Imperial Valley press., 1913-06-19
Coast League
BLACK HEADED PINS TELL
STORY OF BAD BOY LIVES

DENVER. June 19.-On the wall of
the Denver juvenile court hangs great
map of the city Of Denver. 1t is thick
ly spotted with black headed pins. Each
pin represents bad bOy-One who has
been placed on probation by the juve-
nile court. The pin representing the
bad boy is placed in the approximate
vicinity of the boys home.
In that part Of the map which rep
resents the poorer and more thickly
settled districts the dots are denSely
packed together. A crowd of them,
| like dusky sort of milky way. follows
! the Platte river in an immense sweep
| through the city.
! Out on Capitol hill, where the finer
homes are located. there are only a
few black headed pins stuck into the
map. Rich boys are not any better
than the poor boys. according to Mrs
Ida Gregory, clerk of the juvenile court
and known among the newspaper folk
as "assistant juvenile Judge" The
sons of the well to do and wealthy,
she says, do not get into trouble be
| CdtiSt VI tlltlI liolllt =,
while many of the children of the
poverty stricken are eternally before
| the authorities because they do not
have the right chances-their parents,
who should teach them to respect law
and order, are too busy earning their
pitiful salaries TO give them proper at
| tention.
In many places on the map the pins
are packed by tWOS or threeS and some
| times in groups of tens and twenteS.
Such groups represent ''de gang" COM
! posed of bad boys" who have never
had a chance-a real chance according
! to Mrs. Gregory, to be better. The
| juvenile court officials are bending their
man efforts toward ''reclaiming" these
groups. Every time boy has passed
| the probationary term a black pin is
removed from the map.
! In the office of the state board Of
charities and corrections is another
map. 1t, too, is thickly spotted with
black headed pins. Each pin in this
map represents a family that has re-
Gently received aid from a charitable
organization during the past year. The
same districts of the city which are
ubJtcu Will VI pms III LllC
| juvenile court map likewise have the
majority of the pins on the charity
| boards map. In scores of cases tie
| dots coincide.
The officials have taken the moral
from these two maps and declare that
where there is need and want and
poverty and little of the good things
Of life there also will be found the
majority of bad boys" They declare
| that the two maps point clearly the
things to be done to stop the growth
Of juvenile crime.
Juvenile court officials have begun
work on another map. Pins will be
placed in the map for every mother who
has been aided by the mothers pension
fund provided for at the general elec-
ton last fall. They expect the pins to
be few and far between at the start,
for Denver city and county authorities
have only the scant $4,000 appropriated
for pensions this year. Those behind
the mothers pension plan, however,
believe that next year sufficient funds
will be appropriated to do untold goId.
In the opinion Of Judge Lindsey of
the Denver juvenile court and others
WilO are WOTklllS Will Hill, IHc uotS OH
the "bad boy" map will begin to disap-
pear as the dots on the mothers pen
sion map begin to appear. 1t is conn
IDENTIFY expected that when mothers
who are now compelled to work long
hours for meager wages will be able
to shorten their hours Of labor when
they receive pensions, and that they
can devote those spare hours toward
proper bringing up Of their children.