The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-04-25
Religion and Crime.

thropist as we'll as the student of political
economy. That prisoners should be governed
by rigid discipline, and thus made to feel
the gravity of their offence, is easily con-
coded; and that all possible reformatory in
fuences should be interviewer with this dis
cipline no right-minded man will deny
While prison should never be mistaken for
a comfortable hotel to which one has been
banished for few months or years, it need
not be place of unmiigated torment. IT
we do not put sign over the iron-barred
door to the effect that within entertainment
will be found for man and beast, we need not,
on the other hand, embody revengeful spirit
in the words, Abandon hope all ye who
enter here
The first object of prison is the confne-
ment of man who has lost his right to be at
large. He has become dangerous and in
cendiary element, and must needs be forcibly
separated from the rest of mankind. To put
a granite wall between the criminal and
society, not in the way of malice but in the
spirit of self-protection, and to make the
change of life SO great to the criminal that
others will be deferred from q similar course
Of life, is to answer the chief ends Of justice.
Pardon of crime is impossible in well regu-
lated society. Punishment following close
on the heels of guilt is the bulwark Of social
order. Prisons must be the universal de-
termination to discourage vice, put into the
concrete and visible shape Of granite cells
and hard work. They must have the gloom
e L -
thei- methods. Nevertheless, when man is
enduring the penalty Of confinement we need
not forget that he is a human being and that
we belong to Christian community. What
ever reformatory influences may be at our
command ought to be brought to bear on
him. If devoted men and women pro-
fess to see the image Of Caesar on the
corroded coin, and are willing to labor
to bring back the almost destroyed out
lines, they will receive no encouragement
even from those who would make the
prison an expression Of the public intolerance
of crime. The old days when daily tragedies
were enacted behind the Jail gate are gone
forever. We have learned that the various
tortures which were applied to the refractory
were not only an injury to the prisoner, but
in an equal degree to the keepers and the
public. A great and important step has been
taken during the last few years toward a
better state Of things. The penal theology of
the Puritans has given way to practical
Christianity, and this has perhaps done
more than anything else to introduce human
izing methods into our prisons We have
learned that even criminals are not neces-
sarily implacable brutes, on whom mercy is
wasted. We recognize the sad fact that even
good men fall sometimes under the pressure
OF great temptation. If man has committed
misdeed it does not follow that we should
join forces to torment him and to make it
utterly impossible for him ever to recover
himself.
Criminals are not particular stratum OF
society that perpetuates itself from age to age,
as trade is handed down from sire to SON
The prisons Of this State contain, many start
ling surprises to the investigator. They are
peopled not only BY those whom we have
always expected to end their careers in con-
finement, but also, and more largely than We
think, by those concerning whom we could
never, by any possibility, have prophesicd
such fate. We are almost inclined to say
that there is no dangerous class, but that all
classes have elements Of danger in them. Men
who have occupied high positions and those
who have never occupied any position meet
in common cell-the one surprised that he
was not caught before and the other that he
was caught at all
Now, we are not inclined to the exercise Of
a maudlin sympathy toward these men. We
have old-fashioned notions about account
ability. If Mr.. Huxley we're here ne might
excite our pity for the criminal by proving
beyond all peradventure that Inflammation Of
the cellular tissue OF the brain was the root
Of the difficulty; that his molecular forces
were consequently disturbed, and that
little electricity or a strong dose Of pare
oorc would make virtuous man Of him.
Since this renowned scientist is not here
however, we are constrained to say that the
GOOD Of society demands that whatever medi-
cine may be administered should be admins
tered inside the walls Of prison. Still, we
most cheerfully commend any project which
aims at the moral improvement Of the crim-
nals Of America If any influence can be
brought to bear on prisoner which will act
as a deterrent when he is released, and if any
successful effort can be made to keep him in
the path Of rectitude and TO give him
chance to recover the past when his term ez-
pires, they will have the approval and SYM
patty Of the whole community. In this con-
noction We have noticed with pleasure the
work in which great many philanthropic
ladies Of New York are engaged, and cspe-
clalIy that Of Miss Linda Gilbert, who has won
and deserved the name Of 1.-THE prisoners
friend" and whose letter will be found
in another column. Her object Is two