THE PROBLEM OF VICE AND CRIME 



I8l 



bers. He thinks he can at least go into the 

 reading-room ; but there he often finds a sign 

 saying, "Any persons not members must apply at 

 the desk for permission to enter." He goes out. 

 Shall he go to a church ? The churches are closed, 

 and as cold and gloomy as prisons. Not so the 

 saloon ; that is always open. There he finds music 

 and papers, rational and decent amusement, and 

 a lot of genial fellows ; and the devil manipulates 

 all. I have walked the streets of large cities, try- 

 ing to find some place in which I could pass the 

 evening pleasantly ; and the only doors open to me, 

 with my resources, were those of the theatre, the 

 saloon, and what is equally persistent and more 

 infamous. The wonder is that men in such cir- 

 cumstances are as decent as they are. Some of 

 them are sons of drunkards, and are now amidst 

 conditions that tend to develop all that is bad 

 in them. The exigencies of daily life place 

 them where the odds are against sobriety and 

 decency. Heredity has too often furnished a 

 nature more or less vitiated ; environment now 

 surrounds it with fascinating allurements, and 

 intemperance follows as naturally as a harvest 

 from the sowing of seed. 



Heredity, Environment, and Crime. — The he- 

 reditary nature of the criminal propensity is un- 



