eel the disgrace so keenly, and there is some hope for their
reformation. Send them to the penitentiary and it will be a miracle if
they ever amount to anything in the future. If a jail sentence of a
year does not reform a young criminal, or a man of older years, who has
committed his first offense, then give a term in the penitentiary for
five years for the second offense. It is too true that a sentence to
the penitentiary for a first term is the irretrievable ruin of the young
offender. This becomes an obstacle which, during all the future, he
cannot surmount. This plan being adopted let everything be done to
reform the youthful offender while in jail. It is much easier to carry
forward the work of reformation in a jail or reformatory than in a
penitentiary.

CHAPTER XVII. THE MISSOURI PRISONERS--(Continued)

During the years 1887 and 1888, 1,523 prisoners were received into
the Missouri penitentiary. Of this number 1,082 were white males, 398
colored males, 17 white females, and 26 colored females. These figures
show that the women of Missouri are a great deal better than the men, or
they do not get their share of justice.

TABLE SHOWING THE AGES OF CONVICTS
RECEIVED DURING THE YEARS 1887 AND 1888.

From 16 to 20.................320
" 20 to 25.................441
" 25 to 30.................344
" 30 to 35.................143
" 35 to 40.................113
" 40 to 45................. 70
" 45 to 50................. 34
" 50 to 55................. 31
" 55 to 60................. 15
" 60 to 65................. 5
" 65 to 70................. 4
" 70 and upward............ 5
----

Total .......... 1,523

There is nothing that should interest the good people of Missouri more
than the foregoing table. These appalling figures I copied from the
prison records. Of the 1,523 criminals received during the past two
years, more than one-fifth of them were mere children. Would it not
be better to give these boys a term in the county jails, or in some
reformatory, instead of sending them to a penitentiary? Coming in
contact with hardened and vicious criminals, what hope is there for
getting these boys into the paths of honesty and uprightness? Then there
follows the large number of 441, representing the youthful age from
twenty to twenty-five years. These are the years most prolific of
criminals. Who ca