Page:Upbuilders by Lincoln Steffens.djvu/175



them there things they call ’junctions against de fly cop ?’

“I gave him one. Why not? I called for an injunction blank, and on it I wrote a note to the policeman. I told him about Morris; not much, but enough to make him understand that the boy was one of my probationers who was try- ing to ‘make good’; that he was bringing me good reports from his teachers; and that I hoped the officer would give the boy all the leeway possible. To the boy I explained that the officer repre- sented the Law, as I did, and must be respected accordingly. Morris went away gleefully with his writ.”

And the writ “worked.” The Judge says that the next time he saw Morris, he asked the boy about it. Morris said he had “served it all right.”

“An’ say, Judge,” he said, “ it worked fine. De cop liked to ’a’ dropped dead when he read it. He tinks I got a pull wit’ de Court, so he wants to be my friend. And I don’t know but I’ll let him in.” The Judge spoke for the cop. He told Morris he must be a friend of the policeman, and the boy reported later that he had “let the cop in. And he had. The Judge learned that they became good friends.

In his comment on this incident,