p. 9 | A Significant Age

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 11, 1903

A Significant Age.

From 16 to 20 is a marked period in the lives of young people. The majority of Christian professors made their start during this period, and the vicious careers of most criminals are to be traced to influences surrounding them in those early years. Six boys between the ages named are now in jail at Ashland, Ore., who started out as an amateur highway band. A letter written by one of them contains this statement of purpose: “We want at least ten boys. We will be brave outlaws; will down many a man, if they attempt to follow us. For myself, I want a fourteen-inch saddle, a good horse, 41-caliber pistol, 38 rifle, a double belt and sticking knife.” They started in by breaking windows of houses, and then started for the State line, but were caught at Siskiyou Station, on the Oregon side. They had as yet but three weapons. They had been inspired by cheap novel reading; but the military spirit now being inculcated in the schools has much influence in cultivating a taste for firearms, and a desire to kill. Militarism and highwayism are nearer of kin than most people suspect.