“A man came into my office one day, greatly excited,” said Mr. Leonard. “He appeared to be a hard-headed business man--a live wire. I asked him what I could do for him. “‘I don’t know whether you can do anything’, he replied. ‘My boy is in the hands of the sheriff over there. My boy has been sentenced to the reformatory. But I guess you can’t do anything for him, because he’s a born criminal.’ “‘If he’s a born criminal, he’ll be the first one I ever saw’, I replied. “Then this man went on and told me what he had done for his boy. He had bought him a pony and cart when he was little, and later he had bought him a gun and a boat, and so on, and so on, and before he got through I marveled that the boy had not been sentenced to the reformatory much sooner. “‘You have bought all these things for your boy’, I said, ‘but have you ever been a father to him?’ The man looked surprised. ‘I mean, have you ever been a companion to him? Have you ever interested yourself into the things he was interested in?’ He had not done so because he was a busy business man. “One year later when that boy was paroled he shook hands with me and said: ‘Mr. Leonard, there is one thing above all others that I want to thank you for, and that is for getting me acquainted with my dad.’ “I wasn’t worried much about that boy after that because he had reached the stage where he called his father ‘my dad.’” * * * * * _Prison Earnings in New York._--The convict population of the State of New York at present is 4,604, an increase of 88 over a year ago. The highest number confined at any one time during the year was 4,838. The total cost of maintenance during the year was $814,583. Sing Sing earned $73,371.50, a decrease of $3,513 over the previous year; Auburn earned $29,167.45, decrease of $39,954; Clinton earned $36,963.72, decrease of $7,811. * * * * * _The Views of Boston’s District Attorney._ To the Editor of the Boston Post: Sir--The morning Post states that in a speech last night I said that in 10 years there would be no prisons. This is far from what I said and I would ask you to make due correction. With the fullest hope and confidence in human nature I must confess that I have not as yet reached the point where I could express the belief that Utopia would be realized within the next decade. What I did say was that within that time courts would no longer pronounce definite sentence upon those found guilty of crime, but that the sentence or length of time during which a guilty man should be deprived of his liberty for the safety of the community would be determined by some competent board of men appointed for that purpose, with all the power and dignity of a court, who, after the fullest investigation, would determine where the person should be sent and for what length of time, subject to modification thereafter.