he had taken, on the Probation Officer asking him very suddenly where he had taken the rug, he said, "What rug, Mrs. DeWeese"; but the Probation Officer simply looked at him and the boy then said, "I took it home, but mother hasn't put it down yet." This boy was again put on probation and placed in a factory where it is hoped that the products of this place are too heavy for the boy to carry home and too unattractive for his mother to use. I will leave it to all workers in child saving agencies to judge if the boy is not encouraged in his delinquency by his grandfather's example and his mother's easy way of overlooking his thefts. We have succeeded in getting an appropriation for a Detention Home in this county which will save the placing of the children in the jail at any time and will be a sheltering arm to the child until a practical home is opened to help in his or her reformation. We do not, however, want people to understand that we use the jail for children only in extreme cases and where the children cannot be trusted to be returned to the Court by their parents at the time of their trial. In fact, the whole work here is worked out on the principle that each child has the right to a practical rearing by the state when their parents are not capable of bringing their children to respectable and honorable manhood and womanhood.

Mrs. Annie L. DeWeese, the Probation Officer of Madison county, came to the work after five years' experience in child placing, having placed over 200 children.

Eight Years Old

Out of the Children's Court has grown the Brooklyn Juvenile Probation association, which promises, if its members are successful in carrying out their aims, to prove one of the most potent influences for reform in this borough, says the New York Herald.

"It is wiser and less expensive to sav children than to punish criminals," is the accepted story of the association, and it is the members' purpose to assist and extend juvenile probation work by co-operating with the Children's Court, probation officers and correctional institutions, and for this reason the office of Mrs. Tunis G. Bergen, secretary of the association and volunteer probationist, has been located on an upper floor of the Children's Court building, at No. 102 Court street, making instant communication between the Court and the association possible.

The officers of this new association, with the exception of the secretary, are men pecularily fitted for the work they have assumed because of their relationship to charitable and corrective work. Judge Robert J. Wilken, the president, has long been head of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children; the Rev. Dr. William J. White, vice presi

dent, stands at the head of Catholic charities in Brooklyn; Mr. Edward C. Blum, vice president, is actively interested in Hebrew charities and institutions; the Rev. William Sheafe Chase, vice president, is identified with Episcopal charities, and Mr. Frank L. Townsend, of the Brooklyn Trust company, treasurer, has been for many years associated with the Church Charity Foundation as treasurer.

Character of the Work.

In order to understand the character and beneficence of the work the members of the association have undertaken a knowledge of the proceedings of the Children's Court is illuminative. It is unlike any other court of justice in the city and resembles more nearly the home council chamber when one of the children has gone wrong; a court of mercy rather than a court of justice. The wise justices of the Court of Special Sessions, whose duty it is to preside in turn over the Children's Court, realize that merciful treatment is often more just than cold mechanical justice, which takes into account the offense only and not the offender, and the sentence is not that of the avenger, "Thou hast sinned and

must suffer punishment," but that of the Redeemer, "Go and sin no more."

"And after all," as Judge Wilken says, "very few of the offenses for which these children are brought into court are crimes, although many if persisted in might lead to degeneration and crime, and what we wish to do is to save the offenders from the consequences of a repetition of their offenses. In the course of justice none of us should see salvation, and we must save the children."

So in cases where a boy or girl has played truant or broken a window or done something mischievous out of spite or disturbed the peace of the neighborhood the circumstances are carefully inquired into and the judge reasons kindly with the youthful culprit, and after obtaining a promise of better behavior allows him to go home in the custody of his parents or friends.

When the offense is really grave and a child has been brought into Court for stealing, incendiarism, incorrigibility or misdemeanors of like seriousness a more careful investigation is made and the parents often come in for a more scathing rebuke than the offender, who, though still kindly admonished and reasoned with, must be dealt with more severely, and longer or shorter terms in some corrective institution are usually ordered.

It is frequently brought to light in the investigations that parents are often largely to blame for their children's misconduct. In the case of stealing, for instance, many a child is literally forced to steal by unscrupulous fathers and mothers who drive them out to gather fuel. A few sticks of wood taken from in front of a store when the proprietor is inside, a few lumps of coal lifted from the grocer's coal box when his back is turned, the snatching of loose boards or pickets from some one's fence, may not seem of so much account, but the children soon grow adept, and from that it is an easy step to the theft of a bottle of milk or loaf of bread or bag of rolls in the early morning hours before people are up, and a consequent hardening of the child nature and a dulling of its sense of right and wrong. Others, again, are led to steal not always because of poverty, but because unreasonably deprived by penurious parents of the pennies that mean so much to a child and the attainment of the trifles so dear to every boy's or girl's heart.

One of the probation officers of the Children's Court recently told of the case of a boy of seven whose parents were in despair because they could not break him of stealing. Hoping to fright

en him into being honest they brought him to the Children's Court, but the lad being too young to be sent away, the Judge talked to him for a time and then placed him in charge of the officer who related the case and who made it her duty to visit the child's home each week for the purpose of seeing how he was getting on and helping him to improve.

He was a good child in every other way, she said, but they simply couldn't keep him from stealing.

""Tain't no use; he's jess a common thief, an' I don't see how you're going to do anything with him," wailed his mother, "an' you jess hadn't ought to waste your time with him; but, oh, ma'am, I hope you don't think he's took it from anybody, 'cause both me and his pa is sure honest an' our hearts is just broke with him."

The probation officer knew the parents were honest, so she began a quiet study of the case, noting that it was always something to eat or pennies which he immediately spent for crackers or fruit or candy, that the child took, and never any of the pretty things that might naturally attract a child. She became convinced that the child was not a thief by nature, but that he was either underfed or did not receive such food as would properly nourish and satisfy him and he simply could not resist the temptation of taking what he knew would satisfy his cravings. She suggested to the mother to see a physician and act according to his advice. If there was nothing abnormal about the child's appetite which should be corrected by treatment the mother should cater to it.

The mother acquiesced, with the result that the little lad's falls from grace are growing less and less frequent, and doubtless as he grows older and can be made to understand more clearly the nature of theft he will be entirely cured, whereas in time he might have been led to take other things and the fault would doubtless become a settled habit.

As to Orphan Children.

Then many of the children who find their way into the Children's Court have no parents, but, left to shift for themselves, have contracted habits which if uncorrected will result in bad charac

justice, more than mercy, is a friend; some one to watch over them, to point out the way to them, to find homes for them with good people; to secure positions for them when they are old enough to work; to provide suitable clothing for them; to obtain desirable employmentfor there is no denying that appearance with a boy or girl fosters their self-respect and goes a long way toward gaining the consideration of others. just such a friend that the Probation Society aims to become to the friendless children of the Children's Court.

It is

Such friendship means expenditure of time, money and work, and so the membership is to be divided into three classes, the sustaining members being those who are unable to give active services, but whose sympathies lead them

to subscribe $25 annually to the funds of the association; associate members, who are also unable to give active service, but pay $10 annually into the fund, and the active members, whose election fee and annual dues amount to $1, but who visit the Court whenever possible and not only receive the children given into their protection by the presiding Judge, but investigate their cases thoroughly, visit them at their homes if they are to return to them, win their confidence and affection, obtain positions for them, see thaat they are properly clothed and continue this supervision, not for a month or for a few weeks, but until the reformation is so certain and the children's future so well assured that there is no longer need of this protection and influence.

The bill introduced in the legislature yesterday to transfer the work of the Juvenile Court from the district to the Municipal Court looks like an effort to develop reasons for an additional Munic ipal Judge. The friends of the Juvenile Court and its work knew nothing about this measure until it made its appearance in the legislature. They are in no sense responsible for any move to take the work away from the District Judges, nor is it the wish of the District Judges that this be done. Just who has suddenly developed so much interest in Juvenile Court work is not apparent, but if he will consult those who have accomplished whatever has been done thus far in the way of creating a Juvenile Court, providing Probation Officers, securing money for a detention home and generally promoting this general effort for the benefit of delinquent and dependent children, he will find that any effort to make use of the Juvenile Court (using the term as covering all related effort in behalf of dependent and delinquent children), as a means of advancing the effort to secure another Municipal Judge, is not appreciated or approved, and when the members of the legislature find out this fact, this measure is not likely to meet with their approval.-Minneapolis Journal.

A Bright Baby

Published by the Visitation and Aid Society

T. D. HURLEY, President and Editor 79 Dearborn Street, Chicago, Ill.

ASSOCIATE EDITORS.

HON. B. B. LINDSEY, Judge Juvenile Court, Denver, Colorado.

THOMAS WALSH, Chief Clerk, New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children 297, 4th Ave., New York.

W. A. GARDNER, Portland, Oregon.

J. L. CLARK, Business Manager, 79 Dearborn St., Chicago, Ill.

Eastern Office, 58 W. 24th Street, New York City. Boston Office, 147 Milk Street, Boston, Mass.

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the commission of crime.

There is no new thought advanced in this doctrine-it is simply the exercise of the parental power of the State as distinguished from the criminal. One or two of the Supreme Courts of the country have released children upon writs of habeas corpus for the reason that the particular Juvenile Court law was not followed in the lower court or the legislature gave jurisdiction to an inferior court, which did not have chancery power. In every instance where the Court had original and inherent jurisdiction and the rights of the parents and child was safeguarded in the trial court the Supreme Court has sustained the law..

SMALL PARKS AND MUNICIPAL PLAY-GROUNDS.

One of the great questions of the day is that of the Small Parks and Municipal Play-grounds. These places have received the hearty endorsement of all public officials from President Roosevelt down. THE JUVENILE COURT RECORD has always been and is now in favor of the Small Parks and Municipal Play-grounds, but has at all times insisted that these places will do more harm than good if not properly managed. As it is now they have only general supervision. This is not sufficient; there should be strict rules governing these places; a violation of the rules should subject the offender to expulsion from the park. or play-ground. No person using profane, indecent or vulgar language or who makes any improper proposals or actions to another person, or who is intoxicated or otherwise conducts himself or herself in any way that would not be approved in a well governed home should not be permitted the privilege of the park or play-ground.