Wellington Scott

“ In the life of the elect I have never met an angel; in the underworld I have yet to meet a man absolutely bad.
The great fact in the formation of criminal tendencies, to my mind at least, is environment. If this is so, then the society is in part responsible for the crime existing. A vast number of folks believe that the criminal is born so. They point to the son or daughter of criminal and vicious parents as proof of their reasoning. But when they do so they forget the force of the environment surrounding the child from its birth. ”

“ The “con man,” the bank sneak, the counterfeiter (of notes) and his allies, the forger, the big dip, and the badger man are what might be called the aristocrats of the underworld because their work requires on their part always a polished exterior. A good “front” (appearance) in their line is essential to success.
The morning sun may see the criminal the acme of contentment, money in his pocket, a smile on his face; the evening shadows may fall on him pacing a cell in some detention house. Yet the crook takes the chance. ”

“ It dehumanizes the prisoners, leaving them without hope or reward. It hardens the sensibilities of the guards watching over them. Wherever the system is in vogue there will be found brutality rampant. If the prisoner is unable to do his allotted task, punishment is resorted to to force him.
Wardens of all such institutions will tell you that the tasks assigned to the prisoner are much less than the average product of the free laborer, but I have found it universally true that the tasks assigned equal, and in some cases exceed the output of the free man. ”

“ One night as a group of us lolled about a camp fire I was asked to join a gang of yeggs then about to start out on a trip. I accepted the invitation, and the following two years saw me risking life and liberty in the most dangerous of all the underworld pursuits. The life of a yegg is a life of stirring adventures. In the majority of cases each crime means a fight for a getaway. The yegg keeps to his class and is a strict observer of caste. He hates work as he hates the police, and carries his hatred further to those who do work. ”

“ I soon found the old environment calling me in tones which I could not resist. I slipped back again to the old pals and companionships. The ice was broken. I found each succeeding act against the law much easier of commission, until the habit became formed. Crime to the professional thief is nothing more or less than habit. That is why the reforming of such is so difficult. I lost all sight of the morals. The right or wrong of an act never enters into the mind of a criminal. ”

“ That it plays a big part there is no gainsaying. A mind lacking will power is like a sheep—ever willing to follow a leader. If that mind possesses criminal tendencies, a method of crime is easily suggested by simply reading of other crimes. I know not whether it is pertinent to the query or not, but one of the big facts about the men in the underworld is that nearly all are inveterate readers of the daily press.
Whatever part suggestion may have played in the lives of other men in the underworld, it was a potent factor in one of the crimes of my early career. ”

“ This custom of herding young boys suspected or guilty of crime with older and hardened criminals is a crime against childhood. At an age when the senses are most receptive the boy should have an environment free from contaminating influences. If the aim of the State is to reform and not simply to punish him, the quicker it separates the youthful criminal from the older one, the better its chances to deplete the ranks of the underworld. ”

“ In contrasting my life of the present with that of the underworld I am struck by the similar characters inhabiting both. The men of the underworld are little different from those living a legitimate life. They are possessed of the same emotions. They work and love with the same intensity of purpose as do their brothers of the moral life. ”

“ I do not believe drink to be that great cause of crime which it is reported to be. Of course all drinking men are not criminals, yet neither are all criminals drinking men. Indirectly, though, drink is a big cause. The environment of the saloon, rather than drink itself, is what strikes me as being the great factor in producing the criminal. The saloons exist by reason of the permission of the State, and by reason of this fact the State stands responsible for a good part of the crime committed as a result of the saloon’s influence. ”

“ The yegg, unlike the gentlemanly types of the underworld, cares little for women. The ill-gotten gains are spent “slopping up” (getting drunk) in the jungles (outside the city) in the summer, or in some particular rendezvous of the city in the winter time. He never saves; his is the life of the present.
The stick-up man (hold-up) , the burglar, and like, make up the other types, along with the bum, the tramp, and the hobo. I have often seen the bum, the tramp, and the hobo classed as one type of those fellows who love life better than they love work. ”

“ The crook, above all, knows men, knows how difficult it is to get twelve men to agree on anything under the sun, and, other things being equal, is more than willing to stack his liberty on the chance. In all my experience in the underworld I know of no man wrongfully convicted. ”

“ Upon entering jail my mind was made up to take my punishment at once and have it over with, but in jail I met men older and abler in crime than I was, whose advice to me was to demand a jury and take a chance. They reasoned with me that I had everything to gain and nothing to lose by the experiment. I, of course, took their advice.
A trial by jury gives a pretty good chance to the crook. It takes mighty strong evidence, and it has to be very conclusive to send a man away for a term of years, and the crook knows it. The worst that he’s got is an even break, no matter what the evidence. ”

“ These individuals, in most cases, come into the State from the outside; they pay no taxes and bring into the State no assets beneficial to the people at large. They engage this contract labor at insignificant prices, and force the product of this labor on the free market. This in itself is unfair to the employer of free labor who brings into the State assets beneficial to all. ”

“ The reader will come to have a new understanding of the forces which drag boys down, and of the underworld which waits for them with wide-open doors. He will understand better how to deal with the boys in his own home, his own Sunday school, and his own community, when he has read this revealing document. The whole problem of the prison and prison reform will appear in a new light. And the reader will come to think of the prisoner, not as a wastrel, but as a man who has lost his way. ”

“ I know the fight ahead of all the men starting out on the straight road, and I would ask that you in some way make it a little easier for them. A smile isn’t much, an encouraging word goes a long way. They all help, they all lift the man a little nearer to the summit of his desire. In your own way you can be of inestimable help in the making of a man. ”

“ All crooks are possessed of a little more than their due share of vanity; my success in the new line puffed up my pride considerably. I was only a kid, I reasoned, doing a man’s work in the underworld. ”

“ I stayed for about five weeks in this “home.” While I found a sincere desire on the part of the officials to make one at home, the place itself was too much institutionalized for them to succeed. That to me is the fault of the “homes” devoted to the interests of the discharged prisoner. The man coming out of prison should be made to forget such a thing as an institution. To step out of a place where rule and routine are the fundamentals, and enter again into the same environment under the guise of a “home” is a discouraging feature to the man bent on turning over a new leaf. ”

“ Roaming about the country, working here and there in railroad and lumber camps, and canneries, his traveling is always to a destination. A stake is made and he and his pals go to the city for a spree. ”

“ The stool is a big asset to every police department. Through him the police are notified of the presence in town of any of the big men of the profession. Living in the underworld, he has means of getting advance information of some job to be pulled off. He does work for which he receives in pay the supposed friendship of the police. The petty tricks that he pulls off pass unnoticed. If, by any chance, he should find himself within the clutches of the law, his friendship with the police, in most cases, is sufficient to have the case against him dropped. ”

“ The contract system in vogue at the institution was vicious to the extreme. It was the cause of most of the discontent found there. It was the source of all the numerous petty disturbances. Although I know of no prisoner being severely punished for noncompletion of task assigned, I do know of punishment inflicted elsewhere. Most wardens say, if you ask them, that they expect but one half to one fourth of an outside man’s output or ability. ”

“ The tramp is a mixture of thief, mendicant, and loafer. He will never work; the genuine tramp excludes from his society those who ever do work. If he is ever required to work in return for a meal, [Pg 65] he forfeits the meal rather than to soil his reputation by labor. He steals when opportunity offers, and begs when he gets the chance. He differs from the yegg, in that his life is not entirely devoted to crime. From the ranks of the tramp the society of yeggs is sometimes recruited; from the bum, never. The hobo differs from both in the respect that he works occasionally, and seldom steals. ”

“ It is an impossible task to please all the men in such an institution, an absurd endeavor even to try to please them. Convicts, as a rule, are chronic kickers. Serve them with ham and eggs for any reasonable time, mutterings of discontent would soon follow. Some officials seem to know this, and change the diet of the prisoner frequently. The same food served continuously soon becomes monotonous. Men lose their appetite, discontent poisons their nature, melancholy results, and trouble follows. If a change of food is made at intervals of the year, a better discipline is procured. ”

“ The character of the [Pg 100] chaplain had alienated me from thoughts of religion and I drifted into the philosophy of the atheist. I read the books of the so-called freethinkers, and in the reading assimilated some of their teachings. I took much pains that my pals in the prison should know where I stood in this matter of religion, and I was soon known among them as an atheist of the first water. Strange to say, among the men in the different prisons of my experience, I have seldom found an out-and-out atheist. The great majority of them believe, and believe strongly, in their Creator. ”

“ He lives in the present and cares not a cent what the morrow may bring forth.
Yeggs, as a class, have certain characteristics differentiating them from the rest of the underworld. Loyalty to one another is preeminent in their make-up. Though the yegg has been known to kill in making his getaway, he never degenerates to the cruelty of the stick-up man. He never tortures, nor do I know of any guilty of crimes against womanhood. ”

“ I would not have any of their proffered friendships, and the rancor in my heart kept me alien from their fellowships. I drew myself, as it were, into a shell. I made a pal out of solitude and out of silence. I suckled the poison of discontent. Can you [Pg 14] imagine the life of a boy like that? The life of a lad is incomplete when it lacks the joys and pleasures found in companionship with other boys. These are a necessary part of his life, essential to his well-being and vitally important in the formation of a good character. ”

“ He had the life and liberty, the responsibility of a thousand men under his care. For over twenty years he guarded the destiny of this institution. He was the enemy of every reform ever initiated. He refused to let outside men or women interest themselves in the cause of the prisoner. He made rules of unusual severity and punished cruelly any infraction. In this prison the contract system of employing prisoners was in use, and the warden was ever the friend of the contractor. ”

“ In my mind the center of the evil is reached, and promising work is done when we look toward a [Pg 116] betterment of social conditions in the slums and poverty-stricken districts of the city. Reforms made here will soon make themselves felt in other areas. It is Utopian to believe that crime will ever be entirely obliterated in this life. Even believing this as true, the fact remains that by right methods, and human understanding, a considerable part of the underworld can be brought to see the Light. ”

“ I have found universally true in all prisons where the contract system is in force that the prisoner is expected and compelled to do the equal of an outside man’s output, and in some cases more than that. ”