The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-06-15
Female Fagin Is Arraigned in
the Probate Court
While 14-Year-OId Youth Goes
to RefOrmatOry.
LAUGHS AT THE LADS TEARS
No Stringent Law in Statutes
for May Burnett.
Police Character Teaches AL
bert Stark Crimes.

There was just one natural. one I'M
contaminated thing among all the
sordid things brought to light today
in the hearing of the case OF May
Burnett, a 5 year old woman charg-
ed with contributing to the del1n-
quency of IA year old Albert stark
That one natural thing consisted OF
the tears the boy could not keep back
when he was forced to tell in the pres
ence of his elders the alleged facts
upon W hich the case is based.
His story was that of a boy, lacking
in home training, taken in hand by an
alleged vicious woman, taught 10 Steal
and sell his loot and to take part N
nractices even ~ more reprehensible
than stealing. He told that on the
witness stand. He told of the steal
ing without emotion-as OF tnlng 70
which he had become accustomed, put
when he reached that point where ne
must tell in detail of his alleged re-
lations with the woman, woman
older than his mother he cried as any
Even Mother Laughed
The defendant, May Burnett.
sneered at his statements. Some or
the witnesses smiled at the testimony.
Even the boys own mother founo II
in her heart to laugh when she was
telling of her row with May Burnett
F'arIand, Judge, accustomed to sucn
cases and a disinterested party, could
find nothing in the case to Drlng d
smile and when noon came he left the
courthouse to forget for time
The Stark boy is in the State Indus
trial school. He went there for steal
ing and he declared today that he had
not committed a crime of that char
acter until he was taught to steal by
May Burnett. May Burnett has been
free since the case was filed the first
of May and if she is convicted of
everything the boy charges she can
be given only a fine or short jail
sentence.
The Lads Story.
Until late in the winter the Stark
boy lived on lower Jackson street with
his parents. He said he met May Bur
nett one day early in the spring at a
Junk shop where she was buying some
coal: that she asked him to help her
carry the coal home and that after
that she asked him to stay with her.
He said he went back home the first
night but that the next day he re-
turned to Mrs. Burnett's place at 3O7
Kansas avenue with his clothes.
What did she want to you to do
there" was asked.
''She wanted me to steal
"And did you steal?"
Yes, stole a lot of times. She told
could get hold of. I stole coal oil and
gasoline for her at Horsfield's a dozen
times. I stole some chickens, too, but
she told me she didn't want them; that
she might get into trouble over them
L sold al except one of them and gave
he- the money. The one, 1 took home
to my folks and told them Mrs. Bur-
nett gave it to me-
Helped Him Steal.
Did Mrs. Burnett ever steal with
you?"
Yes, she went with me once to steal
some coal out of cars on the railroad
tracks
The boy continued with details re-
garding the theft of different articles
and their sale. He said he always
turned the money over to Mrs. Bur-
nett. The attorneys led up gradually
to the unnatural crimes charged. The
7 boy told of one instance, of the sug-
gestion made to him on the street
after he and Mrs. Burnett had at
tended a picture show, of his refusal
and of things that followed. He stated
that after they reached home Mrs.
Burnett took him into her room,
locked the door and turned the lights
out and that through her persuasion
he fell into her ways.
Asked for Clothes.
1t was shortly after this that the
matter reached the ears of the court.
The boy went to his own home and
scrawled a boyish letter to Mrs Burnett
declaring that unless she gave him his
clothes back he would tell on her. The
clothes, he said, were brought to his
home at midnight. The letter was in
evidence in the case today
May Burnett denied all the sordid
details of the boys story. She said
she took the boy in because he did not
4. have the proper surroundings at home
and that she had tried to break his
! habit of stealing, which, she said she
discovered he had long before she
knew him. Her story put her in the
light of a next friend" to the boy, a
sort of Good Samaritan.
Arthur Stark wore the uniform of
the industrial school He told his
story in the trembling falsetto of an
Epdeveloped boy. His testimony and
the manner in which he gave it indi-
Gated that to him the mere matter of
stealing is unimportant His own
words show that in five short months
he has passed from a public school
through a school of crime and on into
a state school maintained for the cor
rection of embryonic criminals
- The accused woman, well dressed
and well fed, maintained a defiant at
titude while the boy was telling his
damaging story.