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The Story of Fred

By L. E. Eubanks

HE THIRD offense," repeated the judge, sternly. "I let you off the other times on your promise to quit this crooked work. This time you're going; sixty days!"

A man hustled the boy out, and into the elevator. It was the same man who had taken Fred out of the courtroom before, and he felt a kindly interest in the lad. "You're a foolish kid," he said; "I told you you'd get it strong if you were brought in again. A fine lad like

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"I was so hungry the other time," interrupted Fred. "I got so weak I couldn't look for work another hour without food, and I didn't think the man would miss the cantaloupe. It looked so good-I hadn't tasted one since dad died five years ago. The next time was just the same; I couldn't hustle without something inside of me. Could you?"

"No, by gosh, I couldn't!" admitted his listener, honestly. "How'd this happen; it wasn't grub this time?"

"I couldn't walk to Thorndale in the shoes I had," explained Fred. "They were falling off my feet, and the berry patch at Thorndale was the only chance for work. When a fellow looks as bum as I do nobody wants to hire him, and every day makes it worse. You've got to eat somehow. I meant to pay for the shoes as soon as I could get back with some money. I tried twice to beat my way, but a brakeman got me both times. The second time he said he'd have me pinched if I tried it again. I had a brother that was pinched for riding the bumpers, and a year after that he was killed trying the same stunt. I figure that walking's good if you don't ride the cushions. But you've got to have shoes for a job like the Thorndale hike."

“Too bad,” muttered Beagle Bob, as the man was called.

Fred was jammed into a springless auto cage with five other prisoners, and headed for the stockade. It seemed that the driver found every bump in the road and jolted his passengers all he possibly could. But this was only the slightest hint of the "jolts" that were to come in the next few weeks.

Though accustomed to the rough side of life, Fred was not prepared for what he encountered at the stockade. Being large for his age, and apparently strong, he was given a man's work and made to do it. That he had been poorly nourished for weeks previously did not matter to the heartless foreman. The first two or three days' work almost killed the boy. He was so exhausted that he tossed, sleepless, all night, and became feverish. His bed was a piece of the coarsest canvas stretched between two iron bars. His was the middle "berth;" he could touch one above him with his hand, as he lay, and hear the villainous-looking Italian snoring directly under him all night. Twenty men slept in the small

room.

But the strength and adaptability of youth are wonderful. After three days the regular meals began to get in their work. The food, though seldom varied, was plentiful, and the naturally healthy young body began to respond. With less exhaustion, came more sleep—some more. Being of a highly-keyed nervous organization, Fred could not entirely relax in such a medley of annoying sounds. However, he managed to sleep just about enough each night to keep up his strength.

The stockade administration saw and approved. The burly chief devil had always argued that killing work and abuse made men, and here was a confirmation of his theory. At the end of a fortnight everyone could see that Fred had gained weight, and he knew that he was muscularly stronger than ever before. No one seemed to figure that nothing plus something is bound to give a positive result that most any regimen will add weight to a starved bodythat better suited exercise and abundant food in a different environment would have made even greater difference in the youth.

There were no scales to measure the boy's comparative mental status, his moral condition, and had there been no one there would have been interested in such calculation. The boy himself knew, and was horrified. He remembered his mother and her sweet, refined nature. He had the same disposition. She had always

wanted him to "hold himself up, be good and aim high." How could he among these rough, evil men? The deepest-dyed profanity rang in his ears day and night. Locked in the bunkhouse every night with dissolute ruffians, he was forced to listen to the foulest language conceivable. There are no depths of nastiness in speech that men in these places do not sound. I admit the existence of exceptions, but speaking generally, it is terrible! To throw a boy into such a place for reformatory purposes-words fail me!

There were a few old magazines in the bunkhouse, and Fred thumbed them over many times. He loved reading, and he wanted, O, so much not to listen to the obscene stories and harrowing ribaldry of his fellow-prisoners! But they would not let him read, and when he persisted in his efforts at seclusion, they "took his case before the court." "The Kangaroo Court" was an organization of the prisoners for their own government in the bunkhouse. As a penalty for his "superiority," and because he had been unable to contribute money to the tobacco fund, Fred was made "chambermaid." Every day he had to "clean house" and empty all the filthy cuspidors. One evening a leading spirit suggested that "the kid" be made to smoke a cigarette. Fred begged, but when there seemed no way out of it, he tried to smoke. It made him so sick that the scoundrels were frightened into letting him alone for several days. That he did not report it and make trouble was conceded to be an evidence of pretty good nerve, of “gameness,” and won the boy some respect from the brutes around him.

During the fifth week of Fred's imprisonment, one afternoon he was called from the field to the office. Someone wanted to see him. Who could it be, the boy asked himself. He had no relatives, no friends. Not once did he think of Beagle Bob, but it was he who waited at the office.

"I've been working a month, boy, to find a place for you. You've got the stuff in you, and

I'm going to see that you get a chance. Didn't want to raise your hopes, but now it's all right; got a rich old merchant in Broadburg to give you a trial. Be square with him and your fortune's made." He held out his hand. "Get ready, I've fixed it with Cap."

Fred seized Beagle Bob's hand in both hi own, tears coursing down his cheeks. "A friend at last," he sobbed. "All I ask is a chance, Mr. Mr. Bob."

"You'll be all right, son," was the kind response. "I've got some clothes and shoes here for you. Get into 'em, and let's get out of here." Of course, Fred made good; nine-tenths of the boys with his disposition will, when given a chance. Mercly to excuse a child for an offense is not enough. When we pull a weed we should put a flower in its place. If causative conditions remain unchanged, natural results are apt to repeat themselves. Helping the dependent, or better still, enabling him to help himself, removes the greatest cause of juvenile misde

meanors.

Self-preservation is the first law of human nature, hunger the strongest urge. When countless thousands of adults have been unable victoriously to cope with elemental desires and passions, we should hesitate to demand such self-discipline from children.

Mr. Blackton, the gentleman to whom Beagle Bob took heroic Fred, believed in humanity, argued that most persons are naturally good, and that perversive conditions are to blame for most evil and crime. He gave Fred a place in his own home, respected and trusted him from the first; and won the boy heart and soul in six months. Cheerfully would Fred have died for his benefactor. He guarded the Blackton business interests with religious care and

energy.

So, in the end, Fred was fortunate. Perhaps his destiny turned on the apparently unimportant meeting with Beagle Bob. Not all boys are lifted from the mire in time. In a future story perhaps I shall tell of one who was not.

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Address on Juvenile Delinquency

By Edward P. Kirby
Former Judge of the Juvenile Court

(Continued from March Issue)

OTICING sometime ago that a survey

of Detroit had been taken by the Y. M. C. A., I wrote asking how great a per cent of Detroit's population attended church on Sunday. Their reply was that they estimated about one-half of the population of Detroit did not go to church at all, and that a good many of the other fifty per cent, who were church members, did not attend regularly. When you stop to consider that the population of Detroit is well up toward eight hundred thousand, it means, with a conservative figure, that about three hundred thousand are not church members. At the very least, they are not practicing what they may profess to believe. Look around your own fair city and realize that there are many who are not affiliated with any church. They possibly had religious influence when they were boys and girls; their children are getting from them the influence of their lives, but how about the coming generation, if they continue to ignore religion? What will they have for their standard? The influence of God, or the influence of man?

Another matter I have run across in my work was the feeling of the boys and girls that they knew it all; that they did not have to have any one advise them; they could take care of themselves. In other words, the failure to seek and follow advice. The result is that oft repeated phrase: "If I could only live my life over again, I would have done far different."

If any of you were going to take a trip to New York and had never been away from here before, how carefully you would look over the railroad guides and consult with the representatives of the railroads before starting out. And if you could only find and talk with someone who had already been to New York, how you would besiege them with questions before starting out. You would take every precaution to find out the best way to travel and where to stay while there.

My dear friends, impress upon your boys and girls, how kind and considerate a Great and Wise God was with us on our journey through life. He not only laid down a rule of life for us; not only came down here to teach us by His own manner of life; but He has provided us with a

father and mother, grandparents, uncles and aunts, brothers and sisters and friends. There is always someone in the world who has tried out the path on which we think we want to venture. All we have to do is to seek and we shall find. Before taking the step you contemplate along the road that is strange to you, ascertain if some one you know has traveled that same path before; or has been acquainted with anyone who has, and let them tell you the result of going that way and of the tribulations which may befall you.

Are you living such lives that your boy or girl can respect you? Are you living such lives that your boy or girl can point you out on the street with justifiable pride and say: "There is my father, there is my mother." Mark my word, friends, your boy or girl feel more keenly what a father or mother may be than many a father or mother realize. You cannot gage what the example you set them may mean to them in their after life. What good is it to talk with them, to reason with them, if the things you want them to stand for are not part of your own daily life. You owe this responsibility not only to your own boy or girl; but you owe the responsibility of good example to every boy and girl in your community, to every boy and girl you come in contact with.

This being a parent-teachers' club, my talk today has been along the line of what I think you can do toward preventing your boys and girls from going wrong. As I have before stated, I congratulate you on the formation of this club; but, bear in mind that you will not derive full value therefrom, unless you and the teachers are able to work together for the betterment of the children. Sometimes a teacher can better fathom a boy or girl than its own parent; sometimes they can see a fault which they need the assistance of the parent to correct, and, unless you can work with them, it is the boy or girl who may suffer from the fault not being corrected. "The parents and teachers should work together to help the boys and girls to find themselves, as it were, help them to find out what they are best

(Continued on page 8)

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8

THE JUVENILE COURT RECORD

suited for. A friend of mine told me not long ago of a boy whose parents obtained a position for him in a drug store in the town they lived in. Later the druggist let him go, as he found he was not of any value whatever to him. Some years after this friend of mine met the druggist and asked him what had become of the young man and the reply was, that he had designed one of best motor trucks on the market and was drawing a salary of $10,000 a year. Because he was not fitted for the drug trade was no reason to believe he was a failure. Therefore, help the boys and girls to find themselves. And I want to impress on any teacher here today, who does not already realize the fact, that the boys and girls are only going to you to learn how to learn. It is not a question of their passing a subject alone, but the vital question is have they reasoned out and understood the subject, so that they have better fitted themselves to reason out problems when they get out into real life. That is the only way in which they can get really interested-when they feel that they know the reasoning of the work they are doing. And be not too ready, when a boy or girl tells you that they know the answer, but cannot tell it just that minute, to mark them down with a zero and tell them that if they knew it they could answer it. There are many more questions that can be asked of the others in the class and give the benefit of the doubt to the one who wants to think out the answer, even if you have to put them on their honor to report a little later. How many times you fail to recall a name, but, by doing a little thinking, it comes to you. The same may be true of the boy or girl. Furthermore, there is many a person who can sit and talk and remember and reason, but the moment they stand on their feet and attempt to say anything, the world is a blank. Take those things into consideration, if you have not already done so and impress on the boys and girls the necessity of their learning to talk and reason while on their feet. You do not have to pay much attention, nor give much help to the pride of the school. You can devote this time to the one who seems much slower, but, who, with proper encouragement, may be the one of whom we will all be proud when he or she is fighting life's battles. I actually believe that discouragement is a cause of delinquency; whereas success always makes us feel happier and desirous of doing still better.

Another thought, which applies more to parents than it does to teachers, is the failure to recognize in children the ownership of anything You give a boy or girl something today and find

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that you have need for it tomorrow and you do not hesitate taking it from them. Is this ight? Is this teaching them to respect the right of ownership in others? You cherish what belongs to you and you do not want anyone to touch it. A child has that feeling a hundredfold more than you. That property is his and he cannot see why you should have the right to take it from him. If it is necessary for you to take it, explain to the child why you do so. I have had children complain of this in my Court and it has always seemed unfair to me.

Have also had the experience in my Court of having parents tell children to keep still and let them do the talking. This is not always fair. A grown person does not, as a rule, think anything of interrupting a child; but they think it is an unpardonable crime if the child interrupts them. Rather teach your children how they have a right to break into a conversation, showing them how a grown-up does it and giving them the same right that you claim for yourself. If you do not want them to take part in the conversation, explain to them that it is a matter in which they are not interested and ask them to devote themselves to something else. If they do desire to interrupt, give them a fair hearing and see if what they have to say has any bearing on the subject under discussion.

I now want to impress on you, my dear friends, that you have all the machinery for punishing boys and girls when they have fallen and been caught; but you lack the machinery of the law for helping you to prevent boys and girls from going wrong.

Under the law, as it is today, the Judge of the Juvenile Court has no authority under the law until someone files a petition in his Court asking for investigation; and the County Agent has no authority to do anything until he receives a notice from the Judge to make investigation as to delinquency. When the County Agent files his report, he then has no further authority in the matter, except the right to attend at the hearing of the case.

What should be done is to change the present method of appointing County Agents and give authority to the State Board of Corrections and Charities to district the State; that is, place just as many counties in a district as they deemed advisable; placing for example, the counties of Allegan, Ottawa and Muskegon in one district, and then employing a County Agent to devote all of his time to these three counties, paying him a salary and giving him an automobile to cover the ground. At the present time, the County Agent of each county receives three dol

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