The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1906-02-17

handicapped by such wretched condi-
lions. To my mind one of the greatest
sources of crime is in the un-Christian.
unreligious character of many homes
and of much of our education.
Juvenile depravity is one of the
startling results which investigation
chronicles. The real danger to our
social fabric is largely from youth go
ing astray. The boy, too familiar with
the street, enamored of it, is apt to find
theft more profitable than honest labor
and crime easier than virtue. The
young girl, introduced by the street into
associations that lead her from virtue,
lured to ruin by her more fortunate
friend and led in consequence into a
life of sin: the night hawks who barter
in human souls; the Migrants desperate
for food and drink; the providers in our
by-ways, and the highwayman in our
public streets. are largely the outcome
of misdirected, misled and wrongly
trained youth. The street corners, the
arcade pictures, the shooting galleries.
the dice throwing at cigar stores, the
poolrooms, the saloons, the gambling
dens, the race tracks, are all rounds
in the ladder that lead many downward
to depravity. The careless and inn
provident homes, the vicious parents,
the unwillingness to attend school, the
dislike for work, associations with those
familiar with crime. are all occasions
that make the street, rather than the
home, the school or the church, the
teacher of youth. The street leads
such youth to degradation and ruin.
In our larger cities many of the
dwell in poorly built and badly venti-
lated tenement houses. the owners Of
which frequently neglect the needs for
the common decencies of life and allow
their property to develop finally into
SUM conditions where crime is daily
and nightly taught, and out of which
comes hordes of criminals to prey upon
the people. Young boys, through the
carelessness of parents and lack of
supervision, are allowed to come in
contact with pickpockets and thieves
whose stories of adventure give to the
boy mind the idea of heroism and
greatness Contact with such lower
elements causes youth to lose respect
for law anL ORDER to despise and defy
the policeman, to look upon all author
ity with contempt. and in the spirit Of
adventure to initiate the hero to whom
they listened Or whose wild deeds We're
the center of the exciting story read
in tae highly calored novel or news
paper.
Who Is to blame or what is to blame?
Is our civilization a failure or are our
conditions at fault? One tiling is GER
tain, that there seems to be growing
disregard on the part of parents toward
their children, and an ever-increasing
lack of supervision. Children do as
they please, go where they please, go
with whom they please. The anxiety
of the elder Tobias as to the COM
of his son seems not to af-
feet many modern-day parents. We
need only stand near the doorways of
one of the cheapest and meanest show
places to see l1ordes of children crowd
ing their way to witness what in many
cases is delnoralizing and debasing to
their young minds.
Poverty frequently has much to do
with the unfortunate condition in which
children are reared. 1dleness also
enters into the problem, and evil as
has the largest Responsibility
for the results.
, Home, to many children, has become
an eating and lodging house. Parents,
growing careless. neglect to properly
reprimand and omit altogether to
punish. No matter how much you may
believe in kindness as the great moving
OF US old fogy enough to still believe
that the birch rod is wholesome, and
the fear of God is often associated with
the fear of the rod. The American boy,
and often the American girl, rave
grown up to feel Independent of
parents. and the courts often support
them in it by not forcing parents, when
the law permits, to look after their
to clothe and school them, in
stead of forcing the State to assume
such duties in its public institutions.
Learning How to Fly
Observations of flying birds have
been dinicult to make because Of the
rapidly changing position of the bird
and the consequent shortness Of time
possible for observation, says Public