habitual visitor to criminal courts knows that they
are very few. Of the others, some are born of parents who could care
for them and have done their best and yet, in spite of this, they have
repeatedly been entangled in the law; these are often the only ones of a
large family who have not lived according to the rules of the game. They
are different from the other members of the family. For the most part
they have some specific congenital defect, or an unstable system that
prevents the correct registration of the experiences that produce safe
habits, or makes them unable to withstand temptation or suggestion.

Everyone knows how easy it is, especially for children, to react to
suggestion. The whole life of a child is a response to suggestion. This
is about all there is to education. Even older men constantly and
readily yield to suggestion. The results gained by quack doctors,
lightning-rod agents, promoters and dealers in oil stocks, mining stocks
and an endless number of other stocks, show that the right kind of
suggestion is bound to produce results. The dressing of the windows of
department stores and the writing of catchy advertisements are a
constant recognition of the power of suggestion. So well known is this
weakness of human character that schools of salesmanship are regularly
organized and promoted to teach the art of getting victims to part with
money for things they do not want or need.

Every right-feeling person does everything in his power to educate the
child. He is ever watchful through the child's youth and early manhood
to equip him with the capacity to make a living. He seeks to build up
around him and within him the strongest kind of habits and beliefs. He
carefully teaches the child that the only way to live is to observe all
the rules laid down by experience and custom, so that he may not react
to the temptations that life holds out at every step. Every wise person
feels almost certain that if his children are reared without education,
without discipline, without training or opportunities, they will almost
inevitably swell the ranks of the criminal classes. And it is especially
certain that if one of his children is defective or has an unstable
nervous system, such a child should never be left without protection and
care.

There are professional criminals of a different grade, like the forger
and the confidence man. Both of these have generally had some education
and a fair degree of intelligen