The Dickinson press., 1889-01-26
TO SAVE TIE BOYS.
A CHICAGO LADY SUGGESTS A PLAN
TO REFORM BAD URcAlNS.

A CHICAGO LADY SUGGESTS A PLAN
TO REFORM BAD uRcAlNs.
Tho System of Placing Them I'm Contact
with Adult Wrong Doors Damns Them
for All Timc-An Appeal to tho Off
Gals.
Your editorial Of the 9th inst. on "a House
of Detention for Children Accused of Crime
touches n most important point, l might say
n vital one. Certainly it is that to the chill
dren themselves. There arc now in tho boys
ward Of Cook county Jail twcnty-four lads
ranging from 0 to II years old-bright, &C.
tive, bad children. Some of them claim to
be i'll on suspicion, others are held as wit
nesses; but all are promiscuously huddlcd to-
gcther. Brazen, self confessed thieves talk
and whisper with the new conner who seems
ashamed and %sorrowful; but how long will
that last in such company? These under
graduates for the pcnitentiary are busy work
ers, faithful in their vile teachings; many a
time has n larger boy pointed out q smaller
one and said;
THAT Teller got me i'll here"
Last week a boy told me with quite a de-
gree of pride that he had spent sixty hours
in the dungeon Cause he was so bad,' and
the boys around him looked admiringly ut
him.
Many of these lads are there by inherit
aEce. Their fathers and mothers were and
arc criminals. They have inherited their
criminal tendencies just us much as they
have their physical pcculiarities. Others arc
there through associating at night with
groups of good and bad EiiXed, and it is tho
good who always suffer by this association.
HARDLY MoRE THAN BABES.
Many little fellows are brought in so small
that their toes cannot touch the floor while
sitting OH the benches, and are kept in Jail
until called before the grand jury or a judge,
when, after n kind but earnest rcprimand, if
it is their first ~offensc, they are dismissed
with a warning of what will happen next
time" All this has taken weeks, us the
claws delays are provcrbial, aud these boys
have during this time been in Jail. They
have seen, heard ard learned that which in
such boys will never he forgotten. Some
men are in the boys ward, and Il boy OF II
has less shame as Il wicked teacher than q
man has, and the boys are put into cells two
by two, SO that night and day the work of
corruption goes on.
Since 1852 there has been n school held in
this ward, at first one session, and after a
time w every day. but now only one, and
that i'll the morning. The teacher c%ndcnvorrd
to train, first of all, their moral nature.
Much time is spent in that direction. and the
singing of Gospel hymns is Il great delight to
the boys. Then reading, spelling, writing
and arithmetic are as thoroughly taught as
the short time will permit. These boys chew
tobacco like veterans and smoke cheap cigar.
cites till the air is blue and choking, but
when the teacher opens her school with a
pleasant Good morning, boys" hats are
taken off, tobacco is pushed in n great lump
into the cheek, cigarettes are pocketed and n
general attempt is made to ''straighten up
and appear a little better, which shows that
oMc self respect is left.
APPALLING STATISTICS.
Since 1882 there have been 1920 bows i'm
this ward of the Cook County Jail, many of
them, | am sorry to say, for the third and
fourth time, so that their faces have become
quite familiar, and they recognize the teacher
as an old friend. In this state, according to
the latest census, there are $40 minors in
prison, 1873 of these being between the ages
of l2 and Is years. These figures do not in
clude those who are temporarily in tho vari-
Gus jails of the state. The superintendent
Of the State Reform school at Pontiac says
that fully SO per cent. of the boys who get
into trouble are within the pale of hope, a
fact that certainly affords stimulus to earn
est effort in their behalf.
Let it be remembered that a boy who is
put i'll Jail is corrupted. depraved, and ill.,
jured for life-here and hereafter. Is he
helped by being sent to the reform school!
A thousand times no! There, instead of
forty or fifty boys, there are hundreds.
Cook county alone has over 100 all of the
time. The lowest light in which ono can
survey this frightful question is that of econ
omy, and to the tax payer let me appeal.
A DETENTION SCHOOL.
1t costs a great deal more money to carry
a boy through the Jail, to the reform school,
to the penitentiary, and perhaps to the scat.
fold than it does to save him from such a
fate. If q building, or rooms, with the Tic.
cessary locks and keys, aid l must add bars
also, but called sThe Detention Manua,
Training school" of Cook county, were to be
furnished by the county and we'll equipped il
an inexpensive manner, so that these bow:
could be taught not only the simple bu
necessary English branches with this sam,
moral training in a wise and brief manner
and could at the same time learn a trade Of
part of a trade, so that OH getting out the,
would not be obliged to steal to get some
thing to eat and to wear, it would not onl,
save many of them from a life Of crime, bl
also be n financial saving to the county
Many of them have no homes, even of til,
poorest and meanest kind, and what place i
open to them but their old haunts, and will
them their old comradesa A trade of som
kind is what is needed, for these boys ar
busy, active fellows, and arc not unwillin,
to work.
If the county will help mo in this matte
the daily morning school shall cost then
nothing. We have carried it on through a
these years, and will continue to do so. Thi
question is so important, relating as it doe
to the future men and women of the city
that ! am sure of a kind consideration frol
the thinking and wise people of Chicago
Adelaide B. Groves in Chicago Tribune.