Page:Upbuilders by Lincoln Steffens.djvu/239



had two days’ notice. The Judge was in despair, but he ran over his list till he came to the name “Mickey.”

Mickey was a street boy. He had been in jail often, and the last time was only a month or so before. After he got out, he and the boys in with him had called on the Judge to com- plain. They stated their case. They were run- ning through the street when one of them knocked over a sign to which some shoes were attached. The man in the store rushed out and sent the policeman after the boys. They had stolen his shoes, he said, and the policeman arrested them. The boys hadn’t taken a shoe, and absolutely the only evidence against them was the fact that one of the boys needed shoes! His feet had come through his old ones. They were thrown into cells among criminals, bums, and drunks, then put all together in one cell next to drunken women of the street. During the evening one of them broke a window, and when the jailer came and cursed and kicked them about, they wouldn’t tell who had done it. In a rage, the man knocked down one of them and, when the rest scattered and ran, pursued, and bowled them over with his great keys. They were de- tained a week and then released without a hearing.

The Judge had the boys examined by a physi-