The fire-tender.  The imperfections of our methods and means of selecting those in the community who ought to be in prison are so great, that extra care in dealing with them becomes us.  We are beginning to learn that we cannot draw arbitrary lines with infallible justice.  Perhaps half those who are convicted of crimes are as capable of reformation as half those transgressors who are not convicted, or who keep inside the statutory law.

Herbert.  Would you remove the odium of prison?

The fire-tender.  No; but I would have criminals believe, and society believe, that in going to prison a man or woman does not pass an absolute line and go into a fixed state.

The parson.  That is, you would not have judgment and retribution begin in this world.

Our next door.  Don’t switch us off into theology.  I hate to go up in a balloon, or see any one else go.

Herbert.  Don’t you think there is too much leniency toward crime and criminals, taking the place of justice, in these days?

The fire-tender.  There may be too much disposition to condone the crimes of those who have been considered respectable.

Our next door.  That is, scarcely anybody wants to see his friend hung.

Mandeville.  I think a large part of the bitterness of the condemned arises from a sense of the inequality with which justice is administered.  I am surprised, in visiting jails, to find so few respectable-looking convicts.

Our next door.  Nobody will go to jail nowadays who thinks anything of himself.

The fire-tender.  When society seriously takes hold of the reformation of criminals (say with as much determination as it does to carry an election) this false leniency will disappear; for it partly springs from a feeling that punishment is unequal, and does not discriminate enough in individuals, and that society itself has no right to turn a man over to the Devil, simply because he shows a strong leaning that way.  A part of the scheme of those who work for the reformation of criminals is to render punishment more certain, and to let its extent depend upon reformation.  There is no reason why a professional criminal, who won’t change his trade for an honest one, should have intervals of freedom in his prison life in which he is let loose to prey upon society.  Criminals ought to be discharged, like insane patients, when they are cured.

Our next door.  It’s a wonder to me, what with our multitudes of statutes and hosts of detectives, that we are any of us out of jail.  I never come away from a visit to a State-prison without a new spasm of fear and virtue.  The faculties for getting into jail seem to be ample.  We want more organizations for keeping people out.