The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1909-08-21

BY JUDGE BEN b. LINDSAY, JUVENILE COURT
JUDGE OF DENVER

Shameful TO relate, he was in jail
a strange place for twelve-year-old
boy with soul and heart. q
The jailer had telephoned me one
cold wintry night that the boy was in
a spasm of crying, and had SO alarmed
him that he urged me to come at once.
grabbed my coat and hat, and went
out into the night feeling that the
pitiless beat of the sleety rain was
ever kinder than criminal law that
condemns little children tc crime and
iron cells. But this was before the
fight against the Jail was fought and
won. This was before love and firm
ness had supplanted hatred and deg
radiation.
Behind iron bars that would shame
the king tiger of the jungle found
the boy. He was sleeping, and you
would have thought not care had
ever visited that little touseled head
with its worned and tear stained face.
But he wakened, startled by the graf
ing of iron bolts and bars and the
clinking of great keys turning in
their solemn, monotonous locks, as
the jailer, leaving me alone with the
boy, returned from the cell back into
the dimly lighted corridor.
The boy, frightened at these strange
surroundings, looked at his new cell
mate at first cautiously-almost fear
fully. Then look of JOY and glad
ness came to his eyes, as might come
from the captive at the approach of
deliverance. The boy knew me, for
he had been chronic little truant,
and there may have been worse
things, but they may be left unsaid,
for 1t was the boy, and not the
things we were trying to redeem.
l sat down in the cell on the iron
floor, and put my arms around the
boy. told him how much thought
of him, and how I despised the bad
things he did. Yet what could I do
If he did not help me-? I might help
him, but / could not carry him l
would always be his friends, but he
was getting both himself and me in
trouble if he "swiped things" for if
I should let him out and he "swiped
things" again, would not the officer
say that the judge made mistake in
not sending THAT kid to the State
industrial school, where he would not
have a chance to swipe things ~
Then they would say both the Judge
and the boy should be in Jail. How
could he expect judge to keep his
Job If his boys did such thingsl He
saw the point. aud standing upright
there in the cell, the light in his eyes
speaking better than his words the
earnestness of his promise to "stay
wild yer, Judge" as he tearfully de-
cIared he would never get me into any
trouble, and we would both keep out
Of Jail.
And so / almost as tearfully accep-
ted his proffered protection, and out
of the Jail we walked together into
the raging storm. And yet, 1t was
no such storm as had ragged in. that
boys life-a home blighted by a
father who had deserted and trodden
under foot every VOW he took at the
marriage altar. And so fathers
care-the divine birthright of every
child--had been denied him. The
boy was not bad. l took him home
to his mother, poor, struggling wo-
man, deserving Of better fate than
to toll all day to feed and clothe her
hungry children. A child with no
father and mother, however noble,
who under such handicaps and diff.
culties tries to perform the functions
of both, generally fails to perform
that of either. Is it wonder, then,
that the child is not brought up in
the way it should go?'' Is it the
child's fault? If not, why then the
Jail and degradation?
The boy returned to school. He
brought good reports for over two
years, and with them he brought Joy
and gladness. He had, in a poor
way, tried to supply what was lack
ing In his little life, but to do this we'll
a spark had to be struck somewhere,
or a heartstring had to be sounded
that would respond.
One day his mother came at the end
of weary, toilsome day, to tell me
that Harry was changed boy. She
told me how thoughtful and loving he
was, and that once when she had been
sick he had, with the tenderness of a
woman, waited on her, and given up
all the pleasures of the street. Fin
ally the tears came into her eyes, and
she said: Judge, 1 never knew just
why Harry changed so much. till one
day while 1 was i'll and he had been
so sweet and kind, l asked him how
it was he became good for the judge,
and, looking up into my face with a
tear in his eye, he said: We'll, mother,
you see it's this why-if 1 ever git
bad, or swipes things again, the Judge
the judge will lose his job-see p
and he is my friend-he is-and l am
oro;,,, RI cfox1 mid hin, - D;ffeb,t,,,-