The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-09-03
GETTING INTO SOCIETY.

Many and various ,-- the causes as- cribed for criminali.y. Strong drink, avarice, human passions, ambition and other reasons are given to explain the cause of criminal actions. All of them of the word Society as one of the Incentives to crime-that is. the desire of both men and women to obtain and retain a place in society. For ex- ample, a young department clerk in Washington has been arrested for for gery, and the excuse he gives for his crime is that he needed money te keep his place in society. and his sal ary of six hundred dollars year was not enough for his needs.
 No doubt 1t will be contended that if this young man had not been inher- ently dishonest he would not have com mitted a crime for such a reason. but the contention would not be altogether just. He may have been honest at heart, and if he had remained away from Washington the probability is that he would still be honest but there was his misfortune. He found an easy place in Washington and by some | cans obtained a taste of the somewhat mix ed society of that city and enjoyed it. It took him but short while, no doubt to learn that young man with but tif- ty dollars a month could not keep the pace set by those who had ample means. Then he found that he must either drep out of the alluring position he was just getting into. or he must be looked on and pointed out as mean and stingy, and that would have been the death knell to his hope and ambition to be one of Washington's swell set.
 what was he to do? He could not bear the idea of dropping out of .he conditions that were so pleasant to him, and his pride revolted at having his new associttes call him mean. He must have money to enahle him to hold his own and as he could see no way to get it honestly. he got It by forgery, which he probably thought was moro respectable than stealing it. though to most right thinking men the difference is only in name. The result ir his case will doubtless be the same. He drops out of society and will in all prcbabil- ity drop into prison.
 The Brooklyn Eagle. commenting on these things, argu-5 that society Is not a matter of belongings, but of people. The Washington woman who falsited or invented checks suffered from the lm- pression that society was a close cor poration of the rich. as rich societies are; but the wise have their society; the poor have theirs; the religious. the artistic, the musical. the dramatic. the pedagogic, the political. in fact. all manner of people have their societies, and if the young woman did but know 1t, they offer more enjoyment than as semblies of the merely rich. which in cline to dulIness. for. existing merely for amusement, they have little to talk about that is worth while Had this young woman joined a church, or an association for study. research. or char ttable work. or a little club -Of like minded persons that she could have organized herself. she would have had a good time, would have felt herself to be of use in the world, and the chances are that her wages would have been raised; at any rate. it would have been better than being in jail in the society of pickpockets and vagrants,
 Honest. sober minded and levelhead- ed people may well ask if society is worth the loss of honor selfrespeet and the respect of others? Those who are able to afford it, and whose inolinations run in that direction. may live in and enjoy society and take no harm from 1t, but those who can only get into and remain in the charmed circle by resort ing to criminal practices would much better remain out. In short, we do not believe that a place in society is worth the sacrifice of personal hOner.