CHAPTER XIV
YOUTHFUL DELINQUENTS AND THE CHILDREN’S COURT
The dense population of the lower parts of the city, the narrow streets, the ubiquitous gin mill and the dirty tenements all combine to make New York the centre of the most accessible temptations—temptations that swiftly carry ruin and demoralization to hundreds of boys and girls every year.
Perhaps it is not generally known that some of the toughest and most daring of our present-day criminals began their downward career at a tender age. There is something blushingly heroic in crime—made so by the dime novel, which the boy of the tenement reads and then emulates by personal example.
It would be most difficult to assign a reason that would explain all the conditions that have led young people into crime, but we are sure that vicious and intemperate homes, biting poverty and the godless companions of the streets have had much to do with the criminal records made by this class during the past quarter of a century.
When we think of the multiplication of evil resorts, such as the saloons, play houses, bawdy houses, gambling hells, policy shops and other places that harbor young lads for drinking and carousing purposes, my only wonder is that so few go astray.
These temptations to crime which are presented in every form to the youth of a modern city are altogether unknown in rural settlements and country villages.
A Scene in the Children’s Court, corner of Eleventh Street and Third Avenue.
We are glad to say that only a very small number of the child criminals are girls. And the reason for their downfall in almost every case is due to bad homes and profligate parents.
One of the things that impress the visitor to the Tombs prison is the large number of poverty struck faces he meets, the sallow complexions, the sunken cheeks, hectic cough, the glassy eyes and stooping frames, all indicating that the young manhood has been harshly dealt with. Some of these boys are so diminutive, that they look as if they were only ten or twelve years of age, when in reality they are sixteen or eighteen.
Here is a sample conversation with a small boy:
“Hello Johnny, how are you to-day?”
He replies, “I ain’t doing well.”
“What brought you here?” He hangs his head and gives no answer.
“How old are you?” “I ain’t only sixteen.”
“Are your parents living?” “Mother has been dead since I was six years old. But pa, he is living. He gets drunk so often that me runs away from home.” “But how did you get here?” “Oh, when I was hungry I stole money to buy food.”
This will account in some measure for the boy’s fall. Think of it—a boy without a mother in a large city like New York! After I had made an investigation I found out that his father was an idler and dissipated and took no interest in his family, and the boy has been under no religious influence since his mother died. Poor boy! His only playground was the street with the denizens of the tenements as his associates, and most of them evil. He hated his home and was glad to get away from it, because there he learned to drink, carouse and curse like his father. That home to him was pandemonium! No wonder he was a thief and in prison.
A great many children of the tenements learn to drink beer when very young. They are sent by their parents to the saloon with the “growler” and are sure to drink the beer out of the pail before they return home. Although it is illegal to sell to children of this age, saloon keepers take chances for the money. Thus the child forms an appetite for strong drink and is preparing to be a drunkard or a prostitute.
One day I found a chubby, honest-faced German boy behind the bars. He came alone from the Fatherland when he was twelve years of age. An uncle, a farmer in a Western state, awaited his arrival and took him to his new home. Here he made him work like a slave, giving him no opportunity for either secular or religious education. Herman stood it a few years, then ran away. He worked his way East by stealing rides on freight trains. He would have died of starvation on the way had not the train hands to whom he told his tale of adventure taken pity on him and generously shared their food with him and smuggled him over the different roads till he got to New York. Here he wandered around the city looking for work, but found none. Unfortunately he was found one night in company with two young thieves and was arrested on suspicion. He lay in prison several weeks. After a thorough investigation we were able to show that he was an honest boy. Before going out, I gave him a note to a Y. M. C. A. worker, who gave him some clothing and food and lodging for two weeks, and then secured for him a position. Some months afterwards I found Herman in a mission settlement as one of the workers. He was clean and neatly dressed. What a transformation from the dirty, ragged condition he was in when in prison!
The large foreign population of New York and the dense ignorance of those who come from some of the countries of Europe is constantly in evidence in the criminal courts. As near as we can estimate, for we have no accurate information on the subject, about one-half the number of persons arrested in this city every year are either foreign by birth or parentage.
The Children’s Court
The Children’s Court for the trial of juvenile offenders of both sexes under sixteen years of age was opened for business in this city September, 1902. The law organizing this branch of the judiciary was passed by the Legislature the preceding winter. The building where this Court is conducted is situated at the corner of Eleventh Street and Third Avenue.
Five days in the week from 10 a. m. till 2 p. m., children of all colors, creeds and nationalities are brought here in charge of the officers of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children—better known as the Gerry Society. They are the custodians of all children from seven to sixteen years of age under arrest for crime. The Penal Code declares that children under seven years of age are incapable of committing a crime and are therefore exempt from the operation of this law.
The Origin of the Children’s Court
For several years the Howard Association, of London, England, has been advocating the establishment of Children’s Courts in that city for youthful offenders, but for a long time nothing came of it, as the English mind is slow to act on all such innovations, especially in a case like this, where the law which has stood for hundreds of years has to be changed. The same Association has also recommended the appointment of special magistrates to deal with truant children and their parents. But juvenile courts and probation officers have been in operation in Massachusetts for nearly a dozen years, longer indeed than in any other state in the Union, and with marked success. In Chicago the Children’s Court has been in existence since 1901, Milwaukee 1901, Philadelphia 1901, St. Louis 1901, and Washington, D. C., 1901. There has also been a Court for child offenders in Buffalo, N. Y., since 1901. By an agreement between the magistrates and the Children’s Society Judge Murphy has given two afternoons a week to the trial of juvenile offenders, making a court house out of one of the Society rooms.
The following year the Children’s Court was opened in New York, and then only as an experiment, as few persons were found ready to believe that it had a future. Indeed, many members of the bar discouraged its advent and thought it a foolish and expensive institution. At best, this Court was only a venture in the line of trial experiences, but before many months had passed everybody competent to judge pronounced it an unqualified success.
During the first year of its existence no less than 7,447 youthful offenders were before it, for nearly every crime on the calendar except homicide. While this Court is in business, the visitor who is present, is impressed with the quite orderly behaviour of all present and the kind and humane treatment of the attendants toward the children.
The Special Sessions judges, who sit on the bench by rotation, take a deep interest in the young offenders and as each case comes along tries hard to straighten out the domestic “tangles” which are so common where parents and children get mixed in their testimony. It is gratifying to know that this city does not furnish a large number of the “Wild West” boy toughs and fewer still of the Jesse Pomeroy class of criminals. While it is true that a large number are untruthful, depraved and devoid of moral sense, yet they are not beyond the reach of kindness and good treatment.
Crime among the children of the poor is largely the result of social conditions. Bad homes, negligent and intemperate parents, sickness and poverty will account for most of it. And the fact that we have not ten times more juvenile offenders than are on record is owing to missions, chapels and Sunday Schools scattered all over the city.
Almost every session of the Court is full of pathetic scenes and experiences where mothers and children shed many tears. The object of the Judge is to find out the truth in each case, and in this he often spends hours of patient labor.
After a thorough investigation we take it for granted that a child is found guilty. The ruling motto of the Court is to deal leniently with a first offender. If he has a good home and parents who will care for him he is paroled, but if his home is of a vicious character he is sent to an institution where he will be cared for and learn a trade. The main object of the Court is to save the child from a degrading home influence and put him in a place where he can work out his own salvation either on a farm or in an institution.
Some of the cases brought before this Court are as follows. We refrain from giving real names.
John Smith, who lives on Avenue A near Tenth Street, is said to be an incorrigible; he is only twelve years old; he is the terror of the neighborhood; he stays out late at night, commits petty depredations on the small traders and otherwise annoys the people of the Avenue. After the Judge inquired into the merits of the case he finds that the boy is bad and that both parents are in the habit of getting drunk. The Judge finally decides to send the boy either to the farm of the Children’s Aid Society in Westchester County or to the Juvenile Asylum where he can learn a trade.
Aside from the judicial interest manifested throughout the proceedings, Mercy weeps tears of sorrow over the wayward boys and girls and nothing but kind words are expressed regarding them and every one seeks to do them good.
In former years the work done by this Court was carried on in the most humane manner by the Children’s Aid Society under the direction of Charles Loring Brace and, since his death, by Charles L. and Robert Brace, his worthy sons. The Children’s Aid Society has done more toward saving the children of the slums the past fifty years than all other humanitarian organizations combined.
The following lines by Philo S. Child will in a measure express why children commit crime in this great city: