The record-union., 1891-11-07

L saw poor woman caught IL the act OF
squeezing her boy into the oyen of her
hob, and among many quite as odd STRAIT
agems witnessed, was one by a mother
who stood in the open door, and, after
biuntly denying maternity. was finally
forced TO admit the ownership of two
strapping girls that had for the fifteen
minutes parleying stilied and trembled
beneath the mothers over-ample skirts.
Stuffed beneath bundles of rags; actually
covered with Goals; wedged in chimney
tiues; hid beneath floors; Smothered be-
tween mattresses, and clinging to the
sides of privy vaults are common bestow-
ais OF children TO escape registration or
subsequent capture. 10 wonder that the
vagabond and criminal instinct becomes
predominant in the nature of folk thus
harraSsed.
"Once on the school lists always on,
and always worrited!'' is a common say
ing among the British lowly. An ex-In-
spector of the Liverpool Police force now
a rent collector for a wealthy Liverpool
tenement house owner, told me he be-
lieved there were 10000 families in that
city known as ''scampers, !" that is, fami-
lies that fit from one habitation TO an
other, and leave the landlord in lurch for
his rent. On mentioning this to one of
the most reliable Of the Liverpool School
Board VISITORS" he stated ii to be his
! 1irm conviction that at least one-half that
number had been forced into the scamp
! ing'' habit, and had become utterly worth
! less people i'll their loss Of home-life and
! the saving ambition to attain independ-
! ence from the unceaSing pursuit Of their
! children tor compulsory school attend
ance, and the judgments hanging over the
heads Of their parents Tor fees and tines
which they never had been, and never
! would be able to pay. In his opinion the
! whole OF these human beings had become
( UpFIt1i)tp OJIfpnStS and outlaws I small
way, through this system of ceaseless,
! petty, but to them overwhelming perse-
cutiOn.
! We will suppose, for illustration, boy
has been hunted down ana got within the
| school board jurisdiction. Ii a single ab-
sence be recorded against him he comes
under all the possibilities of the law
| The usual course Is, in case he makes a
| little more than half time, that is, six out
Of ten attendances-two per day, or ten
! per week being the reckoning-and u
warning" having been served for every
absence, the mother or the father, and
| usually the former, is summoned before
police magistrate. The visitor" is
! practically the prosecutor for the board
! He makes oath to the boys ''presencesn
! and Absences If the mother answers
| the summons and enters 4 good defense,
| the boy may get OF with Il reprimand
( but he is permanently thereafter under
COURT tSDiOldR6. II d st-ICdCl Ol dlLGuu-
ance now occurs second summons IS
issued against the mother, and a line, the
lowest being shilling, is never escaped.
AT the same time superintendent OF the
National School Board is present, who,
whether the child is from a parish or
! board school, Will recommend his COM
/ mitnent to an Industrial School, and
never for term of less than three years.
This commitment is sentence to one of
three conditions or grades OF Industrial
! School prison life:
! /. TO the Truant School, for boys and
girls, for three years term, in which
case the culprit is chased by visitors
to and from the school, where he remains
certain hours OF each day, and receives
his food but no clothing, and sleeps at
home. The parents are compelled to pay
one shilling per week into the Industrial
School Fund.
2 To the intermediate Industrial School
for boys only, where he is committed, to
the age of Is, should he be sentenced at
3. Here the lad is in absolute contine-
mcnt and his parents are compelled to
pay from two shilllngs to two shillings
and siXpence per week into the fnnd;
and
3. To the Industrial School proper, for
| both sexes, under tive-years' sentence.
! The parents must pay the same sum
weekly as to the intermediate fund. They
I
months, but the latter are never liber-
ated until finally discharged.
On entrance to the Truant School the
! child belongs to the law from in the
morning until 6 at night 1t remains
under precisely the same home condi-
! tiOns that made its attendance at board
school, before commitment, hateful or
! impossible. The parental adherence of
/ the system is intensified, and in most
cases the efforts of botn the child and its
! parents to avoid the visitors" clutches
| are redoubled. Any adequate descrip-
! ton of the disgusting and brutal scenes
! witnessed III the morning roundup" OF
these children from among lowly homes
would fill every page of this paper. II
| the child now attends the Truant School
regularly, without the use of force, in
| six months time it is permitted to re-
turn to the elem mentary school during the
! remainder of its term Of sentence, the
authorities regulating its conduct until it
/ has reached the age OF Ii years. But a
single infractiOn secures its return to the
! Truant School regime.
! If the child becomes incorrigible under
! this treatment, it is brought before a
magistrate and sentenced direct to the
! ordinary Industrial School, placed in
absolute confinement, and is compelled
! to labor like any other criminal the boys
/ at wood chopping, and making brush and
! sennit mats, and the girls at knitting
/ coarse stockings and making coarse
shirts. This is called putting the child
/ away" and is regarded as an achieve
ment by the school visitors" and au-
1 thorities. Occasionally a boy or girl is
/ licensed out to service, but these licenses
must be renewed, on good behavior.
every three months, and they are revok-
able by the Industrial School Board Com
mittee instead of by magistrate.
! a trick ofthe authorities is to discharge
child, whose term of sentence does not
| reach to the compulsory age limit, a
month previous to expiration of commit
ment term. This throws it back into the
compulsory elementary status under
! court espionage. At fhe first dereliction
| it is reseutenced to another three or five
| years term. There are many instances
where children have TINS been compelled
to serve two prison terms before they
were IA years OF age, and if these wise
! authorities are sufficiently alert, a third
term, as an ''incorrigible," can easily be
administered.
In the meantime police magistrates are
busy timing parents and sentencing them
for non-payment of fees and fines. What
ever the fees may have been in the ele-
mentary school, they are far larger after
the child has become a prisoner. They
are not paid, as rule, because they can
not be paid. They are allowed to run up
TO two or three pounds sum. Then the
! officers, who now dog the parents and
who are called collecting constables,"
secure warrants for the payment Of about
/ ten Shllllngs in cash, and two shillings
/ per week. When found, the father or
mother must instantly pay as per the
court order, or arrest by city constable
/ follows. They are lodged in jail until
/ the amount is paid, or is cleared off at the
rate Of one pound for each weeks en-
| durance. | believe that the system has
I r11nR1 hnpanS
England than ever has rum. And vet
! intelligent English social economists nro-