658 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



adding complications to the history and the frequent mysteries of 

 crime. What is that which we call " esprit de corps," the " spirit of 

 the ao-e," and other similar intangible somethings, which we know ex- 

 ist, but which it is difficult to embody in anything more material than 

 a phrase ? What these expressions indicate simply is, that certain 

 numbers, greater or smaller, are prepared to imitate each other, whether 

 it be in a crusade to the Holy Sepulchre, a Flagellant procession, or a 

 modern strike of Crispins or engineers. 



Imitative crimes are often motiveless in the ordinary meaning of 

 the word, while numerically they really exceed all others ; and it is 

 somewhat curious that this feature of criminality has been so slightly 

 noticed by statisticians and others concerned in the eradication of crime. 

 Other causes of crime are certainly more obvious, for they lie upon the 

 surface ignorance, poverty, intemperance, the desire to live beyond 

 one's legitimate means, unrestrained passions of all kinds : these are of 

 course the leaders and pioneers of the great criminal army ; but the 

 rank and file are mainly made up of imitators, who do as they see 

 others do with whom they associate. Take as an illustration the 

 " great strike " of the railway employees some two years since, in the 

 States of Pennsylvania and New York and elsewhere, and separate if 

 you can the number of individuals who acted from conviction and de- 

 liberate intention with what we might call a reason however mis- 

 guided, and the number who burned, hacked, and hewed simply because 

 others were devastating and destroying. Could all of the mere imi- 

 tators have been eliminated from those mobs it would scarcely have 

 required military force to have dealt with the remainder, the few ac- 

 tive, intelligent leaders of that violent mode of argument. 



It will probably be admitted, in most cases of mob violence, that 

 the mass of intimidators are ignorant, unreasoning followers, who, if 

 they think at all, only reflect to the extent of supposing that the pres- 

 ence of numbers will suffice to conceal their individual share of the 

 crime ; but possibly some of our readers may not be so ready to admit 

 that the faculty of imitation works quite as potentially in secret, where 

 to aid it come various suggestive faculties, such as emulation, vanity, 

 imagination, contrivance, secretiveness, hope, despair, and various other 

 emotions. The concealed imitator broods unobserved of his fellows, 

 and acts only when he deems himself safe from interruption. 



The history of the world is full of crimes and follies committed 

 under the influence of the imitative instinct. In many cases so de- 

 void of thought are the actors in these scenes as scarcely to bring them 

 under the judgment of responsible human beings. It is in fact no easy 

 task to draw with any degree of accuracy the dividing line between 

 folly and crime, especially when the exalted sentiments of patriotism 

 or the fanaticism induced by the misapplication of religious dogma, or 

 fervent appeals to the emotions, are the basis of certain wild proceed- 

 ings ; engaged in by assemblies of the intensely nervous, led by knaves 



