Here is another individual who started out in life with a heavy
hereditary burden. His early childhood, as far as can be determined,
was normal. He entered school and here met the first obligation. He
wavered, showed a tendency, that early, to be unable to lead a
well-regulated life and in consequence his school attendance was
irregular. The next difficulty he met was in attempting to learn a
trade. He soon found this too strenuous and sought an environment less
exacting in nature, and at fifteen we see him endeavoring to enlist in
the Navy. This is probably the first indication of his "wanderlust."
He was rejected, and after another year's effort to get along in his
immediate environment, finally succeeded in entering the Navy. Soon,
however, he found out that Navy life was not what he had pictured it
to be. It, likewise, was too exacting. He had to live up to prescribed
rules, obey orders--things to which he could not reconcile himself,
and in consequence failed of a proper adjustment. He knew he could not
stand it, he must get out. He must seek something more suitable,
something less exacting. In looking for a way out of the situation he
availed himself of the first opportunity, stole a suit of clothes with
the avowed purpose of being discharged for the offense. Here is the
starting point of his criminal career. He did not reflect upon the
consequences. He knew he must gratify his desire to get out of the
Navy, must do it at any cost, and yielded to temptation. This yielding
to temptation, this lack of power of resistance, characterized his
entire life. He yielded to every vice that crossed his path; he stole,
he drank, he became a morphine habitué, he sniffed cocaine, acquired
gonorrhœa and syphilis in his promiscuous sexual trends, and lastly
yielded to sexual perversion. After having served his first sentence
he was released and again found himself thrown upon his own resources.
He had not, as yet, reached the stage of the habitual criminal with
the utter disregard for property rights, nor had he reached that
nonchalance of the hobo, whose philosophy rests upon the dogma that
the world owes him a living, that tomorrow will provide for itself
somehow. He began to yearn for the service again. There, at least, he
was provided with shelter and food. There, at least, he did not have
to worry for the tomorrow. He entered the Army, deserted, re-entered,
deserted again, and kept this up until he was dishonorably discharged
seven times. He could stand it just so long. His lack of stability,
his inability for any continuous purposive effort, made him slip from
under the stress. He has less dread for the future now. He was
beginning to acquire that naïve philosophy that somehow the world
would provide for him. We next hear of him across the ocean. Here his
"wanderlust", his love of adventure, reasserts itself, but somehow he
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