Memoirs of Convicted Prisoners Accompanied by Remarks on the Causes and Prevention of Crime by H.S. Joseph - neues Buch

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: MEMOIRS, andc. THE LIFE OF W. K. I was born in Scotland, and am an illegitimate son. I never could trace who my father was, although I have often spoken / to my mother concerning him, but she would never give me any satisfactory account of him, and always avoided conversing on that subject; my mother residing at the far end of the town, put me under the care of a guardian whose name I will call Mrs. H. to nurse and bring up. My poor unfortunate mother allowed me all sorts of indulgences that my heart could desire, such as money, clothing, books and toys, which no doubt has tended greatly to bring me to what I now am; she visited me once each week, and the Sabbath day was generally appointed for that purpose, which day, I am sorry to say, was either spent in irreligious converse between her and Mrs. H. or in driving about the country in a cabriolet the greater part of the day; which kind of pleasure the devil giveth those who serve him, and disregard the commandments of God, and the laws of man. As I grew older I was put to school under a very pious and learned clergyman, and through whose care and instruction I might have grown up to be a creditable member of society, had I only taken his advice; but the love of money and worldly pleasures got the better of my weak and unconscious heart; in short my attendance at school was very irregular, and I became so averse to scholastic duties that Mrs. H. was frequentlyobliged to employ a common street-porter to take me thither by force; I evidently was growing worse every day. (At this time to the best of my knowledge I should be about ten years of age). I got into the evil habit of swearing, smoking, andc., and other petty vices, which generally mark the commencement of a profligate life. The result of this was that a dishonest ...