Page:Upbuilders by Lincoln Steffens.djvu/181

 u understand,

Lindsey’s methods are applied Christianity. With- out thinking much about it he was putting into practice in actual life, and, of all places, in the criminal courts, the doctrine of faith, hope, and charity. In a Christian community this was revolutionary and, “as it was in the beginning,” caused a great rumpus. The Bar was shocked. When the Judge, searching the juvenile mind for causes of juvenile crime, saw fear of the Law and hate of the Court in the eyes of the little pris- oners and, looking about him, realized that there was reason for this dread, we have seen how he threw off authority, came down off the bench, subordinated the machinery of justice to the good of the boy, and for routine and vengeance substi- tuted sympathy and help. He took the boys’ view of boys’ “mistakes,” and when he sent a “feller” to the reform school at Golden, it was only upon his own confession and for his own good. The boys understood, but the lawyers wagged their heads: the lawyers, I mean, who regard the Law as a sacred Institution. When they saw a judge who was “a lawyer, and a good lawyer,” sweeping aside technicalities and ignoring “good prac- tice” to get at the real, human interest of the prisoner at the bar, they were deeply pained. But the Judge, who understands men as well as he does boys, understood this feeling, and