Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-09-07
BREEDING PLACES OF CRIME.

not see a more interesting or myStl1y- ing entertainment this season.
 BREEDING PLACES OF CRIME. Inspector Byrnes is keen observer of
 the workings of crime as we'll as skill
 full detective of criminals. What he
 has to say, therefore, of the evil of the
 cheap lodging houses of New York is of
 interest as we'll as instruction.
 The inspector discusses the question in
 the North American for September,
 giving as his judgment that these es-
 tablishments do more to set men on the
 line of criminal careers than any other
 agency whatever. In nine cases out of
 ten, MT Byrnes affirms, the people who
 drift into these lodging houses turn out thieves, burglars or murderers. The
 parties are in such close quarters, and
 misery loves company so well, that these
 houses breed crime as they breed yer
 min and from twelve to thirteen thous-
 and persons are packed away nightly in
 New York in these cheap sleeping places. They are next door to the house of cor
 rection and the state prison. Convicts just released from confinement resort to
 them, and through the companions they
 meet there resume their criminal careers.
 Mir Byrnes also calls attention to their
 use in the time of an election for "col-
 onizing" voters. Matt Quay made good
 use of them last fall, and had 1t not
 been for the prompt action of Chairman
 # 1,.1 tod
 '.niggers'' sent to Sing liar
 rison's majority in New York would undoubtedly have been
 very much larger than it was. The
 cheap lodging houses sheltered many a man in the ides of last November whose paid duty was to vote for Harrison and protection, and they would have shelter ed many more had Chairman Brice and his associates in the democratic cam paign management been less vigilant. : All this is thoroughly well known to Inspector Byrnes, though he makes no } special reference to it in his article.
 F There are cheap lodging houses in . every American city of note, but it is 3 likely that they are not the only breeders ) of crime Indeed, it is held by keen observer that the criminal classes every } where have their we'll known haunts and club rooms, if not lodging houses, where l the education in crime goes on daily and 1t is to be feared that even in the houses of correction and jails, where ! young men and old in the workshops
 and in the cells have large opportunities of social intercourse, the older men dc . not lose any chances to teach the youth with whom they come in contact how l to plunge deeper into crime when they are released. The authorities may say l that effectual attempts are made to pre- } vent these free relations between 0 convicts, but it is the testimony q of many who have served thei1 l time in houses of correction and jails ]. that, while they arc places for thu g working out of criminal sentences, they r offer excellent chances for a crin1ina @ training, and send back certain mum d Der of young persons regularly int 0 society with far better criminal educa t tion than they had on receiving thei h first criminal sentence. That is the cas- !. with many of the criminal youths O o Waterbury who make short sojourl !, in the New Haven county jail and conn @ back only to commit new and oftentime $ more serious crimes than those tha y caused their first commitment. w 'f have in mind young man who wa n sent down few months ago for a mino B. offence and whose last injunction to on n of his pals that bade him good bye at tn le station was to send him the Polio t Gazette regularly. Presumably he di IS so, and if he did he is doing it yet, fo t, after a short absence from the Nev n Haven institution he was returned for 'r longer term and more serious offenc Y than he went down for on the first occa r. sion.
 W It has been asserted that philanthro 'r pists would do much needed work ts they would inquire more closely into tn % sources of criminal education and endea sr vor to stop the flow of crime by dam 'f ming up the source. Then, perhaps, W 'e would have less reason to deplore tn es growth of the youthful clements in tn IS knowledge and practice of the crimina d calendar. Cheap lodging houses, jail 'r and houses of correction might well 1T le vlte their most careful and conscientiou