The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1899-01-20
Present-Day Thoughts.
written for the Citizen. /
BY "EEMO."

until well or Until death, if never like
" to recover. People with inherited
criminal tendencies never understand
their relation to society. They always
have little bee buzzing in their bon
nets that confuses their ideas and
makes them violent aud burglarious
without the slightest intention of do
ing evil. Their natures are so warped,
in fact, that good and evil are not I'M
derstood in there full meaning, good
being rather interpreted as the doing
Without detection, evil as a discovery
of wrong after it has been done. such
! characters learn nothing from being
shut up nor do they learn anything
from being tree, and for them the goth
Century will provide houses of dtten-
| tiou where as pleasantly as possible
and more profitable than if free, the
days and years shall pass, giving some
measure of physical happiness and
| comfort, and at the same time protect
| ing society from attacks that are mere
|
| sidious danger that comes from per-
! uniting people Of decided criminal
| bent to reproduce their kind at will.
! The moral imb4cile of the future will
b. considered a filter subject for the
verdict of a committee OF skilled ply
! siclaus, than the verdict of twelve uu.
skilled jurymen, who are called on 10
decide merely whether the deed of evil
was mmitted or not and are Tot at
all equal IL understanding why the
HIetched human creature before them
| had the impulse and yielded toi it, The
new century will see much more dis
eliminating in relation to wrong. doing
and the whole tendency will b. TO set
apart by themselves those who are
fiji ed With accused impulses from the
womb. They will be It garded more a.
OBJECTS of pity than subit cts of punish
ment, aud their proper treatment will
like every good deed, react upon So
,iety in hundred ways, lesseniug the
number OF Criminals, reducing the con-
slant legal cost Of looking alter thei,
'trcendants, aud at the sauie time
throwing around the riliable creature.
some of the comfort ami regularity and
repression that te.ong to those who
have no heritage of woe to carry.
Some people fail under the ban of the
law and become criminals by happen
ings that are almost accidents.
A pinch IF the pocket, Il crowding Ivy
obligations, favorable opportunity
and the hitherto respectable mber
If society is arraigned and sentenced
and confined.
A little quarrel, harmless enough at
the outset-and lab to occur with the
best of us-fires uncomfortable passion
and bodily Injury is done to the oppo
ueht. Then the culprlt possibly less
guilty or at any rate less annoying
than the one he knocks down is pul
where he can do no further harm.
Or perhaps the complaining voices
of hungry children and the wlstful woe
If a suffering wife make mau lend
ear to the tempter who urges him tC
take from those who We'll can spare &c
give TO those who need; and society.
organized protectors descend upon the
unhappy, needy, bew ildertd ing aud
he Is put where the immediate result
Is TO leduce his family to still & eater
need.
Society of the century yet to come
Will be found more willing to set free
such as these than to shut them up
Tie system of suspendlng a sentence
Yer first offender aud enforcing Il
o ~ after the commission of seconC
nlsdeed will be found much more il
vogue forty " ars from now by those
of us who survive 50 long. No pro-
phecy can be surer, for such action " i'll
My he along the line of common
sense towards which the Interpretation
OF law IS beginning to tend more and
more. The wisdom Of the act consists
in understanding human nature aud
Therefore knowing that TO un unhard-
e"ed criminal the dread of a seutence
still in suspense will be punishment
and deterrent enough. Society wiI
have had all neutrality-suspicious., and the
human creature that society is d. aling
with Will have teen given a chance tC
show tnat his wIong-doing WAS moi
the result of evil tendency, aud the
eyes of our grandchildren will be saved
FROM the shameful sight of remedial IN
stiIutiOns being ill Ell with those WHO
are damaged in self-resp ct by the as
socialions to which mischauce las suit
jected them.
Some i4er pie are made criminals by
the harslness and peimauency of theil
punishment and for these society ha.
To answer. Unfortunately prison wal,
cannot speak ana society as u whole
has no time 10 heed Thugs or person.
that are out of sight; we've it otherwise
our ears would tiugle at the male d G
lions upon us by those whJ in the frs
INSTANCE wrODged society but ut the la )
E were ronged themselves AID that fol
HE. MANY we l-intentiuned lad, fol
serious offense, has been placed WHERE
Those long III the way uf crime couiC
Influence him, or where he himstl
was so lacking in demands on hi.
MUD and his hands that he brooded
over evil until he lost sight of his own
mlsdeed and saw only that organized
society vas his enemy. For such So
ciety is to blame. | have in miod now
a All IN Delaware that | have visited,
where young and old, witnesses ana
criminals Of all grades are crowd d to.
gelher III absolute idleness from one
years end to the other The sheriff
stated u me personally that he never
Knew OF one lad who went out from
that place reformed from his evil. The
new century will nOt-must not-so act
The uncontirmed criminal will in al
cases have detention that shall i'm
prove hum. He will be studied as
possible benefactor of his race and, j
ignorant of useful ways of earning hi
living will be taught to work botl
with his hands and his head and thel
he released an improved member o