Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1905-05-10

paid so well" that she became from
that time professional accuser of UNI
fortunate people.
The first step in crime in the case
of Goudie, the Liverpool bank clerk
who robbed his bank of something like
f11o,0G0, was manipulating the
books SO as to hide his taking $40 to
back horse that WIS, the young fool
thought, bound to win From the
winnings he would replace the "bor-
rowed money!" while retaining hand
some sum himself The horse of course
lost, but the defalcation remained un-
discovered, and Goudie was tempted
to repeat it for larger amount. The
result-four years penal servitudc.
Robson, who defraudcd the Crystal
Palace company Of f270o0, took a
change gamble. lie lost and went on
Leopold Rcdpath, who in 1857 was
sentenced to penal servitude for life
for dcfrauding the Great Northern
Railway company of close upon f200,-
600, declared that the first forgery
he committed was to obtain money to
assist some poor people in great dis
tress.
The statement might be regarded
with good deal of suspicion il his
career did not disclose the fact that
while Redpath was committing the
most crafty and calculated frauds he
was at the same time scattering the
money he obtained among various
charities and privately assisting scores
of people in distressed circumstances.
When he was sentenced at the central
criminal court there We're persons in
court who burst into tears. They We're
people whom he had bcfriended.
Harry Benson the instigator of the
great turf frauds and of numberless
other swindles; the Bidwells, the great
forgers, and LEROY, the murderer of
Mr. Gold on the Brighton line, are
types of criminals who seem to have
been such by some queer moral per-
verSity born in them. In each of them
there was a gradual development of
the terrible criminal instinct show
ing itself In their earliest mingling
/ Mllil OlueIS-lll llc SSllODl
ground in their very first companion
| ships. No one can point to any par
| ticulur event In their lives as the first
| Introduction to criminal courses. 1t
! seemed innate and showed itself in the
prettiest trickery in childish inter
| course.
| 1t has been noticed that the most no
torious criminals in various spheres of
crime are recruited from the ranks of
| persons engaged in special occupations
and professions. The locksmith, safe
making and carpenterng trades have
supplied the most accomplished bur
| glars; engraving has been responsible
| for most of the great bank note manu-
| facturers; the most celebrated forgers
have come from the legal profession,
/ and the professional murlerers have
generally had some medical training.
But the professional poisoner Is q
man accustomed to carrying the bur
den of ghastly secrets, and rarely does
he do more than confess the justice of
his sentence and acknowledge the last
crime which sends him to the gallows.
His lips are sealed as to previous of
lenses, and no one knows how the
awful first step was taken.
A prison chaplain in one Of our lar.
gest convict establishments once re.
marked to me that he was appalled, by
the continual lament of the criminals
he found in that place Of terror over
Just one little thing" The little
thing was the first step which had
launched them on the career of wrong.
doing which had brought them there
London Answers.