THE END
THE CATHEDRAL
BY
FLORENCE WILKINSON
The streaming glitter of the avenue,
The jewelled women holding parasols,
The lathered horses fretting at delay,
The customary afternoon blockade,
The babel and the babble, the brilliant show—
And then the dusky quiet of the nave.
The pillared space, an organ strain that throbs
Mysteriously somewhere, a rainbow shaft
Shed from a saint's robe, powdering the spectral air,
A workman with hard hands who bows his head,
And there before the shrine of Virgin Mary
A lonely servant girl who kneels and sobs.
THE NEW GOSPEL IN CRIMINOLOGY
BY
JUDGE McKENZIE CLELAND
The Municipal Court of Chicago began its existence December 3rd, 1906. Besides transacting civil business, it is the trial court for all misdemeanors as well as for all violations of city ordinances. The Maxwell Street criminal branch, where I presided for thirteen months, is on the West Side, about a mile from the City Hall, in what is known as the Ghetto District. This district—not more than a mile square—has between two and three hundred thousand inhabitants, of thirty different nationalities, many of them from the poorest laboring class. In one school district near the court, three and one-half blocks long and two blocks wide, there are fourteen hundred public school children, besides hundreds who attend parochial schools, and many who attend none.
It is the Maxwell Street district of which a leading Chicago newspaper, afterward quoted in McClure's Magazine, said: "In this territory murderers, robbers, and thieves of the worst kind are born, reared, and grown to maturity in numbers which exceed the record of any similar district anywhere on the face of the globe; murders by the score, shooting and stabbing affrays by the hundred, assaults, burglaries, and robberies by the thousand—such is the crime record each year for this festering place of evil which lies a scant mile from the heart of Chicago."
Within a few days from my going into this court, I was confronted with the problem of what to do with violators of the city laws who had others dependent upon them for support. To impose a fine upon such persons would, if the fine were paid, ordinarily deprive the family of some of the necessaries of life. On the other hand, if the fine were not paid and the offender were committed to the House of Correction to work it out at the rate of fifty cents a day, not only would the family be deprived of their means of support during his imprisonment, but the defendant, when released, would be without employment or the ability then to provide for his family. I observed that frequently women whose husbands had been fined for beating them would go out and borrow money with which to pay the fine.
It was very apparent that such proceedings operated most harshly upon the poor. A person able to pay a fine had comparatively little to fear if he violated the city laws, while inability to pay meant the loss of liberty twenty-four hours for each fifty cents of the fine and costs, which was nothing more or less than imprisonment for debt.