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me uirtjlt;jnuii uiln New York, careful and humane as the Judges and charity society officials were, the wayward children of the streets, little Etnd big boys and girls that had run wild and done some little wrong, not enough for punishment but merely the slightest step on the downward path from which they could easily have been pulled back, were forced to be herded in courtrooms with hardened criminals, brought face to face and into close touch with just what they should have been kept away from.All this the Children’s Court that comes into existence a week from Tuesday sweeps away, as if it never had been. Except as witnesses or in certain cases as plaintiffs or in guardianship proceedings, the courts of the city will know children no more. Concerning the criminal courts, this is literally and strictly so.The thousands of cases of wicked or destitute qr mischievous or abandoned children each year will no longer come into the familiar courtrooms of the town. The Magistrates or police courts will from now on be without their quota of pitiable or grotesquely assertive little figures dail, and thousands of youngsters who know dimly enough what is bad already will no longer be made a part of some of the most wretched scenes of life.AVOID^G POLICE STATIONS.Instead, Without ceremony, without opportunity to ^feel proud at the sensation they are' making in being handled! like the i grown ups,” the children that have committed crimes little and big. together with the children that have been deserted, will all be taken fiorthwith \o a roomy building on Third Avenue at tile corner of Eleventh Street The new law is simple in its directions and imperative. It commands policemen to take the children they have bagged ” or have had handed over touei lying idyouth out of the way of crime, to arrange it so that imprisonment will not, if possible, follow a first offense, but that the first offense ” may be made such a lesson that it will be the last.Its keynote, after all, is that whoever sits on its bench shall be more than a Judge in the ordinary sense, that he shall have wise farsightedness as applied to youth, be able to see at a glance what may be made out of a boy or girl, and able to inspire those who have gone wrong with the determination to make good men and women of themselves.Precisely this is what Judge Tuthill of the Chicago Juvenile Court has accomplished. This plan of a court for children and children alone, though now first to be tried in this city, is by no means new in this country, and especially in the West. The Chicago children’s court has afforded a successful instance of what may be done in guiding children who to the unknowing mind would appear incorrigible.Here the Justice who presides is much more than an ordinary judicial officer. He is, to the boys and girls that appear before him, an ideal father, stern yet understanding. knowing boys and girls from head to foot and sympathizing with them and their temptations, but not to be deceived, never to beatified with or lied to. He is human to them, all the while enveloped in an air of mystery that they can make nothing of. To thefn his powers are unlimited, and they fear something unimaginable if once before him they break their given word or ever after go wrong.Judge Tuthill has set the standard for the bench at children's courts throughout the country, and this New -York court, though it will by no means correspond to the Chicago court in all its details, yet will have much of its spirit. Whatever JudEte happens to be sitting there will beFRIENDS OF CHILDREN.Experts on the reclaiming of children have no doubt as to the result. Those especially responsible for the new court were. Edward T. Devine of the Charity Organization Society, Elbridge T. Gerry, and present Charity Commissioner Homer Folks.There is. one provision of this New \ork court that must be carefully noted, for it is significant of the care the wise jurists that drew up the law’ took in making th© court a real court, in ■which the smallest, most insignificant child could get a hearing that he and his relatives would consider fair. All the cases are to be hedrd by one assigned Judge of the Court of Special Sessions. But any child can if he so wishes demand a trial before the three Judges of Special Sessions down town, and on such a demand this must be given him.Children’s Courts are now in effective operation in Chicago, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Buffalo. Washington, D. C., Philadelphia, St. Louis. Denver, Baltimore, a3 well as other cities. Boston has no complete children's court, but in one of her largest courts special sessions are gi\en for the hearing of children’s cases, and the court room is cleared except for those immediately concerned. Nearly all these juvenile courts are young in. establishment, several of them having been started since the first of the year. All have even thu:* early demonstrated their usefulness, however.Though it holds Its sessions but two day© ‘a week the Chicago Juvenile Court is particularly interesting because of its high level , and the, extent of its jurisdiction* In its powers it is equal to the Supreme Court of the State of New York, a grade higher than, the Children’s Court here that opens next week. In Illinois there ar^ three grades of courts, the DLtrtct, tn© rircnit. and the Supreme.
Newspaper Details
New York Times
New York, New York, US
Sun, Aug 24, 1902
Page 22
Full Page
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