Evening star., 1896-12-15
GAMES OF CRIMINALS.

thropoIogy. has made a special study of
the sports that criminals engage in. The
innocent games of childhood, in the case Of
criminals, are tinctured with cruelty, and
sometimes accompanied by homicide. Grim
inals skip the rope, but part of the game
is to trip up the jumper and let him fall
heavily upon the stone pavement. Grim
iEals play leap-frog. but the object of the
game Is that he who makes the back
shall rise suddenly and violently just as
the frog mounts and throw him to the
ground.
The criminals play blindman's buff, but
the man with the bandaged eyes carries
handkerchief bearing in one corner jag
ged stone, piece of hard. sharpened Y cod
or bit of IRON With this weapon he strikes
those whom he pursues Another remark
able form of this game is for the blinded
one to be struck by one or another of his
companions if he fails to name the one
that touches him. The penalty is not the
innocent one of the children's game, but
a blow so severe that a physician has often
to be called I'm after the game is over. and
occasionally the sufferer is disabled for
some time.
1t has been found in those Italian re-
formatories where prisoners are not kept
IN solitary confinement that prisoners
games are often accompanied with lood-
shed, and that it Is almost impossible to
prevent cruelties. This is especially true
where prisoners work together, for they
brutal sports.
In one of these games the player has in
each hand a stick. having fixed in the end
keen metallic point. He interweaves his
arms, revolving the sticks with rapili.y,
and the game is for another prisoner TO
thrust his head between the arms and en-
dsavor to follow the revolutions of the
sticks without being wounded. 1t usually
happens that he receives fifteen or sixteen
wounds. and comes out with a bleeding
txrbi and han roI 10
are received.
The victim in another game has his eyes
bandaged and places his palm upon a
table. with fingers spread fan-like. An
other criminal repeatedly strikes between
the fingers with a pointed instrument. If
he wounds a finger then the two change
places, and woe to the man who refuses
the exchange The game is dangerous. al
though the criminals assert that the
wounds to the fingers are not deep or
we're because. "a they say, the metallic
points are short and do not penetrate far
"a grim form of philosophy.
The sport of criminals is ACCOMPANIED by
characteristic craft This is specially
shown I'm the methods in which the new
conner Is initiated into prison life. The
novice is conducted into an improyised
court chamber. where the judges are his
fellow prisoners. He is placed upon a stand
and gravely tried on a pretended charge,
and he has ban ely been condemned when the
stand Is suddenly drawn away. so that he
is thrown violently upon the earth.
Many games necessarily imply resistance
to pain as an absolute condition of success.
For example. there is the game of
needles" One of the players places his
closed fists upon the table. holding steadily
two needles one in each hand, the points
being slightly exposed. 1t is the game then
for companion to strike with his own
fists those of the other. and ii becomes
question Of endurance between the one
pricSed with the needles and the one whose
lists haa aren f.x-r he. rhszr-S I'm
There are contests in which the fingers
and hands wounded. and the scars are
an honorable distinction
The characteristic feature of all these
games. which are the recreation exclusively
of criminals in prison. is the love of COM
bat If. Is held by experts. sports are
the means of working off the superfiuous
activity of life, 1t is evident that super
especially powerful. Ii has been noted in
the case of prisoners that there is a preva-
leEce of great agility and litheness. which
Prof Isombroso considers a negative evil
dence of mental weakness, since it testifies
to greater development of the notorial
centers at the expense of the other cerebral
centers. But usually this physical energy
is not properly used in the ordinary life of
the criminal. and finds outlet and enjoy
ment In sport
Another characteristic of the games of
criminals il the admiration shown for
physical force. manifested in the docility
submit to the brutality of the victors-a
thing observed among savages.
Finally. the insensibility to pain exhibited
in the sports of criminals proves that such
men are less acute in their physical senses
as well as less sensitive TO the pains of
others. since what seems to others useless
ly cruel is only the usual thing with GRIM
inais- As the drunkard, his taste hardened
by alcohol. has need of a stimuIant con-
stantly stror ger. so in the case of the GRIM
inal. the nervous system demands stimulus
SO strong that to the ordinary steady-eo-
ing individual II would be actually painful
Oid-Time English Drinking Songs.
Agnes Repplier In the Atlantic.
The best of the English drinking songs
were written by the dramatists of the
seventeenth century: men who troIled out
their vigorous sentiments, linked sweetIy
together in flowing verse. without the
smallest thought OF fear of shocking any
body. Frankly indecorous, they invite the
whole wide world to drink with them. to
empty the brimming tankard passed from
hand to hand. and to reel home through
the frosty streets. where the watchman
gTins at their unsteady steps and quiet
sleepers. awakened from dull dreams echo
with drowsy sympathy the last swelling
cadence ol their uproarious song Where
there Is no public sentiment to aefy. even
Bacchanallan rioters ana BacchanalLau
verses cease to be defiant What admira-
BILE good temper and sincerity in FIetcher's
generous importantly
Drink today, and drown all sorrow
You shall perhaps not do ii tomorrow:
Best. while you have it, use your breath.
There is no drinking after death.
Then let u swill. boys. for our health.
Who drinks well loves the commonwealth
And he that will to bed go sober
Falls with the leaf. still In October.
Upon this song successive changes have
been rung. until now its variations are he
wildering. and TO II We owe the eyer-pop,-
lar and utterly indefensible glee roared ONT
for generations by many a lusty tavern
chorus
He who goes to bed. and goes to bed sohsr
Falls as the leaves do. and dies in October.
But he who goes to bed, and goes to he'd
mellow,
Lives as he ought to do. and dies an hon.
est fellow
Necessity.
Prom the Chicago Daily News.
Bobby-"Aamma. do the streets of heaven
hoW with milk and honey?"
Mother-"So the Bible says. dear"
n4f.t Arx1 l. -