Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-09-14
WOMAN AID OF
JUDGE TELLS Of
WORK IN COURT
Miss Mary M. BarteIine, of Chi
cage, Describes lnadequacy
of Many Present Laws.
BY MARY NJ. BARTELINE.
Assistant to Judge Pinkney in the Chi
cagO Juvenile Court

cagO Juvenile Court.
One cannot sit in any court room.
day after day, where questions per-
tanning to domestic relations are be-
ing passed upon, without realizing
that many of our laws are far from
adequate to meet a satisfactory So
luton of these questions, and that
there is still much work to be done
by those who are actually interested
IN and working for the betterment of
their fellow beings
Recently a Servian girl. who could
speak no English, was brought into
the Juvenile Court on a charge of
stealing $40. She was just fourteen
years old, had married six months
before, in a little town in Indiana
where she worked. When asked her
reasons for taking the $40, she ex-
planned to the interpreter that she
had worked among people of her own
nationality, who had told her that a
young man who would be kind to her
and had $500 wanted a wife; that she
should say she was twenty -one years
old, and he would marry her. She
said they were married, but when he
took her to his home, he had a lodg-
ing house for thirty five men who
worked in the steel mills and she had
to do all the work in this house, and
that he was not kind to her, so she
Fan away from him and got work in
the home of a saloonkeeper near
Chicago. While there she found this
$40 in a bed, and as she had been
deceived in so many representations
m do 10 hnta IN, A ,,,.s..
never had any of that $500, she de-
cided ito make it up to herself" as
nearly as possible, out of the $40.
The child seemed to feel that she
was fully justified in doing just what
she did. Here we have a little girl
fourteen years of age, who had been
married when thirteen, lived in
America two years and could not
t9eak a word of English, could not
rettd or write, had never attended
school, was working for her liveH-
hood at twelve years of age.
Recently a little girl of sixteen
was brought before me who was
.eeble-minded, deformed, syphiiisic,
and would become a mother in two
months. 1t was generally believed
that a married man, fifty-five years
of age, was the father of the child
soon to be born, but when the girl
was asked by this mans attorney
II some other man might not be the
father, she said, yes, and the case
against him was dismissed.
What questions would arise to any
thinking woman in cases such as
these?
What can be done to prevent a
continuance or recurrence of like con-
ditions?
What redress should the parties in
these cases have? What laws may
be invoked? How, strictly will they
be enforced? These and many 9TH
ers come to one in quick succession
During the year ending December,
1913, 500 girls were brought into the
Chicago Juvenile Court charged with
DELINQUENCY The charge against 269
Of these was immortality.
There is something radically wrong
or wanting in the living conditions,
the economic conditions and teaching
of today or the lack of moral sense
could not be so fragrant.
We need not teach boys the hero
ism of war, but the heroism of right,
clean living, the heroism of self-con
troll that protects the silly girl who
makes improper advances to him, the
innocent or the ignorant girl.
Disqualification, greed, seliishness
in its every form predominant in too
many of the youth of today. These
must be displaced by the heroism
that means self-reliance, self-respect,
self-control and the second command
ment.
To one who is brought in constant
touch WITH conditions and circum-
stances, such as mentioned above, 1t
seems impossible that any woman
should fail to see her duty and to
insist upon her right to perform IL
through the making and enforcing of
laws that will regulate living condi-
tions and properly protect, control
and educate individuals. No woman
in this day and age should be heard
to say 81 don't care to vote" The
only attitude for every earnest, self
respecting woman is, "I know the
power and possibilities of the ballot,
| ought to vote and will vote"