Page:Upbuilders by Lincoln Steffens.djvu/191

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mistake that could be ret rieved. Having the truth, he called in the mother. It is a fact for mothers to ponder that no children wanted mamma and papa to know; they would get no such can- dour and no such sympathetic understanding at home as they got from their Judge. But the Judge insisted, and after an hour with the child, he often had to spend hours with the mother to prepare her to be motherly. She was horror- stricken; she thought of the disgrace; of what Mrs. A. would say. But the Judge had foreseen all that. He had other women calling on him the same day, other mothers and unmarried women. The shocked mother’s good name was shielded, and she and her daughter were brought together. For once, no lies, no vanities, no hypocrisies, and no false modesty stood between them, and there- fore there was no lack of a perfect understanding. In one case the Judge was so stirred by the extent to which the schools had been cursed by this evil that he called a “meeting of mothers.” No one knew what it was for; mothers not involved were invited with those that were in trouble; school teachers and other women; some of the “best” women in town. There, all together, the women of Denver were informed, warned, and instructed in private. It was beautifully done. NA names were mentioned, of course, not even the name of