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THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

J All. CORRIDOR

A studv of the bovs \vho have been on the ground a vear or more will remove anv hasty svmpathv. In the majority of cases those who now air of the highest character were the most invet- erate convicts during their early citizenship. When they first

came they boasted of their crimes, but the citizens, instead of adoring them in proportion to their villainy, as is the well- known sentiment in prisons and among the craft in general, were shy of them, and those who had money held on to their pocketbooks. Now these same boys are keenly sensitive over their past record, are chagrined at any reference to it ; and their sensitiveness is honorably re- spected by all. To be judged

bv one's peers goes to the very heart of the moral being. There is none of that glory in it which sustains the culprit in the face of the ordinary police and courts. The Junior Republic is the onlv agency that has, as yet, been able to reach that most per- sonal and deadly of all the vices that have thus far confounded the managers of prisons, reformatories, orphans' homes, and schools, namely, masturbation. The boys took this matter in hand themselves without any suggestion from Mr. George. A bill was carried through the legislature making it a crime and prescribing punishment. The law-makers reasoned that such a culprit was an injury, not only to himself, but to the Republic. The first arrest and conviction on this charge so humiliated the criminal in his own estimation that within twenty minutes after being locked up he had torn a sheet in strips and hanged him- self by the neck to a rafter. Only the outcry of other prisoners and the (jiiick action of the jailer saved his life. The solemn effect of this tragic event on all the citizens has continued per- manent! v, and onlv the very newest arrivals are ever arrested