Page:Upbuilders by Lincoln Steffens.djvu/193

 bad boys.

The police represented the old policy of ven- geance and prison. When the Judge received official permission to deal with all juvenile cases, and they saw what his treatment was — faith and hope and love — they snorted. The town snorted with them, and when the police held back its “criminals born,” public opinion backed the police. But the Judge is a politi- cian, too; he knows the game, and he went after the police. How ? He might have exercised his authority, and he has done that since, in his fights with the dishonest opposition of the police. But this was honest opposition, this that came first. It was nothing but the natural conservatism of human nature, and he was patient with it. He reasoned with the police. He “showed them.” He got the bad boys to help him “show ’em,” just as the “nice” boys had helped him show the “good” people up on the hill. Judge Lindsey came down off the bench to go into the jails and bring into his Court the “criminals born”; and he brought them there, and there he ga\ e to them also trust, encouragement, and service, and, like the good boys, the bad ones gave him back faith for faith, hope for hope, and for his love, their loyalty, and — his greatest triumph.

That is what

most of the admirer