Since much of so much must have been out of the generous hand of Nature, one could wish Kipling had studied criminals as he has studied other men, and that his “instances observed” thereof were spread as he would spread them in print over the globe.
A pen like Kipling’s would go far to clear away mental cobwebs, spun about the criminal mind by gourd-vine protagonists during the last three decades. As would he with our subject, let us begin at the beginning:
Whether the biblical account of the killing of Abel by Cain be taken as inspired writing, or as pure myth clothed out of man’s imagination, it was the first criminal act imaged by human consciousness. Also, Cain’s reply, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” to those who sought the murdered Abel, shadows forth fundamentally the attitude of mind of the average citizen towards the felon of to-day. It adumbrates, as well, the predilection of the criminal, now as then, to hide the truth with a smoke-screen of subterfuge; this, cleverly betimes, as in Cain’s case, through shunting question with question, though the more common and vulgar method is resort to the clumsily covered lie.
Crass criminals give America cause for pause, only because America either directly or indirectly places crime-weapons in their hands. Along criminous trails they blaze they usually leave easily-recognized marks. In the main, they are scrambled-brained imitators, whom to catch and trip is no great chore.
It is totally different as to the self-determining, self-reliant, mentally keen and resourceful criminal, who is nearly callous to the effects of criminousness, and who seeks life’s zest through matching wits with agents of the law.
Criminals of the latter class will meet you good-naturedly in ethical argument on your chosen ground, where they will catch you unawares “if you don’t watch out.”
For example, you expatiate on individual social service as a duty, and on the cumulative blessings which would accrue therefrom.
“Fine!” replies our man, and adds: “But how many are rendering that kind of service? How many besides those who make a ‘soft’ living at it, and those who first gouged and got theirs?”
You declare that line of argument doesn’t cover the question of individual responsibility; that it doesn’t answer for a thief to point other social slackers.
“All right,” rebuts Thief, “but why ring all of the solemn bells on the retailers? Why not sound the curfew on a batch of the big bandits, and land them where you land hard-pressed ‘pickers’?”