The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1889-01-03

the descendants is the cause of the present
crime.
A reporter on the Sheffield Telegraph. on
tour through Wh.techapel at night. writes:
THE houses are small and squalid. and
teemng with life. Late as it is. one must
walk carefully for fear of falling over half
naked infants. who crawl about the broken
pavement. Wherever you turn you see
bables-dirty, unkept with hardly sufficient
rags to cover their nakednesS
brought up on the streets taught to steal
and to lie. Good God! what can their
future be?" You may well ask what can
their future be?" The great mistake the
prison phlanthrOpsts make is starting out
with the idea of reforming the convict.
That is just what you can't do. The convict
who does not intend to lead all honest life
upon his discharge, the refOrmer may as
we'll not bother with. Taking this prison
for the standard l think the cOnv ct stands
as follows: About Is professional thieves.
whom YOU will waste your time on; about
1-3 who need no reform. who by direct cir
cumstances have fallen and whose chances
OF falling again are no worse than the
chances of fifty million other people i'm the
United States. This class you can do some
thing for from a just standpoint. but they
need no reform; if they had not been sent to
prison at all. they would still have preferred
not to commit crime again. The third
class, about 1-2 the whole number are the
SO called hereditary criminals. that is. those
born and raised in the SlumS of the large
cities. The reformer may possibly reform
one per cent. of this class, but it is doubtful.
You get hold of him too late: even if you
caught him at the age of fifteen. Then
what can the refOrmer do: is there no work
for him?" Plenty of work. Institute a
h<,or Of nd 81 81,
support his family. by paying them (the
famlies) for his work. thereby preventing
them from following his footsteps.
There are many other things that may be
done for each class that have mentioned,
considering their relation to society. but the
true idea is to 60 out and reform society in
general. The refOrmer's big work is on the
outside of the prison. Let us suppose that
he can reform every man now in prison. of
what use would it be? In the present state
of society. he would not have the present
number of prisoners reformed before he
would have new and much larger batch
on his hands. and would have to 60 over
the same old routine again: and so it would
60 on continually. Go out and reform the
rich and you will have done much to re-
form the poor: go ont and reform your laws
and law makers. and your prisons will not
be as crowded as they are: 90 out and re-
form society in general, and then come in
and see how many prisoners you have left.
The following is from John II. Clifford
on Social Safeguards: while we boast of
the vast results of modern civilization. and
wonder at the StupendOus structures we
have reared. we are apt to forget that in the
very shadow of this splendOr urk the van
dial and murderer awaiting their opportun-
ity. But how came they there? Not by
spontaneous generation. as some biologists
say of life. The very magnifcence in
whose shade they hide has helped to make
them. They are the embodiment. ugly and
remorseless, of every evil thing that has
contributed to make that outward show. In
a region of bleak cold, wandered soul
which had departed from the earth; and
there stood before him a hideOus fellow
creature. Who art thOu?" he cried.
WHO art thou. thou whom no demon
could be more foul and horrible?" To
whom the monstrOus creature answered: Il
am thine own actiOns."' Does not society
hear the same answer when it asks. who is
the monster that stands before it i'm the
form Of blacklist crime. of fire and murder
and rapine? L am thine own action it
says, 'reacting upon thee. in ways thor
didst not reckon when thou vast unawarts
creating me.'' There is too much of mere
tireside patriotism. public spirit moral
earnestness. religious convictions. power
less, for the most part like the 'cOistered
virtue which Milton SO dis;rusted. All the
great qualities OF good citizenship. of noble
humanity, must take the field. if they
would achieve any victory over the
foes of men. All the intellectual and moral
forces. now too much engaged i'm mere pri-
vate matters. must be combined and directed
to the great public tasks. We have not
only ourselves to work for. but those who
come after us. Like the
Streams that swift or slow,
Draw down Aeonian hills, and SOW
The dust of continents to be-
are the generations in the world 6.allad to