longer time. The great hazard involved in this trade and also the
physical strength and fitness of those who follow it lead to its
abandonment more frequently than is the case with a pickpocket or a
petty thief. Robbery is seldom a profession. It is usually the crime of
the young and venturesome and almost surely leads to early disaster.
Murder, of course, is never a profession. In a broad way it is the
result of accident or passion, or of relations which are too hard to
endure.

In prison and out, I have talked with scores of these men and boys. I am
sure they rarely tried to deceive me. I have very seldom seen one who
felt that he had done wrong, or had any thought of what the world calls
reformation. A very few have used the current language of those who
talk of reform, but generally they were the weakest and most hopeless of
the lot and usually adopted this attitude to deceive. In almost every
instance where you meet any sign of intelligence, excuses and
explanations are freely made, and these explanations fully justify their
points of view. Often too they tell you in sincerity that they believe
their way of life is too hard and does not pay; that while they cannot
see how they could have done any differently in the past, they believe
their experience has taught them to stick by the rules of the game.

The boy delinquent grows naturally and almost inevitably into the man
criminal. He has generally never learned a trade. No habits have been
formed in his youth to keep him from crime. A life of crime is the only
one open to him, and for this life he has had ample experience,
inclination and opportunity. Then too for this kind of young man the
life of a criminal has a strong appeal. Life without opportunity and
without a gambler's chance to win a considerable prize is not attractive
to anyone. The conventional man who devotes his life to business or to a