The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1906-06-09
HARRY KEPT FAITH AND THE JUDGE
HELD HIS JOB.
BY THE HON. BEN D. LINDSEY, JUDGE OF THE
JUVENILE COURT OF DENVER.

HELD HIS JOB.
BY THE HON. BEN D. LINDSEY, JUDGE OF THE
JUVENILE COURT OF DENVER.
love to tell the story of certain
little Harry. 1t is like some others
where we have gone down into the
uneNplored regions of little human
heart to find the good respond, and
then they say the child is bad.
There is no such thing. 1t is not the
child that fails. We fail-that is,
those responsible for the child. We
did not understand. But with little
Harry the response came like the
sweet sound of bell all a-tune-
clear and beautiful.
He was in Jail. A strange place
for a twelve-year-old boy with a soul
and heart-an instrument so wonder
full, that. attuned to perfect harmony,
is the very image of God. He that
shapes and moulds clay and marble is
as nothing to Him who can subdue
the discords of a soul aud bring out
its noblest impulse. its most energetic
faculties, and so parents should study
and know and love their children
more than even the skilled artist pours
out his devotion to canvas or marble.
It is this we should cultivate rather
than laws for punishment and prisons
for degradation.
The iailer had telephoned me one
cold wintry night that the boy was in
a spasm of crying and had so alarmed
him that he urged me to come at once.
l grabbed my coat and hat and went
out into the night, feeling that the
pitiless beat of the sleety rain was
ever kinder than criminal law that
condemns little children to crime and
iron cells. But this was before the
fight against the Jail was fought and
won. This was before love and firm
ness had supplanted hatred and deg
radiation.
Behind iron bars that would shame
the king tiger ofthe jungle I found the
boy. He was sleeping, and you would
have thought not care had ever
visited that little tousled head with
its worn and tear-stained face. But
he wakened, startled by the grating
of iron bolts and bars, and clicking OF
great keys turning in their solemn,
monotonous locks, as the jailer, leav-
ing me alone with the boy, returned
from the cell back into the dimly
lighted corridor.
The boy, frightened at these
strange surroundings, looked at his
new cellmate at first cautionsly-al-
most fearfully. Then look of joy
and gladness came to his eyes, as
might come from the captive at the
approach of deliverance. The boy
knew me, for he had been chronic
little truant, and there may have been
worse things, but they may be left
unsaid, for it was the boy, and not
the things" we were trying to re-
deem. A boy is worth ten thousand
times more than anything he steals,
vet knew a ten-year-old boy who
stole bicycle in the old days and ten
times more labor and money were ex-
pended to recover the wheel than the
boy.
/ sat down in the cell on the iron
floor and put my arms around the
boy. told him how much I thought
of him, and how I despised the bad
things he did. Yet what could do
if he did not help mee I might help
him, but l could not carry him
would always be his friend, but he
was getting both himself and me in
trouble if he "swiped things" for if
I should let him out and he "swiped
things again, would not the officer
say that the judge made mistake in
not sending "that kid to The State
Industrial School, where he would
not have chance to swipe things?"
Then they would say both the judge
and the boy should be in Jail. How
could he expect judge to keep his
Job if his boys did such things! He
saw the point and standing upright
there in the cell the light in his eyes
speaking better than his words, the
earnestness Of his promise to stay
wild yer, Judge" as he tearfully de-
clared he would neye, get me into any
trouble and we would both keep out
of Jail.
And so almost as tearfully accep-
ted his profered protection, and out of
the Jail we walked together into the
now raging storm. And yet, it was
no such storm as had ragged in that
BOYS life-a home blighted by ia.
ther who had deserted and trodden
under foot every vow he took at the
marriage altar. And so fathers
care, the divine birthright of every
child-had been denied him. The
boy was not bad. 1 took him home
to his mother, a poor, struggling wo
man, deserving of a better fate thar
to toll ali day to feed and clothe hel
hungry children. A child with nc
father and mother, however noble
who under such handicaps and diff
culties tries to perform the function.
of both, generally fails to perform
! that of either. Is it a wonder ther