Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1906-04-04
The Hard Days Work
of the Truant Officer
Fourteen Thousand Youngsters of Gotham Rounded Up
and Sent Back School in Single YearPathetc Cases
That Are Brought to Light-Childre Who Take Turns
in Wearing Shoes and Stockings

but the children must take turns go
Ing to school She can't give them all
shoes and stockings; they must take
turns. The boy wants to go to school
and when he has shoes and stockings
be always does go.
Now the law says hat the boy must
go to school until he is fourteen years
old. and makes no allowances for a
lack of shoes or stockings: so what
is to be done in this case? The of
ticer promises to see that one of the
charity organizations will keen the
boy supplied with necessary articles
OF clothing until he is old enough to
be legally at work. He has in his
pocket a summons requiring the boy
TO appear in the ehildren's court to
answer complaint Of truancy, but
the summons remains unserved. Elk
tenuating circumstances cover this
case, and unintelligent or unsympa-
thetic action on the part of the officer
would simply make matters worse.
The officer knows what to do, and as
a consequence he makes his way down
stairs followed by, the thanks of the
poor little boys family
But there are not always extenuat-
ing circumstances. The next name
upon the officers list is that Of a boy
who told his teacher that the family
was going to move and that he would
have to go to another school. Accord
ing To the rIie, he gladly supplied the
teacher with his new address; but he
failed to re Eort at the new school,
which was against the rule. The tru-
ant officer vas suspicious from the
moment he took up the case; and
probably he was not surprised when
found that the address given by the
boy was an East River lumber yard
The officer had TO drop the case. but
he did so with the conviction that
sooner or later either he or some
other pursuer of truants would come
upon the boy in the streets during
school hours. When that juvenile
rogue is caught he will be hailed
promptly 10 the children's court.
Next the officer stopped at little
butcher shop. The butcher was en-
gagged in shaving an east side beef
steak from an uptown beefsteak.
where's Adolph?" said the officer
'Oh, he no good" returned the man
He run away-go to society. can't
get him back"
1t happens in this case that
Adolph has done precisely what the
officer had intended to do for hin
Adolph is an orphan, his parents hav-
ing died in the old country; and his
uncle, the butcher, thought nothing of
keeping him at work from three
o'clock in the morning until eight or
nine at night To be sure, he com
piled with the law to the extent of
requiring Adolph to go to school dur
ing the day, but after a little expert
ence with his uncle, Adolph had prob
ably decided that the institution"
would no doubt prove a comparatively
pleasant place.
OF course, much depends upon the
character of the institution There
are still some truant schools whose
old fashioned methods effect hardly
any change in the Maynard or neg
lected boy But altogether different
is the system of reform-now gradu-
ally impressing itself upon people who
are concerned in the philauthropic
work of improving the condition of
city wafs-in vogue at the juvenile
asylum, formerly in the city itself,
but now near Dobbs Ferry, up the
Hudson. At this institution new
ideas are taught. The boys learn the
advantages to be gained by industry,
honesty and uprightness. Besides,
hey live a bracing, outdoor life, which
helps as much as anything else to
improve the ways of little chaps who
have lived in gloomy and unhealthy
tenements and who have known only
corrupt associates. After a term OF
from one to five years at the asylum
they are sent out into the world; but
they go, not back to their old haunts
and old temptations, but generally to
good homes IN the west, where good
One of the graduates of the juvenile
asylum is a prominent western citi-
zen who, at the present time, is
candidate for one of the most i'm
portant offices in the state where he
resides. Paradoxical as it may seem,
he got his start in life by stealing
fruit from a cart in the east side of
New York. He was then just such
little raider as the truant officer cap.
lures every day, but the aylum,
together with the influence of gNod
home in the state where he is now a
leader, brought out 'hc real character
of the man, aud in the opinion o.
the truant officer there are many
other little raiders of The same sort
stu Guiding detection IN the Metrop-
oils.