Living by one's wits has become a fine art, and it is a profession
that is more liberally patronized than any other by the present
generation. One of America's leading detectives remarked that there
were about seventy-five thousand people in a city the size of Chicago
that would bear watching. There isn't a bank, insurance office, dry
goods store, restaurant or hotel that does not employ men to watch
their customers, and there is hardly a business house in the country
that has not some system of watching its employes. Everybody at this
day seems to be afraid of everybody else.
[Illustration: (Learn to paint)]
Professional criminals pride themselves quite as much upon their
ability as men engaged in legitimate occupations. A thief, for
instance, is as vain of his superiority over other thieves as a
lawyer, politician, or clergyman might be whose talents had elevated
him to a commanding position in the eyes of the people. And the
talented thief is as much courted and sought after as the successful
man in the honest walks of life. The other thieves will say: "He is
a good man to know; I must make his acquaintance." But the thief who
has earned a reputation is particular about the company he keeps,
and is scornful in his demeanor toward another thief whom he does not
consider his professional equal. Caste exists among criminals as well
as among other classes.
Men and women who are not living merely for today must be deeply
interested in the efforts which practical philanthropists are making
to discover the causes of crime and to remedy the mischievous
conditions which now prevail to such an alarming extent. Hidden away
to a considerable degree in the great mass of figures which came
into being through the operations of the census bureau, are facts
that should shock every good citizen. With all the warmth of eulogy
the story of wonderful progress has been told again and again, but
only a few references have been made to the abnormal growth of what
may be termed by the criminal class. Forty years ago there was but
one criminal to 3,500 good or reasonably good citizens. According to
the last census the proportion was one in 786.5, an increase of 445
per cent in a period during which the population increased but 170
per cent. Never in the nation's history has educational work of all
descriptions been nearly so active as at present, yet the increase in
the number of those who were confined in penitentiaries and jails and
reformatory institutions is almost twice as rapid as the growth of
population.