'SHADOWING' CRIMINALS.

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 346, 25 July 1885, Page 3

' SHADOWING ' CRIMINALS.

We are too prone whilst admiring the fearless intrepidity, and cool daring of the clever thief-taker, to alienate our sympathies from the unfortuuate wretch who has brought himself within the pale of the law. The midnight robber has not a wido popularity. How often has our childish sleep been disturbed by that fancied presence — though 'twas but the -wind that rattled the window shutter — and in our manhood we prefer his operations should be conducted in other peoples' houses rather than our own. A woman is as frightened of the mere mention of ' thieves ', as she is of a mouse, and the whole community have more fear than respect for the robber by night. Yet the unfortunate man who has just finished a fifteen years' sentence may have a very good story to tell of his side of the question ; for I any one would think that fifteen years of prison, life, of hard fare, and of such monotonous retirement from the world — with its infinite variety — would be sufficient for anybody but a greedy man on this side of the grave. $, Has this poor devilDunn hada chance to gain an honest livelihood since he was released from gaol? We are afraid not. Let loose after his long sentence to a nominal freedom, branded by his crime and its punishment, he no sooner finds himself his own master again than he is aware that the eyes of the police follow him wherever he goes, and baulk every attempt he makes to lead an altered life. If he obtains work, the ' shadowing' of the police attracts the notice of his employer and fellowworkmen. The plain-clothes man whispers it confidentially into the ears of the boss, and the secret is no longer one ; the men shun him, half afraid and half ashamed of his company. Should he leave one city and venture into another, he is known to the police, and cannot lose his identity. They seem to say to him, as he passes, ' I know you ; move on, now !' Go where he will, he feels the dark shadow is behind, like a vulture waiting for its prey. The man is driven by this cruel surveillance from place to place until, in despair for want of employment, he returns to a career of crime to obtain the necessaries of life. And no wonder. A man must have an iron mind and frame to stand such dogging 1 . The police look upon crime as an incurable mania, and, eager for praise and preferment, go the shortest way to earn it. The former criminal is followed, and either forced or worried into a fresh course of crime. We have no wish to detract whatever from the prestige gained at such risk by Constable Herbert, but we do know that such cases as we have instanced are every day occurrences in the experiences of a police officer. A man who has expiated his crime by the punishment meted out to him should go forth free and unfettered into the world with every facility to regain the respect ' of his fellows rather than be hunted down and pointed at as unfit to associate with good men.