Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-10-13

On THESE domestic QetallS.
A Russian mother to whom the same
question was pat, through interpreter,
answered with a shrug of her shoulders
that she had stopped counting after the
seventeenth. 1t was against just such
family this that the records of the So
ciety for the Prevention of Cruelty to Chill
dren showed re,>entiy that there had beer
fourteen cases in the courts and in the
Bureau of Dependent Children since the
United States had received them to its
shores. Heredity, you say here? NO, the
records showed that most of the cases had
arisen from parental neglect.
majority of the million immigrants who
are coming to this country each year, not to
speak of their other deficiencies, have the
handicap of Ignorance heavy upon them. In
stead. too, of moving on to the open places
of the west, where their labor is needed.
they cling to the city and go directly from
the barge office into the dense lien colo
MES. Here the father takes his family into
miserable roorn in tenement that is al
ready crowded to suffocation with men,
women and children. The adults speak lit
tie other than sheir native language and
adhere to native customs. They thus build
about themselves barriers that are not ca
silly penetrated by our ideas of well-being
and citizenship.
Outstrip Their Elders.
If their children succeed in lodging the
truant officers they set them to work at
anything that will add few pennies to the
daily income or allow them to run wild in
the streets. Tie children quickly adapt
themselves to the new surroundings, bad as
they are. and they pick up English with a
facility that is wonderful to their parents.
They soon outstrip their elders. Tie parents
do not realize, or are too engrossed in the
struggle for existence, to give thought to
the dangers to which their children ex-
posed. The companions of the dark stair
ways and crowded streets often those
who lead them into their first depredations.
This unwholesome freedom. coupled with
their ability to learn English more readily.
often leads the children to feeling of su-
perlority to their parents. 1t is a feeling
which in time comes to amount almost to
contempt. And so the children, before they
have attained proper discretion, have often
slipped beyond the control of the parents
who do not realize it or view this lapsing
with apathy. These are the parents how
ever. who. when their children have finally
committed some serious offense and are ar
raigned in court, protest most loudly that
they have given their families the best of
care. or disclaim all responsibility for their
childrens trouble.
One mother of this kind who for two years
had encouraged her boy in habitual tru-
ancy was being taken severely to task after
he had been convicted of serious offense
Why didn't you send your boy to
SCHOOL," the judge demanded.
what for?' was her question that came
back through an Interpreter. Does he want
to be a lawyer? Does he want to be a doe
tori"
MS woman ldQ Deen III lNe country
eighteen years.
"And. you speak no English?" asked the
court
My head is so weak was her excuse;
and that seems to be a common failing with
the parents whose children are arraigned in
the courts.
Follies of Mothers.
The folles of delinquent parents would
form an Interesting chapter. There are
A nrio -ln tha hair of
their eleven and twelve year old daughters
and then come to court and complain of the
taun.s of the neighbors' children There are
the parents. who with full knowledge of al
their wrong-doings, vehemenuy ms st that
their children are innocent and that their
arraisnment is an outrage-this when the
children themselves have freely confessed to
the court long series of criminal offenses,
which. II unchecked would lead them mo
states prison before they had reached their
majority. The number of such is legion.
A mother of this kind whose protests to
the court had been most vigorous was
heard to whisper this bit of conversation
to her tifteen-year-old daughter when She
was being led weeping from the court to
reforlnatory:
Never mind, tlfe lower you fall the high
er you'll bounce"
The parents who. although able to afford
it, never give their children a penny of
spending money and then are astonisned
when they steal, may also be classed among
the foolish. There are many who do not
even allow their wage-earnins children to
retain sufficient money for car fare and
force them to walk long distances to and
from their work.
Some so fear the criticisms of neighbors
that they spare punishment until their
children hOpeesSly beyond them.
siX-foot Slav recently had his anaemic
eightyear-Old son arrested an ''ungov-
ernable child" The boy small that
his head did not reach to the top of the
judges bench.
do you mean to tell me that you can
not manage that boy?' asked the court.
Yes, readily answered the giant He
threatens to jump off the roof unless l let
him alone
Science of Desertion.
Family desertion is being reduced to a
nice science in certain of the al en- colonies
The plan is for the father, according to a
prearransed domestic plan, to disappear
and after the city has been forced to take
the children to support, to return secretly
The parents then reunte and go into a ten
ement room in another quarter. 1t is not
poverty that causes the assertions in the
vast majority of these cases, but simply
the desire to add to the little family hoard
what would otherwise have to be spent for
the support of the children.
The establishment of separate tribunals
Tor the more humane and Intelligent treat.
ment of child offenders and victims OF
parental neglect marks a long step in adj
vance toward the betterment of social con-
dltlons. The problem of the delinquent
child is hopeful one and wonderful re-
suits are being accomplished There is
generally just as ready response to the
good influences as there to the bad
that first brought the youngster into COZ
llsion with the law. But his Iather and
mother are rot easily reconstructed
Their ignorance, their greed their helpless
ness and their numerous other delinquences
are too hard set. Too often they bar the
child's way to better things. And yet
despite these delinquent parents, thousands
future usefulness through the children's
court.
The next move should be for an institu-
tlon Tor the special treatment of the de
Nnquent parent"