The history of this girl’s life in a convent is more than pathetic, from the fact that her father on his deathbed requested that she be placed in a convent by her mother, which was done, and her sufferings, the reader will see, were not a fault of hers, but the fault of her parents, who had been raised to believe in the diabolical teachings of Roman Catholicism, but who did not know that these teachings were only echoes of the dark ages of paganism, therefore you will see that this poor girl’s history is laden with a sadness for which she is not to blame, and the fault can only be laid at the fountain head, as her parents were sincere in their belief, and did not, of course, realize that they were helping to ruin their darling girl’s future.

I will now relate her history, as near as possible, the way she gave it, which will be symbolic of the history of thousands of other girls, and which is absolutely true.  Her story follows: 

“When one becomes an inmate of a convent, they become a prisoner, as every act is scrutinized by the mother superior, and you have no privilege any more than if you were a convict and placed behind the bars for some heinous crime.  With this exception, however, you are allowed to receive letters from a priest without having the letter opened and read before it reaches you, as there is always some mark to distinguish a letter received from a priest, but all letters that you write and all letters that you receive, unless they bear the mark indicating that they have been sent by a priest, are carefully read, and if the contents of either the letter you write, or the one that has been written to you does not meet with the arbitrary opinion of the “mother superior,” they are destroyed, and you never have the opportunity of sending the one that you have written, or to receive the one that has been written to you, unless they can pass the inspection of the “mother superior,” who is nothing more nor less than an agent of the Pope of Rome, as she receives her instructions from the priestcraft, and they receive their instructions from the Pope of Rome.”

When an inmate of a convent receives a letter from a priest it is handed her without being opened, as the “mother superior” is instructed not to open such letters, and is told that all such letters, of course, relate to the spiritual welfare of the nun.

In these letters the priest will tell the nun what day he will call to give her a general confession.  As soon as such a letter is received the nun informs the “mother superior” that on a certain day Priest So-and-So will visit her, and, of course, this “mother superior” gives the permission, and on the day that the priest is to arrive, this nun is excused from all duties for that day, and when the priest arrives he is shown into what is called the Retreat Parlor; and no matter how long he remains there, no one will disturb him.  He is supposed to be talking with his penitent on the welfare of her soul.  Ah, could any one look through the door, they would find this priest with his arms about the form of this fair penitent, or perhaps in a far more compromising position!