The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1894-12-27
<Sd0KF AeX6IlSESs:
THE WAY OF THE TRANS
GRESSOR.
From MINNEAPOLIS Times.

The most mlSch1eVOuS Work OF |
certain class of low literature consists
in it's utterly false descriptions of the
lives of evil-doers. Silly boys are thus
persuaded that lawlessness brings at
tractive privileges with it, and that
criminals lead lives of pleasure.
Nothing is really further from the
truth. The lives of habitual criminals,
as rule, are most wretched; their every
hour is haunted by the expectation OF
arrest and punishment. There are no
carousals, there is no luxury, there is
nor freedom, there is no jOllity among
these professional breakers. They
are ouly serfs, at the best, hemmed in
between the miserable wretches with
whom they are compelled to associate,
and the detectives, and certain of
nothing but that they will come to
grief, and that they must purchase a
brief immunity by surrendering a
liberal share of their plumber to 60
betweens. There is, in truth, no more
unsatisfying or depressing position
than that of the habitual criminal, and
there are few of them who would not,
if they cou d, exchange their precarious
and degraded condition for any honest
work by which living might be earned.
In broader fields of transgression,
however, it might be said that the at
fractions are greater, for it is seen that
men, Who as the surface shows, are
subsisting upon dishonest acquisitions,
live sometimes luxuriously, spend a
great deal of money, apparently obtain
whatever they desire or fancy, and so,
in the eyes of tho superficial observer,
may be thought to occupy enviable
positions. The facts, however, show a
different state of affairs. Take for
example. the case of Seeley, the Shoe
and Leather Bank plunderer. Iii per
fectly certain that for years The life OF
this man must have been filled with ap
prehension and care, anxiety anC
despair. Upon his accomplish, Baker
the strain was so severe as to drive hin
to suicide. For several years Seeley
l knew that he was steadily wrecking the
3 bank whose officers trusted him, and hi
S also knew that however stubbornly HI
Q persisted, he could only swell thu
: catastrophe, and temporarily put of
:. the evil day-the day of discovery an(
V retribution. All that time he wa
Q engaged in an hourly struggle to stav'
Il off the hour of detection and ruin
t Day by day it became more difficult
q No common criminal ever probabl
o endured the mental strain and tOrtur
n which these wretched tricksters, Seele
y and Baker, underwent; and to suppos
IS that under such circumstances they 60
=, i any real comfort or enjoyment out Q
q their personal expenditures is pre-
posterous.
It is evident that the game was no
worth the candle in Seeley's case, an
it would be difficult to point out an
n. similar case in which the end was nc
j. also confusion, ruin and dlsgrec
n. Consider the case of the men who haT
t, attempted to get riches by frauduler
I'd and dishonest methods in our ow
tie community They are fugitives frol
as Justice, or in the penitentiary, or unde
at indictment awaiting trial, and thong
IN some of them may escape laws pei
ic alties, the same ineffaceable brand
,h shame in upon them all. They al
rs marked men for the rest of their live
as 1t is often said that such rogues go III
i'd whipt of justice, but it is not sufficient
10 realized that there is natural Nemesl
he which acts without any aid from huma
nd machinery and which makes the WE
Vi. of the transgressor hard, even when /
IT, seems to defy the law with impunit
be It will not do for young men to acqui
nd the delusive idea that audacity and di
EFF honesty are good agencies wherewi'