PAID TO GO TO SCHOOL.
JUVENILE COURT INSTITUTION
THAT GETS MANY EDUCATION.
This Form of Charity Amounts Prac-
tically to Widows' Pensions and
Is Made Possible by Volun-
tary Subscriptions.
"There is a heap in this world that is good. There are any amount of good fellows in it. There is sunshine pretty nearly every day it rains," said Judge McCune yesterday morning just after he refused to issue a permit to little George Galloway to remain out of school.
The boy's mother had told that she needed his earnings; that he could make $5 per week, and that he had been a faithful child to her. In proof of his good behavior the mother, through occasional tears, said that only once in years had he missed attending Sunday School, "and that was to attend his father's funeral last April."
"You say he can make $5 a week, madam?" Judge McCune inquired.
"Six dollars, and we need the money judge, since papa died."
"He must go to school. We can fix him up right. I have a scholarship I can let him have. He will get $3 a week for going to school."
This astonishing conclusion of the widow's petition was beyond her comprehension for the moment.
This scholarship business is a part of the new juvenile court. Explaining its operation, Judge McCune said that institutions and private individuals agree to pay into Judge McCune's hand pensions of $3 a week to compensate impoverished mothers for the loss of wages children might earn if allowed to work.
"We hire the boys to work for it by going to school," said Judge McCune. "Instead of letting them work for somebody else. In that way somebody educates them and helps take care of the mother. We have a long list of big-hearted people who give these scholarships, which really are widows' pensions."
The bottom of the pension barrel was scraped yesterday. Judge McCune encountered Phil Toll and left with four pensions in his note book.
"Heaps of good fellows in this old world," the judge of the juvenile court asserted.
