Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1917-07-17
ANOTHER CLIMAX REACHED At
WEBSTER CITY CHAUTAUQUA

of the street gamin of American
J cities. At times yesterday it
seemed as though the judge might
be talking of the street characters
who live in Victor Hugo's Les Mis-
cradles. The big commandment
among Denver's gamins is, Thou
shalt not 'snitch,'" to snitch being
to tell. The judges analysis OF
boys lying led him to declare that
most of it was loyalty to chums, a
quality which, properly directed,
lies at the basis of all manly char
acter. Lying was always the result
|of fear, the judge declared, and it
was part of his mission to remove
fear and so get at the truth.
Judge Lindsey's lecture was vivid
lily illustrated by concrete examples
of life among the poor and the GRIM
linal. His stories We're wonderfully
thrilling and interesting. AS short
stories they would make the judges
fortune in the magazines. They
were human interest stories of the
first class. While they brought
Itears to the eyes of the audience,
they at the same time illuminated
vast areas IF social problems-often
not only among the submerged, but
in every strata of human society
where children are managed. Often
it was the kids folks who caused the
Alying. The judge illustrated this
with the story of the good boys who
threw perfectly good eggs into a
street car. The story of Jimmie
O'Toole and Maggie will not soon
be forgotten by the people of Web
ster City. Indeed, newspaper men
have written it up as human in
terest tale of considerable worth.
| The judge declared that genuine,
worthwhile imagination is often
cause of lying. One. such diaphan-
ously imaginative liar tho judge had
been the means of reforming. With
a twinkle in his eye and glance
toward the reporter, the Judge
gravely informed the audience that
he had made a newspaper man of
that successful young liar! The stor-
les of Brian O'Sharkey, who palmed
himself off as the lost son of a
wealthy father in the east, of Mickey
who wanted to enlist in the navy
and found sundry difficulties in his
way, of Mouchy who would only
have his picture taken with the
Judge and who was the means of
first getting the Judge In the illus
trated pages of the magazines, of the
dangerous criminal who elected to
lstay by the Judge SO he could fool a
cop. and of others who were weak,
rather than vicious, will linger long
in Webster City memory.
Judge Lindsey was intensely in
teresting every minute, but nowhere
more so than where he incidentally
referred to the fact that he was
member of the famous Ford party.
He, said he was Ford nut! He had
never had much faith in Ford's Quix-
otto adventure, but he thought it
entirely worth while that an ideal
list should make the effort to stop
the great war. When the Ford par
Ity dissolved, Judge Lindsey got be-
hind the German lines on the west
front. His seeing German women
doing the work of men led him to
feel that Germany would have to-
lgive her women the franchise as a
result of the war.
The judge closed. his lecture with
two stories illustrating appreciation
on the part of delinquent children
In one story boy had gone to
barber college where he could get
a haircut in return for letting an
apprentice barber practice on him.
With his shocky hair half cut, the
barber had discovered that the lads
hair swarmed with lice. The bar
Der told the lad to ''git!' Forth
with the lad appeared in Judge
Lindseys court appealing for JUS
tice! Judge Lindsey took him back
to the college, where his hair was
soon properly cut, and where he was
Furthermore given shampoo and a
bath. The final story touched all
hearts. 1t was of a boy who was
truant from school in order that he
might work for money to pay for his
mothers grayestone Sandy was a