The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1878-03-30
youthfuI Criminals.

! ANY one who may have stepped INTO the Grim
inal Courtnow in session in this city last Thurs
Iday (arraignmcnt day, and witnessed the sixty
or more offenders file into court from the coun
ty iail to plead guilty or not guilty to the
!charges in their indictments, would not only
have been impressed with the spectacle, but
would have been furnished also with abundant
food for reflection. At least fifty of that mum.
Der were mere boys of various sizes and ages
and conditions of depravity. There were hard
| ly dozen who could be called adults in the
true sense Of that term Some of the bows
were under 10 years of age and from that point
they ranged upward to Il, u and 20 years of
age, with very few older
| OF course in the larger part of these cases
the crime was larceny, either petit or grand,
while the two instigating causes were poverty
and rum. The large number of boys and young
men now out OF work naturally prepares the
way for the commission of crimes by which
they are being arrested, tried and sent off to
Penitentiary, Reform School or the Bridewel,
almost daily. The same cause, added to the
existence of so many open saloons in our city,
naturally leads youthful and idle steps into
paths of indulgence, which, in nine cases out
ten, lead to prison, disgrace and deeper de-
graduation.
Try to disguise it as we may, the painful
ldCl 10 lUO cNluCUL LOT comfort OF COnSOlutlOu,
that our present methods of civilization $50
Icalled) are training ana rearing up for Il tu
ture generation a class of youthful and hard
ened criminals whose careers cannot be con-
templated without sigh of pity or "a shrdder
OF fear. The very worst, most dangerous and
most desperate characters among us at present
are, to great extent, mere boys--young mis-
|creants, reckless, Ignorant constituencies little
vllalAs. They were numerous in last sum
merS riot, and are always conspicuous where
ever there is mob violence or rowdyism. There
is hardly any species Of crime which they can
commit which they do not fall into and steadi-
ly practice as opportunity offers or necessity
|compels. or home restraints they know COM
paratlvely little or nothing; of good influences
they receive none which are strong enough to
counteract their innate tendencies to vice They
seem to be turned loose upon society to grow
up as best they can, get their living how they
can, by hook or crook, proper or improper
means; and, as "a natural consequence, they
fall into bad habits, evil company, and then
into vice which brands them with felon's
mark, introduces them within the walls OF a
prison, and brushes out every feeble spark of
manhod or feeling of honor which might be
lingering in their natures.
There is Il fearful wrong existing somewhere.
A civilization which turns out criminals as
young and as rapidly as ours Is now doing, is
certainly defective one, and one which could
not safely be recommended. That the multi
tudc of our saloons and drinking places and
houses of illfamc and low-lived dens of infamy
OF all grades constitute school in which these
youthful pupils are taking lessons in ways of
crime and learning secrets of vice which pre-
pare them for future deeds of darkness no one
looking intelllgently at the facts in the case
can for a moment doubt And that this ques-
ton Of youthful criminality will sooner or later
have to be met by all Legislators and philan.
thropists and lovers of good order aud pure
morals, is also equally evident.-Ereaiag
,IOuru0l