Page:Upbuilders by Lincoln Steffens.djvu/210



Judge brought out a longer, more correct, type- written list.

“How in the world did you get that?” the officer asked, astonished.

“They’ve confessed to me everything.”

“ How did you do it ? We couldn’t sweat it out of them.”

“I made them see that I was their friend,” the Judge said, “and that I wanted to use the information for and not against them.”

It was a strange, new point of view to the police, but they saw that there was something in it, so they tried the boys before the kids’ Judge. , The evidence was plain. Burglary was the specific charge, and the police proved it; the Judge was convinced formally of what he knew (for the boys had told him all about it). What did the Judge do to the boys ?

He put them on probation. Yes, to the horror of the police and the town, he did by these bad boys just as he did by good boys; he gave them a “show.” What was the result?

A day or two later the boys called on the Judge. With them were two others, “Red” Mike and Tommy Green. The Judge understood; these were members of the River-Front gang, for whom the police were on the lookout. But nothing was said about that. “We had a general talk