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Show INFANT ' ' CRIMINALS. ' ' . Occasionally wo get word of the depredations of infants that would seem incredible, if they were not so fuljy attested. Criminality has invaded invad-ed the cradle, according to reports received re-ceived from time to time. A recent case at Rucine, "Wisconsin, is perhaps the most incredible of any recently reported. re-ported. A child of six years in that place has boon sent to the State Reformatory, Re-formatory, there to remain until he shall have reached the age of twenty-one twenty-one vear&: that is. this child has been sentenced to fifteen years in the State Reformatory of Wisconsin. Tt is explained ex-plained that this infaut is incorrigibly a criminal: that ho has threatened to shoot up the town of Racine, and has committed so many depredations that he has terrorized the populace, and his misdemeanors have been so flagrant that the authorities have felt bound to put him ot of commission so that he can sin no more. It is stated that it was only after this infant had been repeatedly brought before the police court charged with burglary, highway robbcr, aud flashing a loaded revolver, and had threatened to use a knife on his companions, that the court decided to put a stop once for all to that budding bud-ding criminal career; and so, on the ! showing of higl way robbery and burglary, bur-glary, the court imposed upon that infant in-fant the drastic sentence reported. An amazing thing altogether, hard to believe be-lieve even when officially attcst.id. It reads far more like a joke, and a rather rath-er bad one at that. Not long ago a case was reported from Georgia, of a somewhat similar tenor, although the offender in the Georgia case was much older. This Georgia boy was ton years old. The conviction upon which he was sentenced sen-tenced to eleven years' detention at tho Fulton Industrial Reform School was for stealing a bottle of cordial from a soda-water fountain. A great sensation was made of the fact that a little boy was sentenced to eleven yoars' confinement for a five-cent theft. Miss Julia .0. Lathrop, Chief of the U. S. Children's Bureau, being startled by the case, made a personal investigation of it. She reports that the boy was incorrigible gcnoralby, that he was running the streets, idling and stealing small edibles from various stores aud wagon?, and hopping on and off moving train?. On his first appearance appear-ance in court he was put on probation and for awhile behaved himself, but. iachicf broke loose in him before long, and lie was brought again before -the court on now charges of running tho streets and stealing small articles, among which was a bottle of coea-cola. Theroupon he was sentenced to the In dustrial Iioform School, since ho had boon already put on probation which had failed to reform him, and sinco his father admitted he could not do anything any-thing with the boy. Miss Lathrop reports, re-ports, further, that the actual fnats seem to bo that the boy was unruly and was committed to tho reform school during his minority, "just as the courts in other States send children chil-dren to roform schools." IIo was not sentenced for cloven years, since ho is subject to parole or discharge before attaining his majority, and probably the Wisconsin infant's case is the same as to this paroling. Further, the Fulton Industrial Reform School is not a peual institution, but it is an industrial indus-trial school whore tho boy will attond school half tho day and work on the farm the other half. Miss Lathrop visited the school, met the teacher that was attending tho boy, and she found that he was receiving proper caro. Her report, therefore, was that there was no cause for further sensation to bo made out of tho case, and that tho boy is altogether better off under his present pres-ent restraint than ho was when running run-ning at largo, uncontrolled and rapidly rap-idly acquiring habits of vice and crime. And yet, it is pitiful to know of lit-tlo lit-tlo children boing so dealt with by the courts. Surol3 thero is something wronxr in our civiliz-allon or lack of it when such shocking cases come up lo harrow tho heart. ' |
