The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1906-01-30
THE CR|MINALTY
AMONG Y0UT H.
Dir. Hawthorne breaches Power
full Sermon On Crime Among
the Youth.
ARRAIeN THE GOVERNMENT


Ia.el- lIOSlS' llldll W N)dNC lllC
a'l. Boys.
a powerful and affecting sermon was
delivered yesterday by DR.. j. b. Haw-
tborne. pastor of Grove Avenue Baptist
Crime Among American Boys; the
Causes Which Produce 1t and the Means
and Methods of Stopping it," Ills text
was "A child left to himself bringcth
4,s mother TO shame" Prov. 20, 10.
The opening remarks of DIR. Hawthorne
showed how the child left ungudcd ly
parental authority and love gravitates to-
wards inquiry, and at that early period
OF life the criminal instincts begin TO
bear fruit. He said in part.
Within a period embracing not more
than a few weeks there were rs persons
arrested in New York city and fifty of
them We're 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 are between sixteen and twenty
years OF age. In 1890 there were in our
Federal prisons I'll under fourteen. and
S,sA between fourteen and nineteen In
the report of the Prison Commission of
Georgia for 1902, 1t was shown that OF a
total prison population OF 2sl5, 527 were
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 j will contract TO run Chicago
without police In preventing crime we ac-
complish Il hundred times more when we
deal with Il boy than when we deal
with a man. Boyhood is the period of
unrest and plability. 1t is then that
the question is settled whether the boy will
become Il 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 n
convincing argument that the period of
life at which a 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" he said. "s6OC,0o0,0nn an
nually TO punish crime. What is it doing
TO prevent crime?" He referred to case
in New York which cost that city 100000
10 bring one criminal to the electric
chair But what had it done, he asked.
towards removing the internal influences
which developed him into murderer?
ON the other hand he related an Incl
dent in which 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 supplica-
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.
DIR. 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 til church, so much of 1t
lis unwisely and unfuit flfully delivered and
utilized.
lie said: "Shc generates a vast deal
o, spiritual force; but very little compara-
lively is accomplished, because the force
is so unwiseiy and unfaithfully delivered
and utilized. Ioil. must know that there
IS serious numbering somewhere, when
statistics show that there are fifteen
million boys in this country between
Twelve and eighteen years of age, and
that only two and n half million of them
ARC ,n the churches. OF five hundred in
1nates of the reformatory at Jcferson-
vile. Ind 2s6 never attended Sunday
school, and but one of the five hundred
ever belonged TO a Young Mems Christia
Association. 1t has been definitely ascer-
tanned that out of a.o10 young men in one
OF our Southern cities, not more than
lt2fn ever attend a church service. An
actual count of the young men in the
churches of Louisville on a recent sun
day revealed the startling fact that ae
per cent of the element of the city's
populations We're 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 nultitudes of non- church
going American boys and young men are
furnishing recruits for Americtt's army
of criminals and with a rapdity that
must be appalling to every Christian and
patriotic citizen of the country. A relia-
BILE statistican tells us that: In 1850
there was in tho United States one pris-
oDer for crime to every $500 inhabitants:
in 1860 one TO every 1900; in 1870 one
to every leo; In 1880. one TO every 800;
In 1890, ono 10 every 500 There was an
increase of $50 per cent. in forty years
BY Tar 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 MIR
der. while in England there We're only six
under twenly-one, and none under six
teen.
These ndisputablc facts are sufficient
to convict the churches The government