Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-11-07

tigation. which often amounts to siege, at
once begins
The devices resorted to for sequestering
children from registration are often pitt
FULLY grotesque. On one occasion when
accompanying a "visitor" on his rounds,
saw poor woman caught in the act of
squeezing her boy into the oven of her
hob; and among many quite as odd STRAIT
agems witnessed, was one by mother who
stood in the open door and after bluntly de-
nying maternity, was finally forced to ad-
NIT the ownership of two strapping girls
that had for the 15 minutes parleying stifled
and trembled beneath her mothers over
ample skirts. Stuffed beneath bundles of
rags, actually covered with Goals, wedged
in chimney flues, hid beneath floors, smoth-
cred between mattresses, and clinging to
the sides of privy vaults, are common be-
stowals of children to escape registration
or subsequent capture. No 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 saying
among the British lowly. An ex-inspector
of the Liverpool police force, now q rent
collector for wealthy Liverpool tenement
house owner, told me he believed there were
-U-uVU Ill IHdb civ hHONh oS
''scampers, that is families that fit from
one habitation to another, and leave the
landlord in lurch for ht rent.
Forced to Become Truants.
On mentioning this to one of the most re-
liable of the Liverpool School Board "vis-
itors, he stated IL to be his firm conviction
that at least one-half that number had been
forced into the "scampering" habit, and had
become utterly worthless people in their
loss of home life and the saving ambition to
attain independence, from the unceasing
pursuit of their children for compulsory
school attendance, and the judgments hang
ing over the heads of their parents for fees
and fines which they never had been, and
never would be able to pay. In his opinion
the whole of these human beings had be-
come veritable outcasts, and outlaws in
small way, through this system of ceaseless,
petty, but to them overwhelming persecu-
tion.
We will suppose, for illustration, boy
has been hunted down and got within the
school board jurisdiction. If 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 little
more than half time, that is, six out of ten
per day, or ten per week
being the reckoning - and warning"
having been served for every absence, the
mother and father, and usually the former,
is summoned before a police magistrate.
The ''visitor" is practically the prosecutor
for the board. He makes oath to the bows
presence" and absences" If the mother
answers the summons and enters good de-
fense, the boy may get off with a repri-
mand; but he is permanently thereafter
11r1Ia af -
tendance now occurs, a second summons is
issued against the mother, and fine, the
lowest being a shilling, is never escaped.
At the same time superintend-
ent of the National School Board
Is present, who, whether the
child is from parish or board school, will
recommend his commitment TO an Industrial
School, and never for term of less than
three years. This commitment is a sentence
to one of three conditions or grades of In
iustrial School prison life:
The Punishments That Are in Force.
First-To the Truant School, for BOYS and
girls, for a 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 1 shilling per
week into the Industrial School fund
Second-To the intermediate Industrial
School, for boys only, where he is commit
ted, to the age Of 16, should he be sentenced
at the age of s. Here the lad is in absolute
confinement; and his parents are compelled
10 pay from 2s TO 2s cd per week into the
und: and
Third-To the Industrial School proper,
or both sexes, under a five-years' sentence.
The parents must pay the same sum weekly
Is to the intermediate fund They may
'isit their schildren once every three
months; but the latter are never liberated
ntil finally discharged.
On entrance to the Truant School, the
,hild belongs to the law from in the morn
ng until at night. 1t remains under pre-
:isely the same home conditions that made
is attendance at board school, before COM
hateful or impossible. The par
.ntal adherence of the system is intensified,
md in most eases the efforts of both the
,hiId and its parents to avoid the ''visitor's"
clutches are redoubled. Any adequate
description of the disgusting and brutal
Genes witnessed in the morning roundup
If these children from among lowly homes
would fill every page of this paper. If the
,hild now attends the Truant School regu-
arly, without the use of force, in six
months time it is permitted to return to
he elementary school during the remainder
# its term of sentence; the authorities reg
llating its conduct until it has reached the
ge OF IL years. But a single infraction Sc
ures its return to the Truant School regime.
Putting the Children Away.
If the child becomes incorrigible under
his treatment, it is brought before a magis-
rate and sentenced direct to the Ordinary"
Industrial school; placed in absolute con-
and is compelled to labor like
my other criminal the boys at wood-chop-
,ing, and making brush and sennit mats;
md the girls at knitting coarse stockings
nd making coarse shirts. This is called
putting the child away" and is regarded
S an achievement by the school stvisitors"
nd authorities Occasionally boy or girl
S licensed out to service; but these licenses
must be renewed, on good behavior, every
hree months, and they are revokable by
he Industrial School Board Committee, in
tead of bv magistrate.
The food of these children is as nearly
pon starvation basis as can be adjusted
v expert keepers. 1t comprises a break
asst of bread and treacle, or bread, milk and
'orridge; dinner of pea soup and bread,
oiled rice and bread, or "scouse" "a stewed
crap meat and potato hodgepodge) on rare
ccasions only; and supper of cocoa, bread
re also furnished with PRAYERS" three
ines each day. EDGARL. WAKEMAN.
THE Cleveland Baby by one who has seen
everyday in THE DISPATCH tomorrow,