The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1906-01-29
THE CR|M|NAL|TY
AMONG YOUTH.
DIR. Hawthorne breaches Power
full Sermon On Crime Among
the Youth.
ARhAIGN THE GOVERNMENT
Costs More TO Punish Evil
Doors Than TO Save the
Boys.

Boys.
a powerful and affecting sermon was
delivered yesterday by DR.. j. Il. 1faw-
tborne. pastor of Grove Avenue Baptist
Church, on THE Fearful Increase OF
Crime Among American Boys: the
Causes Which Produce IT and the Means
and Methods of Stopping it," His text
was "A child left to himself bringeth
4.is mother to shame Prov. 20. 10.
The opening remarks of Dr. Hawthorne
Showed how the child left unguided ly
parental authority and love gravtates to-
wards inquiry. and at that carly period
OF life the criminal instincts begin to
bear fruit. He said in part;
within a period embracing not more
than few weeks there were 2iS persons
arrested in New York city and fifty of
them were boys under fifteen. They were
charged with theft, robbery, burglary,
assault and other criminal conduct In
The New York State reformatory fifty
five per cent. of the persons confined
there arc between sixteen and twenty
years OF age. In 1890 there were IN our
Federal prisons III under fourteen. and
S,9Si between fourteen and nineteen. In
the report of the Prison Commission of
Georgia for 1902, 1t was shown that of
total prison population OF 2Sl5 527 We're
under twenty-onc.
Youthful Criminals.
"These statistics show how early boys
may develop into criminals. Recently the
chief of police in the city of Chicago re-
marked: III somebody will take care of
the boys, ] will contract to run Chicago
without police In preventing crime we ac-
complish II hundred times more when we
deal with boy than when we deal
with "A man. 'Boyhood is the period of
unrest and pliability. 1t is then that
the question is settled whether the boy will
become "a saint or a savage. 1t is then that
his animal life Is strongest and fullest
OF riotous energy 1t is then that he is
most impatient under restraint. 1t is
then that he enters the critical period
which will mark his destiny to honor or
shame, to glory or despair.
The speaker then went on to show in a
convincing argument that the period of
life at which man is most subject to
religious Influence is in that of childhood.
lie showed, too, that 1t costs more to
lose a 10y than to save one. 1T costs
this government" lie said. "s60o,0o0.0HD an
nually TO punish crime What is it doing
to prevent crime?" He referred to a case
ia New York which cost that city 100000
TO bring one criminal to the electric
chair. But what had 1t done. he asked,
towards removing the Internal influences
which developed him into a murderer?
On the other hand he related an Incl
dent in which Il young man, who was on
his way TO commit some deed OF dark
ness. was saved by minister of the
gospel in this city. The minister met the
young man. and praying and snpplica-
ting with him, turned his heart from
the intended evil This cost nothing, but
had the deed been committed, it might
have cost the city an untold sum.
Church Power-House.
Dr. Hawthorne painted several pictures
OF the almost hoplessness of saving mems
souls late in life, pleading for the Chris
tan influence TO be used in the plastic
period of childhood. And he said that
the power needed to insure success
must come from organized Christianity.
But the church must know how to use
its power. Unfortunately. though he
showed that of the amount of power
generated in tn church, so much OF it
is unwisely and unfaithfully delivered and
utilized.
lie said: "She generates vast deal
o, spiritual force; but very little compare
lively is accomplished, because the force
Is so unwisely and unfaithfully delivered
ana utilized. Ioh. must know that there
is serious numbering somewhere when
statistics show that there are fifteen
million boys i'll this country between
twelve and eighteen years of age and
that only two and n half million of them
are IN the churches. or five hundred in
mates of the reformatory at Jeffcrson-
VILE. Ind, eS6 never attended Sunday
school, and but one of the five hundred
ever belonged to Young Mems Christian
Association. 1t has been definitely ascer-
tanned that out OF 400 young men in one
OF our Southern cities, not more than
l,gtD ever attend z church service An
actual count of the young men in tho
churches of Louisville on a recent Sun
day revealed the startling fact that o9
per cent. of the element of the cty's
populations were not in any place of
public worship. These facts Indicate that
there IS something wrong in the churches.
Either they lack power or their power is
not wisely and faithfully directed
The vast multitudes of non-church-
going American boys and young men are
furnishing recruits for Americas army
of criminals, and with a rapidity that
must be appalling to every Christian and
patriotic citizen of tho country. a relia-
BILE statstcian tells us that: IN 1850
there was in the United States one pris-
oner for crime To every $500 inhabitants:
in 1860, one 10 every 100; in 1870 one
to every LEO; in 1880. one to every 900;
I'm 1890, ono 10 every 500. There was an
increase of $50 per cent in forty years
BY FAR the greater part of these recruits
came from the ranks of boys and Young
men, Another says: In 1880 there were
IN the prisons OF tho United States All
youths under eighteen convicted of mllr-
der. while in England there were only six
under twenty-one, and none under SIX
teen
These indsputabIc facts are sufficient
to convict the churches. the government
and the social reformers of this genera
ton OF serious neglect or OF serious blum
young mon'
How 1t is Possible