Los Angeles herald., 1909-12-19
LITTLE VOLUME
HAS NOVEL AIM
.LIFE'S SEAMY SIDE THEME OF
NEW BOOK
VERSES PRESENT MODERN IDEA
OF CRIME
Men Well Known in Public Life Con.
tribute Gems to Little Treatise
Called "The City
Jail"

Apart from the general excellence of
its contents THE City Jail" a volume
edited and compiled by Fay Lewis of
Rockford, ILL.,, is remarkable for the
preface with which the work begins
and the poem with which it ends.
From the former we quote:
This volume finds its excuse for ex-
istence in the belief of the editor that
in the presence of fragrant wrong he
who fails to enter his strenuous pro-
test becomes an accessory to its per-
petration. The expectation is cherished
that the thinking minority of the gen
eral public, along with the friends--and
enemesof the editor, will read this
book; but should all these fail he will
Contentedly read 1t himself, with the
feeling that a righteous cause will ul-
timataly win" There rings a true note.
Any coward can go into u fight where
he knows he VIII come out ahead, but
give us the man who struggles though
Well aware that he personally Will get
the worst Of it. And here is the poem,
entitled "The Mob:
We dragged him out OF jail at night
And out Of the reach of aid.
And off through the gloomy chaparral
We marched in a grim parade
Twas not for the evil heart he had.
He was no worse than we;
But he was tempted and we were not,
ana we ali were AS qua as ne
So we swung his soul to another world
While the moon looked on serene
silhouette OF the tree and man.
with a stretch of rope between,
Twas not for the evil heart he had;
He was tempted more than we,
Aud not a man of the sullen crew
Was better or worse than he.
Modern Attitude Toward Crime
The verses are from "Town Topics
and present, in dramatic and highly
cordonsed form, the modern attitude
toward crime and criminals; the view
that every man has his limit Of en-
durance. so that, given sufficiently
strong pressure, yielding is inevitable.
How powerful for the impoverished
masses of our population is the temp
tation to crime adequately set out in
this little treatise, which is g4rnished
with well selected extracts frou such
writer's as the late Golden Rule"
Jones, John p. Altgeld, Clarence Oar
row. the late Hugh .. Pentecos. and
others. Here is the aditorS own state
ment of the problem:
THE prison Is a confession of weak
ness. When the medicine man is puz-
zled he administers drugs. When so
ciety is puzzled by the presence of an
economic disease 1t administers the
prison. Our economic regime needs
the prison. Making crime inevitable 1t
makes the prison nee ssary Giving
man no sort of chance to live right,
1t stands ready with manacles for him
when he lives wrong. You cannot get
rid of the prison by going inside and
preaching sermons to the prisoners or
by drawing sharp lines between the
criminal and the other fellow. The
criminal Is a fiction. Crime is fact.
When our social order succeeds in
striking poverty off the list Of its
characteristic maladies crime will 50
with it,"
This work is sent to the Prison Re
form league with the compliments OF
the editor and Is warmly appreciated
as a genuine contribution to truer
and therefore more humane solution
of a problem that must be solved.