STATISTICS are not needed to show the criminal spirit that has taken possession of the rising generation. Common every-day observation shows it abundantly.
The head-lines to a double-column article in a recent New York daily run thus:—
“Office Boy, at Sixteen in Jail
As Expert Check-raiser.”
Head-lines of a similar import may be found in the dailies almost any day in the year. And every form of crime that is known to depraved humanity is being committed by these children crooks, desperadoes, and outlaws. And many of them are of much tenderer years than sixteen. Little boys, and even little girls, of seven, eight, and nine years of age are being continually arrested for their desperate deeds of vice and crime.
There are numerous causes that have led up to this deplorable condition. Perhaps the most potent evil is the flood of pernicious literature that has been cast out upon the youth and children of this time. Stories of crime have been so pictured that the criminal has come to be a hero in the child mind. And these stories have been most energetically circulated by covetous and unscrupulous publishers, who have cared more for the money they would get out of it than for the worth of the young souls they were ruining.
Then the more reputable publishers of our great daily papers have helped the evil along by the minute descriptions they give of every crime that is committed. The daily paper is read the most of anything in this time, and by constantly coming in contact with so much description of criminality the mind becomes used to it, and soon ceases to regard it as terrible or evil. The principal thing that impresses itself on these degenerate and degenerating minds is the importance of keeping from being caught.
There is also a form of cartoons in the daily papers, particularly the Sunday issues, that is imperceptibly doing its work. In these cartoons youthful depravity is pictured out with a view of appealing to one’s sense of humor and fun. Such cartoons are found in the very papers, and sometimes in the very selfsame issue of the paper, in which the editorial columns are filled with warnings and deprecations concerning the children criminals in this time. Can not such editors see that their cartoons are more potent for evil than their editorials are for good? For the cartoon is sure to be studied, while the editorial may not be.
Another most powerful factor that has led up to this alarming harvest of youthful criminality is found in the many drunken parents who spend all they can get for whisky. Such persons are seldom very industrious, and while they lie in a drunken stupor at home, they send their children upon the streets to beg, and more often to steal, in order that they may get means with which to buy more whisky. These unfortunate children are taught how to steal. And with as much faithfulness as the Sabbath-school teacher would train her scholars to shun the road of vice and crime, these poor, irresponsible little folks are drilling in the infamous arts of lying, stealing, and even murdering. This is no picture of mere fancy; our cities are full of it.
Now what can be the only outcome of all this?—We must say, nothing short of a world-wide reign of violence and terror. From these fearful calamities the Almighty Father will graciously save every individual that will come to Him for shelter and protection. But the world at large is rushing down the incline at a furious rate to a certain and immediate destination.