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A RECRUIT FOR LAW AND ORDERAN INCIDENT OF THE CHILDREN'S COURTBy Franklin Chase HoytPresiding Justice of the Children's Court of New York CityTHERE are two reasons for according to the provisions of law, wasthis story. The first is, it forced to expiate her debt by remainingis true, every line and everyword of it (save that thein our city prison, the Tombs, for a dayand a night. Of course, had Mrs. Samuelsnames of those concerned told the judge of her predicament andhave been disguised for obvioushad she explained to him that she had fivereasons). In the second place, it' children waiting for her at home, I feelwould seem to be of some value at thepresent moment, for it tells how thevery sure he would have seen to it thatshe did not go to jail, but either throughmind of a boy was turned from bitterness her own ignorance, or possibly throughand false doctrine to a clearer vision and atruer understanding of American liberty.some error in the interpretation, shefailed to make these things clear and theAs a matter of fact, it is probably a judge was left in entire ignorance that amistake to call this a story at all, for ithas no plot, and follows no conventionaltwo-dollar fine was just about as impossiblefor her to meet at that particularline of dramatic action. It is simply a moment as one of two thousand dollars.little narrative of a recent incident in theChildren's Court, differing only in humanSome day, dear reader, such "mistakes"as these will not occur so often,interest from thousands of others and the overworked magistrates will bebecause of the fact that the record in this given greater opportunities than exist atcase is based almost wholly upon three present to delve down deep into the humanitiesletters of no ordinary sort.of each case and to decide theirThis is the way these letters happened problems with less consideration for theto be written:A few months ago in New York Citya certain Mrs. Samuels had the misfortuneforms of criminal procedure and withmore time and thought for common senseand social justice. But in this particularto be arrested for exposing fish for instance the judge was in no way at fault.sale on a push-cart without having themproperly covered to protect them fromHe undoubtedly had to uphold the enforcementof a wise sanitary provision,flies and dust. Mrs. Samuels had no intentionand in fining Mrs. Samuels the small sumof doing wrong, and was only of two dollars he had every reason to be­striving to make a little money for the lieve that she could pay it easily and withoutsupport of her five young children. Butembarrassment. The fault, if faultthere was no gainsaying the fact that she there be, lies with a system which permitshad glaringly violated the provisions ofour "Sanitary Code," and it became incumbenton the officers of the law to bringa woman ignorant of our laws and ourways to be led off to jail without a morecareful study of her circumstances andher to book for her offense. Accordingly without affording her an opportunity toshe was haled to the nearest police court,and was duly arraigned before Judge A.,meet her fine in some other way than byremaining a night in prison.one of the magistrates of our great city. So Mrs. Samuels spent twenty-fourNow there is no judge upon our bench hours as "a guest of the city," and thenmore conscientious and humane than returned to the bosom of her family. TheJudge A., but in a case of this kind he had case was marked "closed" on the docketsno alternative save to impose a small fine of the police court, and closed it wouldupon Mrs. Samuels. Unfortunately she have been for all of us, but for Mrs. Samuels'sson, didn't have two dollars to pay, and so,Harry.115