THE STORY OF CRIME.*
Mn. ADAM, who tells us that be is a. journalist, set himself the task some years ago of studying crime and prison life in all its phases. He has received facilities for the prosecution of his inquiries from the most diverse quarters, and he has produced a very readable book. The curious student will find echoes of some of the most poignant tragedies of recent year s, —the cases of Bennett, the Yarmouth murderer; of Mrs. Pearcey ; of Miss Masset ; of the unutterable ruffian Klosomski, who masqueraded under the name of Chapman; and of many more. But the chapters which we chiefly commend are those devoted to the prisons,—to Brixton, to Wormwood Scrubbs, to Aylesbury, to Broadmoor, to Dartmoor, and, above all, to Borstal. We have had in recent years so many highly coloured descriptions of prison life from behind the bars that it is an agreeable relief to turn to the plain . unvarnished narrative of a trained observer reinforced by his camera. It is here that Mr. Adam is at his best. He is well versed in the lore of the dock ; but his musings and meditations could for the most part be dispensed with. He is somewhat dogmatic in laying down the principle that "all Governors of prisons should of course be civilians." One at least of the very' best of modern prison Governors has been a soldier. The real essential is that he should be a humane Christian gentleman.
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