t I 4 1' 1 310 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS tions to break the law again or to do an unmanly act of any kind. The judge recognizes the fact that boys love to be com- mended for whatever progress they have made or whatever good they have done. His court of probation is therefore made, so far as it may serve a good purpose, a court of ap- probation. While looking into this matter the judge will move about among the boys calling each one by his street name and looking into his school or other report and if any progress has been made he will praise the boy and encourage him, pointing out to him examples of other boys who have grown strong and manly in right doing. Each boy's confidence is gained and he very early becomes the judge's friend and feels that since he is getting a square deal he must do the things that are expected of him. No record is made against any boy to come up against him in after life. After fair and repeated trials, if a boy makes no progress, he is given to understand that he must make use of the next most helpful thing in order to overcome his deUnquency and that is to go to the Beformatory at Golden, not as a punish- ment, but as an aid to help him in becoming stronger. This idea is impressed upon him very strongly. The judge will sometimes take such a boy home with him in the evening and after dinner they will go over the whole matter together with the result that the boy is fully convinced. Every such boy is put wholly upon his own honor. His commitment papers are then made out and given to him, together with money for his expenses, and he is directed to go alone to Golden and report to the superintendent of the reformatory, who is not informed in advance of his coming. As an evidence of the success of this plan it may be said that of more than three hundred boys so committed from the Denver juvenile court, only five have betrayed their trust and failed to report as directed. Although Judge Lindsey is often referred to as the orig- inator of the whole juvenile court system in this country he modestly disclaims any such honor. This much, however, is certain, that in 1898 there was not such a court anywhere in the world. At that time there were, in the two states of New
