The Bedford Gazette

A Touching Scene in State Prison—A Child in Search of its Father.—One evening last week, just as the bell of the Sing Sing prison was ringing "all right," and most of the officers were about taking their departure from the institution, a little girl about seven years of age entered the warden's office. On being questioned as to her name and errand, she said that her name was Agnes W——, and that she had "come all the way from New York to see her father, who her mother had told her was in prison at Sing Sing." The intelligent and mournful looks of the child soon enlisted the sympathy of the warden and other officers, and it was at once decided to gratify the hopes of the little heroine.

But a difficulty at once arose—there being no less than four convicts bearing the same name as the father, but this difficulty was soon overcome by the little girl herself. She said that her father was a cooper by trade, and it became apparent at once that the J——W—— employed in the "shook shop" was the looked-for father. He was soon brought from his cell to the office, and the scene which took place between the convict father and his child will not soon be forgotten by those who witnessed it. Accustomed as the officers are to affecting scenes between the convicts and their relatives, this was too much for their feeling, and a tear stood in the eye of many of those stout hearted men.

The story of little Agnes to her father was that her mother was very poor, lived out at service, and could not come to see him, so she thought she would come herself: that she left New York that morning without one cent of money—walked through the city till she came to the railroad that some boys told her passed through Sing Sing: that she crept in one of the cars and hid herself away, and when found by the conductor, he allowed her to ride all the way up for nothing, and that some of the boys in the village told her the way to the prison.

After spending some time with her father, she was kindly taken care of for the night by one of our citizens, and the next morning a lady of our village accompanied her to New York, and placed her in an asylum devoted as a home to the children of the destitute, where she will be taken care of, and properly and kindly treated.