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You won't live in luxury all the time.There is a God above who is running thisearth and he is watching you patiently.I never wrote a letter to any of your kind,for committing such a crime as you havecommitted last Monday, but now I ambeginning to feel the pain. I am beginningto learn in this supposed to be freecountry, and if anything similar occurs inmy family once more, I am going to advertiseit not only thru the press but willwrite to the Governor, the President andothers in Society. I am going to teachthe people and the guilty ones what andhow a common human being should betreated. My life has just begun, but itseems to me I know too much from thestart. If you wish to die a peaceful death,don't commit such a crime again, don'tforget that there is a God in Heaven.Give the Poor a chance, a living chance,let them live while they do and I can assureyou of a high appreciation, a cleancountry, and Government Respectful.Take this advice from a youngster whodid a great deal of suffering.From a Heartbroken Mother's SonWhose Name isA Recruit for Law and Order 117HARRY.Long Live LibertyandFreedom.Over this letter Judge A. pondered longand seriously. His first impulse, I think,was to disregard it altogether, but afterconsidering the matter from every pointof view he finally concluded that for thesake of the boy himself, as well as thecommunity at large, action of some sortshould be taken. But Judge A.'s ownhands were tied, for in his letter Harryhad given his age as 15 and consequentlythe only tribunal which had the power orright to discipline him for his offense insending such a letter was the Children'sCourt.So it was that the problem of HarrySamuels's heartburnings and resentments,letters, documents, and all, was handedover to me for such solution as I mightbe able to find, and to mend or mar accordingto the treatment which I mightapply. Judge A., in transmitting thematter to me, said that he did not wantto suggest any particular course of action,and that he would be satisfied withwhatever I saw fit to do in the case. Heemphasized the fact that he did not wishto prosecute the boy, and that his wholeidea in pressing the matter was for thepurpose of endeavoring to bring the boy,as he put it, "into a more enlightenedand harmonious relation with society."In the Children's Court of New YorkCity we are confronted daily with problemsof every sort and description, so weare more or less used to dealing with theunusual and unexpected, but I must confessthe case of Harry Samuels presenteda novel and perplexing situation. I thoroughlyagreed with Judge A. that anyone sending such an abusive letter shouldbe disciplined, yet I realized that by arrestingthe boy and dragging him throughthe courts, as his mother had been, Ishould be defeating the very end whichhe had in view.What I finally did was to issue a summonsdirecting Harry to come to theChildren's Court and explain his conduct.A summons is simply a notice in legalform telling a person that the judge wouldlike to see him in regard to some complaint,and does not in any way affectthe record of the person to whom it issent. In response to that summonsHarry came to the court, and so we metfor the first time.I don't think either Harry or I willforget that meeting for some time tocome. I happened to be sitting thatmorning in the smaller of our two courtrooms,where I am in the habit of hearingour continued and probation cases. It isa room of singular beauty and of quietdignity, but small enough to carry an airof friendliness and of intimacy. It containsno bench but, instead, a table andsome comfortable chairs grouped aroundinformally.When Harry entered there were onlytwo others present, the clerk and thestenographer. The boy glanced at meand then around the room. A look akinto amazement came over him, and it waseasy to see that his preconceived ideasas to courts and court-rooms were receivingsomewhat of a shock.I waited for an instant to let the impressionsink in, and then began:"Harry Samuels, I have a good deal totalk to you about this morning, and I am

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