.M. resolved to retrieve his
character, and he still perseveres in the right course.

Ann W. was an illegitimate child, and early left an orphan. She went to
live with an aunt, who kept a boarding-house in Albany. According to her
own account, she was harshly treated, and frequently taunted with the
circumstances of her birth. At the early age of fourteen, one of the
boarders offered to marry her, and induced her to leave the house with
him. She lived with him some time, always urging the fulfilment of his
promise; and at last he pacified her by going to a person, who performed
the marriage-ceremony. She was strongly attached to him, and being a
capable, industrious girl, she kept everything nice and bright about
their lodgings. He pretended to have a great deal of business in
New-York; but in fact his frequent visits to that city were for purposes
of gambling. On one of those occasions, when he had been absent much
longer than usual, she followed him, and found him living with another
woman. He very coolly informed her that the marriage-ceremony between
them was a mere sham; the person who performed it not having been
invested with any legal authority. Thus betrayed, deserted, and
friendless, the poor young creature became almost frantic. In that
desperate state of mind, she was decoyed by a woman, who kept a
disreputable house. A short career of reckless frivolity and vice
ended, as usual, in the hospital on Blackwell's Island. When she was
discharged, she tried to drown her sorrow and remorse in intemperance,
and went on ever from bad to worse, till she became a denizen of Five
Points. In her brief intervals of sobriety, she was thoroughly disgusted
with herself, and earnestly desired to lead a better life. Being turned
into the street one night, in a state of intoxication, she went to the
prison called The Tombs, because its architecture is in imitation of the
ancient sepulchral halls of Egypt. She humbly asked permission to enter
this gloomy abode, in hopes that some of the ladies connected with the
Prison Association would visit her, and find some decent employment for
her. Her case being represented to Friend Hopper, he induced his wife to
take her into the family, as a domestic. As soon as she entered the
house, she said, "I don't want to deceive you. I will tell you
everything." And she told all the particulars of her history, without
attempting to veil any of its deformity. She was very industrious, and
remark