New Britain herald., 1915-02-06
v

probation law so as
 | to permit of proba-
 ="- tioners being brought
 before judge of tho superior court
 in the event of they violating their 1 probation At present men, women 1 and chi]dren may be arraigned in the
 superior court and placed on proba-
 uon for, say month or six months
 and if they violate it any time before
 the tim" expires they can have their
 liberty or can run away and there is | TO authority to interfere with them
 until the court meets again and as
 It is in session only once in every | three months it can be seen that the i probationers have fine opportunity 1 tC escape the sentence of the court. 1 The proposed bill provides that a per- ! son who violates probation can be 1 brought before judge of the superior ! court at any time, when the original l sentence can be revived and the ac- l cused fined or sent to jail, whichever 1 the case may be. There was no op-
 position to the measure and the com l mittee will in all proba bility make favorable report on it during the 1 coming week. The fact that only one 1 person appeared before the commit l tee in favor of the bill is not by any l IilSdllS dll IHulCdClOn O1 any lack or | interest in it, on the contrary lawyers l generally, as well as probation off 1 cers are strongly in favor of it and | have taken for granted that there l would be no opposition and that the committee would make a favora ble
 report on it. It is believed that this proposed law will not only strengthen l the act, but that the effect will be a 1 decided change for the better in the nrobationers for when they see that trey must keep their agreements with the courts or go to jail there will be less violations of that particular law. IT Will have no effect upon the cases m the local courts because they are l1 session every day, except Sunday, and Vlolators can be arraigned prac- tically as soon as apprehended. The probation system is not thought very we'll of in Hartford or New Haven
 where some public officials have been outsDOken against it, but they could
 improve it if they had any particular desire to do so. The trouble has never been with the la but rather
 with those whose duty it is to enforce
 1t. It has worked we'll here where the probation officer is one of the
 best, if not the best in the state.
 It is a great pleasure to see so much interest being taken in amateur theatricals in New Britain, the per- formances of The Red Mill' being very largely attended this week and what is better than all the produce tion was very meritorious and the big audiences were delighted Some years ago there was d remarkable in tereSt taken in theatricals in this city. and in the days of the Histrionic society some very good performances were given. There were other dra- matic organizations in New Britain, about that time. considerable atten- tion was given to the training of young men and women and while there were no such audiences to ap- plaud their efforts as greeted The Red
 Mill" there was usually enough pres ent to meet all expenses and have a balance with which to prepare for another production or to celebrate the glories of the one passed. For a long time it remained for the Young Mems T. A. & B. society to keep alive amateur theatriCals in this city, that organization making the production of a play an annual event and spending almost as much in prepar- atiOn for the play as the receipts amounted to- Still the society was not actuated much for financial profit as it was to gi"e good show and with this end in view some of the best instructors in the theatrical profession have been engaged for that purpose. Other societies are en- gazing in the work in some form nowadays, if not in a play occupying from two to three hours, then a {,l, fl are also interested, in fact they have arranged to give a dramatic perform ance next week. It is hard work rehearsng plays but then it is also great fun for some of the partici- pants and one seldom hears now of stage fright which used to be so common. New Britain has sent out several men to make the stage their place of livelihood but there were no women, except two, one of whom, by the way, began her career since leaving this city and appeared in a musical act at a local theater this sea- son. The male list includes Sid Hicks, T. F. Seymour. James Brady, Walter Thomas. Walter McBrayne, w. D. Corbett, John Mullen, Robert eF Fa- gan and John E. and M. F. Shee- han. New Britain also turned out some good clog dancers in the per- sons of Thomas Chute, Thomas Daily, Thomas and James Morris and Aleck
 ReycrOft, while it has had singers without number.
 The about town man" has received a communication from an old sport as to whether there was ever sword contest here if any of the great pugilsts of the country have ever ap-