The dipsomaniac, kleptomaniac, morphine, cocaine, cigarette users, and high livers, generally all belong to this class, many of whom are on the way to the madhouse!
It has been ascertained by long study of the subject that those who possess criminal instincts have little or no resistive power when tempted to commit crime. If the judge on the bench, before passing sentence on a convicted felon, had the insight or perception to see the moral deformities and lack of will power existing in the individual before him, we are inclined to believe that he would send the prisoner to a sanitarium for treatment rather than to prison for punishment. And it is our candid opinion that there are hundreds of moral defectives in all the penal institutions of this and other States who ought to be under the care of a physician rather than a jailer.
Sometimes the police disguise themselves, then induce gamblers to play roulette and other games of chance for the purpose of securing evidence, after which they arrest them for violating the law. This may be good ethics from the police standpoint, but we question it. It is absurd to think that we have any moral right to tempt a person to commit a crime against the laws of God or man.
Not long since a city magistrate reprimanded two plain clothes policemen for inducing a German saloon keeper to open his store on Sunday morning and give them a drink. They succeeded in doing so only under false pretences by saying they were sick. After they had secured the evidence, they placed him under arrest. In this way they compelled him to break the law. A woman was tried in the Court of General Sessions, some time ago for keeping a disorderly house. It was proved that she kept a boarding house, but there was no evidence to show that she or any of the inmates were immoral or that impure language was used on the premises. The police, however, suspected the house and sent a plain clothes officer who stayed on the premises for a day or two. After a time by the skillful use of money he was able to tempt the woman to place herself in a compromising position and in this way secured evidence against her. Now the law says that any person who directly or indirectly induces or procures another to commit a crime is as bad as the principal.
As an unusually large number of persons had passed the examination for positions on the City Police and Fire Departments some time ago, the Civil Service Board became suspicious. It occurred to them that somebody was stealing the examination papers. Two detectives were put on the case. They secured the services of an athletic instructor to prepare them to pass the examination for a position on the Fire Department and offered him $400 for his labors. He promised to do so, provided he could secure the stolen examination papers. The instructor secured the papers and both men passed. When passing sentence the presiding Judge commented unfavorably on the large money temptation placed before the defendant which was in the nature of a bribe and was the one thing which made the crime possible.
It is a question in our mind how far valuable property, such as gold, diamonds and other jewelry, should be exposed on the counters of large stores. Multitudes cannot view these things without secretly trying to carry some away. Nor should people expose money unnecessarily before the gaze of strangers; for in doing so, many a man has been robbed and some have lost their lives.
The fair sex are sometimes at fault in this respect and indirectly responsible for certain kinds of crime. When they go shopping they carry in their hands wallets or pocket-books containing small amounts of money. In former years they carried their money in their dress pockets. By exposing their pocket-books they tempt the moral defective to commit crime. Men and women also tempt the instinctive criminal, when they carry, exposed to public gaze, watches and jewelry on the person. It is true that this is our right. But we must not tempt men. I believe that the crimes of pocket-book snatching and larcenies from the person would be few and far between if people carried their valuables concealed from public view.
Frequently we meet people who possess a morbid propensity to commit crime. On some things they are perfectly rational, on others they are incapable of acting correctly. You can safely say, they are mildly insane!
Here is a lady on the street with a chatelaine bag dangling around her waist. The thief presumes that it contains money and other valuables. The owner is unconsciously tempting a poor weakling. From our standpoint this is a dangerous expedient. By and by there comes along a poor, hungry, homeless, penniless creature. He possesses criminal instincts. He sees the pocket-book in the lady’s possession. It is a well known fact that the sight of money awakens the worst passions of men. An evil impulse takes possession of him. He seizes the money and runs away. This is not an exceptional case. The criminal annals of New York can furnish hundreds of such cases, where men were seized with an impulse to commit a crime that sent them to prison for many years.
We knew personally the cases of two young men, bank messengers, who were bonded in a surety company for five thousand dollars each, but had only a salary of eight dollars per week. They were entrusted with large sums of money daily, which they received in collections. Both claimed at different times, to have been seized with an evil impulse to abscond with the money, which they did. The first took $5,000 and left the city. He went to Chicago, then to a southern city. Here he considered what he had done, in the light of cold reason. He sent a dispatch to the bank, saying that he would return with the money in two days. He did so. He accounted for all he took away except the railroad fare and hotel bills, which his people made good. That young man had always borne a splendid reputation for honesty and truthfulness. When I asked him why he left the city with other people’s money, he replied, “An irresistible impulse came over me and for a time I was like a crazy man under a spell. It is all a dream to me. I cannot understand it.”