Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-04-13

abuse and neglect.
tnc thougnttess are prone to crit
| icisc the Society for the Nigor and
! severity with which it pursucs it's
( work forgetting that its enemies i'll
! the grim and relentless warfare in
which II is engaged are the coward
| ~ forces that would Inaltreat the
young or corrupt their innocence, and
that such despicablc antagonists are
entitled to no quarter
Few are aware of the active work
OF the Society. Night or day, its
doors are never closed. In the heat
OF he summer and the storm of the
winter, its officers penetrate the
haants of vice, and, aided by the po-
nee, who have ever been its true and
devoted friends, rescue unhappy,
helpless little ones from the sur
roundlngs of brutality. intemperancc,
ana crime. Parents, when too drunk
to leave their rooms, can no longer
send their children to the grog shop
for sthe liquid poison with impunity
Nor can they rest quietly at home
While the children are sent out by
them to beg. steal and wander in
the cold, wet streets to excite the
sympathy of the passerby, and 50
liquor
Nor can such parents profit by the
immortality of their children. or reap
lucrative harvest from their oxhi-
bition III performances deadly to life
limb, or morals. And more than one
brute. who never deserved to be a,
parent, has been taught by the iron
hand of the law and Il term of penal
his victim may have been. there was
one society which he had reason To
dread, and which neither fear, favor
nor nope of reward could swerye from
enforcing the law, and which no per
sonal, pecuniary. or political influence
could control The Society is. in re-
atty, Il component part of the city
government"
Walsh gives the record of the Sooie-
ty fer thirty-seven years as follows:
Received 2S9, 53l complaints involving
the custody of S6S.593 children; 1880
cases prosecuted. resulting in 1885
convictions, and 1852 children res
cued and cared for
IN discussing causes of juvenile de-
linauency, Walsh says:
1T is estimated that there are over
$4,000 children of school age within
the Society's jurisdiction. OF these
over $4,000 are said to be part-time
scholars. OF this vast army of BOYS
and girls in Manhattan and the Bronx,
out 9,477, or less than nine-tenths of |
per cent of the juvenile population
were taken before the Children's Court
in Manhattan. during the past year.
Five times that number of children,
namely, 41.S07 were brought to the So
cfety.s attention under other condi-
tions
The chief causes Of Juvenile delin-
queney are such as offer no immediate
| means of correction. Many children are
taken into custody for offences com
mitted during school hours When these
are not truants. they are half time
scholars. This is Il most unfortunate
condition in our school administration.
No child should be kept on 'half-time.
the school term being short enough as
ii is. The inclination to commit petty
depredations and crime while free from
school or home supervision, is so great
that many children take advantage of
it. Indeed, this half time system offers
opportunities for school children to
participate in a form of amusement
which has produced more female vic
i Tins than any known to the Society
since the notorious dance halls We're
abolished years ago. During 1911 the
Society prosecuted forty seven offend
ers against children for crimes which
arose through the medium of the NOV
ing picture resorts. ~
Tenement mothers. with large fam
lilies of children to look after, or oblig-
ed to work during the day to aid in
the support of the home, cannot give
proper care to children, especially girls,
when they are not under their eye.
There are forty-nine parks in New
York County, many of them removed
from the congested quarters and not
readily accessible to the children who
would find numerous means of limo
cent pastime in them.
"There are thirteen Fairgrounds, cap
able of accommodating from 700 to a
1 900 children each, so that out of the
900 900 children, but 13 800 at the most
liberal estimate, have daily opportuni-
ties for play in the public Fairgrounds.
1t would be we'll worth the city's while
to supervise and govern it's ch.ldrens.
play. A public outdoor playground
and gymnasium in every school dis
trict. with inducements to the children
TO attend after school hours and on
holidays; a sufficient corps of truant
officers to thoroughly enforce the Com
puisory Education law. and to proceed
against parents who refuse to comply
herewith would do more to reduce
child crime aud Juvenile delinquency
than can possibly be computed IN.
Y. Post
Now that cocoa has become such a