The Russellville Democrat., 1883-04-05
PRICE FIVE CENTS.

arc several families nearly every one
of which have been convicted OF
crime. In one of the murder cases
now before the Criminal Court a
defense OF hereditary love and yearn-
[ ing for strong drink is to be intro
dneee9s. - :. uefense, and on just as
good grounds some of the criminals
locked up IN our jail in the Jefferson
City penitentiary might set up a de
tense of hereditary inclination to be
criminals. 1t is not an extremely
uncomncH thing to find whole faml-
lies participating in and living by
crime. Only few days ago we had
case in the Jail. The sheriff of st.
Francois'county, Mo-, on his way to
the penitentiafy, had five prisoners
in charge going up on sentences Of
from two to six years. They had
been detected in the burglary of a
farm house in St. Francois county
and it was supposed that this was
not the first Job of this kind in
which they had taken part. The
principal prisoner was under a six
years sentence. His wife was going
to the pen for four years and his
brother and sister for three and two
years respectively. The father and
mother were dead or they would
probably have had place in this
family group. This however, is
rather an instance of family unit
ing efforts in the perpetration of a
single felony"
"Have we had any families Of this
description in st. Louis?'
Yes; only they are a stronger
proof of the fact thata tendency to
commit crime Is transmitted. from
father to son and pervades a whole
family. There is one family here
named Mcclure. The old man has
been IN the pen and two of his sons
are making tall efforts to follow in
the footsteps of their respected faith
er. There is another family here,
all the members of which are not
criminals, and as the two respecta.
BILE persons in it bear the family
name it would be wrong to implicate
them by publication. They will
be readily identified by any officer
on the force and many Of their vic
Tins when you state that the most
daring of the batch is Tommy
Ms and his sister Kate. There
were five boys and two girls. Three
of the boys turned out to be thieves
and the two girls as bad. The girls
are living with two men enjoying
the reputation of thieves, and are
docketed in the Rogues' Gallery as
"pals" of their three worthy broth
ers in-law. This batch has been re-
peatedly arrested but we have never
succeeded in getting more than one
OF them out OF harms way. Anoth-
Ell family named Bryland worked St.
Louis tor a long time. There were
four boys in this gang but all died
of consumption brought on by the
night work done by them in bad
weather and dissipation"
"Those are not blooded crooks
from their births are they?"
"Well, you would think they were
If you knew them for they have a |
regular growth. The little ones be-
gin atpetty thefts from hawkers' and
farmers wagons, and railroad freight
cars, for which on account of the
smallness of the offense and offender,
they escape punishment. The next
step Is pulling dampers; that is tap
ping tills of small shops. Picking
pockets. which requires little more |
science, is the next step, and at
about this stage they are taken in
tow by their elder brothers and |
serve as "kids," to be lifted in
to open door, or perform
similar functions. After this they |
are full fedged and capable of per-
jobs for themseNes.-Post
Dispatch.