The professional crook is a difficult problem to handle, when looking toward a reformation. Years of living without the necessity of labor have made him unsuited to a great many occupations, and this, coupled with the fact that a great many are without trades, makes it a problem which only the wise can handle. I know there are a great many people in this world with just the best of intentions toward this class of men. They are interested in social work, they have a heart swelling with sympathy, and hands eager to help lift the load, but they lack understanding. I know a fellow helped toward hell by a man of good intentions. Men have been pauperized by sympathy. The lazy are ever ready for some one else to bear their load. It takes more than good intentions, more than sympathy, more than a readiness to help, to make a reformation in the character of the crook. The man who seeks to reclaim these men (I say man because I know of only one woman ever successful in this effort--Mrs. Ballington Booth) must first of all understand them. He must know life as it is, not as he thinks it is. He must have as his patron saint the virtue patience; absolutely he must be an optimist, yet not a visionary; he must be gentle, yet strong, acting absolutely on the square toward the man he fain would reclaim. He must be religious. Not a conventional churchgoer. No, he must be more than that. His religion must emanate from his personality. Creed must be subdued, sectarianism must give place to brotherhood. Even these qualifications do not necessarily mean success. As no man of the underworld is like his fellow, different methods will need to be followed in the effort to reclaim them. I have outlined the fundamentals essential to even a partial success in this line. The opportunities for good are beyond number. CHAPTER XIII SYSTEMATIC LAWLESSNESS Soon after leaving prison I fell in with an old “stir” (prison) acquaintance. He was an older man than I was, wise as to the methods of the underworld, and cunning in crime. He proposed a partnership. I agreed, and the following three years we wandered together over a good portion of the world. We visited the larger cities of Europe, matching our wits against the police, and, as luck would have it, always making a clean getaway. Of course we did no big work. Ours was of a petty nature.