Evening star., 1911-06-11
SUNDAY MAGAZINE FOR JUNE H. 1911
THE HOUSEWIFE AND THE LAW

wise of the United States Consulate of the dis
trict in which that municipality is situated.
Now isn't Mrs. Quackenbos right in in
sisting that all the worlds neighborhood2
Isn't it time we took the bandage off the
eyes of international Justice, induced her to
lay down her sword, get her mind off the
thief and the Jail, and become kindly, in
telligent mother?
l suppose it isn't quite fair in speaking of
this new place which women are making for
themselves in law to ignore the fact that the
regular ranks of law are pretty crowded.
The graduates of law schools fairly boil over
the top of the community caldron. They
are like too many carrots in a row,-they
crowd and crush one another, and nobody
grows very big. But the women who trans
plant themselves into new fields grow like
everything, although most Of them do start
in the regular legal row. But doesn't it show
some horticultural skill to know that the
domestic field will grow law as well as music
or teaching or child culture3
THE other day l burst in with this house
wife's idea of the law upon Miss Made
line Doty, a member of the New York bar,
who is specially interested in the problem of
the Children's Court. She put down copy
of GThe New Machiavelli" with some re-
luctance and said:
@You're right. We women do treat the
law as an extension of housekeeping, kind
of outlet for our domestic instincts. We've
gone tc work as though the cities were our
homes AMI we were fixing them up. This
sometimes does funny things to the law. A
little thing happened in court the ether day
that shows the difference between a mans
view and ours.
hay
treated differently?' said the Judge to a
woman LAWYER whom he had invited to sit
with him that day.
"'Not unless it was those twelve boys who
were brought in and judged together, she
answered.
~What! Those who were arrested for
making row in the subway? Why, let
them off easy enough, They were fined only
dollar apiece
@'Easy enough-on the parents! But how
could you tell that they were equally guilty,
or that the one-dollar fine would do anything
beyond satisfying the law? l don't see how
paying dollar could improve their home
conditions. What is going to become of
those boys3'
@The suggestion struck the Judge as in
teresting," Miss Doty went on, @and he
asked me to look those boys up. Three of
the twelve proved to have bad records, were
deficient in their studies, unruly, and came
from bad homes. The other nine were just
average boys with fair records, who had
been led into piece of exciting mischief.
No mother who was any kind of mother at
all would have treated those twelve boys
alike. They needed to be followed up, not
put off with perfunctory fine. And yet the
Law had been perfectly satisfied"
That method of the wise mother which
Miss Doty advocates is the one Judge Lind
sey uses in Denver. That's why the men
out there don't seem able to understand him.
He wouldn't be holding his Office now if it
wasn't for the women who vote for him be-
cause he is caring for the children in their
way. Just now Miss Doty is working out
consistent scheme for the reorganization of
all Chlldren's Courts on the lines of house
hold justice.
"Would any wise mother think of treating
her naughty child like criminal?" she de-
manded Indignantly. "Did your mother
ever reprove you before whole roomful of
people?"
My mind went back to dim parlor with
the blinds drawn, and kind mother ex-
planning that to pinch the governess and
throw her gloves out of the window was not
all that could be expected from me in the
way of conduct. But these naughty children
of the State are heard in roomful of curious
cractotorc. tha,, ara 1;ftod ,,r ca +bo+ tho