Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1897-07-09
The Beginnings of EVIL.

we'll enough for some purposes
OF study and corrective treat
ment, but convenience OF classi
tication should not mislead any
one into the idea that the Grim
lnal Is necessarily a criminal by
his physical, mental or moral
constitution or that those who
do not naturally belong to the
sO>Called criminal class may not
drift into it. Heredity doubtless
| plays It's part in inclining men
to vice as we'll as to virture, but
association with criminals is a
greater fdctor in determining the
career of young man. Proofs
of the strong effects OF criminal
heredity and criminal associations
aIe abundant, for there are fam
lilies whose members are devot-
ed to certain learned professions.
But there are also abundant
proofs that criminal hereditv is
a small favtor when not combin-
ed with criminal associations.
A contrary impression, where
1t exists, can generally be traced
to the influence of novelists,
who, with a poetic fancy com
mon to all ages OF men, repres>
ent that the influence of birth
or parentage overcomes all teach
ings and associations, so that
the born nobleman remains
noble though brought up in
squalor and ignorance, and the
pauper changeling reveals his
low origin though clothed in
purple Novelists are not scient-
lists, but poets, and their reps
reservations of the influence of
heredity should not be accepted
as true without sustaining proof
afforded by real Characters in
stead Of the creatures of their
imagination. AS a matter of fact
it is difficult to isolate the in>
fuences determining character
that the question as to the in
fuence of heredity alone is still
an open one, with the certainty,
however, that it is not a con-
trolling influence.
A very large number of Grim
inals coming from good parent
age drift into crime almost TN
consciously through idleness,
bad associations, inordinate
CRED and lack of moral force.
Criminals themselves may be
divided into classes. There are
the brutal criminals, whose
crimes are directed against per-
sons; the sneaking thieves, who
not courage enough to rob openly
and the confidence men, sWiud-
lers and embezzlers, who would
not rob at all except by Indirect
means. 1t is the latter class OF
criminals that is recruited from
the ranks of idle young men of
good parentage. They do less
intention, of becoming criminals
but they are led into wrong
courses by bad associates, Or
something by their business
superiors, aud finding themselves
involved have not the moral
courage to break away from the
beginnings of evil.
Clerks in banks and similar
institutions are sometimes
caught in the tolls in this way.
Their superior officer directs
them to make false entry which
they know to be wrong, and they
weakly obey, without, however,
understanding the full purpose
and meaning of the transaction.
After a while they find that they
have been used as tools to fa1sify
accounts, and, instead of break
ing away at once from evil
courses, they attempt by other
false enteries to cover up the
original wrong. When exposure
comes, as it must some day, the
explanation they offer is not
sufficient to acquit them, and,
with broken regulations, they
drift into the criminal class.
They might and should De object
of pity if the world could be
made to fully understand the
manner of their temptation and
fall, but they could not them
selves explain it, SO insidious is
the poison of evil once admitted
to the system.
The only safe plan is to resist
the beginnings of evil. If a
wrong step has been taken, Or
one that appears to be wrong it
should be retraced at once, even
at the expense of humiliating
confession. Dalliance with
wrong is always dangerous, nor
can any one find security in the
idea that the world is divided
into fixed classes of any kind.
j The criminal class is certainly
recruited day by day and year
by year, and some of the recruits
come from that other so-called
class who, by heredity and asso-