The Spanish Fork press. [volume] (Spanish Fork, Utah) 1902-current, 1906-08-16
Judy OF CHRONOLOGY TURNS
EDUCATED MAN INTO A THIEF
,duate of Rash Medical College Proud of His EpJ 49,
COMPLIMENTS Only Sorry That Morphine Has
Slapped His Ambition

'thefts and burglary, have stolen into
houses at night time and taken nron.
erty that belonged to others. for tho
pure love of it.
ala not need the money. did mot
want the booty that took away artor
got 1t, but there was a satisfactio,
TOO deep for words or self.satisfvirg
for explanation.
i imagine that a woman who bas
neiu 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 | did
"hen | committed my first theft
IL was not much, too little thing
10 notice Yet it was the beginning
OF career that | mapped out for
myself after fully realized that there
was nothing in the world that could
prevent me from being anything but
thief.
4 was in a fellow physicians OF.
nee. saw a pocketbook lying on the
table. He was busy with a patient
l opened the wallet and found two
dollars in it.
Il then had plenty of money. The
contents of the purse could do me IN.
tie good, but resist the desire to take
the money ] could not-did not
knew that the high character I bore
would protect me from the possibili.
ty OF exposure. The cunning that
nave learned since, which ! use to
protect me from being found out
when | 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 l do not know. It was the
beginning.
The desire to commit crime is sim
thar to the desire of genius to de.
velop the talents which are his. It
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.
/ Il have watched the development OF
the thieving instinct in myself from
the time that l was old enough to un.
derstand the meaning of the feeling
which took possession of me. I never
had the desire to kill, but / possessed
talent for scheming 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 | become old
enough to read and understand what
1 read, gloried in the achievements
of noted criminals, even murderers
That was the kind of literature that
l read when | 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.
IT was too intelligent, though, not
to understand to what instincts such
| as L 1elt IN InySell leu, anu ulu uo'
Immediately succumb to my desire to
| become a criminal.
81 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 writers
or inventors, I became slave to habit
which was stronger than ambition
stronger than the impelling force that
would have made my name house
hold word as a criminal If l had moi
fallen by the wayside, as so many
others have done before me.