The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1895-11-07

from showing in detail just what the
refOrmatOry school does for the pris-
Oner, but minute statement, is un-
necessary. The mature mind has
written in books it's picture of the
world and the prisoner must be taught
to read as condition of contemplating
that picture. He must be taught the
science of numbers so that when he re-
turns to the world he can for himself
quantity the product of his labor and
know that he is receiving from the
World-market an equivalent of the con-
tribution he makes to the worlds
values. The ability to determine for
himself his rights in business transac-
tions to know that he is not the
victim of designing lnen-stimulates
self-respect and wholesome pride of
character. Literature, history, biog-
raphy and geography, furnish thoughts
and images that are an excellent SUBJ
stitute for the air castles and impure
pictures in which the prisoners mind
is prolific The reformatory inmate
is usually day-dreamer. He is not
interested in realities. The real world
exacts obedience, but he wants to do
what pleases his fancy. Not having
learned that the world is conquered
only by him who obeys it, he banishes
the real world from his mind and sets
up one of his own-a false world which
does not exact obedience. which has no
law but caprice-the absence of law
and with this he sports as his fancy
chooses. A perverted imagination is a
prominent element in the criminals
disease, and one which requires a
remedy. Elimination by substitution
is the effective cure. The mind is &C.
tive and grows by what it feeds upon.
There is at least a modicum of man.
hood In every criminal-a capacity to
| respond to the great deeds of heroic
characters portrayed in wholesome
fiction, in biography and in history.
Goodness is the essential element in
character and even the perverted can
respond to the good deeds of another,
and this admiration elevates the char
acter of the one who entertains the
generous sentiment. When the pupil
in the reformatory school learns that
the great characters of the world, who
thought and toiled suffered to make
the world better, sacrificed themselves
for him, gave their lives that the world
might be better place for him and
his fellows to live in, his manhood is
stimulated, when through geography
he sees each individual sharing in the
blessings of the inhabitable globe, he
gets picture of the world such as
mature minds. through experience and
insight, have painted it, his enjoy
ment of free activity is awakened and
he desires to participate in these ac-
tivities, which make the earth para
disc, and every inhabitant of it child
of king.
The criminal is usually fatalist, he
believes in luck, and luck is against
him. Long ago, Edmund, in King
Lear, correctly stated in the following
the philosophy of the modern criminal
and at the same time exposed the alb
surdity of his philosophy: ''This is
the excellent foppery of the world;
that, when we are sick in fortune,
(often the surfeit of our own behavior,)
we make guilty Of our disasters, the sun,
the moon, and the stars; as if we were
villains by necessity; fools by heavenly
compulsion; knaves, thieves and
PREACHERS by spherical predominance;
drunkards, liars and adulterers, by an
enforced obedience of planetary in
fuence; and all that we are evil in, by
a divine thrusting on, an admirable
evasion.
Before he can be reformed the victim
of the delusion that his career is de-
termined by something external to
himself, must see that this is an
evasion-he must appreciate that
truer sentiment uttered by another
character of Shakespeare's, "The
fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
but in ourselves that we are under
lings." He must learn that "whatsO-
ever man soweth,' not what someone
or something, else, but what the man
himself soweth, shat shall he also
reap" That society exists for the ex-
press purpose of returning to the in
dividual the value of his deed; that
while there may seem to be exceptions,
temporarily here and there, in the long
run and speaking broadly, the indi
vidual gets what he is entitledto. The
principles which govern the conduct
of the individul as a member of soci-
ETY., are the subject matter of ethics
and the proper presentation of those
principles is an efficient means in re-
formatory education.
Before he is paroled, every prisoner