The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1890-05-01

| the most successful business men i'm the
city of Chicago was thief and confidence
man twenty-five years ago. If Mr.. Byrnes
will look among the gentlemen of his own
profession in the cities of the country he
will lind good sprinkling of men who
were once professional criminals. Will he
say they have not reformed? But we did
not set out to prove Mr.. Byrnes to be an I'M
reliable witness. We will speak of him as
moulder of public opinion. He has made
liberal use of printers ink in the pro-
ductiOn of books on criminals. These books
have been widely read and have had good
deal of influence in one way or another.
He has used real criminals and their exploits
as his literary stock in trade: and the pub
lie should bear in mind that he writes for
money. Therefore he makes his books as
attractive as possible to the class who
banker after that kind of literature These
productions, judged from moral stand
point, may justly be classed with the So
called pernicious dime novel, for they have
the same effect upon the mind of the SYM
pathetic reader. If the fimsy plots por-
trayed in the dime novel fire the youthful
brain with desire to emulate the robber
chief. is it not more reasonable to suppose
that the same person will be more strongly
influenced by the biographies of real rob-
berS? The boy knows the former to be a
relation of improbabilities while the latter
&c, NbO -
are impracticable; those of the other. prac-
ticable. The book that describes the meth
DDS of expert thieves is as much an educator
of thieves as a work on architecture is an
to separate the young from the old offend
ers in the jails so that the boys may not be
taught the methods of experienced
criminals; but the old thief who takes the
boy into his cell and tells him how to rob a
dwelling house or bank is doing no more
harm to that boy or the public than the man
who publishes book telling how snch things
may be done. The public may not regard
it as so, but nevertheless it is true that one
of the great causes of the rapid increase in
the number of criminals is the large amount
of technical information on criminal methods
published in books and newspapers. 1t is
no uncommon thing to see full and minute
descriptions of how bank was robbed or
how burglars entered and ransacked
house or how slick confidence game was
worked, all of which are temptations to
that large class of young fellows who would
prefer to live by their wits rather than by
hard and poorly paid honest labor. In
spector Byrnes has, in his book, laid bare
the lives and methods of many expert Grim
inals; and in doing this he has not only put
the information within the reach of all who
aspire to emulate their deeds, but he has
made it almost impossible for those whom
he has published to the world to ever gain
foot hold in an honest calling if they should
desire to turn from their evil ways. You
may say that this exposure warns the pub
lie against them and lessons their power for
evil, and no doubt it does. but where it
locks one in prison it educates two to take
his place.
Undoubtedly Mr. Byrnes is great man
in his way; but his way is not the way that
would lessen the number of criminals in the
world. Nor will his name go down to pos
terty as benefactor of the human race.
Nor will his opinions have weight in the
councils of the wise men who will plan the
future battles for the suppression of crime.
Cheap Pleasure.
''Vat ish it you wants, SchacOb?" asked
Moses SchaumDurg of his Oldest son.
"Give me haluf of tOllar. vOdder."
s.Vat Won wants init such LARGE sums of