Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-21
ARRESTED BY A BOY
BISHOP POTTER TELLS HOW HE
NEARLY BROKE LAW.

NEW YORK, March 21.-Bishop Henry c.
Potter presided yesterday afternoon at a
meeting held in the interest of the George
Junior Republic of Freeville, N. Y, in the
Aston gallery Of the WaldorfAstoria. A
delegation of the officers of the republic
were present and told some things about
the practical workings of the community
that proved extremely interesting to an
audience of four hundred people
Bishop Potter himself had one story of
his own experience with the laws rigors
at Freevile, which had impressed him with
the morale of the republic
Il was smoking a cigar on the piazza of
Miss Van Sanford's cottage" he said in
telling about it, when one of the boys
came along and said: 1 shall have to put
you under arrest
Il asked him what for, and he said
that l had broken the rule against smok-
ing. l explained that l was ignorant of
the existence of the rule, but did not plead
that such ignorance was any excuse for
violating the law. Then the boy said:
Hold on 1 am not sure that this cottage
is within bounds. Will you swear that
you will not run away until 1 go and find
out?' l held up my right hand and swore
1 would not run away. After a few
minutes the boy came back and said that
the cottage was not within bounds. and
went back to my pernicious pastime of
smoking a cigar.
Two types OF Boys.
There are two types of boys, just as
there are two types of horses" the bishop
had said: Zone type must be entirely diff
ferent from the other. We have provided
in general thus far for furnishing boys on
but one system, the system of stripes and
Imprisonment for every boy who oversteps
the law. Now the bad boy is not neces-
sarily vicious. 1t is a common expression
among horsemen that some horses have a
light mouth. There are a good many boys
and good many girls who come under
the same category, and they must be APP
pealed to on different lines from boys and
girls who are simply vicious. 1t is because
the George Junior Republic proves the sue
cess of this theory of handling boys and
girls that its educational value is SO great
Bishop Potter commended the republic
also for its spirit of democracy. Talk
about democracy in our own community"
he said. why, there is just as much
caste spirit and just as much mischief re-
sulting from caste spirit here as anywhere
in the old world. We can heal the mis-
chief that the caste spirit does only by
that personal touch of individuality of
which the republic is SO notable an illus
tration."
Miss Bessie Livingston, the vice presi-
dent of the republic, amused the audience
by some stories of the development of the
woman's rights theory in that common
wealth. She said that on one occasion the
boys passed an eight-hour law after dis
cuSSlon In which It's Application to their
own tasks alone had been involved. When
they returned from work on the day that
the law went into effect they found no
suppers waiting for them because the girls
who did the cooking and served the meal
had put in their eight hours of that day.
There was a speedy adjustment of the
hours of labor for the commissary de-
partment.
The George Junior Republic determines
the compensation of it's executive officers
upon old-fashioned theories of simplicity.
The president receives $1.75 a week, the
vice president Is cents, the secretary of
state like amount, the treasurer 81 a
week, the boys judge 81 and the girls
judge 35 cents a week. The annual budget
is raised by monthly tax of Is cents a
citizen and by the profits on the labor of
the inmates in the republics penal insti-
tutions.