Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1906-10-20
How Criminals Are Made.
- 1llluu.um

| uIlNSu Win DOOI ana WHIP. l WISH
that l could suggest some gentle
method by which they could be res
cued from the road and made good
men and women. It always seems
harsh to apply strict law to deln-
quents so young and practically inno-
cent, but 1t Is the only remedy l can
offer. They must be put under stiff
rule and order, and trained strictly
and long. Although lacking glpsy
blood, they have acquired gypsy char.
acter, and It will take generations
to get it out of them.
Another kind of ragamufln, also
born on the road and in many ways
akin TO the ambulanter, although
wanting such classification, is the one
found so often in those families
which every community supports but
relegates to its uttermost boundary
line. They are known as the Nc.
Carthys,' the Night-Hawks, or the
Holy Frights,' as the case may be
| have found no town in the United
States of 10000 inhabitants without
some such Whitechapel in its vicinity
and, like famous original, it is Otter
considered dangerous to enter un.
armed. Speaking generally, there Is
a great deal of fiction afloat concern,
ing these tabooed families, a number
of them being simply poor or LAZY
people whom the boys of the vicinity
have exaggerated into gangs of des
Peradoes. They are not exactly out
can get hold Of, but moral lepers who
by public consent have been sen
fenced to live without the pale of civ
ilization.
Il cannot leave this division of my
theme without saying something
about the large army of unfatheret
children who, to my mind, are just as
much born on the road as the less
known types. True, mGny of these
are handed over at birth to some fam
lily to support, but the greater major
ity of these families are not one whit
better than the ambulanters. They
train the orphans put in their care il
sin and crime quite as carefully as
the hobo does his beggar boy. These
are the children who make up the
main body Of the class l have been
considering, and it seems to me that
they increase from year to year. Al
present the only legitimate career for
them is that of the outcast, and into
it they go. Few, indeed, succeed in
gaining a foothold in polite society.
Their little lives form the border.
land of my second class, the children
driven to the road"
The author has evidently looked
so long on the "hellward" side OF
humanity that he ignores in his
prophecy the transforming power OF
love. Instead of it's taking several
generations to change the disposition
of these children of the road, two
or three months is all the time needed
to change a very large majority of
them, provided they are kept under
different influences. / say this from
years of close personal touch with
them, having lived, eaten and slept
with thousands of them; in fact, !
do not hesitate to say that the most
miraculous thing | have witnessed in
long and active life is the sudden
Transforming power of love, not only
of the disposition but of the features
of these young lives whom l have
been privileged to rescue from evil
associations. Not only this. but many
of these children exhibit talents far
surprising in intellectual ability that
of the children of well-to-do parents
While it becomes source of in
spiration to those engaged in min
ing for men" to dig up from the
wreck and ruin of society boys and
girls of an unusually high order of
intellect, yet, after all, the uplifting
of children of ordinary talents, or
even those below normal in mental
capacity, so that they be kept from
becoming the enemies of society and
making shipwreck of their own lives,
is of the greatest value.
When it is remembered that the
society, although but in it's formative
period, has made it possible for over
$4,000 helpless little ones, who were
exposed to the worst influences soci-
ETY. could place around them, to be-
come good citizens, is it the magma
ton of visionary to say that with
proper financial backing it can be
made one of the most important agen-
cies in the land for the elevation of
our citizenship?-W B. S., in the
National Children's Home Finder