Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-05-31
BRINGING BOYS BACK
To the Paths of Rectitude From
Which They Have Strayed.
TALK WITH AN EXPERT REFORMER.
Children Who Are Criminals by Virtue OF
Their Ancestry.
PEOPLE WHO DO RIGHT FROM PRIDE

Among the guests at the Anderson Is
Major R. W. McClaughrey, superintendent
of the Pennsylvania Industrial Reformatory
at Huntingdon. The Major is attending the
Scotch Irish Congress. He is polished
gentleman, and from 10 years experience In
the management of the penitentiary at Jol-
let he has become thoroughly versed in the
knotty problem of successfully handling
prisoners. He is thoroughly interested in
bis work, and what he has to say about the
criminal classes will command attention.
In speaking OF his work at Huntingdon,
yesterday, he said:
''The Institution is not more than year
old, and it will take some time to tell
whether we are accomplishing much good
or not. We admitted during the last year
800 inmates between the ages of 10 and 20.
OF this number from 15 to 20 were put out
on parole, and we had to take back two OF
them on account of incorrigibility.
FINDING HOMES FOR BOYS.
"These boys on parole are placed with
reputable citizens who are willing to en-
ploy them. Every month the boys make
written report to me and their employers
verify it.
"We mark the boys on three things,
labor, behavior and study, and when these
requirements have been satisfactory for
certain length of time they are put out. Ii
a boy doesn't behave, or steals anything, as
soap or towels, for example, about the instl-
tuition he is placed in lower grade. where
the food is palmer, cells narrower and his
lines are harder. As soon as he manifests
disposition to mend his ways restore him
to his old rank.
"You ask me if these boy criminals can
be reformed. Well, everything depends on
what is meant by the word criminal. Some
of them are trained criminals from the be-
ginning, and for these think there is no
hope except to restrain them as much as
possible. have boys in Huntington who
are adopts in crime. Come from an ancestry
of criminals, they fairly revel in it, and they
have mapped out for themselves what they
propose to do when they get out One little
chap is clever pickpocket. His father is
one, and taught him the business. That boy
will follow that trade as soon as he is re-
leased.
THE TOUGH ELEMENT.
''Then there are other boys who have done
wrong through dissipation, Ignorance and
lack of attention. They are what we call
toughs, but they are willing to make an
effort to do right. The intent has not been
to do wrong, and after a time they begin to
see that it pays to be decent.
"Our plan of work is this: First, when
the boys come to rest we teach them to labor
with their hands and we require them to
study. If there is the smallest spark of a
conscience lett they soon develop pride
and in comparing themselves now with
what they were, they realize the difference,
and they become anxious to improve. Those
that can't read and write get to be very
proud when they learn enough to write
home. Once pride is awakened it acts as
restraining influence. Do you know there
are great many people who go through
lie who keep straight, not from moral
principle, but from pride in doing right
This is not the highest spring of action. but
if you can't excite anything else good In
man you have at least accomplished some
thing, and kept somebody from being an
out and out open criminal.
CRIME ON THE INCREASE.
''The time is coming when the State will
have to take hold of this criminal problem.
Statistics show that crime is on an alarming
increase in proportion to the ratio of in
crease in population. The management OF
penal institutions should be put beyond the
iticians are higgling over appointments. the |
criminal classes are getting in their work.
Civilization by making more things crimes |
is adding all the time to the number OF bad |
people who ought to be behind prison bars. |
The Greeks thought it no crime to steal, but !
a terrible disgrace to be caught.
"The Fiji Islander thinks nothing of kill |
ing his decrepit old father. Even the
practical uses to which electricity has been
put in later years has helped the criminals. |
The system of elecrotyping makes it much
easier for the counterfeiter to initiate bonds
and bank notes, and the electric light has
become an invaluable adjunct to the outfit |
of clever burglar. They never found any
inner construction of keyhole. And so
with the advance Of civilization there is
that corresponding increase in the tendency
to crime, and it is about time that the Gov
ernment commenced to realize the danger
and take some steps to offset the evil.
THE COUNTRY DOESN'T KEEP UP.
"One of the faults is the rapid growth of
the city over the country. The two do not
keep pace. A Harvard college statistician
recently showed that since the settlement of
America the cities had doubled in popula-
tion 1876 times while the country had doubled
only 10 times. Will wager tnat before
many more censuses are taken that half the
population of the United States will be in
the cities. Now, then, with the
boys thrown together in such con-
fined places where all sorts of |
vices exist they naturally 90 |
astray. They are not taught to be indus
trious, and don't know what it is to work. |
Perhaps the father dies when the child is
young. and he is thrown out to earn his |
own living. He can't do it, and becomes a
tramp, finally drifting into crime. In nv
experience have discovered that mum.
Der of criminals have been made in this
way. In fact most OF the crimes to-day are
committed by men under 80 years of age,
The recruits to the criminal classes are the
young people"