An Impulse of Hoodlumism.
It turns out that the murderous attack recently made upon Chinese gardeners at Los Angeles, was the work of two young men and two girls, who had been out together on "a tear;" and apparently had committed the slaughter of the Chinamen from an impulse of ruffianism such as frequently assails the California hoodlum, both male and female. It is stated that all the criminals are "respectably connected," and this statement suggests reflection as to the character of that alleged respectability which permits boys and girls to prowl around town at all hours of the night, obeying their own vicious inclinations, and rendering respect neither to parents, friends, or common decency. When boys and girls come to ruin by means of such laxity of home training, the real guilt rests upon their fathers and mothers. We do not believe in the possibility of hoodlumism which is not attributable to parental negligence and remissness. When fathers and mothers lament their inability to control their children, they are really making confession of their own neglect of duty in the past. Too many parents, however, have no other idea of training children than letting them have their own way in everything, and as a result they bring them up to be selfish, insolent, lazy, vicious little wretches, who are as certain to go wrong when they are old enough for ruin, as sparks are to fly upwards. Home training of a sterner and more enlightened character is what is needed to put a stop to the kind of hoodlumism which issues in such deeds as that at Los Angeles, and which fills our Magdalen Asylums, our Houses of Correction, our inebriate and Insane Asylums, and our Penitentiaries.—Record-Union.