The Red Cloud chief., 1878-01-31
TRAINING YOUNG THIEVES.
superintendent Walllng Tells
How they are TauGht.

V8uHHOk CII0
How they are Taught.
"Stail i'm, Johnny. stall 'imr' 1t was
the mother who said this to JOHNNY, O
little fellow of five year, or whereabouts,
who in the pride Of wearing his first
pair of trousers, stood on Franklin St.
watching with eager eyes a little pet dog
dancing around on the sidewalk. The
dog had lost his master and was evi.
IDENTIFY anxious to find him.
But the words Of the mother to her
child were full of deep significance.
and gave rise to q painful train of thO't
in the mind Of the writer. Here was
an apparently honest looking woman.
plainly and clearly dressed, Installing
into the mind Of her little boy the desire
TO acquire that which did not belong TO
him. In this way thieves get their first
lessons.
The little nine year old girl. Mary
Howard, who was sentenced on Mon
day to five DAYS confinement in the
''Tombs'' for picking pockets, is a fair
specimen of this class of culprits. She
said she took home to her mother two
pOcket-books on the day before her ar
rest.
The writer yesterday called to see her,
In the City Prison. The matron sent an
attendant up to the loft in the depart
ment called the '.Magdalen." and she
was brought down to the office. The
child was evidently very much fright
ened at the gloomy, barrack-like look
ing place. and the strange and unsym-
pathetic faces which she saw. Her ewes
looked appealingly into the writer's:
her lips were dry and crusted with the
fever of anxiety, and she clutched her
thin little fingers together neryOusly, as
she waited to be addressed.
Were You ever arrested before"
mo"
IBID you tell the officer that you took
home to your mother two pocket-books
which you had stolen?"
Yes"
WAS that true?"
No"
The writer finding that she would
prevaricate or lie, questioned her no
more.
An attache of the prison who was
present. and who has been connected
with it for twenty-One years, said that
children SO young, and wholly lacking
IN moral culture, no matter how natu-
rally good they might be, would be in
fiuenced to either lie or tell the truth
according to circumstances. His long
experience had been that not one child
out of a hundred arrested and impris-
oned or sent to q refOrmatory institu-
ton. so-called. for o number of years,
or during their minority, was ever re-
ally reformed. In the majority of cases
they are made worse by association
with other and more experienced adopts
in the art of thievery. The dread of
punishment does not deter them sufi-
GENTLY to cause them to relinquish all
desire to steal.
There were in the Boys Department
of the City Prison yesterday, nineteen
young thieves. from the age of ten up
70 twenty years. some awaiting trial,
and others under sentence of conviction.
kIney all associated together in the cor
nor during the day, but at night were
ocked up in cells separately, or not
nore than two together.
superintendent of Police Walling at
Peadquarters was interviewed on the
Publect. He said:
mo my experience in regard to
[oung thieves is, that they. at least the
kreat majority of them, are not taught
Systematically to steal like Pagan taught
The Artful Dodger and poor Oliver
TWIST. They get into the way quite
naturally and BY degrees as they grow
Older. They are sent out to pick up
wood and coal. If they steal a box or !
q barrel. and carry it or roll it home,
they are patted on the back and encour.
aged.
That's the way our young thieves
are made, and that's the way thew co
on until they are sent to the penitentis-
~: Their career is usually very short.
After q conviction, and they have sery-
ed out their time, they are constantly
under police surveillance, so that it is
impossible for them to do much
in the old line again. They get desper-
ate, and try their hand at burglary, and
away they 60 to Sing Sing for Ten or
twenty years.-N 7. Star, !