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who, in addition to rearing boys of his own, has had a tolerably large handful of youngsters of the neighborhood more or less under his care, and who is loved by all of them, has very decided views on the subject. His statement shows that he has studied every phase of the matter deeply and understands the truth about the situation:

HALF ORPHANED BOYS.

A

The

"American boys, both rich and poor, suffer more from too little father than from anything else. Enough mother is all that saves most of them, but it does not give any of them their full rights. Men have no right to make half orphans of their children. child's birthright is to fatherhood as well as motherhood. money a rich man gives or leaves to his child is no substitute for his companionship if he is the right sort of man. His boy would be a great deal better off all his life for more of his father's time even at the cost of less money.

"It is a sorry substitute for his share of fatherhood to be sent to one of those military schools which are coming to be private reformatories for rich men's sons who have become incorrigibleoften because of their father's neglect. I know a former superintendent of an eastern state reform school who left that instituttion to establish a private enterprise for this avowed purpose. Some poorer men are just as negligent, but many of them are literally forced almost to abandon their fatherhood by the requirements of their industrial occupation.

EVILS THAT RESULT.

"To earn the family's bread many a worthy man must be away from home at work all the hours his boy is awake, to return only after he is asleep. The Saturday half holiday is a remedy more immediately available for this very real and desperate situation. It is hollow cant to deny it to all because some misuse their leisure. In examining for several years prisoners about to be discharged from an eastern state prison I found nearly half of them wholly or half orphaned. A prison or reformatory is too far down stream to check the flood of wild growing boys. It should be checked, or rather rightly directed, at its fountain head in the fatherhood and motherhood of the home."

Professor Taylor's last statement, though it goes to the extreme of gravity, bears the same moral as the lighter touch placed on the argument by Mr. Shaw, a moral that stands out strongly no matter from what aspect we view the subject. Indeed there is something of vast interest and concern to all of us in the half contemptuous, half jocular snubbing and too frequent neglect that are the lot of a great proportion of the boys of America.

A CRAWLING BUTTERFLY.

These things tend to age a lad in the most cruel and crushing fashion and to give him a mental environment of melancholy that all his freshness and natural buoyancy of spirit can not overcome. And some of us may remember the brilliant note of earnest protest that Jean Paul Richter. humorist though he was, sounded on this very phase of the subject:

"I can bear a melancholy man, but never a melancholy child. Into whatever quagmire the former sinks he may raise his eyes either to the realm of reason or that of hope. But the child sinks and perishes in the little black poison drop of the present time. Only imagine a butterfly crawling like a caterpillar with his four wings pulled off and you will feel what I mean!"

SOME OF THE OFFENSES.

There is a boy in Chicago who for the first eight years of his life fully believed his name was Jimmy Don't. this being the only way in which he ever remembered being addressed during that time by his father. mother and sisters.

The man who can look back on his earlier days and recall no memories of gentle nagging has a great deal to be thankful for. A few hours spent among the boys of a public school the other day brought out the fact that the occasions for the employment of this nagging process are the same old fearful crimes that they were a generation ago. The indictments, prepared by the boys themselves. include:

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And there are many others, all as heinous and all helping toward the condition of perpetual hot water which is the lot of far too many of our boys. The only interest they have in their fathers is the result of the threat that comes from many mothers at regular intervals: "Wait till your dad comes home; he'll wallop you well for this." If "dad" didn't do something of this kind once in a while they would forget that he was alive. BOYS TEACH A LESSON.

There is no one more to be envied than a good-natured man watching the working of boys' minds or overlooking their play. Their eagerness to encompass by a quick imagination what they see but a part of, their fanciful combinations and magic inventions, creating out of ordinary circumstances and the common things which surround them strange events and little ideal worlds, form study enough for the most acute minds, and should teach us also not too officiously to regulate what we so little understand.

The still amusing and deep abstraction in which they sometimes sit affect us as a playful mockery of older heads. But these young philosophers have no foolish system, with all its pride and jargon, confusing their brains. Theirs is the natural movement of the soul, intense with new life and busy after truth, working to some purpose, though without a noise.

We are apt to deplore the tendencies of boys in a big city to loaf on street corners or join gangs that form caves under sidewalks which they fill with the proceeds of petty thefts. But no boy ever left an attractive home for adventures of this kind, and none ever yet preferred them to even a poor home, where he could find love and sympathy and a little genuine understanding of his many needs and his boisterous spirit.

"We are respectable and honest people and yet our boy has gone astray and disgraced us." This pitiful expression alınost invariably comes from the lips of parents of boys like our carbarn murderers; every judge on the bench has heard it over and over again.

The sire of a destructive and wayward puppy has a better understanding of the responsibilities of fatherhood than this. He at least not only reprimands his offspring when it is necessary, but also gives him much of loving companionship and advice. John R. Rathom in Chicago Record-Herald.

PETITION TO THE LEGISLATURE OF IOWA

From

For the Passage of the

Juvenile Court and Probation Bill.

Honorable. We, the undersigned citizens of Iowa, urgently request that you vote for the Juvenile Court and Probation bill to come before your honorable body, for the following reasons:

(1 It is patriotic, progressive. Seventeen states already operate a Juvenile Court and Probation Law. (Illinois, Pennsylvania, New York, Wisconsin, District of Columbia, Ohio, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, Colorado, Indiana, Connecticut, California, Louisiana, Minnesota, Kansas, Delaware.) Iowa should not be behind her sister states in legislation to make good citizens.

(2) It is effective, preventive. "The Juvenile Court system saves to society 85 per cent of all cases coming under its care." (T. D. Hurley, Editor Juvenile Record.) "Before this law went into effect in Chicago the average number of boys in the county jail was 565, since then the average number has fallen to 12." (Juvenile Court Record.) "The Juvenile Court is effecting more good in one year than all the criminal courts could possibly effect by punishment in ten years or even twenty." (Judge Murray F. Tuley, President Chicago Bar Association.)

(3) It is economic, far-sighted. "The Juvenile Court and Probation System has saved $150,000.00 to Colorado during the past eighteen months." (Message of the Governor.) "In prosecuting 454 cases in Juvenile Court in Denver, $88,827.68 was saved the state and Arapahoe county in eighteen months." (Ben F. Lindsey, Judge Juvenile Court.) "Wherever operated the Juvenile Court and Probation System saves to the state many times the amount necessary to run it, even when all probation officers are paid." (Judge Tuthill, Chicago.) "The Juvenile Court is the most economical and effective method of prosecuting juvenile delinquincy ever discovered." (Judge Stubbs, Indianapolis.) Above all, it is the ounce of prevention worth many pounds of cure, and demonstrates that it is cheaper to save a child than to punish a criminal. Name.

Address.

SPRINGFIELD, ILL., JUVENILE COURT.

Scenes in which humor and pathos are blended are frequent in the Juvenile Court of Springfield, Illinois, over which Judge George W. Murray presides with the tenderness of a father and the impartiality of a just judge. A novelist like Dickens would find much inspiration in listening to the proceedings in this court. Imagine the dramatic personae: The judge sitting crosslegged, not in his high seat of justice, but in a chair close to the railing; two ladies representing the board of managers of the Home for the Friendless; two juvenile officers who are the principal witnesses for the state; the two defendants, boys respectively II and 9 years of age, and their parents a man and woman typical residents of the vicinity known as the "bad lands."

The officers have told their story of the unfitness of the home in which the boys are being reared, of drunken parents reeling home at night, of poverty, raggedness, want and depravity, of a home reeking with dirt and surrounded by evil influences. The father has been called to the stand and has testified that he has made money for labor and has given all of it to the support of his family, except what he has spent for "booze." Judge Murray listens to the revolting story as it is gradually unfolded before him and finally calls the elder of the two boys to the stand.

The boy evidently has ready sympathies and good instincts. He has been crying all the time that the other witnesses have been on the stand. He is a cripple, one leg having been cut off below the knee, and he hobbles to the chair on one leg and a rude wooden crutch, which is bound to the stump of the other leg. Right here comes an exhibition of tact and ingenuity which shows what the judge of a juvenile court should be. There is no stern cross-examination by lawyers, according to the rules of evidence, and no reiteration of the frequent “I object" by counsel for the opposition. The judge reaches over and pats the boy kindly on the head. "Don't be afraid," he says. "How old are you?"

"Eleven," answers the boy between sobs. "Ah, eleven; I should have thought you were older, you are so well grown. You are large for your age. How did you hurt your leg?"

BOY'S CONFIDENCE IS WON.

With his confidence appealed to by the kind manner of the judge and his mind diverted from the matter in hand, the boy proceeds to tell how his leg was crushed off by a train and how he was climbing upon the train at the time and fell under the wheels; how he was sent to the hospital, and how the doctor cut his leg off.

Then the judge leads on to the questions relating to the case at the bar. The boy declares that he has enough to eat at home and that his parents do not beat him. Then he shows his loyalty to them when the question is put as to their drinking habits.

"Do you ever drink beer?" he is asked.
"No, sir."

"Does your father ever drink beer?"
"Not very often."

"Does your mother ever drink beer?"
"Sometimes, but not very often."
"Does she ever get intoxicated?"
"I don't know what you mean by that."
"Well, does she ever get drunk?"

The boy colors up and looks sidelong at his mother. It is a look that ought to make her hide her face in shame. Instead she merely laughs a short, bitter laugh and tosses her head. The boy falters as he answers "sometimes, but not very often." Then he hangs his head and bursts into tears again.

ANOTHER DIVERSION NECESSARY.

Another diversion is necessary. The judge reaches over to the boy and snapping his suspenders, says:

"That is a very pretty new pair of suspenders you have. I remember the first time I had a new pair of red suspenders and I was very proud of them. Who gave them to you?""

"Mrs. Peters gave 'em to me, out to the Home, and she give me these clothes, too."

"Now wasn't that very kind of Mrs. Peters? So you've been at the Home? Wouldn't you like to go there to stay?" "No, sir (swelling up again); I'd rather go home." "Why, didn't they give you plenty to eat and treat you well out there?"

"Oh, yes; they gave me just as much as they did the rest." "Well, don't you think you'd like to stay out there where there is plenty to eat and good clothes to wear, where the ladies will be so kind to you and where there are so many boys and girls that you can have such good times with?"

The answer is one that is the climax of pathos. The poor little cripple's eyes fill with tears and he sobs out, "I don't want to have no good times."

"Why not?"

"Oh, the boys won't play with me."
"Why won't the boys play with you?"
"Cause I can't run and play like the rest."

From one to another of the audience the quick glance of sympathetic appreciation runs like an electric spark. The women put their handkerchiefs to their eyes and the men find something to look at out of the window. The least moved are the people who are responsible for the sad condition of the child who is making his life fight with the handicaps of physical and moral limitations, his own parents.

PHILADELPHIA JUVENILE COURT.

YEAR'S WORK.

The story of the year's work done by the probation officers of the juvenile court was told by those women at the annual meeting of the friends of the movement in the New Century Club. The recital showed how, with the growth of the work, crime is being reduced by prevention.

Mrs. Frederick Schoff presided, and in her opening speech referred to the great advance since this time last year, all the legislative bills for the protection of juvenile offenders then trembling in the balance having since become laws.

Judge G. Harry Davis, the first speaker, said:

"On one occasion a little boy was brought before me, charged with setting a house on fire. I didn't know what to do till I remembered that my own little boy once tried to do the same thing.

"The juvenile court is as yct only in an experimental stage. We have made some mistakes, but we are benefiting by those mistakes. I haven't known a judge who sat in the juvenile court who wasn't converted to it. You wonder how we ever got along without it. It is the intent that gives value to the crime, and when you bring boys and girls into court for the same thing men and women do, and judge them by the same standards, you are disgracing justice and hampering young lives.

MUST BE A HOUSE OF DETENTION. "There must be a house of detention. If you make the juvenile court a part of the municipality you are tainting it with politics, and you had better lock up your doors and send the children home."

Assistant District Attorney Owen J. Roberts said:

"Once a criminal always a criminal. That only points the importance of keeping people when young from becoming criminals. hat is the work of the juvenile court. It is an unqualified ccess. Nine-tenths of the cases are for larceny. The others e malicious mischief, throwing stones, assault and battery, etc.

It is a curious thing, this great number of larcenies. It is rather remarkable that such crime should be so rife among our boys and girls. They need to be shown higher ideals."

Mrs. A. R. Ramsey, who has had more than a thousand boys to deal with in the juvenile court's room of detention, said: "There are but nine beds in a room 25 by 18. I can't tell you how we suffered for ventilation, and in cold weather there is actual suffering. There is a stone floor and no carpet, and no hot water to wash the dirty boys. One night we had forty-two boys in the room, and how they were all going to get into nine beds was a puzzle, but twelve got out before nightfall and the problem was somewhat relieved.

MANY CHARGED WITH LARCENY. "Forty-eight per cent of the 1,000 boys were charged with larceny," Mrs Ramsay said. "Larceny is a disease. I have asked a great many men I met if they ever stole, and the admitted they had or they 'didn't remember.' Twenty-two per cent were for vagrancy and incorrigibility, 2 per cent were light offenses, 16 per cent were malicious mischief-throwing stones, teasing Chinamen, etc.; 12 per cent were serious cases.

Under 12 years

of age, 286; between 12 and 14 years, 432; 14 to 16, 282; Jewish, 192; negroes, 100."

Reports were also made by Miss Martha Wetstein, the Jewish probation officer; Miss Margaret Reynolds, the Catholic officer; Miss Margaret Wilson, who told of her work in the northern section of the city; Miss E. Murrell, whose district is in West Philadelphia; Miss Jessie Little, who has charge of the southwest district; Miss E. Moon, who works among the children in Germantown and other sections; Mrs. Fannie Jackson, who cares for the negro children; Miss Alexander, who spoke in behalf of feeble-minded juvenile offenders, and Miss McCurdy of the College Settlement.

ST. PAUL JUVENILE COURT.

"Idleness and truancy are the main reasons for the delinquency of so many juveniles," says Probation Officer Graves of the St. Paul (Minn.) Juvenile Court. "Though there has been a notable increase in the number of juveniles placed on probation since the present system was established in 1900, there was, owing to the manner in which the children are now handled. a marked decrease in the number sent to the state training school.

"In 1900, the first year the system was put into effect in Ramsey county, seventy juveniles were placed on probation, and forty-two of those were committed to the training school. Comparing that year with the year ending July 31, 1903, when 270 were placed on probation and thirty-nine were committed to the training school, it will be seen that during the year 1900 60 per cent of the number on probation were committed to the training school, while during 1903 only a little over II per cent were committed, a decrease of nearly 49 per cent.

"During the two years ending July 31, 1903, 970 persons under the age of twenty-one were brought into court charged with some offense. Of these, 458 were placed on probation. There were nineteen on probation July 31, 1901, making the total on probation during the past two years 477. During the two years 323 were honorably discharged from probation, 63 were otherwise disposed of, I was sent to the reformatory, and the remainder committed or returned to the training school. Ninetyone remained on probation at the end of the year, July 31, 1903.

"From these figures it appears that there has been an increase in the number of juvenile offenders in three years, and it must be so with the increase in population without a corresponding increase in vigilance on the part of the authorities in keeping the children at school and in proper environment. Until some systematic effort is made by the proper authorities to prevent truancy, juvenile offenders will continue to increase. Rigid enforcement of the compulsory educational law would doubtless lessen the number of juvenile offenders.

"Home influences, also in many cases which have come under my observation, have not been of the character calculated to promote moral training. Many girls and boys become offenders as a result of their parents permitting them to run the streets at all hours. In nine cases out of ten the boy or girl who is educated on the streets will go to the bad.

HOME LIFE SHAPES CHARACTER.

"The home life is what shapes the character of the child, and if parents are careless of their boys and girls, leaving them to run wild without caring for them beyond furnishing them with scanty clothing and food, the result is bad children, who find their way into the police court. Under the present system of probation the parents are reminded of their responsibility. They are shown that if they will not care for their children the state will, and in many cases we have, by keeping a strict surveillance over the children, worked a reform in the parents, and, through them, in the children. It is indisputable that by keeping young offenders on probation for periods long enough to impress upon them that they have been acting wrongly, permanent reforms have been effected. Where the boys show marked criminal instinct the only thing to do is to send them to the training school, where they may be kept from temptation and may be given such education as to change their natural inclinations. The ordinary boy, on the other hand, who is the victim of evil company, or who commits an offense through ignorance or carelessness, may be changed for the better by being kept under surveillance.

"The probation system offers the widest field for solving the boy problem, and the money expended on a well organized. efficient system that regularly and systematically looks after the boys committed to its charge will prove to be productive, of better results than the same amount expended upon any correctional institution.

"The probation officer tries to act for the best interest of the boy, and in doing so frequently compels the parents to be better citizens in order to save the child from being taken away. The assistance, advice and direction that a probation officer can give to this element in a community has the effect of elevating the plane not only of the erring boys, but also the families, the homes and the friends among whom they live.

"Besides the hundreds of cases that come to them through the courts, the probation officers give counsel and advice to many persons who have wayward boys and girls, but who shrink from the publicity of court proceedings. In all cases where juveniles are placed on trial the courtroom is cleared of all persons except the court officials and the witnesses, in accordance with the recent law. Some day we will have a special juvenile court, with a magistrate familiar with juvenile cases.

"We make it a point to keep probationers either in school or at work. If the boy is bad, frequent interviews are had with him and he is urged to practice cleanliness, to be truthful and to avoid bad company. Considerable tact is required in dealing with the boys. Once a boy myself, I enter into their lives, stimulating their pride and ambition, and arousing their consciences. Without preaching to them, I try to plant the seed of righteousness, honesty, character and true Christian manhood. The results in most cases are gratifying. Lack of proper home training makes many a boy a criminal, and every child has a right to be protected from influences which certainly drive him to crime.

"It is impossible to lay down any rule for the treatment of difficult cases on probation. A genuine and enthusiastic interest in the work, an understanding of boy nature, a certain amount of tact, and infinite patience are some of the qualities required. "Many pathetic cases come to our attention. Indeed, every case where a small boy is arrested and charged with wrong-doing is pathetic. In nearly every instance the future life of a boy depends upon the disposition he receives at this critical time. If he is impressed that he is wrong, and is shown how to do right in the future, he will, unless naturally perverted, become a good boy, if placed under the proper influence.

ONE OF MANY LIKE INSTANCES.

"One case we had but a short time ago comes to mind in this connection. The boy's name was Freddy He had been arrested a second time, and was arraigned for stealing. He came up to the clerk's desk in court in response to a call, and was followed by a woman who proved to be a sister.

"You are charged with petit larceny-stealing $5 from the till of a candy store. Guilty or not guilty?'

"Guilty, sir,' answered the lad, with trembling voice. 'Come up here, my boy,' said Judge Hine, as the little fellow stepped nearer the bench. How old are you?' "Fourteen years old, sir.'

"Do you know this boy?' inquired Judge Hine of me.

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'Yes, your honor,' I replied. He was brought in some six months ago for disorderly conduct, and was placed on probation for a time. He did not appear to be a bad boy at that time. He did not want to go to school and had some trouble with his teachers.'

"There was nothing of the incorrigible delinquent about little Freddy. He was bright-faced and his appearance was straightforward.

"Freddy, my boy,' asked Judge Hine, 'are your parents here?'

"No, sir, they are both dead. I live with my sister-that lady,' and tears started to his eyes as he nervously tightened his grip on his cap in his hand. The judge bent forward and laid his hand softly on the head of the boy.

"Now, tell me all about it. What did you take that money for, my boy?'

LITTLE FELLOW TELLS HISTORY.

"His voice broken with sobs and with tears in his eyes, the little fellow related the story of how he had come along the street when he met another boy he knew in front of the store, who told him that the shopkeeper had gone across the street and coaxed him to go in and rob the till. He went in and took the money and was caught as he was going out of the door, while the other boy ran away.

"Judge Hine sentenced him to the training school, but suspended the sentence and placed him in charge of the probation officer for six months.

"Freddy was taken from the court room to my office, where, in the presence of his sister, I appealed to the boy in a fatherly way. It then developed that Freddy was a good and helpful boy about her home but that he hated to go to school, and would not learn when he did go. He said he was willing to go to work if he could get a job. After considering the matter for a few moments I stepped to the telephone and called up one of the large business houses in the city and asked the proprietor if he had use for a boy like Freddy. I was told to send the boy around in the afternoon. Freddy was engaged. He is now delighted with his work, is well liked by his employers and has been doing well ever since.

"Had this boy been treated roughly and sent off among boys worse than himself in a training school, he might have developed a hardened temper and eventually turned out badly. Similar cases are of almost daily recurrence, and they are all treated in much the same way."

Juvenile Court Record

Published by the Visitation and Aid Society.

T. D. HURLEY Editor, 79 Dearborn St., Chicago, Ill. Eastern Office, 53 W. 24th St., New York City.

The JUVENILE COURT RECORD is published monthly, except in the month of July. Single copies, 10 cents. Subscription price, $1.00 per year.

Entered at Post Office, Chicago, as second-class matter

The JUVENILE COURT RECORD is the official organ of and published by the Visitation and Aid Society and will deal with social problems in child saving work and give an account of the workings of the Juvenile Court.

NEW SUBSCRIPTIONS can commence with current number.

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"In many cases the parents are respectable, hard-working people. In many the children have good school records, but the difficulty is they have no money to spend so that their desire to have what other children havecandy and the like-cannot be gratified.

"It may seem a little thing." Justice Meyer continues. "but I firmly believe that many a child would be saved from his initial wrong step if the parent would make him a small alowance, even 2 or 3 cents a week. In cases where such a course is pursued the child usually becomes a sort of little business man, husbanding his resources and willing to spend no more than his allowance."

Justice Meyer has touched upon one of the most important points that enters into the study of child saving. The point is one that has been apparent to all interested

in the matter, since the Juvenile Court was first established. The fault, in almost every instance where children have been before the court as delinquents, could be traced directly back to the parents.

Parents do not intend to be unkind or unjust to their children. They either do not know how or do not care to take the trouble to study the dispositions of their children. All of the children in the family are treated alike. It never seems to enter their heads that they should attempt to discover the sensitive traits in some and temper their harshness accordingly. If this plan were followed there would be fewer cases of juvenile delinquency.

The mere fact that a young child steals some trifle is by no means an indication of a criminal nature. It would be safe to say that there is not one person in ten thousand who has not stolen something in childhood. The sense of right and wrong, most especially the sense of right and wrong where property is in question, is not developed in childhood. It is just as natural for a child to take what does not belong to it as it is for the savage to do the same or for a dog to steal a bone.

The question of juvenile delinquency goes much deeper, however, than the mere lack of spending money. That is simply one of the symptoms of the real disease. Parental training in the wrong direction or total lack of parental training is the primary force that starts most of our erring little ones on the wrong path. The real thing that works mischief with the children of a big city is lack of proper bringing up.

In a sermon delivered recently Rev. W. A. Bartlett of Chicago struck the keynote of the trouble when he said:

"The city and saloons may do their worst with flash literature displayed in news windows, but if the parents are faithful these evils will not harm. The church and Sunday school may do their best, but if a child is not loved and also disciplined at home it is almost a hopeless case."

IOWA MUST HAVE A JUVENILE COURT LAW.

The demand for a juvenile court in Des Moines, Iowa. has reached the point where a request will be presented to the next legislature.

The fact is being recognized more and more as the days go by that a jail sentence has a baneful influence · upon youthful offenders, so great that it cannot be estimated. Scars that last a lifetime are left by the indiscriminate herding of children of tender years with the depraved and degraded. And yet, in the state of Iowa. hardly a term of the district court passes that youthful delinquents are not hauled before judges. If convicted of some petty crime they are thrown into jail to mingle with thieves, harlots and murderers.

About two months ago a half dozen lads of East Des Moines were gathered in by the police for playing pranks in the neighborhood. They were guilty of nothing more malevolent than the time-honored "tick-tack." Yet they were confined in the county jail. Not one of the lads had ever been away from home over night in his life before that awful experience was thrust upon him. It is pathetic to think that the first night from home and mother should be spent in jail, with vile elderly criminals all about them and depraved women in an adjoining room on the same

floor.

How a state which provides a public school system to educate its young can afford to neglect similar institutions to protect the young from demoralizing penalties is a problem we have so far been unable to solve. With the example of Illinois on the east, Missouri on the south, Colorado to the west and Wisconsin and Minnesota on the north, we do not see what excuse the Iowa law givers can find for leaving their children any longer unprotected.

JUVENILE COURTS SHOULD EXHIBIT

It

Daily the time is growing shorter in which the Juvenile Courts of the United States may arrange for an exhibit showing the work of their court at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. is believed by all interested in the establishing of juvenile courts in every state where there is none at the present time, that the exhibit at the St. Louis World's Fair will form one of the most effective means of spreading the gospel of child saving that has yet been devised. It is intended that the exhibit shall cover, in a comprehensive way, all the work that has been done by the courts since they were established. Naturally, being the oldest court of this kind in the country, the Cook County Juvenile Court of Chicago will be expected to make the mose exhaustive exhibit. The work has been placed under the jurisdiction of Major Franklin, of the Dependent Home, who intends to start in at once formulating plans and getting together the papers and pictures that will be exhibited.

It is intended by the Chicago court, and it would be a good idea for all other courts to follow out the same idea, to cover as nearly as possible the ground suggested by Judge Lindsey of Denver, in his letter to the judges of the different courts.

First, he thought the exhibit should contain copies in pamphlet form of the laws under which the court is operated. Second, he suggested copies of all blank forms used in the conduct and disposition of juvenile cases. Third, printed reports, containing general information regarding the operation of the court and the results accomplished, especially as compared with the former method of dealing with juveniles through the criminal courts. This section, he thought, should contain letters from school teachers, jailers, public officials or others coming in contact with the work, containing their opinions, which would add to the value of the report. The report should be prepared and issued prior to April, 1904.

Fourth, it was thought that a very interesting chart from each Juvenile Court might be prepared upon a large sheet of white paper or cardboard, showing by parallel vertical lines the number of children in court within a given period, say one year, and the ages of such children. A similar chart should show the same number and the forms of delinquency. For instance, the total number where the form of delinquency would otherwise constitute burglary, larceny, assault and battery, malicious mischief, etc. Other charts along these lines may be suggested, depending, of course, upon the data that is gathered or can be gathered by the court and its officers. For instance, the chart concerning parentage, as, the number of children out of a total number without parents, or with one parent, divorced parents, parents addicted to intoxicating liquors, etc. The number and character of such charts must depend upon the disposition of the court and such data as may have been collected.

Fifth, it was Judge Lindsey's idea that if there was a house of detention, photographs of this house and the interior would furnish interesting subjects. Photographs of the child as it used to be and is at present, showing how children are cared for while incarcerated. Photographs of the courts and scenes therein, or in connection therewith. Photographs of particular children would be interesting, if they can be obtained, especially some

cases that may have an interesting history that might be detailed in connection therewith. It may be that if the identity of children is not disclosed there could be no objection to this; yet it may be open to objection. Photographs of all officers of the court should also be included, if possible.

Sixth, Judge Lindsey suggested that any other salient feature of the Juvenile Court or connected with its work that in the opinion of the court would be of interest, might be included in the exhibit.

It is intended that each Juvenile Court shall use a unit of space, which consists of a leaf cabinet, the space above the cabinet for prominent photographs, the space below the cabinet for show case, shelving, etc. This unit of space will cost $25. One of these leaf cabinets contains sixteen swinging frames, one of which is the door, or cover of the case. Each frame holds two cards, twenty-two inches wide and twenty-eight inches high. An extra card is placed in the back of the cabinet, making in all thirty-three cards, the outer one being protected by glass. Exhibits must be mounted on one side only of the cards, two of them being placed back to back in each swinging frame. This cabinet contains an equivalent of one hundred and forty square feet of wall space, and has the advantage of being on the "eye line." The fifteen swinging frames will be shipped to exhibitors, by whom they may be filled and returned, to be placed in the cabinet. Three extra cards must also be prepared and sent with the frames, one of which is to be placed on the back of the cabinet, and two in the door or cover. The respective state commissions will assume the responsibility of the shipment and the return of the goods.

Photographs must be mounted directly on the cards. Small photographs should be eight by ten inches, four of which can easily be placed on a card, six if crowded. Remember, in mounting photographs, that the cards when in the cabinet have the twenty-eight inch vertical. Mount photographs on one side of the card only and place two cards back to back in each swinging frame. Statistics should be carefully selected and charted, either by engrossing or printing on one side of the card. In arranging statistics in the cabinet, have them face the photograph to which they belong. Two

Exhibits should be shipped before March 15th, 1904. shipping labels must be placed upon each package to insure its safe delivery. Without the use of the official labels it is not certain that goods will be delivered on the proper space.

The juvenile courts have been established throughout the country by people who love the work of child-saving, by people whose hearts yearn for that other half of humanity about which the general public knows so little. Those who have studied the Juvenile Court law and who have watched it grow, year by year, believe that in that law is the solution of the entire crime prob lem. They are anxious that no stone should be left unturned in getting the law enacted in every state in the Union. Now is the time for all interested in Juvenile Courts to act. There is but little more than a month to act in. The matter of preparing the exhibit in every state for the St. Louis World's Fair should be attended to at once.

LOS ANGELES JUVENILE COURT.

The Los Angeles Juvenile Court is presided over by Hon. Curtis Dwight Wilbur. Judge Wilbur was elected judge of the Superior Court in 1902, and his peculiar fitness for the work made him the unanimous choice of all interested parties to preside over the destinies of the Juvenile Court when it was established.

Judge Wilbur was educated in the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, having been appointed in 1884 to represent the Territory of Dakota in that institution. His military training has impressed upon him a quiet dignity which appeals to the youngsters that are brought before him to have their lives adjusted in harmony with the laws of the land.

An interesting case was brought to the attention of the Judge recently. A little colored boy heretofore known in the Juvenile Court as George Burden appeared on the scene, laden down with three names.

He never had a father and his mother was Josie Holmes, who may be either living or dead. Georgie was put in the orphan

asylum and when about five years old was taken by a woman named Burden. The child took the name of his guardian, but he developed vicious traits and he was next sent to the McKinley Home. Dr. Gregory stated that the boy was filthy and in the next breath said that he made quite a reputation for handiness about the dining room and kitchen. At first, however, his reputation was based mostly on his habit of pilfering things to eat. He had an omniverous appetite, and so some cookies were placed handy and he was told he might just cut and come again as long as he liked. And he liked, and stowed the cookies away in great shape. But he was no longer under any necessity to lie about them.

A colored man named Simms got Georgie from the home, and promised him a good home. Old man Simms, a colored man, was in court, but didn't want to take the boy away with him. He said he had given him all the chance he wanted.

Then Georgie, 10 years old, was ordered to Whittier; there to mingle with adults, some as old as 20 years of age, and double that age in their knowledge of all forms of wickedness.

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