The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1908-11-19
Judge Lindsey, the Famous "Kid
Judge" of Denver, Opens
Entertainment Course
TELLS TROUBLES OF MICKEY
Famous Leader il the Humanitarian
Movement to Save Child Offenders
Shows How Great Work Was
Accomplished in the West
(From Saturdays Daily

Fresh from his triumphs over the
politicians of Denver, Judge Ben Lind.
sey, the father of the humanitarian idea
of the treatment of child criminals, or
child offenders as he would call them,
came to Kenosha last night to tell the
story of "Mickey" and give to the
people of Kenosha some idea of the
scope of the great work that he is at.
tempting to do in the retaining of the
boys of the street in the great cities,
particularly Denver.
Mickey and Judge Lindsey have be,
come famous in song and story, but this
was the first time that Kenosha people
had heard the story first hand and the
telling Of it gave great deal of pleas
ure to the crowd of five hundred PEG,
pie who had gathered at Park avenue
church for the first entertainment of
the Park avenue lecture course.
Judge Lindsey is a pleasing speaker.
To begin with there. is no doubt but
that his heart is in the work he is do
ing, he has a wealth Of human SYM
pathy and his stories of his work on
the bench were told with charming
southern accent which aided not a lit
tie in the telling.
"Mickey, whose real name was Char.
ley, Judge Lindsey found to be type
of the class of boys so common in ali
cities where poverty prevails. He was
the impersonation of the battle between
the gang" and the Coop and in
his reclamation Judge Lindsey found
the solution for the thousands of SINH
lar eases in the great cities. Three
was no one who doubted but that Judge
Lindsey had found the way to the
hearts of these boys. He knows the
vernacular Of the gang. He knows
fully the meaning of "cop" and Zig
gers" and he knows what it means 10
"snitch" on the gang. He learned all
these things from personal contact with
the ''kids' and armed with this
knowledge he found himself in place
where he could deal with the problem
of the kids. The story Of the reclaim.
ing of the famous gangs of Denver by
the use of kindness rather than the
use of the sterner puniShments of the
law was rehearsed by the speaker and
in telling of these efforts he told a
lot of interesting little incidents show
ing that none of the gangs" were so
far from the paths Of rectitude, but
that they could be reached in some
way. The lecture of Judge Lindsey
was not entirely made up of anecdotes
for he went deeply into the expounding
Of his theory for the treatment of the
boy offender. He declared that no
court could deal with a case and deal
rightly with it without knowing the
facts and that the study of the en-
vironment of the boys of the gangs was
the one thing that had been most help
full in the discovery of the remedy for
the child offenders. Fear of the cop
he declared was so instilled into the
minds of these little offenders that it
was impossible for them to learn to
tell the truth He fayed the old sys-
tenn of treatment Of child offenders by
placing them in the jails and stockades
with the common prisoners and declar-
ed that IN doing this the state was COM
hitting a grievous wrong against the
boys and against the state as the ten
dency of such Imprisonment was to
make the boy criminal rather than to
reform him. The speaker told Of the
great battle for the reform laws of
Colorado and declared that his great
est allies in this fight were the boys
of the gang who furnished the evidence
which turned Colorado upside down
and made it possible to get the laws
for the improvement Of the condition
Of the boys passed. He told Of the
spread Of this method for the treatment
Of child offenders to other cities and
declared that the time was fast COM
ing when this humanitarian spirit would
prevail in every city in the world
where it was necessary to cope with the
boy offender.
While the lecture was largely in rela-
tion to work in the larger cities Judge
Lindsey gave many suggestions that
could be followed with profit in the
treatment of the boys Of Kenosha who
fall under the eyes of the courts and
his suggestion of reform rather than
punishment could be placed into prac-
tice in Kenosha with a certainty of
results.