The Helena independent., 1893-12-14
NOTICE.
---------'------------ --- - ------ =
THE " EATIiEk,
ROBERT CAMP, HIGHwASMAN.

On Saturday next, one week from the
day on which he was released from {
term OF imprisonment, Robert Camp
highwayman, will be sentenced to un.
dergo another long period in the state
penitentiary at Deer Lodge.
The second offence for which this
young man, who has not yet attained his
majority, will suffer the penalty Of the
law, was committed within thirty-slx
hours Of his pardon for the crime Of bur
glary. Society will congratulate itself
that this hardened young offender has
been so summary put away where he
cannot prey upon the community. This
feeling is only natural and any sympa-
thy with this young fellow may be mis-
placed. Yet. right-thinking men and
women who study his case cannot but
feel that society has not done it's full
duty by Robert Camp.
However vicious. and abandoned, and
unrepeptant this youth may be, it cer-
tainly must be said that at the expira-
tion of his first term OF penal servitude
tho most critical period in his life
he had no impulse to reform. Last Sat
urday young Camp stepped out Of the
prison door at Deer Lodge free man.
He wore coarse but substantial suit of
clothing and carried in his pocket five-
dollar banknote which the prison Off
cials were authorized to give him. Re-
mote from friends and kindred, un-
skilled in any trade, and unable to get em-
ployment, il he should seek it, in times
like these, what prospect was before
him! No nearby home was awaiting
him, no kindly hand was extended, no
word Of cheer or counsel spoken to him.
The five dollars, the sum total of his
worldly wealth,swas barely sufficient to
pay his railroad fare to Butte or Helena.
What wonder is it that he should steal
ride on the railroad, like tramp, and
that he should use his five dollars to buy
a pistol with which to hold up the first
man he met! What incentive had he to
do anything else? Nobody knew him,
except the police, and they were watch
ing him with suspicion from the mo-
ment he landed in Helena. There was
no work for him to do. Idle men were
plenty before he came to swell their
number.
Christian men and women OF Mon
tana, whose fault is it that this young
man SO quickly fell again? Is it yours,
or society's, or the states? 1t surely is
somebody's, and that somebody must be
aroused. The country is full Of these
young men and old men just freed from
prison. Hardly day passes that the
doors of Deer Lodge do not swing open
to let out upon the world other Robert
Camps, disgraced, discouraged, without
aim or employment, with just enough
money to reach the nearest town, there
to fall so swiftly and surely into the old
vicious ways.
Naturally it will be said that the state
ought to do something about it. That
is always the way-to put off upon the
state what it is not pleasant or conve-
nient to do ones self. But under the
best possible conditions no legislation
can be secured for the next eighteen
months or two years. Meantime can
the people of Montana afford to let the
criminal mills grind merrily on, turning
out Robert Camps innumerable to stalk
up and down our highways and rob our
houses, because they are without help
or hope, without money and without
homes! We do not think they can.