The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1906-08-25
STUDY OF CRIMINOLOCY TURNS
EDUCATED MAN INTO A THIEF
Graduate Of Rush Medical College Proud Of His Ell Ac-
conaptishments- Only Sorry That Morphine Has
Slapped His Ambition.

thefts and burglary, have stolen into
houses at night time and taken prop
erty that belonged to others, for the
pure love of it.
i did not need the money. did not
want the booty that l took away after
got it, but there was a satisfaction
too deep for words or se1f-satisfying
for explanation.
Il imagine that a woman who has
held her lover at arms length, and,
perhaps for the best of reasons, has
refused to surrender to him for
long time, must feel much as I did
when I committed my first theft.
1T was not much, too little a thing
to notice. Yet it was the beginning
OF d career that I mapped out for
myself after fully realized that there
was nothing in the world that could
prevent me from being anything but
a thief.
Il was in a fellow physicians of
fee. I saw pocketbook lying on the
I opened the wallet and found two
dollars in it.
Il then had plenty Of money. The
contents of the purse could do me lit
tie good, but resist the desire to take
the money I could not-did not.
knew that the high character I bore
would protect me from the possibiH-
ty of exposure. The cunning that !
have learned since, which 1 use to
protect me from being found out
when I have succumbed to my desire
to take possession of that which does
not belong to me, was not necessary
in that case. That was years ago
how many I do not know 1t was the
beginning.
THE desire to commit crime is sim
liar to the desire Of q genius to de-
velop the talents which are his. 1t
often is the strongest passion of his
life, for which he will give up every
thing else Just as an artist will strug-
gle along for years, go without the
necessities that he might have in
some other walk of life, that he may
devote the talent which he feels with
in himself
4 have watched the Development of
the thieving instinct In myself from
the time that | was old enough to IN
derstand the meaning of the feeling
which took possession of me- never
had the desire to kill, but possessed
talent for schening and outWitting
others.
My early youth was spent in sa-
lima. Kan. AS my parents were
wealthy was given every educational
advantage. AS soon as I become old
enough to read and understand what
I read, I gloried in the achievements
Of noted criminals, even murderers.
That was the kind of literature that
I read when I could steal time from
my studies. / found the same kind
of interest in that kind Of romance
as others found in love stories and
stuff of that kind.
II was too intelligent, though, not
to understand to what instincts such
as I felt in myself led, and did not
Immediately succumb to my desire to
become a criminal.
Il have never accomplished any
thing worthy in the annals Of crime
and probably never will My offenses
have all been of the minor sort be-
cause, like men who have the tai
ent but fail to become great writer's
or inventors, I became slave to habit,
which was stronger than ambition,
stronger than the impelling force that
would have made my name a house
hold word as a criminal if I had not
fallen by the wayside. as so many
others have done before me.