It must be an awful insult to the Almighty, after he had so liberally endowed such people, some of them with the intellect of a Webster or a Gladstone, for them to use their powers only to do evil and refuse to do good. But this is precisely what a habitual criminal makes up his mind to do when he continues in wrongdoing against the wishes of his best friends. A middle-aged criminal who has made a dark record as a thief and liar since he was ten years old was taken to the prison desk in my presence to give his pedigree, as is the custom with all who are committed by the Magistrate to await trial. When asked his name, age and business, he replied, “I am forty-five years of age. I have no home but the Penitentiary and a ten-cent Bowery lodging house which I use when I am not in prison. I am a thief by profession and have followed that business nearly all my life. As I positively refuse to work I mean to be a thief till I die, and will compel the State to support me.” There are hundreds of this class possessing the same delusion in all our cities, who do nothing but steal for a living and then cover their evil conduct by lies. They are insanely depraved and should be locked up permanently, as they are of no use to anybody. They are social parasites and enemies of the race. And yet I am forced to say that some of the brightest and brainiest of men that I ever knew in their sober moments, were crooks. I have tried to study them to see how and where they differ from other men—and that is no ordinary task. Whether I succeeded or not remains to be seen. In some cases, after many patient interviews I was able to draw them out of the dark and gloomy past, where I could read their character in its true light. Although many of this class are exceedingly interesting as conversationalists and unusually intelligent on the great questions of the day, I find they are never willing to disclose their identity or reveal their inner life. A crook never gives his right name when placed under arrest—always an alias. His deeds are done in darkness. One of the most forbidding faces ever I saw in my life was that of Terry R—— who died in the New York Penitentiary a few years ago. He was a hardened character. During his life he had eleven convictions for crime recorded against him, extending over twenty-five years. I carefully observed that during his last years he became sullen, revengeful, despondent and suspicious of everybody. Terry was a living example of that terse old Scripture passage, “The way of the transgressor is hard.”