The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-07-26
ANACONDA NEWS.
GAN THERE Be A CURE?
Problem of Juvenile Depravity
in Anaconda a Serious One.
PARENTS ARE CARELESS
City Authorities Say the Children Do
Not Receive Proper Discipline at
Home Too Much Lib
erty Allowed.

Is there cure for the juvenile de-
pravity in Anaconda that of late has
Become so general? That is the ques-
ton which was agitated in many quar-
tiers yesterday.
Ten young boys jailed in the last 10
days for various crimes and offenses,
and the spectacle of two children just
in their teens, carted to jail in a state
of helpless intoxication, as related in
the Standard yesterday, has aroused
many to the gravity of the situation.
Lack of discipline at home is de-
clared to be one of the chief causes,
if not the chief cause, of so much Grim
inality and vice among children of
tender years. Failure to enforce the
curfew ordinance is given as another.
II has been urged that the ministers
of the city, as the guardians of the
spiritual welfare of the people, take
up the question and seek TO impress
upon their congregations the necessity
OF caring for their children.
Il don't know what remedy to sug
Gest unless it be that parents look
after their children better and keep
them off the Streets" said Chief of
Police White. There is an exception
ally large number of tough boys in An
acOnda. They are constantly in mis-
chief and many of them are becoming
criminals"
Police Judge ]. NJ. Kennedy, before
whom most of the cases of juvenile de-
pravity come, is puzzled. Il don't
know exactly what to do with these
boys" said he. For one thing, / will
nhe county jail. 1t does them no good,
but infinite harm in that they associ-
ate there with adult criminals and in
crease their knowledge of vice.
We are constantly handicapped in
handling these cases by the attitude
of parents. Several boys will be ar
rested for breaking windows or COM
uniting petty thefts. The individual
parents will come down, indignant, and
will talk to us like this: / don't see
why in the world the police arrested
my boy. Why, he is one of the best
boys ever born and he wouldn't do
anything. really bad for the world.
There's nothing bad about him, but
there is a crowd of perfectly awful
boys in our neghborhood who would
do anything Meanwhile the boy, who
probably is one of the toughest in the
lot, listens and grins to himself, and
goes away convinced that he can kick
being punished.
Then there are a number of boys,
all of them not really vicious, Who
have been brought UP by reckless,
wandering, beer-drinkins, can-rushing
parents, in an atmosphere of moral
degradation.
In this town parents appear to al
low their boys liberty to roam about
the streets at any hour of the day or
night Any night at the medicine
show given on the streets you can see
hundreds of them. 1t seems to me if
the curfew ordinance was rigidy en-
forced it would prove a great power
for good.
Our population is largely made up
of working people. The father is at
work away from home all day and the
mother has her hands full caring for
the house. The children are sent to
school and all responsibility for them
thrust upon the teacher. In vacation
time, however, they are allowed to
roam from early morning to late into
the night, unrestrained. If a parent
gets in about once a week and gives
his boy an awful threshing he feels
he has done his duty, when as a mat
ter of fact, he has perhaps done harm"
1t is possible that two of the boys
arrested Monday will be sent to the
reform school. They are Michael
Bracken, the 13-year-old child brought
to jail dead drunk, and Tommy Tracy,
aged IA who was arrested on Mon
day by Deputy Sheriff Joe DAILY for
incorrigibility. He was also suspected
of having stolen brides from the sta
bles of H. II. Logan, w. b. Webb and
George Linsey.
AS for the Bracken boy, in addition
to his drunkenness, he is charged
with having stolen shoes from Strain
establishment on East Park avenue.
IT is alleged that he entered the store