What Becomes of the Lazy Boy? How Does He End His Days? We are all interested in the lazy boy because he is expensive. Everything is expensive that is not productive. A diamond costs a great deal of money, but it may be sold for profit, and is therefore productive and of use. A lazy boy costs much money, but no use can be made of him. says the New York World. He is non-productive, and therefore one of the most expensive things we have. In the United States there is now annually expended over $20,000,000 for certain schools, reformatories, industrial farms and prisons, in which the lazy boy is solely kept. That is, the lazy boy, assuming the population of the United States to be 90,000,000, takes a little more than twenty-two cents each year out of the pocket of every man, woman and child in the nation for his keeping, and, unless he changes and becomes a producer and a good citizen, he is a constant loss. After he ceases to be a lazy boy and becomes a lazy man, he is too often a criminal, and the expense of keeping him is doubled and trebled. Laziness is the worst disease any boy can have. It is a disease besides which scarlet fever, typhoid, the mumps, croup, etc., are mild in their expense and result. My experience has taught me that laziness begins within one's self. It does not start from outside causes. A cup of impure water may cause diphtheria. You are not responsible for that unless you knew when you took the water that it was poisonous. But unwillingness to work, to hustle, to do something and be something, that breeds in your own body and soul. It seems to me that boys inclined to develop this disease shoula know something of what becomes of its unhappy victims. The Society for the Prevention of Crime, during a period of years, collected data about the fate of boys who— Would not be honest, would not be clean, would not be helpful and therefore would not work. That is the disease of laziness. The number of boys checked were 20,000, and their ages ranged from twelve to eighteen years. I will not give the exact figures because they are reduced to mystifying fractions, but use only round numbers. Of these boys: 2,300 turned over a new leaf and became useful workers. 1,000 were sent to insane asylums. 7,000 went into reformatories with a chance to do better. 4,000 disappeared altogether; classified as tramps. 5,700 will have to be permanently confined in state and private institutions as "hopeless" cases. Of the 20,000 boys who were investigated, over 17.000 had homes and reputable parents to start life with, so you must not fall into the wrong notion that the lazy boys come from the slums. On the contrary (my own investigations bear this out), they seem to develop more rapidly in so-called "good" homes than in homes where poverty constantly dwells. As far as could be ascertained, 17,000 of these boys had opportunities to work and to make themselves helpful. They were not situated so that they could not work if they wished to do so. Home duties, school duties, church duties were all staring them in the face, and they had only to put on their armor and act to find plenty for the hands to do. I have on my desk a list of 1,000 successful men of this nation. By "successful" I do not mean mere money-makers, but men who have given us new conceptions of steam, electricity, construction work, education, art, etc. These are the men who influence our moral as well as physical lives. They construct for better things. How these men started in work is interesting. Their first foothold in work is a fine study. 200 started as messenger boys. 300 started as farmers' sons. 100 were printers' apprentices. 100 were apprenticed in manufactories. 200 were newsboys. 50 began at the bottom of railway work. 50-only 50-had wealthy parents to give them a start. A lazy boy did not discover the telephone nor how to harness the electric power of Niagara. A lazy boy did not learn to control steam nor invent the steam boiler. A lazy boy did not find the secret of the turbine wheel nor the power-forces of gasoline. No! The boy who works every waking moment of the day has given the world its most beneficial discoveries. Dr. Albert von Bergmann, of Berlin, one of the best students of boys Europe knows, has had lazy boys under the microscope. He has examined their hands, feet, eyes and ears, stomachs and lungs. This is what he says: "No one is born naturally lazy. One born indolent and inactive is already diseased by some other cause than laziness. The chronically lazy boy is at the start as healthy as the average child, but, as he continues to refuse to do his work in school, his duties at home, his labor in shop and field, a great physical change takes place in him. He physically becomes so that be cannot help being lazy except under powerful, curative treatment. "The motor muscles and joints of his feet soften as do those of the legs and hands. The powers of perception of the brain are dull, and thought becomes sluggish and non-creative. The eye is dulled and only performs about half of the functions it should The ear misses many sounds, and thus weakens the strength of its possessor. Although slower in its development, there is as much disintegration in a lazy boy's body as in the frame of one attacked with a malignant disease. "Gradually this physical change passes into the soul, and the beautiful inspirations given by God to all new-born beings change under human influence into criminal instincts. Society receives then the boy beggar, the boy thief, the boy sloth. Nothing is left to do with him but lock him up or drive him from town to town until death releases him from his uselessness." Thus science analyzes the boy who will not make himself useful, pointing out his own ruin and his hostility to all that is good. When I see a boy eager to clean walks, to do his chores about home, quick to take opportunities of learning and earning, I know that laziness has not attacked him. We shall hear something good from him somewhere in life. He may not become an Edison or a Marconi, but in his own particular place he will do good for those about him and therefore for the whole world. When he begins to halt, when grumbling takes the place of cheerfulness, when he has a thousand excuses for not working, I would like to take him into our juvenile courts, the reformatories and asylums of the country, into the alleys of the big cities and to the corners of the streets in the small towns, and show him how the lazy boy started to his own sure ruin. No wish of boy or man can be realized without steady, hard work. I never think of this and the lazy boy but that the words of Grover Cleveland, addressed to a party of boys, come back to me: "Work! Work hard! Learn to work intelligently, persistently, faithfully. Next to your honor, value your capacity to work. Preserve your health, but work. Amass enough to be a selfrespecting man, but work. The joyous, producing, eternally helpful heritage of man is to work-and work well." Duties of Parole Agent By Parole Agent Barrett of Indiana When a boy is paroled from an institution it is difficult for the majority of people to have faith in the efficiency of the training he has received in the institution. It matters little what name the Institution has, whether it is House of Refuge, Industrial School, Reform School, or what not. The fact that it receives young criminals fixes it in the public mind as a criminal institution, and the stigma of crime is affixed to the name of all who are committed to it. It is a principle in architecture that a building is no stronger than its weaker part. So in institution life, the character of the institution is formed from its most hardened class. The busy world does not ask of the graduate for what offence he was committed. It is sufficient to know that he is a "Reform School boy," and he goes out into the world with this ugly brand upon him, and which must be erased or hidden before he can hope to rise. Here comes in some of the most difficult work of the Parole Agent. "Born in homes of comfort, and surrounded by the fate and that of the child whose first breath is drawn in the protecting influences of Church and good Society it is difficult for us to appreciate the immense difference between our favored atmosphere of moral impurity, and in the midst of privation; who, instead of being strengthened by a pure and holy love, has its receptive nature perverted by the debasing influences of selfishness, ignorance, and crime." Happily public sentiment in regard to assisting the fallen is changing. Twenty-five years ago the average citizen would have recoiled from assuming such duty, or even would have been insulted at the suggestion; and the Agent seeking such assistance would have been rebuffed, or rebuked. But now by a tactful and diplomatic course he may enlist many good citizens in behalf of boys, especially since it costs them only the effort of a kind word, or watchful eye. Society in general is finding that it is cheaper, in the long run, to assist in holding up boys who lack the power of self direction, than it is to permit them to fall again, and thus become an expense to the courts and tax-payers. But there is a class that will receive the boy with open arms when he is paroled. His old associates in immorality and crime will again welcome him into their fold. They know his weaknesshis lack of will power-and, at the psychological moment, so to speak, they will tempt-they will seize him, and down he goes, and he will again have to suffer for his own weakness, but their crime, perhaps. Even though the boy is not sent to his old home, he does not escape this influence, as there is in every community this degenerate class that will lure him from the right path. The duties of the Parole Agent in the field are manifold. Arriving in his place of work in city, town, or county, with his list of boys from such places, his first duty is to visit the police department or town marshal and go over his list and find out all they know as to the conduct of the boys. Similar visits are made to the probation officer and truant officer. A fund of reliable, unprejudiced information is thus obtained. The Agent next visits the community in which the boy is located, and by tactful inquiries of people who know the boy adds to his fund of information. This last information may be of two kinds, prejudiced, and unprejudiced. By careful study, and even inquiries about his informants, he will be able to discriminate between the biased, and the unbiased information. The boy's home is next visited, and here often will come into action whatever judicial ability the Agent possesses. The honest parent will be frank and honest in his statement concerning the boy. But the dishonest and immoral parent will use every artifice known in the realm of deception to protect the boy. The conscientious Parole Agent often feels that there ought to be a law giving him the right to carry in his grip the instrument of punishment that sometimes has to be applied to the boy in the institution, and the right to apply it generously to the drunken. negligent, and degenerate parents. Thus he would obey the Bible injunction of "laying the ax at the root of the tree," instead of the branch. The next persons visited are the employer or teacher, or minister of the boy, if he is at work, or in school, or attends church-and he should be at one or the other, as idle hands, or brain, or heart, are the devil's workshop. From these he can again obtain useful and reliable information. Armed now with this fund of knowledge from which he has eliminated every element of selfishness, or prejudice in his informants, he visits the boy. If the boy is honestly trying to retrieve his past mistakes, if he is making good, his statements will be open and above board, and will coincide with the best information concerning him, already in possession of the Agent. The Agent's task is now an easy and a joyous one, and he can turn to the boy with this thought in his mind: "I tell you the future can hold no terrors, If he will but stand firm on the grave of his errors, It is never too late to begin re-building, For look! how the light of the springtime is gliding. On the other hand, if the bulk, and weight of the evidence obtained by the Agent from all the above sources is against the boy, his duty is a sad one. He must recommend the return of the boy to the institution for another course of training to the end that the boy may acquire, under restraint and away from old associates and environment, the power of self-direction of his mental and moral natures. And right here we will say that this course should be active, impressive, and vigorous. By this we do not mean brutality, but we have no sympathy with that maudlin sentiment of "goody, goody," impractical theorists, who have never handled incorrigibles, and young criminals, in a practical way, and who class all such as Sunday School children. They are no Sunday School children and many never will be, and we protest against such classification. But rather, they are American boys of the ruder sort, yet with red blood in them, and they often need such discipline as the strenuous Teddy is said to have often given to the mischievous Archie in the Presidential wood shed, when the latter made infractions on the rules of the Roosevelt household. In his tours of visitation the Parole Agent often comes in contact with the extremes of human life. Many homes are pictures of cleanliness and contentment and happiness. and he wonders how a boy could fall with such home surroundings. But many homes are different from these. Many are in dim attics and damp cellars, in poverty-stricken sections of populous towns; some in ruinous dwellings in the suburbs of great cities; others are cheerless abodes about the mines and sooty mills. From these innumerable haunts of misery throughout the land; from these dangerous influences that insidiously poison and corrupt the human soul; from these wretched abodes and this demoralizing atmosphere mainly come the intractable and offending youth. Into these homes the Agent must go. Into homes where squalor, and wretchedness, and penury reign supreme; into homes that have sounded the depth of human depravity; into homes on whose altar the light of love and home-pride have all but gone out; into these he must go and discover if possible if there yet remains one spark of love or pride, that he may rekindle, and fan into a flame that will glow, and glow; one beam of which will reach out to that wayward son-that Reform School boy-and attract him once more to the home circle. "Give the Children a Show" Judge Wilkin, Brooklyn, N. Y., Pleads for the Children Judge Wilkin of the Children's Court and all men and women who have given the matter due consideration are in favor of the passage of the bill introduced into the Legislature by Assemblyman Charles F. Murphy, under the provisions of which children under the age of 16 shall not be deemed guilty of committing any crime, but of juvenile delinquency only. Miss S. Hart, chairman of the legislative committee of the Women's Municipal League, of 1 South Elliott place, wrote to Judge Wilkin, asking him if Assembly bill 1703, Introductory 1386, was the bill for which he desired the support of the women in the state. He replied that that was the fact, and he hoped that Miss Hart would use what efforts she could to interest the members of her committee and league in behalf of its passage. The judge then goes on to say: "The essential wording of the bill is somewhat technical, but in a few words its intent is to provide that where a child of more than 7 and less than 16 years of age shall commit any act or omission which, if committed by an adult would be a crime not punishable by death or life imprisonment, the child shall not be deemed guilty of any crime, but of juvenile delinquency only. A section of the bill provides that a child charged wth any act or omission which may render him guilty of juvenile delinquency shall be dealt with in the same manner as now or may hereafter be provided in the case of adults charged with the same act or omission except as specially provided heretofore in the case of children under the age of 16 years. "For a long time, in fact from before the date of the establishment of the Children's Court in this city, the subject of the prosecution of children for crime has been discussed. The idea of classing a boy or girl of immature age in the same category as an adult offender has been commented upon, and it has always been my idea if possible that this condition should be cured, and that some day legislation should be sought to bring this about. "No matter what we say as to the effect of a conviction following a child before any court, the fact in his after years that he was a convict is of record. That this was under the charge of burglary, arson, petty larceny or any other criminal offense appears with all its blackness against his record. The law of this state, it is true, now provides that no other penalty shall follow the conviction of a child, but that which is imposed by the court, but as a matter of fact, that does not interfere with the legal provision that such a child in after life must confess before any court if the question is asked, that he has been found guilty of a crime, nor does this provision act as a preventive of wrong when applied, but in a vast majority of cases is a stigma for which there is no remedy. "I do not feel that it is necessary for me to express to you that the law in every other particular recognizes particularly that a child is of immature judgment and is not responsible for his individual acts or conduct, and is not capable of performing any legal act or executing any legal documents until he reaches the age of 21 years. He cannot exercise the right of franchise, nor can he hold property under the civil law; but, under the criminal law, as soon as he passes the age of 7 years he is held practically to the same accountability for his every act during his minority that an adult is, and while the state will give him no rights under the civil law, the same state is quick to visit its vengeance on him under the criminal law. "A child is scientifically recognized as not being fully developed until his twenty-first year. Our medical scientists hold that from infancy to the age of 7 the child develops peculiarly physically, then he takes on flesh and form; from 7 to 14 his development is more particularly mental retentiveness, while from 14 to 21 his mental acumen is developed by inquiry and investigation. For this reason, following nature's laws an explanation comes to us why this greater development among the young people along lines requiring regulation and repression. "At the age of 21 years the child, under the civil law, acquires his majority and his every right, and why should this great disparity to his responsibilities be applied to him under the criminal law at the age of 7, or possibly in some cases at 12. "In some states where this is recognized, an attempt has been made to meet it by placing the child under the care of the civil law, the state appearing, in loco parentis, and taking the guardianship of the child; but, for reasons which will appear immediately to those trained in the law, I have preferred to place the remedy in this state under the criminal law. In this way the distinctive feature of the amendment is that we accomplish all that we aim for, while at the same time we are retaining many valuable provisions not contained in other legislation regarding this subject: "For instance: 1. The child is charged only with being a delinquent child, and, if convicted, is not found guilty of a crime and branded as a criminal, which would blacken his or her whole career, but is charged, tried and found to be a delinquent child, which, no matter how it may be twisted in after life, prevents its disassociation with the delinquency of the child. "2. We retain for the child so charged all of the several guards so far as promptness of disposition, the benefit of counsel, the protection of habeas corpus, as well as the appeal which would not so generally follow were the proceedings begun in a civil court wherein it was alleged the state stood as the guardian of all its children and the whole civil procedure by the appointment of a guardian other than the parent so adopted. "3. Similar punishments, 'where they are desired,' are retained at the present time, so no objection can be made; for a child guilty of any offense can be adequately punished. "4. The same remedies for the discipline if necessary, or the improving of conditions if advisable as at the present time exist, commitment final or temporary, fine, suspension of sentence, probation, or any other remedy, is retained. "I have not gathered together the many excellent papers that have been written on this subject by such experts as Judge Benjamin B. Lindsay, of Denver, and those others who have given special study to the subject, as I felt that the rightness of the amendment would be readily disclosed. I feel strongly that this measure will have a beneficial effect. There are many arguments other than those I have presented which exist, but sufficient is given here, I trust, to satisfy you of the importance of the adoption of such a law. "I hope that the women of the state through your own and similar organizations will take this matter up." Thought He Was Free. "The next person who interrupts will be expelled from the court," said the judge sternly. "Hooray!" shouted the prisoner. Exact. Stranger: "Do you know a man around here with one leg named Jones?" Native: "What was the other leg named?" Too Much. Minister (baptizing baby): "Name, please?" Mother: "Philip Ferdinand Chesterfield Randolph Theodore William Sikes." Minister (to assistant): "More water!" She Meant Well. "Now, Tommy," said Mrs. A., "I want you to be good while I'm out." "I'll be good for a nickel," replied Tommy. "Tommy, I want you to understand that you can't be a son of mine unless you are good for nothing," said Mrs. A. A Good Defense. Father: "Every time you are bad, I get another gray hair." Son: "Well, you must have been a corker. Look at grandpa." Enfant Terrible. Johnny: "Grandpa, will you make a noise like a frog?" Grandpa: "What for, my boy?" Johnny: "Because papa says that we will get ten thousand when you croak." On Another Errand. Tommy had been spanked by Miss Manners, his first grade teacher, but his next teacher had not reached the point where she felt she could do justice to him in spite of all his naughti ness. "Send him to me when you want him spanked," said Miss Manners one morning after her colleague had related his many misdemeanors. About 11 o'clock Tommy appear at Miss Manners' door. She dropped her book, grasped him firmly by the hand, led him to the dressing-room, turned him over her knee, and administered punishment. When she had finished she said, "Now Tommy, what have you to say?" "Please, Miss, my teacher wants the scissors," was the unexpected reply. A Dream. "Papa, I Willie (very seriously): had a strange dream last night. I dreamed I died and went to heaven and when St. Peter saw me, he led me to a ladder standing in a large field. He Isaid I must take some chalk and write one of my sins on each rung of the ladder until they were all written. And, papa, what do you think? After I had got part way up, I met you coming down." Papa: "Well, I wonder what I was coming down for?" Willie: "I asked you and you said you were after more chalk." From Some Recent Advertising. The inventor of a new feeding bottle for infants sent out the following directions for its use: "When the baby is done drinking it must be unscrewed and laid in a cool place, preferably under the hydrant. If the baby does not thrive on fresh milk, it should be boiled." A Wisconsin farmer, seeing an advertisement for a good fire escape for two dollars, sent for it. In a few days he received a copy of the New Testament and declared that he had been swindled. A chiropodist, in advertising, laid considerable stress on the claim that he had "removed corns from several of the crowned heads of Europe." Three Famous Short Stories. Electric wire; Boy dead. Little boy, Golden Gates. Back street, Banana peel; Fat man, Virginia reel. Youthful Sorrow. "How old is Kitty, pop?" "Two years old." "And how old am I?" "Four years old." "Well, what do you think of that! Kitty has whiskers and I haven't the first sign of any yet." It Wasn't the Dog. With a gesture of impatience the old farmer laid aside his paper and went to the door. "Come in, darn ye!" he said; but silence followed. He closed the door and went back to his paper. Presently he went to the door again, and again he found no one there. "What's the matter?" asked his wife. "That blamed dog," he grumbled, "has been scratchin' at the door to git in for the last hour, but he runs away every time I open it." "That ain't the dog," she explained. "That's the hired man writin' a letter on the kitchen table." Read the Next Page Free In this issue of the Juvenile Court Record, we are listing a few of the many premiums that we are giving to ambitious boys and girls for raising Clubs of new subscribers to this magazine. Many of the young folks, as well as the grown-up folks, have been very generous in helping us to make this magazine larger and better. We do not wish anyone to work for nothing, and as well as paying cash commissions, we are now willing to give premiums to the many friends we have among the young folks to aid us in our campaign. We have a great variety of articles to select from beside the few listed in this issue, and any one wishing any special article, and willing to devote a few hours work for the same, we shall be pleased to furnish them with a special proposition so that they may obtain the article without extra cost. In other words, if a boy wishes a rifle, or a woman a Morris chair, for instance-if they will write us, we will furnish them with an outfit and plans to get the premium free. Write us, explaining just what you wish, at once, and we will tell you the number of subscribers required by return mail. Fifty Beautiful Post Card Views Given Free for Only One Yearly Subscriber TRIP AROUND THE WORLD Everybody now- we Extension Roller Skates Given Free for a Club of Only Three Yearly Subscribers at $1.00 Each Boys' Baseball Any boy or team of boys wishing complete outfit, or suits alone, for their team, will do well to write us for our special proposition to obtain them free of cost, if they are willing to do a little work for us in their spare time. We do not reserve the right to state the quality or make of outfit furnished, but give you whatever you state. Address this magazine, Circulation Department. JUVENILE COURT RECORD 637 Unity Bldg., Chicago, Ill. Never before was roller-skating so popular as now, and from appearances it would seem that this delightful and healthful pastime will continue as one of our great national amusements. We are prepared to make boys and girls happy by giving hundreds of pairs of good roller skates absolutely free for a very little easy and pleasant work to be done for us. These skates are made throughout of iron, with leather straps, and are strong and durable, as well as easy running. They have extension foot plates, so can readily be made to accommodate any size shoes from 7 to 10 inches long. The clamp style is furnished for boys, or with full heel strap and toe clamp for girls. We will give a pair of these Roller Skates, either boy's or girl's, as may be desired, free for 3 yearly subscriptions at $1.00 each. Rubber Type Printing Outfit Given Free for Only One Yearly Subscriber at $1 This is a practical printing outfit consisting of a full set of interchangeable type and figures, typeholder, everlasting inking pad and a pair of tweezers. Its capacity is one, two or three full lines of type, consequently can be used for printing cards, stationery, envelopes, labels, etc. It is equivalent in usefulness to several separate rubber stamps but costs less than the price of a single one. It is a handy thing to have around the office or house; good quality, and will last for years. We will give this Rubber Type Printing Outfit free for a yearly subscriber to the Record at $1.00 per year. |