DOES “ RAFFLES ’ ’ EXIST? 
467 
But you ask me : What about the degene- 
rate gentlemen who fall from the upper social 
ranks to which they belong, after losing 
everything they possess through the influence 
of gambling, women, and drink ? They 
never become thieves in the professional sense 
of the term. Either they profit by bitter 
experience or are reclaimed by their friends 
when half-way on the road to ruin, or they 
go on sinking lower and lower until they 
reach a depth of degradation which it is 
almost impossible to conceive. 
gentlemen. Misery and abjection have anni- 
hilated all ambition, all shame, and all will- 
power. They have no resistance left. The 
discipline and the uniform of a prison or 
an asylum may revive in them, for the time 
being at any rate, the shadow of former decent 
habits and correct manners, but nothing else 
will. 
There is a third type : the man of good 
birth, clever, active, but profoundly immoral, 
who has squandered his last cent in a life of 
dissipation and debauchery, and is ready to 
EXAMPLES OF "GENTLEMEN " CRIMINALS. 
The one on the left was a foreign nobleman who has sunk to absolute beggary ; the one on the right is a crook who catches his prey by 
all means of cunning devices. It wi.l be noticed that neither of these types ever becomes a burglar in the ordinary sense of the word. 
From Photnjrd i)hn. 
Never shall 1 forget the shock that I ex- 
perienced when my professional duties first 
brought me into contact with a human ship- 
wreck of this description. A poor wretch, 
covered with nameless rags — this is what 
had become, in little less than fifteen years, 
Baron L. de B., a man of first-class education, 
and, what is more, of brilliant gifts, for he 
had passed with the highest distinction 
through the Ecole des Beaux Arts (the Fine 
Arts School), and had been awarded the most 
coveted of all prizes open to French art 
students, the Prix de Rome. 
The habitual vagabond, sprung from the 
people, never sinks so low as this. He main- 
tains a certain mastery over himself. Per- 
haps the unwonted caprice may seize him to 
do a day’s work. In view of such an eventu- 
ality he is always provided with a little pocket 
“ necessary,” containing a piece of soap, a 
brush and comb, needles and thread, so that 
if need be lie can present a fairly decent 
appearance before a possible employer. Not 
so with the “ hoboes ” who have once been 
adopt any expedient which will help to main- 
tain him in his social position. Here is an 
example drawn from the gay circles of the 
smartest Parisian society. Count Georges 
de C. belongs to one of the most aristocratic 
families in France, whose ancestors arc 
famous for having founded one of our oldest 
colonies. He was first brought under my 
professional notice in connection with a crime, 
provoked by jealousy, of which he came very 
near to being the victim. His inherited 
fortune had already been dissipated. He 
was handsome, with perfect manners, and 
had the brain of a first-class engineer, but 
the brain only, for there was no solid instruc- 
tion behind it. I said to myself at the time : 
“ Young man, you and I are destined to meet 
again.” However, twenty years elapsed 
before my prophecy came true. In the 
meanwhile Count de C. continued to cut a 
brilliant figure at all the fashionable watering- 
places. Now and again, of course, a shadow 
fell upon the picture. At one time it was a 
sensational duel, and the whisper went round 
