Bismarck weekly tribune., 1888-11-30
S0CIETY'S CRIMINALS.

S0CIETY'S CRIMINALS.
EXTRACTS FROM AN INTERVIEW
WITH COL. ROBERT G. lNGERsoLL.
We Are Well. in q Measure. Responsible
for the Existence Of Felons-The Bur
glars Beginning-No Reforming Power
In Revense-Another View.
The probability is that society raises it's
own criminals. 1t plows the land, sows the
seed and harvests the crop. believe that
the shadow Of the gibbet will not always fall
upon the earth. believe the time will come
when we will know too much to raise Grim
inals-know too much to crowd those who
labor into the dens and dungeons that we
call tenements, while the idle live in palaces.
The time will come when men will know that
real progress means the enfranchisement of
the whole human race, and that our interests
are so united, SO interviewer, that the few
cannot be happy while the many suffer; SO
that the many cannot be happy while the
few suffer; SO that none can be happy while
one suffers. In other words it will be found
that the human race is interested in each
individual. When that time comes we will
stop producing criminals; we will stop pro-
ducing failures; we will not leave the next
generation to chance; we will not regard the
gutter as proper nursery for posterity.
People imagine that if the thieves are sent
to the penitentiary that is the last of the
thieves; that if those who kill others are
hanged society is on safe and enduring
basis. But the trouble is here: A man comes
to your front door and you drive him away.
You have an idea that that mans case is set
tied. You are mistaken. He goes to the
back door. He is again driven away. But
the case is not yet settled. The next thing
you know he enters at night. He is burg
lar. He is caught; he is convicted; he is
sent to the penitentiary, and you imagine
that the case is settled. But it is not. You
must remember that you have to keep all the
agencies alive for the purpose of taking care
of these people. You have to build and
maintain your penitentiaries, your courts of
Justice; you have to pay your judges, your
district attorneys, your juries, your witnesses,
your detectives, your police-all these people
must be paid. So that, after all, it is very
expensive way of settling this question.
THE BURGLARS BEGINNING.
You could have done it far more cheaplv
had you found this burglar when he was a
child, had you taken his father and mother
froa the tenement house, or had you COM
PEELED the owners to keep the tenement clean:
or if you had widened the streets, if you had
planted few trees, if you had had plenty of
baths, if you had had school in the neigh
borhood. If you had taken some interest in
this family-some interest in this child-in-
stead of breaking into houses, he might have
been builder of houses.
There is, and it cannot be said too often,
no reforming influence in punishment: no
reforming power in revenge Only the best
of men should be in charge of penitentiaries:
only the noblest minds and the tenderest
hearts should have the care of criminals.
Criminals should sec from the first moment
that they enter a penitentiary that it ia
filed with the air of kindness, full of the
light of hope. The object should be to con-
vince every criminal that he has made a
mistake; that he has taken the wrong way:
that the right way is the easy way, and that
the path of crime never did and never can
lead to happiness; that that idea is mistake
and that the government wishes to convince
him that he has made mistake: wishes to
open his intellectual eyes; wishes to so ed,-
cate him, to SO elevate him, that he will look
back upon what he has done onlv with
horror.
LIKE WILD BEAST.
This is reformation. Punishment is not.
When the convict is taken to Sing Sing or to
Auburn, and when striped suit of clothes
is put upon him-that is to say, when he is
made to feel the degradation of his position
no step has been taken toward reforma-
tion. You have simply filed his heart with
hatred. Then, when he has been abused for
several years. treated like wild beast. and
finally turned out again in the community,
he has no thought, in majority of cases.
except to ''get even" with those who have
prosecuted MIN. He feels that it is a perse-
cution.
Another view Of the subject is this: I have
read that of fifty criminals who had been
executed it was found, believe, in nearly
all the cases that the shape of the skull was
abnormal. Whether this is true or not I
don't know, but that some men have ten
dency toward what we call crime 1 believe.
Where this has been ascertained. then. it
seems to me such men should be placed where
they cannot multiply their kind Women
VINO have a criminal tendency should be
placed where they cannot increase their kind.
For hardened criminals-that is to saw. for
the people who make crime business-it
would be better to separate the sexes; to
send the men to one island, the women to
another Let them be kept apart. to the end
that people with criminal tendencies may
fade from the earth. This is not prompted
by revenge. This would not be done for the
purpose of Furnishing these people, but for
the protection of society-for the peace and
happiness of the future.-New York World
Interview.
Money Saved by sanitation.
Medical men have long been familiar with
the fact that sanitation has been saving to
the community at large in doctors bills. in
nursing, and even in days of labor to the in
dustrial classes. But it has been difficult to
put results into figures so as to impress the
public mind. Mr.. Brudenell Carter at
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