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JUTE

984

JUVENILE COURTS

in 521. In 527 Justin proclaimed him his partner in the empire, and died four months afterward. His reign of 38 years is the most brilliant in the history of the later empire. Under the direction of the famous generals whom he chose, the famous N arses, Belisarius and others, the Roman empire was widened to its old limits and east and west united. Justinian, however, is most famous as a lawgiver. As soon as he gained the throne, the constitutions or imperial statutes were gathered and reduced to a code. But these statutes were but a small part of the law. The bulk of it — what we would call the common law — was contained in the writings of the jurists or law commentators. Of these writings there were many hundred volumes; but, owing to want of agreement between the writers, the law was very uncertain. Hence the famous Tribonian, with four associates, was instructed to prepare a single treatise which should cover the whole ground. This great work was accomplished in four years, and was published in fifty volumes, known as the Digest. On the same day — Dec. 31, 534 — Tribonian brought out a law-treatise, which Justinian caused to be prepared as a textbook for students. It is known to all modern lawyers as Justinian's Institutes. Justinian also bettered the condition of the slaves, taking away from their masters the power of putting them to death. He was an able ruler, and his intentions in the main were just and upright. He died on Nov. 14, 565. See his Ltfe by G. Body.

Jute is the fiber taken from the bark of two plants, both of the lime-tree order, with yellow flowers. The larger plant is from five to 14 feet high, and is grown in central and eastern Bengal; the other, slightly smaller, is grown around Calcutta. The fiber is separated from the stem by steeping in water, which takes from two days to three weeks. The best kinds are pale yellow or buff, with a silky luster, easily spun and strong. Jute is used in making ropes, gunny bags, carpets, curtains, table-covers and other fabrics. Jute can be raised and manufactured cheaply, but is not so strong or so lasting as flax. Fabrics made of jute are easily rotted by damp, and cannot be often washed and dried, like linen and cotton, without injuring them; but there is fraudulent mixing of jute with cotton, flax, silk and woolen fabrics. India is the great jute-producing country. The United States yearly import millions of dollars worth of jute ar?d jute-goods. Jute thrves in our gulf states, but production here has not been successful.

Jut'land, the only peninsula of any size in Europe which points directly north, has since early in the loth century belonged to Denmark. It extends along the North Sea, northward to the Skager Rack, which separates it from Norway, and is flanked

on the east by the Cattegat, which separates it from Sweden. It covers an area of 9,904 square miles. Here the Jutes lived in the fifth century, who took part in the Anglo-Saxon descents on the English coast. Population 1,124,694.

Ju'venal, Roman satirist, was born about 55 A. D. in the Volscian country where his father, a free Roman citizen, owned an estate. He was educated at Rome, and became the friend of Martial and Quintilian. Probably under Titus or early in Domitian's reign he served as tribune in the army, and in his native town of Aquinum he filled the office of censor and held other important posts. An inscription tells us that he was in Britain, and he is also known to have visited upper Egypt. All of his writings that are left are 16 satires; but these are of great value in themselves as literature and as pictures of Roman life under the empire. Perhaps the finest are the first five satires, written when the author was fresh from a living experience of Domitian's brutalizing government. The most popular now probably is the tenth, The Vanity of Human Wishes, which was imitated by Dr. Samuel Johnson. Juvenal used satire, not as a branch of comedy, which it was to Horace, the other great Roman satirist, but as an engine for attacking the tyranny, crimes and follies of his time. He died in 140 A. D.

Juvenile Courts. These are the latest means by which we are trying to distinguish between the young offender against the law and the hardened criminal, and in general to fight the great increase of crime which seems to exist among the young, especially in the larger cities of the world. Although for centuries children under seven have not been counted responsible for any criminal act they might commit, children over that age were until comparatively recently tried in the same courts and on the same general principles as those applied to adults. It was felt that this tended to make criminals out of young people who at heart were not vicious. Therefore for many years there have been reformatories to which the younger prisoners were sent, instead of to jail. But it became clear that to send a boy to a reformatory put a brand on him for life. Merely to be tried in open court with adults and hardened prisoners was to put a blot on the life of the child. Hence it has been the custom for many years in New York and in other states and in most European countries to suspend sentence on the young offender and to hand him over, where possible, to some responsible person, who would try to keep him at school or send him to work, according to his age, and would report to the judge how the boy (or girl) was getting on. The well-known George Junior-Republic was and is peopled for the most part by such pro-