou wouldst make the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts in the connection in which we are assembled here to-night, acceptable in Thy sight, conducive to Thy glory, and such as will promote the welfare of our fellowmen. Ilear us, in this our prayer and supplication, for the sake of Thy dear Son, our Blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The President introduced the Hon. Charles D. Jacob, Mayor of the city of Louisville, who said:

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: Louisville has indeed been blest. Fifty-four days ago she welcomed to her midst the President of the United States, who formally opened an Exposition dedicated to the regeneration of the South, and countless thousands from every section have visited and christened it with the love of an undivided and indivisible people.

Last week there was a convention of teachers, true and brave men, who sought by advising among themselves, the best method of advancing our common good by driving from* our midst ignorance, which begets crime. To-night inaugurates a Conference of great intelligence, and with a name and object as high and pure — a Conference that while it demands that those who violate the laws of God and man shall be punished with the severest penalty known to the law, yet demands that with that punishment shall be added means to reform the man.

More than eighteen hundred and fifty years ago, sitting upon the mountain side, with His disciples and the public at His feet, the God-man said, " Blessed are the merci^ ciful for they shall obtain mercy." Ages with great works have passed and crumbled away before the relentless hand of time, but those wondrous words will shine fully as bright as the noonday sun to the end of time.

Ladies and gentlemen, recognizing you as the embodiment of that sentiment, we welcome you to our midst, to our hearts and homes, and bid you God-speed in your noble and worthy cause.

The Hon. J. Proctor Knott,, Governor of Kentucky, then welcomed the Conference as follows:

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Tenth Annual Conference of Charities and Corrections: Among the most beneficent results of modern civilization are the various Charitable and reformatory institutions which have been established by municipal legislation to ameliorate the condition of certain unfortunate classes of our fellow beings. A nobler object could not challenge the attention of patriots, philanthropists or Christians than to open the avenues of intelligence, usefulness and happiness to those who are doomed to grope their way through this beautiful world in perpetual darkness from the cradle to the tomb; or to extend social and intellectual enjoyment to those to whom the gentle voice of affection is mute, and the sweetest melodies of nature forever harsh; or t^ throw around those in whom the light of reason has gone out the tenderness of parental care and protection; or to rescue the convict from the vortex of crime and introduce him to the paths of virtue, while at the same time satisfying the demands of justice and vindicating the majesty of the law.

And certainly no sublimer moral spectacle could be exhibited than that which is presented in this large convocation, assembled to-night from every part of our country,, with no expectation of personal advantage, with no hope of reward beyond the gratification of helping suffering humanity, to consider the methods best calculated to promote the efficiency of the means ordained for the accomplishment of those beneficent purposes.

In the object of your Conference the people of thi& commonwealth are deeply interested. Beyond the benefits conferred upon the unfortunate recipients of their bounty and of their corrective discipline, and aside from the resulting advantages to the community at large they contribute hundreds of thousands of dollars for the maintenance of their charities and the punitive and corrective institutions, which every dictate of common prudence as well as every demand of justice requires should be expended in the manner best calculated to insure the most beneficial results.

It is therefore with the very highest possible gratification that I greet you in their name and extend to you a cordial welcome to our midst, conscious, however, that I but feebly voice the sentiment of every genuine Kentuckian, when I express the hope that your lives may be crowned with perpetual peace, prosperity and happiness, and that your visit to our beautiful and prosperous metropolis, so famous for its generous men and beautiful and cultured ladies, may be as pleasant as the results of your own deliberations will be beneficial to the cause of enlightened charity and suffering humanity.

The President: I am sure that it will give pleasure to the members of the conference to have the generous sentiments which have been uttered, both by the governor of the state and by the mayor of this city, responded to by some of the members of our body.

Mr. Frank B. Sanborn, of Massachusetts, being called upon, spoke as follows:

We accept your welcome, Governor Knott, and Mr. Mayor, with the same sincerity that it is given, for we know the Kentuckians of old, even if we have not all had the pleasure of visiting your magnificent commonwealth before. The Arab chieftain said, "I love the Englishman, his word is as straight as my spear," — and we know that Kentucky talks as straight as she shoots, and means what she says.

We are glad to be here, Mr. Mayor, and to know from your lips, and from the presence of this audience, that it is not merely a personal hospitality you extend to us — in which, we have heard that no Kentuckian was ever wanting — but better than that, a hospitality to our cause, which is the sacred cause of the poor. We have assembled here, sir, not merely to see what you can show us of the arts and industries of the south,' though'we shall take pleasure in that, but that we may meet and confer with the men of the south, and with the noblehearted women of the south, on the best methods of helping the poor, of healing the sick, of ministering to the minds diseased, of preventing or alleviating the worst miseries of modern life.

"That which is crooked cannot be made straight," said the wise king of Israel; "and that which is wanting cannot be numbered." But we are pledged to straighten what we can in these crooked paths of civilization, and to make good what is wanting and defective. We shall fail often times, we shall make mistakes and arouse criticism; but what we ask of you, ladies and gentlemen, what we ask of each other is, that your criticism shall be inspired by the same purpose that we hope animates us; the desire and purpose (God helping us), to leave the world better than we found it, and better especially for that helpless, and voiceless, and almost hopeless class of the public dependents for whom we are called by duty to speak and act.

If I might venture, from a twenty years' service in the cause of the poor, to give a word of advice to those who hear me, sir, it would be this, to avoid most carefully the intrusion of any but charitable motives into the great field of charity, and particularly to exclude political and personal ambition and prejudice from this sacred work. Let the politician and the self-seeker stand aside; they are not likely to help forward our work, and in Heaven's name let them not hinder it.

I thank you, gentlemen of Kentucky and of Louisville, in the name of Massachusetts, for the welcome you have extended to us, and I only wish there were more representatives of my own noble and philanthropic state here to receive it.

The Hon. Richard Vaux, President of the Board of Inspectors of the Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia, also spoke, as follows:

I only wish to express the gratification I feel at Mr. Sanborn's speech. It was such a relief to my mind when he sat down.

After the Governor's remarks and the Mayor's remarks and Mr. Sanborn's answer, the purpose of the meeting is somewhat in doubt. It occurred to me when the name of the place was given, that those who originated the city of Louisville as the place of meeting of this society thought it necessary for us to see your institutions, and instruct you what charities and corrections were necessary. Mr. Sanborn disputes that. He says we do not come here for that purpose. We know that you are a