The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1903-12-17

! Only Fools Tax. 70 t'Ins.
New York American. |

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| New York Americana
A NAN in this city not long age
''heid up" another man and robbed
him of S12. The robber arose for sen.
tence In court on Tuesday last.
"Seven years in Sing Sing" said the
Judge.
The man fell to the floor in dead
faint. :
Seven years out of ones short span
! of existence is surely a tremendous
price to pay for $12.
Nobody but d 4ool would put himself
| In a position where such a price could
be exacted.
Seven hours in cell would be q
horrible experience to the ordinary
man, seven days maddening. But
think OF seven years in prison!
1t is because we read so often Of
these sentences to long terms in the
penltentiary that We are famlliarized
With them, and so fail to realize their
terrible Significance.
Let your Imagination present In de-
tail what it would mean to you to be
shut up in Jail fer seven years, and
then you will begin to haye some uu-
derstandlng of the imbecility of those
who deliberately enter upon courses
which always haye accompanying them
the probability, if not the certainty, OF
such frightful punishment.
We read Of "cleyec" forgers, burglars
and the like. Are any OF them really
clever?
One of the "cleyerest" unterEeiters
III ths world was recently released from
Californian penitent:ary after serving
eight years. That was not his first,
nor second, nor third incarceration.
All told, half his lifetime has been
passed behind the bars. What "clever-
ness IS there in such career?
A one-time broker was arreeted In
Wall street this week for the crime OF
being too dangerous character to be
at large among the innocents of the
street. Years age he abandoned stocks
fer bank robbery, and has been in jail
In England, France and his own country
jai! than at liberty.
What trace OF c1everness is there in
life SO spent?
A few months ago four young men
OF Chicago grew tired OF working for O
living, and took to robbery. The
country has been ringing with the ex-
ploits OF these "boy bandits" Though
they murdered eight men in their
"hold-ups," their gains in money were
not much more than their wages as
honest workers would have been. And
row, when manhood with all its joys
should be opening to them, their only
prospect is a shameful death On the
gailows.
Was any cleverness shown In the
choice made by the "boy bandits" be-
tween honesty and crime?
The truth is that the ordinary crimi-
nal is always lacking in mind. He
feels immensely superior in shrewdness
to the honest people around him, re-
garding them as simpletons. He may
be endowed with plenty of rat-like cum
ming, which he and others are apt to
mistake for intelligence But in cold
fact he is the stupidest OF men, since
he is destitute Of Imagination, the in
teilectGai faculty which enables one to
picture In advance the consequences OF
acts to which one may be tempted by
the lure ct Immediate advantage. tits
because liz Is without i'm agination that
the criminal has the courage to do
things from which a man with imagi-
nation must shrink, for with the eye Of
Imagination the prisoners dock, the
judge and the jury and the prison are
seen. The criminal never sees them
until they are actual, present facts, in
s.ead OF mind pictures of the future
Hence the callousness Of the "bov
bandits," which seems so astonishing
to those who have given little thought
to criminals. A week or two of cell
life will begin to do for them what i'm
agination would haye done had they
possessed it. They have to hear the
gallows being put up before it is made
vivid to their dull apprehension that
hanging is the laws penalty for nur-
der, and that they have thrown their
lives away like fools.
The folly of crime needs to be fnsist-
ed upon more than II is. It's wicked
ness goes without saying. The most
inveterate criminals will admit that
crime is wrong, but the foolishness of
it only experience can beat into the
heads of such among them as possess
the rudiments of common sense.
The chief of police OF one OF our
large cities states that it is not uncou-