The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1904-04-29
Methodist Divine Discusses the Pres
ent Tendency Toward Vice.
Causes Assigned for criminalltY'-low
Organization and Environment.
Churches and Sunday Schools Can
Do More for the Youth.
There Should Be Greater Moral and
Religious Training.
From Mondays Daily.

From Mondays Daily.
Dr. F. B. Cowgirl, pastor of the Cen
tenary Methodist church. last evening in
his sermon on "Criminality," assigned
two causes for the existence of the Grim
inal namely: Low organization, result
ing from vicious heredity; and unfor
tunate environment, especially in early
youth.
Vicious heredity accounts for great
deal of the crime that occurs. Some
men come into the world with very
low moral and spiritual development,
that does not belong to their own age
at all. The shape of their heads often
shows them to be degenerates. The
doctor exhibited forms of various pecu
iarly shaped heads of ineorrigible crimi-
nails. Some of the forms were strange
indeed. Most of them lacked symmetry,
and were differently formed on the two
sides. Sometimes people thus viciously
i-clined will go to the bad in spite of
the most favorable environment imagin-
-as ~ apDss'-~ cannot be ed
On the other hand, a noble heredfty
will sometimes triumph in spite of the
most vicious environ ment. A person
naturally good Lnay sometimes be
brought up in the slums, and his noble
heredity will persist in asserting itself.
He viii rise out. of the foul influences
and lead life according to his natural
impulses.
Heredity Is indeed powerful factor
and sometimes guides the life of the
individual in it's own way, in spite of
every other influence Yet, there are
other factors besides heredity. There is
great deal in surroundings and train
ing. The masses are neither so bad that
education and proper influences viii not
lead them in the right way; nor so good
that such training is not needed. The
cases in which heredity is all-powerful
fUf good or for bad are exceptions
II he masses need culture, and culture will
have its effect upon them.
This training should begin in child
hood. The life of child to some eX-
tent recapitulates the life of society.
The life of the boy passes through vari-
Gus stages similar to those through
which mankind has passed In the pro-
cess of civilization. The boy of twelve
to fourteen is passing through the stage
of barbarism. The civilized man in him
is not fully developed. He loves to read
of wars and to mimic battles. Morally,
too, the boy represents lower plane of
civilization. Nearly all children have
to some extent, however small been
liars and thieves.
All these barbarous propensities should
be educated out of children. The eff
feet of education on the average child is
readily seen in the results of the public
reformatory. OF all the children that
are given such courses of reformation,
80 per cent are effectually reformed and
turned out good citizens, and lead use
ful lives. This fact goes to show that
the bad child is as a rule not bad on &C
count of heredity but because there was
something wrong with his education.
The moral and religious training that
most children receive in their home is
not what it ought to be. Too little at
tention is paid to the child in the aver
age urban home. On the farm it is diff
ferent. Here the greater part of the
boys companionship is with his father
and mother. Great good results from
this habitual contact. The city boy,
however, has associates most of the time
not belonging to his own family He is
in more danger from those with whom
City parents should recognize this fact,
and be all the more careful about the
associations to which their sons and
daughters are exposed.
Churches and Sunday schools do not do
all they might do for the young. They
should be made social centers for the
young folks. The young people crave
social enjoyments. If these are not sup
piled in good way, the child will be-
apt to drift into paths of moral peril,
Vice is one Of the gerest factors that
lead to crime. Vice is instituted in all
the great cities The literature that
the young people have thrown in their
way is to large extent responsible for
their being led into vice. Sensational
novels are a powerful agency in this
direction. The books about the James,
Younger brothers belong to this class
of literature. Full and sensational re-
ports of crimes have to some extent a
similar influence.
The agencies to vice and crime that
must be combatted more than all others
are the saloons and dives.
One of the great objects of the church
should be to make it as easy as posi-
BILE to do right and as hard as possible
to do wrong.
No one should be discouraged and take
a pessimistic view of the situation. The
power of education to guide the young
in the right way is a mighty one. There
are many ways in which it can be
brought to bear. By persistent work in
the right direction, the world can be
i. Lo@4