24 THE JUKES. 



in the lines of greatest vitality, and that the qualities which make 

 contrivers of crime are substantially the same as will make men suc- 

 cessful in honest pursuits. In all the cases above cited burglary 

 preponderates. This crime requires a strong physique, a cool head, 

 and a good judgment backed by pluck. All these are qualities 

 essential to any successful career, and the reform of these four men 

 simply shows there is such a thing as interchangeability of careers, 

 the solution of the problem of reform being how a new direction 

 may be given to the activity of the faculties which are employed in 

 a bad one. Indeed, so true is this view believed to be it is safe to 

 venture the position that all criminals of sound mind and body who 

 commit crimes of contrivance and who have not passed the merid- 

 ian of life can be reformed, if only judicious training is applied in 

 time. Where there is vitality, there morality can be organized and 

 made a constituent part of character. 



With criminals, gambling and licentiousness are widely preva- 

 lent. Any method which would direct this wasted power into 

 other directions would produce an amended career. The problem 

 amounts to this : given a certain amount of vitality, how shall it be 

 expended so that the community shall not suffer injury. If, by 

 training, evil modes should be closed up, not only could the energy 

 be used for other purposes, but it would be so used, for life is 

 activity of some sort, and will assert itself by effort of some kind. 



What of the pauper ? With him there is less hope, because 

 less vitality, and less impressibility to praise or blame, to example 

 or ambition. There also is, almost invariably, found licentiousness 

 in some form. Here we have a key to solving some of the difficul- 

 ties of his case. Virility is a mark of vitality, and sexual licentious- 

 ness, when unallied with disease, an index that there is yet vital 

 strength, while reticence is a mark of power, for it indicates the 

 subjection of the passions to the dominion of the will, storing up 

 the vital forces, so to speak, for expenditure in other directions. 

 Hard, continuous labor checks the erotic passion, prevents waste 

 of vitality, tends to decrease its intensity by disuse, and in the 

 course of time may enable the potential pauper to form habits of 

 industry that will yet become organized as part of his character, 



