Year: 1875

Sad Chapter. Worthy the Consideration

 of All--Whnt Shall be Done with Youth.

 There are anomalies to which the world never gets accustomed. A youth ful criminal, for instance, is a continual surprise. The old offender, the hard ened sinner, the wretch who has taken his degrees in crime, or the tainted from whom nothing better was expected, are regarded by us with stolid equanimity. We respect the adage which declares that no one can become altogether vile at once and yet police reports, not less than the many penal institutions for cal low convicts, show that there is no crime which young person may not commit. Every city, says the New York z3>ibu,se. has its "hoodlums, ]" though the noisome tribe seems to have been most remark ably developed in San Francisco and other cities of California or at least is best marked and classified in that State. In Massachusetts very young person is now under sentence of death for mur- der and will probably be executed. At Atchison, Kansas, the other day, three lads, the oldest only fourteen years of age, the youngest about twelve, in iail for larceny, astonished everybody by breaking out in the most scientific, and by running off in the most successful. way. Whoever reads the newspapers knows that it is the boys who make more than moiety of work for police men and for police courts. There is hardly any crime which they do not commit-murder, burglary, arson, for gery, theft, assault. This is a fact so well recognized that everywhere there are societies of the benevolent sort seek ing to reform these little rascals, and singularly hard work it is found to be.

 Kindness seems to be wasted faith iu human nature is lost patience is ex- hausted; and the result is, as to-day in Massachusetts, that the puerility of the criminal is forgotten or is not taken into the estimate ir awarding the penalty of a boys offense. He has about him all the signs and tokens of maturity, even if it be a bad one, and he is dealt with ac- cordngly. While we are making much ot hlm as an Oliver Twist he turns out to be an Artful Dodger, and really much sharper than his instructors in morality. So he IS left to be dealt with by the off cers of the law, who rarely have much pity for him, or show him much mercy. We lock him up and he comes out any thing but penitent, having associated with his superiors in sin and iniquity, and with the result which might have been expected. He goes at once to the old trade, and presently we lock him up again. Whether his life be long or short, he is destined to pass the better part of it within the four stone walls of a prison; and when at last he is sent there for the remainder of his natural life, he humbugs the chaplain, and ex- bends all his ingenuity in devising ways and means for obtaining an executive pardon.

 There is one thing, however, which, lose we patience as we may, it is only justice to remember. Without indulg- ing in any false and romantic sympathy, 1t may be said for him, that the juvenile criminal is projected into world for the evil influences of which he is not per sonally responsible. We do not mean to say that he does not know that he is doing wrong when he steals, for he does; but what we would point out is, that he meets such large opportunity of steal ing. The chance of committing the crime, 1t is not to be denied, he finds ready made to his larcenous little hand. He is born to the business; it would be absurd to say that he does not know that 1t Is an unlawful one; but he is tempted from the start To be sure, no sinner can plead that he found sin in the world upon his coming into it. He is not ab- solved by the general and ancient char acter of wrong doing; he is to be pun lshed without reference to the doctrine of natural deprayity; while at the same time he has given quite unnecessary evi- dences of the truth of that doctrine. But he, is to go to jail all the same. There is an ethical point which society must always take for granted. It is too busy to inquire into all the anteceden.s of criminals, and it always will be-. Upon one side its business must be to punish and restrain. ".ast1.- 4#I .r-H .-s

 But upon the other side, is there not also something to be done? These de- prayed youngsters are heritors of sin, and though it must be punished the question still arises whether society may not do much to diminish adult crime the only sure way which occurs to us of