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How Illinois Looks After the Children.

A Brief Explanation of the Visitation Law, with Results.

By DAVID R. BLYTH.

Chas. R. Virden. Illinois State Agent.

The State of Illinois, on July 1st, 1905, created and put into effect what is known as the Visitation Law. This law pro vided that all institutions receiving money from the public treasury for the care of children, and also all courts, Boards of Supervisors, poor-masters and overseers of the poor, must report to the State Board of Charities at the end of each quarter all children placed in family homes during that quarter.

On October 1st, 1905 the state appointed Charles Virden in the capacity of State Agent, and on April 1st, of the year following allowed Mr. Virden two assistants. The duties of the State Agent and his assistants are, that they shall visit all homes where children are placed, and file a report of the visit with the State Board of Charities. A copy of the report is also sent the court or institution which placed the child in the home.

To prove that Mr. Virden has been a capable man to superintend this department, it is only necessary to add that he has at the present time, approximately 5,000 children under his care. In order, however, to do full justice to his work, it will be necessary to have at least four assistants in the field, as the two that he now has are incapable to cope with the new cases that are continually added to the already long list of children under his care. $15,000 annually will be necessary to properly conduct this work, while at the present time he is allowed but $4,500, which amount must cover all expenses, including salaries, rent, postage, etc.

While the institutions and courts are doing a splendid work and cases of abuse to the children wards by foster parents are exceptional, many cases have been found where

harsh treatment has been administered and in some cases to the extent of brutality.

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Cases of Brutality to Children.

The following are some of the cases recorded in the archives of the Department of Visitation of Children:

Numerous cases of criminal assault of the most fiendish nature have been found and prosecuted, in one instance upon a child of 18 months by its own father, and assults on other children ranging in age from 7 to 18 years.

A girl 14 years of age carries over 300 scars inflicted with a toasting fork and scissors. These wounds were inflicted by her foster mother. One of her eyes is blinded, one hand broken and hair pulled out by the roots.

Another case is of a girl 13 years old. The foster mother assisted the foster father in criminally assaulting her. Afterwards admitted with oaths that he did not know that there was one "to stand for her," meaning any one to protect the child. On a plea of guilty he was sentenced to the penitentiary for 25 years.

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Little Beulah, a four year old. kicked in the back by a drunken foster father and rendered a hunch-back. The foster parents parted, the foster-mother went to Moline, where she compelled the little crippled child, who was all dressed in rags, with a piece of a ragged shawl over her head, to beg on the streets and solicit for immoral purposes for the foster mother. The state agent got possession of Beulah and placed her in the Home for Destitute crippled children in Chicago, where she is receiving scientific treatment with marks of permanent recovery.

Marie, a little 12 year old girl at Alton whose mother died with consumption, was given a home in the city. Evidence showed that she was made a house-hold drudge; body covered with a mass of scars and bruises administered by a cudgel at the hands of a brutal woman. Her face had been burned severely, and her hands hacked with a hot case knife, one tooth broken off, and the sight of one eye destroyed. This foster mother was fined $50 for assault and battery, and later a settlement was made for the sum of $10.00.

A beautiful 3 year old girl was found to be a mass of bruises from the brutal assaults of a step-mother. She would throw the child across a chair and compel her dead mother's little 12 year old sister to sit behind the chair and hold her hands and feet while she, the step-mother beat her bare back with a heavy strap. The foster father of this child was arrested for criminally assaulting the 12 year old girl, the sister of his dead wife He confessed his brutality and the case is now pending in the court.

Peter Ebenezer, a seven year old lad was beaten with a garden hoe, and struck, on the head with a tack hammer and was rendered temporarily insane to the extent that he tried to commit suicide by drowning himself in the river.

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Paul.

Paul Vanderburg, a twelve year old boy was indentured to Austin Cassidy, a horse trainer. Paul's mother had committed suicide by poisoning herself and the father gave the boy, then eleven years old, to Cassidy to raise as his own child. During the time of his stay with Cassidy he was brutality mistreated by his foster father. On the least provocation he would take him to the cellar, strip him naked and beat him with a raw hide whip until his back was a network of gashes and scars. Occasionally he would turn the butt end of the whip, on which was a spur about two inches long and with lashes drive that into his back. He took him in the cellar, compelled him to stand on an inverted half bushel measure, pass a rope through a staple driven in a post, fasten one end of the rope around his neck, and the other around another post, remove the measure and let him hang until his tongue protruded, and his face got black.

Following these hangings and beatings the boy would sometimes be confined to his bed for days. He also compelled the child to steal. A search warrant brought to light numerous articles, including horse blankets, lap-robes, forks, shovels, chickens, etc., they had stolen. Within six hours after notice all the articles, with the exception of a horse blanket and a fork had been identified. Cassidy would locate the stuff he desired during the day-time, and at night he would take the child with him to seal it. At such times he was not successful in obtaining what he desired, he would be so enraged that he would give Pau' an additional beating.

Pau!.

Paul was sent to the hospital where he was found to be in a critical condition. On examination of his body by physicians and state agent, there were found 188 distinct scars, and 350 inches, or 29 feet and 2 inches of gashes, cut through the skin. His left arm was fractured, and on the white of his eyes a clot of blood, caused from a blow on the head with the butt end of a whip. The instruments of torture introduced in evidence as exhibits in the trial of this case were a raw-hide jockey whip with a heavy spur on the reverse end, a heavy red pine broom stick, a piece of box board one inch hick, eighteen inches long and three inches wide, a butt end of a whip, an iron file fourteen inches long, one inch wide and an eight of an inch thick and a heavy claw hammer.

A special grand jury was summoned by Judge Graves and

the State's attorney. Cassidy was indicted, pleaded guilty to the charges preferred under the cruelty act and was given an indeterminate sentence of from one to five years in the penitentiary. The child was returned to the hospital after the trial to remain until his recovery is completed.

White Slave Trade Carried on Extensively.

We have found numerous instances where infants and children have been actually sold for a stipulated price. The state agent has in his possession numerous receipts and deeds where children have been sold as common goods and chattels.

Babies sold for stipulated prices or given away to people of questionable character by the baby farmers in Illinois and no law apparently to prevent it. One baby carried in a market basket on the streets of Quincy, without clothing except a piece of old quilt, and before it was two hours old offered to any one who would accept it and finally given to a woman who had been on the county for support for several years. Possession was taken of the child and it was placed in an orphanage. Prosecution failed owing to absence from the State of chief witness.

Foster parents have insured the lives of orphan children and then worked them almost to death.

Too often children are taken from institutions and courts for drudges, instead of their becoming a real son or daughter in the family they turn out to be cheap hired girls and cheap hired boys, often overworked, underfed, poorly clad, and unschooled.

The Department of Visitation through its agents cooperating with the local authorities has done much to rectify these abuses and in bringing the guilty to justice. As a result of this co-operation and the earnestness with which this class of criminals have been prosecuted many have been sentenced to jail or penitentiary and numerous fines imposed. Great credit is due the child saving agencies of the state. Through their placing agencies many good homes are provided where the orphan child has found a mother's love, shelter and protection.

The institutions and churches welcome the work of this department and place their stamp of approval upon it.

These results made possible by the creation of this law by the 45th Assembly, safe-guarding the interests of the motherless and fatherless little ones has proven to be one of the greatest charity laws in the statutes, and we are confident that when the legislation realizes more fully the impending needs of this work and what is being accomplished they will furnish funds necessary to place the four visitors provided for by law in the field, that the state may be districted and a more thorough work accomplished.

Only three states so far have established departments for the visitation of children that have been placed out in homes. Mr. Virden will be pleased to give any information desired on this subject, and will cheerfully answer any inquiries relative to this good cause.

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Subscribe for THE JUVENILE COURT RECORD, one dollar per year

A Message to Garcia.

By ELBERT HUBBARD.

In all this Cuban business there is one man who stands out on the horizon of my memory like Mars at perihelion. When war broke out between Spain and the United States, it was very necessary to communicate quickly with the leader of the Insurgents. Garcia was somewhere in the mountain fastnesses of Cuba-no one knew where. No mail nor telegraph message could reach him. The President must secure his co-operation, and quickly.

What to do!

Some one said to the President, "There's a fellow by the name of Rowan will find Garcia for you, if anybody can." Rowan was sent for and given a letter to be delivered to Garcia.

How "the fellow by the name of Rowan" took the letter, sealed it up in an oil-skin pouch, strapped it over his heart, in four days landed by night off the coast of Cuba from an open boat, disappeared into the jungle, and in three weeks came out on the other side of the Island, having traversed a hostile country on foot, and delivered his letter to Garcia, are things I have no special desire now to tell in detail. The point I wish to make is this: McKinley gave Rowan a letter to be delivered to Garcia; Rowan took the letter and did not ask, "Where is he at?"

By the Eternal! there is a man whose form should be cast in deathless bronze and the statue placed in every college of the land. It is not book-learning young men need, nor instruction about this and that, but a stiffening of the vertebræ which will cause them to be loyal to a trust, to act promptly, concentrate their energies: do the thing-"Carry a message to Garcia."

General Garcia is dead now, but there are other Garcias. No man has ever endeavored to carry out an enterprise where many hands were needed, but has been well-nigh appalled at times by the imbecility of the average man-the inability or unwillingness to concentrate on a thing and do it. Slip-shod assistance, foolish inattention, dowdy indifference, and half-hearted work seem the rule; and no man succeeds, unless by hook or crook, or threat, he forces or bribes other men to assist him; or mayhap, God in his goodness performs a miracle, and sends him an Angel of Light for an assistant. You, reader, put this matter to a test: You are sitting now in your offices-six clerks are within call. Summon any one and make this request: "Please look in the encycopedia and make a brief memorandum for me concerning the life of Correggio."

Will the clerk say, "Yes sir," and go to the task?

On your life he will not. He will look at you out of a fishy eye and ask one or more of the following questions: Who was he?

Which encyclopedia?

Was I hired for that?

Don't you mean Bismarck?

What's the matter with Charlie doing it?

Is he dead?

Is there any hurry?

Shan't I bring you the book and let you look it up yourself?

What do you want to know for?

And I will lay you ten to one that after you have answered the questions, and explained how to find the information, and why you want it, the clerk will go off and get one of the other clerks to help him try to find Garcia-and then come back and tell you there is no such man. Of course I may lose my bet, but according to the Law of Average I will not. Now if you are wise you will not bother to explain to your

"assistant" that Correggio is indexed under the C's, not in the K's, but you will smile sweetly and say, "Never mind,” and go look it up yourself.

And this incapacity for independent action, this moral stupidity, this infirmity of the will, this unwillingness to cheerfully catch hold and lift, are the things that put pure Socialism so far into the future. If men will not act for themselves, what will they do when the benefit of their effort is for all.

A first-mate with knotted club seems necessary; and the dread of getting "the bounce" Saturday night holds many a worker to his place. Advertise for a stenographer and nine out of ten who apply can neither spell no punctuate-and do not think it necessary to.

Can such a one write a letter to Garcia?

"You see that book-keeper," said the foreman to me in a large factory.

"Yes, what about him?"

"Well, he's a fine accountant, but if I'd send him up town on an errand, he might accomplish the errand all right, and on the other hand, might stop at four saloons on the way, and when he got to Main Street, would forget what he had been sent for."

Can such a man be entrusted to carry a message to Garcia?

We have recently been hearing much maudlin sympathy expressed for the "down-trodden denizen of the sweatshop" and the "homeless wanderer searching for honest employment," and with it all often go many hard words for the men in power.

Nothing is said about the employer who grows old before his time in a vain attempt to get frowsy ne'er-do-wells to do intelligent work; and his long, patient striving with "help" that does nothing but loaf when his back is turned. In every store and factory there is a constant weeding-out process going on. The employer is constantly sending away "help" that have shown their incapacity to further the interests of the business, and others are being taken on. No matter how good times are, this sorting continues, only if times are hard and work is scarce, the sorting is done finerbut out and forever out, the incompetent and unworthy go. It is the survival of the fittest. Self-interest prompts every employer to keep the best-those who can carry a message to Garcia.

I know one man of really brilliant parts who has not the ability to manage a business of his own, and yet who is absolutely worthless to any one else, because with him constantly is the insane suspicion that his employer is ofpressing, or intending to oppress him. He cannot give orders; and he will not receive them. Should a message be given him to take to Garcia, his answer would probably be, "Take it yourself."

To-night this man walks the streets looking for work, the wind whistling through his thread-bare coat. No one who knows him dare employ him, for he is a regular fire-brand of discontent. He is impervicus to reason, and the only thing that can impress him is the toe of a thick-soled No. 9 boot. Of course I know that one so morally deformed is no less to be pitied than a physical cripple; but in our pitying, let us drop a tear, too, for the men who are striving to carry on a great enterprise; whose working hours are not limited by the whistle, and whose hair is fast turning white through the struggle to hold in line dowdy indifference, slip-shod imbecility, and the heartless ingratitude, which, but for their enterprise, would be both hungry and homeless.

Moving Picture
Picture Mania.

A Few Thoughts Worth Considering.

Written for the Juvenile Court Record.

Added to the already long list of fads, follies and manias, comes the moving picture theatre. This form of amusement must not be considered as a fad, but as a permanent adjunct to our amusement enterprises. Therefore steps shoul be taken to censor these exhibitions as well as the regular theatres.

It's mushroom like growth has spread until it is now represented in every city in the country, and in some of our villages so small that more than one general store cannot exist with profit, we find the nickle theatre flourishing in all it's glory of gaudy gold paint and highly colored announce

ments.

These cheap theatres serve one good purpose, namely they supply a place of amusement for a person that cannot afford to be a patron of our regular theatres. Here a workingman can take the whole family at a price of one single admission to the latter. In itself it is no more harmful than a church stereopticon exhibition. The managers of these five cent theatres can produce a clean performance if they so desire. It is immaterial to them what pictures they display as long as they secure patronage to their respective theatres. But at this date the film manufactures seem to try and outrival each other in the matter of films depicting crime and tragedy in it's various phases.

The various police departments, juvenile courts, and all those associated with juvenile correction work are beginning to take cognizance of the evil influence on the young of these criminal films. In the east the nickle theatre has already become a social problem, and the west is also awakening. Insubordination to teachers and parents is not decreasing under the influence of these exhibitions, and boy bandits are much more numerous than ever. The New Jersey legislature is considering a bill to prohibit children under sixteen years of age from attendance at these places of amusement unless accompanied by their parents or guardians. This action may seem radical, but the time has come when action of some sort must be taken.

Chicago has a police official, acting under the Chief of Police, whose duty consists of the censoring of these pictures; other cities that have not as yet established this department would do well to imitate Chicago. In nine out of ten of these films the plot seems to center around the "villain" and in most cases they have a tendency to have the sympathy of the audience with this personage. In other words, after he has escaped from jail, killed seven or eight members of the police department in making the same, he invariably ends up by purloining some person's automobile, and making his escape to the mountains. Or perhaps he only strangles a couple of police officials, and does a little amateur dynamiting before rescuing the beautiful maiden and eloping off to some foreign land. Of course the boat is shipwrecked in midocean and he finds it a necessity to kill the whole crew of the boat to keep from drowning.

Now candidly, isn't that a refined and elevating line of thought to inject into the youthful mind? Would you teach your child that it is heroic to defy the police, or defend himself by dynamite bombs. Would you advise him that in case he seeks pleasure of any sort, the best thing you know of in that line is to obtain a few, dozen cloth bags and put them, one at a time, over the heads of unsuspecting pedestrians, and then conclude the performance by shoving them over into some nearby river? You wouldn't inform your daughter that the easiest way to remove some other girl from the neighborhood would be to buy a pound of candy, and then you would show her how to put poison in them so that she would not be detected in this honorable occupation.

A member of the Chicago Police Department, a student of criminology who has spent over twenty years in the service, informs us that 70 per cent of the serious crimes committed in Chicago are committed by men and boys under 25 years of age. He further adds that 50 per cent of the burglaries and robberies are done by boys under 19 years of age. That statement, coming from where it does, certainly ought to furnish food for thought. He also adds that the moving picture theatres are responsible for more crime than any other one thing that he is aware of.

Let a boy have bad associates and environment, and eventually he will land in either a reformatory or state prison.

Most of the harmful films are made in Europe, and the majority come from France. Of the latter variety, no film is complete without displaying a Parisian cafe in full action, and a few French gendarmes, (police-soldiers), who are generally depicted in the role of making an ineffectual attempt to capture some criminal or law-breaker. It is needless to add that the gendarme always receives the worst end of the deal. Holdup pictures are common, and show the children how easy it really is to commit a crime when you know how. Hangings and torture films are also common. Would you care to have your child set these characters up as a model that he should try and emulate? You certainly wouldn't, anymore than you would want your daughter look upon a barroom or cafe as a place of decency.

Aside from the improper influence these pictures bear upon children, steps should be taken to remedy the poor ventilation of these theatres, as well as general sanitary conditions. Of 223 five cent theatres visited in Chicago alone, 100 were alleged to be violating state laws and city ordinances.

The moving picture theatre has come to stay, and now is the time to take rational action of some sort to set limitations upon the class of films exhibited. Theatrical managers are not to blame. They simply exhibit what the public demand.

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