incompetent, degraded woman, living with five children in an old shed, a squalid and wretched place. This boy of nine was first brought in for begging and picking up refuse from garbage cans. He spent some months in the Crippled Children's Home because his leg had been cut off by a passing train, and two years in John Worthy School. Later, when for a third time he comes to court and is given to Father Quille, with whom he finds home care, he begins to mend. And the girl whose mother (12,433) is shiftless and drinking, willing to use her daughter for immoral purposes, has forfeited all claim to her companionship and custody.

Some note should also be taken of those cases in which the mother is incapacitated by mental or physical infirmity for which she is in no wise to blame. For example, she may be insane, and there may be another member in the family who can assume her duties. In the case of one boy (10,750, Group I) whose parents were Polish Catholics, the facts were as follows: Both father and mother were nineteen when they came over, so that they never learned English. The father died. leaving an insurance of $900, but the mother became insane soon after his death and spent it all in a year. Two boys supported the family of six children by working in the stockyards and one of the girls keeps the house clean and cares for the younger children.

It is scarcely necessary to point out that among the widowed and deserted, as among all other families, there will be cases of what may be called casual or adventitious delinquency, where the boy is not really bad, perhaps goes too far with the gang (12,303), or "flips" once too often or too obviously (12,377, 11,374), or with a gang fools with a "gum machine" (12,143). With these, the fact of widowhood has really no connection.

There are cases, too, when the children carry the family over from times of hard pressure into fairly comfortable conditions, lift the group from below to above the "poverty line" as Mr. Rowntree would put it. One little Russian Jewish boy (11,023) who came in at ten for using vile language, sold papers on the street after school and became the sole support of the family.

They lived in three rear rooms; there had to be much relief, so that the mother speaks of the probation officer as her "best friend" and a "good lady." And then, of course, there is often remarriage and the lifting of the whole group if the new husband is competent and kind (11,307).

These cases suffice to illustrate the ways in which the work of existing relief agencies having in mind the maintenance of the family group in such a way as to develop initiative and independence on the part of the children in it and the court whose function it is to supervise child care and exercise child restraint but so as to lead to an orderly, law-abiding, and competent maturity may overlap or may touch at many points. Evidently where there is competent motherhood and pressure of poverty, so that the child restraint must be accompanied by material relief, this should be given according to the most approved principles of family care. The agents of the court, then, should become familiar with the modern methods of caring for necessitous families, the use of the friendly visit, and particularly with the importance of including, in every case, in the plan and treatment of the child a plan and treatment of the whole group. An ideal arrangement would be, of course, until public provision is made, to establish a partnership between the court and charitable agencies in the handling of every case in which there is found a working mother competent to hold the brood together, if only the money side of the difficulty were met, so that such cases could be jointly handled. It may be that when the functions of the court as carer for the dependent children are fully established such complementary work on the part of its two departments of interest will be found among the court's normal activities. On the other hand, it is evident that besides such regard for the principles of family life as guides the relief society in determining the conditions and amount of a pension, the court must be ready to supply the true paternal service. The child who is brought into court is at an age when perhaps his father's care is most needed. The probation officer may be a woman, but she speaks from and for the court. She has still the authority the mother may have had

before the father's death, when she could at least "tell on❞ the child. For such children the care of the court may well be important enough to justify the mothers who in touching helplessness bring in their children as "incorrigible." Perhaps we can look to a time when we can either supply this lack to the fatherless by some more effective device, or use the court without being afraid that the "police will have it in for the child who has been in court," or the paternal relationship will be secured at too great a cost in its effect on the child's good name.

ILLUSTRATIVE FAMILY PARAGRAPHS GIVING THE HOME CIRCUMSTANCES AND COURT RECORD OF TWENTY-FIVE CHILDREN WHO HAVE BEEN WARDS OF THE JUVENILE COURT OF CHICAGO BETWEEN JULY 1, 1899, AND JULY 1, 1909

10,369, Group I.

An English Protestant family with four children. The parents were twenty-five and nineteen when they came to this country, and twenty-six and twenty years when they were married. The father, who was a tailor, died eight years ago, and the mother has gone out washing ever since. She is now working in a laundry, earning from seven to eight dollars a week, and is away from home all day. In 1900 they lived in seven rooms, and in 1907, in only five, but they pay two dollars a month rent more now than formerly. At the age of sixteen this boy was in the fourth grade of the public school. When he was thirteen he was brought into court charged with stealing razors valued at eighteen dollars, and was put on probation, paroled to a police officer. The next year he was brought in again charged with burglarizing a store, and was committed to the John Worthy School. When he was seventeen he was brought in again charged (with another boy) with stealing a fire-extinguisher; and was again put on probation, this time being paroled to a regular probation officer who calls at the home twice a month, talks with him about his work, advises him, and is always friendly. The boy lives too far away to report to the officer. The mother co-operated with the officer and the sister thinks the officer has helped the boy a great deal. In 1906 he worked six months in a packing-house as errand boy, earning $5.00 a week, and for four months in a wholesale grocery store at the same wages. He is now working in a wall-paper house, and earning $7.50 a week. He "gives in" his wages, and his mother is fond of him.

School statement.-I am 17 years old. I left school when I was 14. I was then in the 5th grade. I began to go to school when I was 6 years old.

In Chicago I have attended the Curtis School, Van Vlissingen, Green Schools.

The studies which have helped me most to earn money are reading, writing, because I am checking in a wall paper house.

10,402, Group I.

A Swedish Protestant family; this boy the only child. The father has been dead twelve years and the mother-a good, industrious woman who was a nurse but gave it up because it kept her away from home and the boy-washes, so that the boy never had real home care. The family live in four rear rooms, steam heat, comfortable and neat. When this boy was fourteen he took a horse and a buggy and a pocketbook. He was put on probation, and paroled to a special officer who called to see him "once or twice," according to the mother. The officer then moved away and the boy was transferred to another one. At fourteen he was in the seventh grade in public school. He was an errand boy in a drug-store and later in a tailor shop. For a while he drove a grocery wagon. The boy did not give his mother much money, as he liked to spend his own money. He is now doing farm work in Iowa.

10,765, Group I.

The father died some years ago, cause unknown, but both parents are said to have been intelligent and temperate. The mother has worked hard for her children. The girl developed physically very young, was very pretty, and attracted a great deal of attention in the places where she worked. She was bright and quick, but she did not go to school and was sent to work when very young. She had no home care or discipline. One brother was also a ward of the court, but he has improved and is doing well. The girl at the age of sixteen was brought into court on the charge of immorality; she was then staying away from home and living in low rooming-houses and hotels. She had relations with a singer and saloon dancer who was known as Silver Moon. She was put on probation for nearly two years and was brought in again on the same charge, kept on probation four months longer, and was then sent to Geneva. When on parole from Geneva she was again immoral and was returned to stay until she was twenty-one. She never improved and is now in a house of prostitution.

11,294, Group I.

A Swedish Protestant family of seven children, whose parents immigrated at the ages of seventeen and fifteen, and were married at twenty and twenty-four. The father was a sewer-builder, but died six years ago of pneumonia, when the youngest child was only five days old. The mother was then obliged to go out to work to support the family. This boy was then thirteen years old, in the fifth grade of the public school, and his mother

needed his help, so she let him stop school and go to work. He then got into bad company and began to do wrong. At the age of fifteen this boy was brought into court for stealing two bottles of wine from a delivery wagon; he had been arrested for intoxication. He was put on probation and paroled to a police probation officer who says that the boy did not do well under probation. He would not report and would not submit to any kind of control. The officer called to see the boy once a month and tried every method to help him, but could not touch him in any way. The mother co-operated with the officer and did all she could to help. She says "the officer spoke so kindly to the boy." The officer thinks if the boy had had a better place than the street in which to play, he might have been a good boy. The mother feels that she is to blame for his delinquency, because she let him go to work so young, and because she did not realize the temptations to which he might be subjected. The mother keeps the home of five rooms very neat and clean and pleasant, although it is so poor and although she still does washing, earning about four dollars and a half a week. All the children are at home, and two of them work at bookbinding and earn about eight dollars a week each; but this boy never helps support the mother. The probation officer thinks this boy, who has never worked steadily and is now out of work, almost a degenerate, and "expects to see him in the penitentiary."

10,787, Group I.

An American Catholic family with ten children, not, however, all belonging to the mother; three were her sister's and three are her stepchildren. The ages of the parents at marriage were thirty-five and twenty-four. The father is dead, and the mother earns from seven to ten dollars a week, cleaning. The father had tuberculosis, and during his long illness as well as after his death the mother had to go out to work, and there was no one left to look after the family. The home of six rooms is very poor but clean. Two of the children are married, and there are seven at home. The boy was brought into court by his mother, because she had to work and could not keep him off the streets, as incorrigible, at the age of twelve years; he had been expelled from two schools, and had run away from St. Mary's. He was sent to Feehanville and then to the John Worthy School for three months. When he was thirteen he was again brought in as incorrigible, and was sent to the John Worthy School for a year and nine months; he was then transferred to Feehanville and in three months was recommitted to the John Worthy School. The boy was first paroled to a police officer and later to a regular officer. The boy reported to the officer and the officer called at the boy's home every two weeks. The officer had to frighten the boy into doing right-telling him she would send him away if he did not behave. The mother did all in her power to make