Page:Upbuilders by Lincoln Steffens.djvu/214

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

“than any ten policemen in the city.” He brought in boy after boy to “snitch up,” and he helped keep his own gang straight. “Red” Mike slipped back once. Arrested for robbery, he escaped, and the police were after him. The Eel was troubled. He called on the Judge. He knew where “Red” was hiding, and he knew the Judge knew he knew, but the Judge asked no questions. He and Lee simply talked the matter over till they agreed that it would be better for “Red” to come in and surrender than to be driven deeper into crime. And a day or two later “Red” appeared at the Judge’s house, “ready,” as he said, “to take his papers and go to the reformatory.”

Lee became an unofficial officer of the Court, and the Judge used him freely. Once a boy stole a pocketbook from a woman in the store where he worked. The Judge sent for Lee. “Something ought to be done,” the Judge said, “to get that boy back in the right path.” Lee went after him. He found him in a cheap theatre, “treating a gang,” brought him volun- tarily in, and— to-day the boy is a trusted employee in that same store.

Another time, Teddy Mack, a fourteen-year- old “criminal,” who was arrested for stealing a watch, sawed his way out of jail and got out of