New-York tribune., 1896-05-10
HOME LIE ND CRINE.

Life Imprisonment FOR boy sounds shocking.
II suggests barbarors state Of society In which
nshmcnt Is vengeance and human life means
nothing II calls up n picture worse than Of
death Of youth condemned Ia hopeless exist
cncc OF n person on the threshold OF manhood
and all It's opportunities cut off from every one
OF them. Yet awful as is the fate OF Hildreth,
the young train wrecker. no one can say that
the punishment Is unjust or that any pleasanter
solution Of his case could have been found. As
specimens OF youthful depravty. he and his
companions. who are each To spend forty years
in prison. would be hard 10 match. IL Is pitiful
to think Of the whole life of Il youth for whom
an honorable career might have been hoped
being ruined. but the State for It's own prOtec
tion had 10 alternative but to innct this penalty
upon him. Ruined as his life Is. II Il he himself
who has ruined H. Yet not entirely himself
no. not even principally himsclf-but the train
Ing or lack Of training Of his boyhood has ruined
him.
This boys father has load Of sorrow almost
too great 10 he borne Were he and his son
unique in their relations to the community they
might be ignored In their misery. But theirs is
only one case. made noticeable by the enormity
Of It's consequence OF an extremely prevalent
evil In American life Nobody who studies young
men at all can fail TO be impressed with the
alarming tendency to rowdyism among both
city and country youths whose parents are re-
spectacle and law-abIllng people. The boy most
in evidence, even In the hamlet or farming com
munity of ArcadIan simplicity, is he who loves
coarse, rude Jokes and low companions, delights
to get possession Of the viest Of the semI-crim-
inal periodicals. finds his heroes among prize
fighters and thieves. and grows up to IL useless
manhood. Essentially the same conditions pre-
vail in the towns and cities. The young tough
we expect to be the product of the tencments
but he is not the worst specimen Of Nhc rising
generation for he ls only the reproduction Of his
kind What Is most 10 be feared Is the reverslon
Of the sons Of the better classes the growth
of body Of young men saturated with material
ism Of low ideals and evil ambitions. intelligent
without being moral, subject to all the tempta
tions which easy circumstances give without
having received the training in self-restmint and
refinement which easy circumstances should
give There Is far too much truth in the com
mon saying that the American boy Il bar
barlan.
For his being barbarian others are more mt
fault than himself Here and there the con-
genital criminal exists, who from childhood IL
destined to q career Of evil in spite OF all care
But the great majority Of boys are what their
parents make them. Not necessarily what their
parents think they make them, what they preach
to them TO be, or pray for them to become but
what by their acts they allcw them to grow into
Here more than anywhere else does the preva-
lent absorption Of Americans in business work
harm. The sons Of honorable men are left to
grow up unknown to their fathers. and find
companions Of uncertain character. Their sports
their conversation, their reading their thoughts
are left TO chance or some school The father
thinks his duty done IL he tells his boy to be-
have himself. keeps him from disturbing the
quiet OF the household and spends reasonable
sum Of money for him. Under such training 1t
Is not remarkable that boy is not credit TO
his family. Young Hildreth's father sent him
TO school in Rome without ever learning that
there was a school there. and furnished him
money with which TO frequent barrooms and
entertain evil companions. under the impression