Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-10
FIGHTING OF WRONGS
Juvenile Court the Repository
of Stories of Woe.
REFUGE OF THE HELPLESS
Justice Melted Out to One Negligent
Husband.
DESERTED HIS LAWFUL WIFE
Youths Brought Back to Lives of
Rectitude by Tact of Judge
De Lacy.
REFUGE OF THE HELPLESS
DESERTED HIS LAWFUL WIZ

A grocer with keen scent and de-
tective instincts noticed few weeks ago
that one of his customers. woman, was
buying enough to feed two families. He
had his boy follow. the customer for a
day or two, and found that the lady In
question was taking a daily supply to
woman and an infant baby left penniless
by husband who had found a prettier
woman. The people in that neighborhood
are not well ,versed in the ways Of the
law in such cases. and the grocer took 1t
on himself to find the husband and bring
him and the wife and baby together. with
a horde of witnesses. before Judge De
Lacy. who sits daily in the Juvenile Court.
F street northwest between 18th and 18th.
Judge De Lacy heard the case and SEN
fenced the man to pay 81 a week to the
desk sergeant of his precinct, with the
knowledge always that if he would rather
not pay it he can go to the workhouse
7 and let his wife receive 80 cents for each
of his days there.
|. That is one small example OF how the
Juvenile Court of this city is holding to-
gether the fabric which makes the solid
ity of the state
Every day there are questions settled
| by Judge De Lacy which affect the chill
dren, the mothers, the fathers and con-
sequently the great bulk of citizens. When
YOU hear the judge lecture a parent for
allowing wild youngster to rove the
streets until any hour OF the night, the
. street boy suddenly looms up in your
| mind as future citizen who Will have
! some weight in the economy Of things,
and whether or not he throws his weight
on the good side may depend on whether
or not the parent takes the advice of the
judge.
Knows Their Records.
There is scarcely boy or girl who ap
, pears before the Juvenile Court whose
past record is not known to the judge.
and whose home influences and surround
inss are not written down in black and
white in the courts card index. How is
! it done? There are probation officers and
investigators who make it their business
| to know just what kind Of home this
young thief or that minute vagrsnt comes
| from. Judge De Lacy believes that the
ha bits of the youngsters he has to deal
with are formed in the home and it is
not always to punish them for wrong
doing that he breaks up that home and
sends the boy to some reform institution,
but it is to get the boy out of the sink
of moral iniquity in which he has lived
his young life
Not over a week ago two boys were
brought before the court charged with
the serious offense of 'housebrea king
a.
from the room where the children are
kept before trial there was complete
picture of their home life in the judges
mind. He saw a father whose money
went for drink. q mother whose feet
kept not in the paths of uprightness and
despite the smooth tale tine parents told
about how they worked hard to keep
their children respectable and sat up
nights worrying for fear they would not
both be presidents of the United States.
| the judge put the boys his probation
list
always Under Observation.
An officer will watch them weekly. If
| they roam the streets at night with '.the
gang" the judge will know it. If they
| get into trouble he will in all proba bility
send them to the National Training School
for Boys. Meanwhile the parents have
the judges warning to quit drinking, to
make decent home for the boys and
| let them go to school every day. II they
do not the judge has the power to take
the children away from them and ,place
| them where they will be taught the things
| which useful citizens are supposed to
know
| The most pitiable cases of non-support
are heard in the Juvenile Court. The man
who willfulIy neglects to put bread into
any sympathy from Judge De Lacy. The
| man will get hearing, and a long one.
The court hears all these men have to
say. but generally winds up by hanging
workhouse sentence over the mans
| head and then telling him to pay over a
certain amount every Saturday night
When he fails to pay he is again brought
before the court and unless there are
ge: that so cents a day earned by the
| sweat Of her husbands brow--down at the
workhouse.
Typical Case Cited.
There was the case of a Russian FAM
lily, whose name it Is not necessary to
give. but who might as we'll be called the
kotskys. 1t was of those cases
where laughter mingles with tears of
compassion. Peter Kotsky did not love
his wife Josephine. whom he had married
somewhere on the steppes of Russia
thirteen years ago 9TH street beauty
claimed Peters attention last year and
| Josephine has had tough time Of it.
| Peter threw up job worth $l7 week,
saying he would get a five-dollar week
job rather than pay money to that
| woman Meanwhile the stork visited
the kotskys and there was no bread, or
| milk, OF anything else. Had it not been
Kotsky would not now be yelling as
Justify as any child that ever had It's
health. All the neighborhood came TO
cour. to hear the case when Peter was
neighborhood took sizes and appeared as
witnesses.
| When JOsephne's side had been heard
and it was a mighty pitiful tale-:he judge
asked Peter what he mad to say. He talk
ed in Russo English and said that h.
wanted to love his Josephine. but that
the meals were not on tine and that she
was an awful woman, anyhow, and never
alluded to him as her husband. bat casu-
ally referred to him the odd man.
Also she wanted to have chicken every
Friday whether they could afford 1t or
not and tried to act as if she had a lot Of
! mOney--like one certain neighbor at the
/ mention of whose name Peter spat with
hatred.
And. chudge, she talks not by Titles.
Ven she talks. she puts up hollers. Four
blocks / hear her saying how much a
bum l am.
Asks Pointed Question.
| Then the judge asked him why he had
willfully LETT his good job for the five-a-
| woak pronOSitiOO and asked hin, IL