I am not sure that a kindergarten in every ward of every
city in America "would almost shut up the penitentiaries, sir!" The
most determined optimist is weighed down by the feeling that it will
take more than the ardent prosecution of any one reform, however
vital, to produce such a result. We appoint investigating committees,
who ask more and more questions, compile more and more statistics, and
get more and more confused every year. "Are our criminals native or
foreign born?" that we may know whether we are worse or better than
other people? "Have they ever learned a trade?" that we may prove what
we already know, that idle fingers are the devil's tools; "Have they
been educated?"--by any one of the sorry methods that take shelter
under that much-abused word,--that we may know whether ignorance is
a bliss or a _blister_; "Are they married or single?" that we may
determine the influence of home ties; "Have they been given to the use
of liquor?" that we may heap proof on proof, mountain high, against
the monster evil of intemperance; "What has been their family
history?" that we may know how heavily the law of heredity has laid
its burdens upon them.
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