SHOT TWENTY
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CONCLUSION
A CERTAIN fascination without doubt lingers about crime and the methods of criminals. Much of this fascination, and, consequently, much of the temptation to do wrong, arises from ignorance of the subject—ignorance of the mean, sordid life and the disgrace and punishment which are the certain result of a career of crime.
The wayward youth sees only the advantage to be gained by unlawful acts. He does not see the years of ignominy, the furtive hiding from the law, the shame of not being able to look his fellow-man in the face—no, nor the inevitable arrest, conviction, and punishment which ends it all in ninety-nine cases out of every one hundred.
In this book I have told of the methods of criminals, and held them up to your gaze, not as heroes, but as malefactors; not as examples to be emulated, but as corruptions to be shunned, as you would shun a plague.
To the best of my belief, this book, if you read it rightly, is a sermon more powerful against wrong-doing than many that are preached from the pulpit. It is my hope and wish that it may carry, this warning into the hearts of thousands of young men. Then shall my labor not have been lost.
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