ROBBER'S REFORMATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19321, 7 May 1926, Page 15

ROBBER'S REFORMATION.

MAN WHO " MADE GOOD." LONG SENTENCE REDUCED. Lfrom our own correspondent.] SAN FRANCISCO. April 5. A case of a convicted criminal reforming his ways of living in this country of criminals and of the reward that attended his reformation, comes from Milwaukee. There, six years ago, a young man named Walter McDaniels and a companion held up a saloon with guns, getting only about £6 for- their coup. Four hours after they were arrested. McDaniels was sentenced to 25 years' imprisonment for robbery under arms. Behind tho walls of the penitentiary, where most men give up hope and fall into rountine until the day comes for them to go out again into the world, McDaniels laid the plans for his new life, distant though it might be. His education had been neglected, or he would not have been a gunman. Under the advanced sympathetic treatment accorded criminals here lie was able, from his prison earnings, to pay for a university extension course by correspondence. He took up simple arithmetic at first. It is stated that McDaniels "worked overtime" in order to earn enough to pay for his course. Finishing arithmetic, he took up algebra, then physics. Electrical engineering was his ultimate goal and, to cut a long story short, in five years he sat for his examinations as electrical engineer and was successful. It is stated that, in the examination, he "made high grades." Of an inventive mind, McDaniels set to work on an electric sign and succeeded in getting it patented successfully. Next he applied himself to electrical devices for hosiery knitting. After completing six years, at the end of next month, McDaniels is to be released.