sign of intelligence, excuses and
explanations are freely made, and these explanations fully justify their
points of view. Often too they tell you in sincerity that they believe
their way of life is too hard and does not pay; that while they cannot
see how they could have done any differently in the past, they believe
their experience has taught them to stick by the rules of the game.

The boy delinquent grows naturally and almost inevitably into the man
criminal. He has generally never learned a trade. No habits have been
formed in his youth to keep him from crime. A life of crime is the only
one open to him, and for this life he has had ample experience,
inclination and opportunity. Then too for this kind of young man the
life of a criminal has a strong appeal. Life without opportunity and
without a gambler's chance to win a considerable prize is not attractive
to anyone. The conventional man who devotes his life to business or to a
profession always has before him the prizes of success--to some honor
and glory, and to most of them wealth. Imagine the number of lawyers,
doctors and business men who could stick to a narrow path if they knew
that life offered no opportunity but drudgery and poverty! Nearly all
of these look forward to the prizes of success. Most of them expect
success and many get it. For the man that I have described, a life of
toil offers no chance of success. His capacity, education and
environment deny him the gambler's chance of a prize. As an honest man,
he may raise a family, always be in debt, live a life of poverty and
hardship and see nothing ahead but drudgery and defeat. This is why so
many mediocre men are found in the mountains and oil fields prospecting
for hidden wealth. With the chance of a fortune just before them, and no
other opportunity to win, they spend their lives without a family or
home, urged on by the hope of luck.

The man grown from boyhood into ways of vice and crime sees this hope
and this hope only to make a strike. He has no strong convictions and no
well-settled habits to hold him back. The fear of the law only means
greater caution, and after all he has nothing to lose. In his world
arrest and conviction do not mean loss of caste; they mean only bad
luck. With large numbers of men crime becomes a trade. It grows to be a
business as naturally as any other calling comes to be a trade.

There are other criminals who do not come from the class I have
described, but the