It is safe to say that 70 per cent. to 75 per cent. of all who get behind prison bars for the first time are young men between the ages of sixteen and thirty. When the “rounder” puts in an appearance this percentage is reduced. Nevertheless, the great mass of all first offenders are young men. I once wrote to Superintendent Brockway of Elmira Reformatory, whom I regard as one of the best informed penologists in the United States; I asked why so many young men are sent to prison rather than men of maturer years, and he replied: “Young men between the ages of sixteen and thirty are the most pushing, vivacious, alert, wideawake and daring.” But though this reply was not as satisfactory as I should have liked it, it explained much. I believe there are times when temptations to commit crime are greater than at others; for example, when one has been idle for a long time, young men who live in idleness, or have no trade, or are out of employment, or during the time of financial depression, or when under the influence of liquor, or when one has become improvident; of course, certain associations promote crime, such as bad company, bad books, bad amusements and bad homes; still young men are the first victims on all such occasions. Among the great generators of crime to-day, among young men, I regard the gin mill, the pool room, the dive, the play house and the vile literature that gives its readers a detailed account of the daily murders, robberies and other crimes as the worst. I am satisfied the Dime Novel and other yellow covered books are crime producers and generate criminal instincts. We have seen men who have become criminals in heart and mind by absorbing criminal ideas in bad books and papers. After reading the hairbreadth escapes of Jesse James and other noted desperadoes, or how some stage coach or express train had been “held up” by Western bandits, the mind becomes impressed, fear of consequences is driven away from the conscience, and the individual is ready to commit any kind of deed. Hundreds of young men who are serving time in Elmira and Sing Sing to-day, lay the beginning of their downfall to bad books and papers that demoralized their nature. Modern journalism takes a hand in ruining young lives; for example, when a murder or robbery has been committed every detail is furnished by some of the morning papers. The ghastly work is gloated over, so that those who are morbidly minded, are for the time being hypnotized. The papers usually make a hero out of the criminal and hold him up before the people as one to be emulated, rather than shunned. Under such circumstances it is not to be wondered at that young men become criminals.