THE RELATIONS OF WOMEN TO CRIME. 15 



this so well as that of the criminal habit. Mentally and physically 

 we are the victims of custom. Existence, like running streams, has a 

 tendency to find for itself fixed channels. Life as it exj^ands seems to 

 seek points of least resistance for its outlets, and in following which 

 it encounters less friction to retard its flow. In relation to crime, tliis 

 exists as strongly as the opium or alcohol habit. The habit may find 

 its factor in perverted moral feeling, whether hereditary or acquired, 

 but its physical expression becomes the rule of life. Take such an in- 

 stance as that of Ruloff, to whom Nature had given the crude mate- 

 rial of a magnificent mind. In spite of the terrible potency of his 

 criminal ideas, a longing for a nobler and higher life existed within 

 him in sufficient force to give direction to considerable self-culture. 

 He stole, and would kill without remorse any one who stood between 

 him and his object, simply to gain money to enable him to follow his 

 studies. His life took the direction of the least resistance. That 

 which existed in the normal man as a sense of right or wrong, and 

 offered itself as an obstacle to wrong-doing, had no place in this man's 

 mental life. The outgoings of his life in the direction of least resist- 

 ance, simply and naturally led him to crime. Cerebral and bodily ac- 

 tivities, among the good and bad alike, follow the channels in which 

 they encounter the least friction, either objectively or subjectively. 

 It is thus we have the parson and the thief. By inherited traits, early 

 training, occupation or social condition, weak points may be created 

 in the barriers which surround the activities of life, and when maturity 

 is reached the individual's existence is defined by ineiFaceable lines. 

 At this stage of life, efforts, made either from within or without, to 

 give a new direction to these channels, come too late. Habit has been 

 established which confirms the direction life has taken. These two 

 forces united seem irresistible. I was, several years ago, brought in 



contact with an instance which proves this. Lena S was of German 



descent, and about fifty years old. She was of more than average in- 

 telligence, and of spare, nervous temperament. Lena was an instance 

 of sporadic crime, in the sense that she did not belong to a criminal 

 family. She followed the specialty of shoplifting, one that requires 

 great coolness and cunning. Caught in the act and arrested, her his- 

 tory was brought out. She was married, and her husband was serv- 

 ing out a term of imprisonment, but with whom she had not lived for 

 many years. She wandered from city to city, following her business; 

 she had been repeatedly arrested, and more than once punished, and 

 every time her whereabouts was brought to the knowledge of her 

 family by her arrest, attempts were made to reclaim her, but in vain. 

 Sentenced to several years of imprisonment, she quickly began to 

 droop. She passed sleepless nights, with quick, irritable pulse, and 

 loss of appetite. She constantly brooded, and laid more than one plot 

 to escape, one of which was nearly successful. Out of about a year 

 and a half of confinement, not more than a month of light labor was 



