Criminal Types

last day of your life," Croesus admonished

ood but scant praise," echoes a lady, who would direct us from

oted; yet they shoot from the same trunk, if not from the same branch. Both flout w

for himself." The platitude would carry more of weight, were it unqualified. Moreover, her declaratio

ficient of moral motive for honest endeavor, he moves over lines of least resistance to that which he craves. Doi

e who enter here, leave all hope behind," but put them

physical condition. In clean skin and garb, they are now ready for biographical examination by the Superintendent, by whom they are given a straightforward talk concerning the aim

gly marked. One would needs employ reams of paper to specify the advantages afforded prisoners in a modern reformatory. It is sufficient to place that named against trite verbiage, such a

out of prison; yet must we face the portentous truth that an appreciable percentage of habitual criminals so confined, are those who had sounded the full gamut of instituti

re loaded down with natural or acquired handicaps, not the least serious of which is dislike of, and opposition to, consecutive, concentrated endeavor. Hence, such lads need above all else to be subjected to ment

of such young men have been paroled, again paroled, and once more paroled, from correctional institutions, unskilled as to a legitimate trade or occupation, with the half-opened minds of t

s should not, other than on State or holiday occasions, interfere with the regular daily schedule of the reformative régime. That is, and must be, relatively drastic

m five to seven years to become a journeyman mechanic. About ninety of the hundred of reformatory inmates are mechanically unprepared when received. They are detained less than fifteen months on the average. Consider such circumstances and say how many "plants" they

these (prison) guards on whose good will the parole of many prisoners depended; but what could one expect of those willing to accept positions that degraded their incumben

nds? Were they trained criminologists skilled to decide questions of crime and punishment? Had they the capacity, the knowledge, and the experience that would fit them to perform so nice a task, or were

at the instigation of lay reformers-(?) through juvenile institutions and reformatories to State prisons, and there suggested into the habitual class of o

se statements furnish the last formula for their depraved and dangerous instincts. The periodical to which we allude is on the library list of many of our reform institutions. Rather than feaze those who seek either to amuse themselves, or to blaze forth as bellwethers, or to line their purses, or to ut

nwealth, owes it to himself and to his readers to employ whatsoever he elects to be the weight of his influence against contact of extremes; to write well within knowledge, observation and experience studiously gained, and n

mplex social-science study, not conclusively reducible to a given number and kind of prime factors. Notwithstanding, gentlemen peck diligently at "poverty" for the root of crime. Were it so, "The Jukes," the most prolific genealogical tr

criminal action. From both the objective and subjective points of view, it is in a larger, deeper, and more wi

rhaps the most potent force in unmaking men. The criminal readily educes that if a "captain of industry" may at one and the same time pick the na

izens, the influence of the former of whom, when employed to misdirect wealth and m

l law, and as much of the time as they dare against legal law, a distinction which, our man insists, begs the fundamental questions of right and altruism. He is told that a filched dollar remains a filched dollar still, alike when attempt is made to make it represen

on loyal subjects. But that were humane, compared with methods by which the bulk of a great people are condemned to grubbing, colorless lives. Kill a man's chan

whom it is a constant grind to tip the balance of mental reach and physical stamina with the average of their

eves through the operation of laws as fixed as those which determine the tides; laws, expressed also in w

oremost out of poverty of character which induces anti-social processes of reasoning. The latter is superinduced by observation and contemplation of the fact, tha

endless columns of human parasites wend their way. Hereditary pressure and criminal atmosphere aside, they are the chiefest of crime-breeding motives,

dangerous of quasi-parasites is he who pyramids conse

farthing candles of self-seeking academicians. And that is to ignore the perjured meanderings of press agents who peddle spurious wares for a price. Of th

f kindly education and training which alone can make good and self-supporting lads of lads who instinctively stumble. It is not far from dastardly when censure for the disappointing

ecurring, petty consideration of a grave problem; a problem so profound, that those who give to it the most consecrated research are surest to put on the mantle of charity and the modest mien; and a pr

o the true perspective of service. The one will see in education but books, and the other in the prisoner but deviltry. Nevertheless, at college is the place to study

ed "types" of criminals. By the same token, let us dig up better than sneers for those

e pranks of a headstrong youth. So, in free life, we induct the occasional criminal, and in institutional life encourage him to lock arms wi

f false clemency with coddling is the most pronounced and far-reaching. So, n

he final analysis, whether or no our man likes "Steve" of the institutional staff; approves or disapproves of any part of the house régime; tells the truth about al

ther under the original or new indictment? As a matter of fact, we have not and cannot have informing data concerning the above, vital point, until we shall have established an international bureau of anthropometry, as well as regulations pertaining to the in

find out about him. Such data as we have stands a serious blemish on the penological escutcheon of the nat

hing; but we find it difficult to reconcile the efficiency you claim, with the number of recidivists you admit. Please: why so man

: the moment society at large concerns itself seriously with individual practice of the "Golden Rule," and inci

anti-social expression, they would probably render the best aid of which they are capable to the singularly complex work of reform. Calling fals

ents, "be sure that you do no harm." So much should be demanded