236 



PRENATAL CULTURE. 



A Novel-Read- 

 ing Preacher's 

 Fate* 



Epidemics of 

 Crime. 



Juvenile 

 Offenders. 



Heredity versus 

 Environment 



a bank in Portland at an early hour in the morn- 

 ing, and with a masked face and revolvers in 

 hand, held up the teller. At the preliminary trial 

 the wife said that for months her husband had de- 

 voted a great part of his time to reading the exag- 

 gerated accounts of outlaws, bank robbers, etc. 

 Such a mania had this become, that she frequently 

 caught him reading a burglar story which had 

 been placed in the open Bible, in order to deceive 

 her. Of course the reverend gentleman was of un- 

 sound mind when he made his debut as a profes- 

 sional burglar; but his monomania was probably 

 the result of the class of literature he had been 

 reading. 



Many similar cases are on record. Criminalo- 

 gists tell us that any fiendish crime, the account 

 of which is widely circulated and generally dis- 

 cussed, is apt to be reproduced in the desire of 

 hundreds, in the conduct of many, and may even 

 become epidemic. 



The influence of the stories of crime is most 

 marked among the young. Almost every police 

 record contains the account of several boys who 

 have been arrested for arson or an attempted hold- 

 up, who, when questioned as to the cause of their 

 conduct, have expressed a desire to do and become 

 like some notorious outlaw, of whom they had 

 read. Most of these boys had a hereditary tend- 

 ency or fondness for such things, but the vicious 

 story was undoubtedly the exciting cause. Here, 

 as in many other cases, it is difficult to discern 

 which is cause and which effect, or how much of 

 conduct springs from hereditary tendencies and 

 how much from environment. That the reading 



