CINCINNATI.

Mr. Max Senior recently read a paper before the Jewish Council on "The Placing of Jewish Dependent Children Into Homes," developed with forceful clearness the fact that the asylum has outlived its day of usefulness in the perfect development of child-life. What the child has not received, he can not in turn transmit to others, and institutional life must of necessity stifle all the beautiful domestic traits, since there is no occasion for loving self-sacrific and patient devotion of family ties. Hence,

the best way is the boarding of the orphan in a home, leaving him in his native atmosphere, where he can develop normally. Next to this, he advocated the cottage plan. Mr. Senior felt that the man who, faithful to old traditions, still clung to the idea of the asylum as the proper refuge for the orphan, in

preference to the home, was to be compared with the merchant who in his enthusiasm for his wares advertises "artificial limbs better than the real ones." But even better than the care of the orphan is the prevention of the orphan or the charity that, by its far-sightedness, keeps both parents alive.

TOLEDO.

Juvenile Court officials today made a personal appeal to the Board of Public Service to appoint women police in the parks this summer, to serve with men who will be detailed to preserve order there.

Probation Officer E. W. Dilgert, and Mary Corigan and Susan Moore, assistants, were there, and they were satisfied when the servers promised to ask council for an appropriation, sufficient to appoint officers in the parks this summer.

"We need them as soon as warm weather is here-not in the last month, after all the harm is done."

CHICAGO.

A crusade is being made against the low dance halls and the 5-cent theaters that flourish so flagrantly in this city. Children between the ages of twelve and fourteen years are lured to these places

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by glowing descriptions of the things they can see at them. An invasion has been made by the men who are interested in these shows into the school yards of the city, and advertisements describing the things to be seen have been passed out to the children. city authorities should make short process of these low 5-cent theaters and of the dance halls. They are the most fruitful sources of the spread of vice and wrong. What greater crime can there be than to lure little children to their ruin?

PITTSBURG.

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Corporations of the city moved to save the boys from becoming criminals. number of large corporations, including the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, Pennsylvania railroad, the Westinghouse company, the Philadelphia company and numerous others, have instituted vigorous proceedings against junk dealers who buy brass and iron from small boys. They frankly state that their purpose is to protect boys of the city, many of whom, according to the records of the Juvenile Court, were becoming confirmed thieves as a result of the practice of the junk dealers, who in effect engaged them to steal by afterward buying the stolen goods.

NEW YORK CHILD LABOR LAW.

Governor Hughes approved on May 6 the Page child labor bill desired by the child labor committees and the Consumers' League and embodying recommendations made in his own first message to the legislature. The measure provides that no minor under sixteen years of age shall be employed or permitted to work in any factory in this state before 8 a. m. or after 5 p. m., or more than eight hours in any one day. The permitted hours now are 6 a. m. to 7 p. m., and a nine-hour day is allowed. The act will not take effect until Jan. 1, 1908.

CINCINNATI.

"The Juvenile Court is doing a great work, not only for the present, but for all the future. Some criminals are born, but bad associations and environment make criminals out of many who are not born criminals, and bring out the worst in those who are. Our work, of course, reaches both classes.

"Whole families living in two and sometimes even in one room, and living rooms into which a ray of sunlight or breath of pure, fresh air never enters, are met with every day in our work. We try to make people be clean and improve

their surroundings when we go to investigate cases of bad boys or girls, but how can people who live in dark rooms be clean physically or any other way? The old business district down in the bottoms, where old hotels, such as the Madison house, and former wholesale buildings and warehouses, have been turned into tenement houses, is about the worst in the city for dark rooms and unsanitary surroundings. It would be a blessing to Cincinnati if all of them could be wiped out."

IOWA.

The Problem of the Boy.

Judge Brennan of Des Moines, moved by the pathos of a Juvenile Court, advances the suggestion that the larger counties of the state should provide a farm where bad boys could be put to work without being subjected to the vileness of criminality of such associates as are always found in a reform school. It is questionable whether the county could undertake this work with success, but the evil which Judge Brennan seeks to evade is a horrible one and is well worth the most careful thought of sociologists.

Many a boy, in fact most boys, go to the reform school either because they have no parents to guide and correct them or because their parents are incapable of meeting this responsibility. Such boys are not criminals from instinct, they have the making of very good men, but when they arrive at the reform school they are herded in prison dormitories with juvenile degenerates, youngsters whose vileness defies description. When a loving parent stops to think that misfortune might leave his innocent children to the mercies of some distant and neglectful relative eventually to land in a reform school from sheer neglect, the horror of the situation comes closer to home.

An intermediate institution should be provided, preferably a farm, where bad boys who are not instinctively criminals could be harbored and reformed. Such an institution would not be complete, however, if it did not provide for a well organized system of paroles and billeting of boys in separate farm homes, where they could have the home joys and associates and interests, and some of the affection which would have been theirs under less misfortune; all of which are lost in a public institution. Such homes could be inspected by state authorities, in part regulated, and real reform to unfortunate boys would come much faster than at any prison farm.

Our present institution is better than no attempt at all, but it is infinitely short of what real reform ought to be. The advent of a Juvenile Court is awakening interest in the problem of the bad boy. From it will come the inspiration for further reform. Judge Brennan's suggestion is an evidence of the process. -Selected.

WAS HELPED

LOUISVILLE.

The report of Julius Hild, superintendent of the children's board of guardians, shows the inauguration of the Juvenile Court in Louisville has by no means detracted from the usefulness of the board, but, on the other hand, has broadened its field of labor. While the officials of the Juvenile Court have been active, there has been no cessation of calls for work by the board. Its agents are always busy, working hand-in-hand with the court officials-there is work for all. It has been necessary since the Juvenile Court was inaugurated for the board to act as detainers for the court, and a glance at the report of children received from the Juvenile Court since June will show the additional work that has fallen upon the shoulders of the board. Mr. Hild's report shows that since June he has handled 268 children, surrendered to him by the Juvenile Court, to be held for various periods of time, until disposed of in some manner by the court. His report shows that during the year 1906 the board furnished 2,308 meals; that forty-five fathers were

fined and bonded for neglect and cruelty to children; that a number were reprimanded by the court; that nine fathers left the city when their cases were taken up by the board; that a number of cases were filed away against delinquent feathers who promised to do better in the future, and that a number were sent to the workhouse for criminal neglect and cruelty.

The books of Mr. Hild show that a large number of fathers who otherwise failed to provide for their children are now leaving funds regularly with him to be turned over the their families. These are cases where there has been separation between husband and wife, yet the board forces them to care for their offspring.

WASHINGTON, D. C.

Armed with their pink probation cards, 257 little boys and girls gathered in the Juvenile Court, says the Herald, to hold their regular monthly consultation with Judge De Lacy and his staff of probation workers. School children and working boys formed the two classes that faced their friend the judge. All were dressed in their "Sunday best," but there were many ragged little coats and tattered little skirts in the assemblage.

Judge De Lacy, Chief Probation Officer Zed H. Copp and Assistant Probation Officer Gertrude B. Darwin addressed the little probationers on ideals of good citizenship, respect for the law, and moral living. These little talks to the probation children are a regular monthly feature of the Juvenile Court work, and Judge De Lacy is greatly gratified by the beneficial results obtained through these gatherings. After the addresses each child talked individually with the judge or probation officers, and reported his or her progress during the month. Marked improvement was shown in the conduct of almost every one of the probationers.

Within a few days the court will throw open to white children the well-equipped playground that has been arranged on the lot in the rear of the court building, 1816 F street. Apparatus consisting of swings, see-saws, gymnasium devices and games have been provided, and the court officers expect the playground to prove a great help in their work. It will be conducted under the auspices of the court and the Washington Playgrounds association.

The Juvenile Court has reached the point in its development here when its officers find it almost impossible to do the best work with the small force at