Show STUDY OF criminology TURNS EDUCATED MAN INTO A THIEF graduate onrush medical college proud or his ev I 1 ac sorry that morphine has sapped his ambition denver col william jamea pat terson M A graduate of hush and washington medical schools was ar rested here the other day on a 20 forgery charge lays the arrest to deep delving in criminology and declared that he was glad he wag a criminal his only regret he said was that he hid allowed the morphine habit to gain such a hold on him that he had not become the greatest glea test criminal of the age patterson s Is a story of a long bat tie oy a man of instincts against a degenerate tendency finally the bid in him won much of his downfall patterson at tributes to his long study of the psychology of crime so thoroughly HE COULD NOT RESIST THE DE SIRE TO STEAL he says has he mastered the subject that he regards macdonald as almost a tyro although the latter s works are standard the world over in his early years patterson fought against his inherent desire to take what belonged to his fellow man be cause of the disgrace that he feared his father mother and other loved ones would suffer from his actions when he met loved and wooed the woman ot his choice tor her sake and for the sake of the children that were born to them he continued to wage the unequal battle it was he credity versus environment he de dares heredity finally won that is the excuse which the onca famed physician and instructor gives tor his present condition from a man of prominence and an heir to great wealth pattersons Patter sons fall has been so complete that the police found him living in the most abject poverty in a dingy room in the loer part of the city my one great regret in life is that I 1 have fallen a slave td the morphine habit and unable to resist its use have failed in my ambition to become the greatest criminal of the age was the amazing statement dr patterson made after his arrest I 1 glory in crime and am a crim inal because it is impossible for me to be anything else I 1 have tried and failed and am glad 0 it the fight was unequal at best and I 1 am glad that I 1 finally started out in a career of crime and that I 1 have committed thefts and burglary have stolen into houses at night time and taken prop erty that belonged to others for the pure love of it I 1 did not need the money did not want the booty that I 1 took away after I 1 got it but there was a satisfaction too deep for words or self satisfying for explanation I 1 imagine that a woman who has held her lover at arm s length and perhaps tor the best of reasons hag refused to surrender to him for a long time must feel much as I 1 did when I 1 committed my first theft it was not much too little a thing to notice yet it was the beginning of a career that I 1 mapped out for myself after I 1 fully realized that there was nothing in the world that could prevent me from being anything but a thief I 1 was in a fellow physicians ot flee I 1 saw a pocketbook lying on the I 1 table he was busy with a patient I 1 opened the wallet and found two dollars in it I 1 then had plenty of money the contents of the purse could do me lit tie good but resist the desire to take the money I 1 could not did not I 1 knew that the high character I 1 bore would protect me from the ty of exposure the cunning that I 1 have learned since which I 1 use to protect me from being found out when I 1 have succumbed to m desire to take possession of that which does not belong to me was not necessary in that case that was years ago how many I 1 do not know it was the beginning the desire to commit crime Is slin liar to the desire of a genlue to de celop the talents which are his it often Is the strongest passion of hia life tor which he will give up every thing else just as an artist will gle along tor years go without the necessities that he might have in some other walk of life that he may devote the talent which he feels with in himself I 1 have watched the development 0 the thieving instinct in myself from the time that I 1 was old enough to un der stand the meaning of the feeling which took possession ot me I 1 never had the desire to kill but I 1 possessed a talent for scheming and outwitting others my early youth was spent in sa una kan As my parents were wealthy I 1 was given every educational advantage As soon as I 1 become old enough to read and understand what I 1 read I 1 gloried in the achievements of noted criminals even murderers that was the kind of literature that I 1 reab when I 1 could steal time from my studies I 1 found the same kind of interest in that kind 0 romance as others fo md in love stories and stun of that kind I 1 was n intelligent though not to understand io 4 instincts such and did not as I 1 felt in led immediately succumb to my to become a criminal I 1 have never accomplished alny thing worthy in the annals of crims and probably never will my offenses have all been of the minor sort be cause like men who have the tal ent but fall to become great writers or inventors 1 beame slave to habit which was stronger than ambition stronger than the impelling force that would have made my name a house hold word as a criminal if I 1 had not fallen by the wayside as so many others have done before me |