Page:Upbuilders by Lincoln Steffens.djvu/146



because it’s mean and sneaky, and no feller wants to be mean and sneaky. He wants to be on the square.

“But what are you crying for? You’ve been crying ever since I began to talk to you. Afraid of being punished ? Pshaw, a feller ought to stand up and take his medicine; but we don’t punish boys. We just try to help ’em get strong and be square. Even when we send fellers to Golden, it isn’t for punishment; it’s only to help a kid that’s weak to get strong enough to control himself. So we aren’t going to punish you. I believe you can control yourself without going to Golden. We’ll see. But first off, a kid ought to be strong enough and sufficiently on the square to tell the truth about himself. Ought to tell not only about this time, when you’re caught, but all the other times, too. You wait, and after court we’ll go back in chambers and we’ll have it all out, just us two.

This is rather reassuring, isn’t it? It proved so to the children who sat waiting their turn at the first sessions of the Juvenile Court. There was no terrorism in it, no trace of hardness, there were no awful forms. The children felt the dif- ference. “The Judge, he gives a feller a show,” said one boy to me. And as they saw the pro- ceedings in court, so the children heard