Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-09-14
AS YOU LIKE IF.
Some Stray Leaves from Reporter's
 Note Book.

N. N0te BOOK.
 A man who makes practice of going from one house to another and asking foolish questions came near getting into trouble on Mill street last night. He bothered the families in block until finally they got out of patience and somebody went out and threw him into the street. It was thought that he was seriously hurt, but after a short rest he got up, brushed the dust off his clothes and went away. He is said to have been in the business for long time and on several occasions called people out of their beds. He con- fines his operations to portions of Brooklyn and the south end, but it is thought that his experience of last night will be likely to prompt him to look up new territory.
 In the two villages of Luceran' and Lancoque, in the ,Alpes-Maritimes, France, June 10 was kept as public holiday to celebrate the end of great lawsuit which had kept the two vil- lages divided since November II. 1462. The question of dispute was the possession of piece of land at Lova, which each village claimed. A few days previous the court at Nice definitely settled the matter by dlvid- ing the land equally between the two villages. The total cost of this law suit during the 444 years amounts to $150,OOO, while the value of the land in dispute was about $2,000. The law papers which had accumulated were docketed in 1856 parcels which weighed sixteen tons and were stored in a large disused church.
 During the past few days little wagon containing about dozen po- tatoes attracted some attention in the hallway at the police station. It be- longed to a youngster who was sent to the reform school on charge of stealing the tubers from freight car. It appears that he was at school that day and this was the first chore he tackled after going home. Did he do that of his own accord or was he sent there by somebody whom he would naturally look to for counsel? Never mind about that particular case, but consider others of a similar nature that come into the courts and take notice of various other instances you could mention that escape the public eye and see if the blame does not rest with the parents of all these little offenders. It is a pity that they should be punished when as matter of fact their parents are the real culprits. A woman who allows her children to bring coal, wood, potatoes and other things of that kind into the house when she knows he could not have come by them honestly. de- serves to be punished severely and the man who doesn't know any bet ter than to allow such golngs on ought to be in front of a gang of out laws instead of at the head of fam fly. Parents would be more careful about the conduct of their children if they knew that in case they should be detected they would be haled into court themselves and given a smart jail sentence, while the children would stand a show of getting off on a slight reprimand. If laws were made to go to the root of crime about about four fifths of the lawyers and judges in the country would be out of occupations and there would not be much use for so many detectives, process servers and policemen. Isn't the receiver as bad as the thief? This evidently applies to accomplices where both are of mature years, so that in the case of child turning over plunder which is accepted by his parents knowing it to be such the receiver is far worse than the thief, and yet the receiver, and no doubt the person who inspired wrong doing goes scott free. The number of chill dren brought into court on charge of thefts which could not be carried on without the knowledge of their parents Is increasing right along, and if there is no remedy except to send the tots to the reform school there Is not much show for their young brothers to escape a similar fate. Why not give the old gent hustle and make the mother feel the lash, even though the town had to main- tain the family for few months. It would pay the city but 1t would rob the courts of half their practice.