PERSONALS
The first woman judge of delinquent girls sits on the bench in the Chicago Juvenile Court. She is Mary M. Bartelme, a Chicago lawyer. Previous to her present connection she was for eighteen years public guardian of Cook County, acting in this office, in the words of theContinent, as “official mother to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of children” who had no other parents and whose persons or estates were in the care of the court. Guardianship of their persons meant actual custody and education, and this for a period of many years; it meant also in many cases interest and love for the child and always, in the tangled relations of life, an understanding of human nature, as well as a thorough knowledge of the institutions best fitted for special cases. All this experience has thus been excellent preparation for Miss Bartelme’s present delicate task of reconstructing the lives and characters of delinquent girls.
MARY M. BARTELME
MARY M. BARTELME
MARY M. BARTELME
Up to the time of her appointment cases of delinquent girls were heard, like those of boys, in open court. The effect is thus described by Judge Pinckney of the Chicago Court, whose assistant Miss Bartelme is:
“The delinquent girl, unlike the delinquent boy, is generally brought to court for some sexual irregularity. This means that the story of her shame and downfall is told openly, publicly. There are often present at such times curiosity seekers, sensation hunters, and now and then among the latter, I am sorry to say, are newspaper reporters looking for a story. Frequently the name of the girl, the names of her parents, of her brothers and sisters, and her home address appear in the newspapers, with all the harrowing details of her trouble. She is fortunate if her picture is not surreptitiously taken for publication.“After such an exploitation of her trouble, you tell the unfortunate child that you want to do something for her—you want to help her. Is it any wonder that she does not readily respond to the proffered aid? Her feelings shocked, her sensibilities blunted, her sense of justice outraged, she is more apt to refuse than accept your suggestions for her future welfare. To my mind this procedure is unnecessary, is wrong, is barbarous. Even under the most favorable conditions possible to a public hearing, it is difficult to get into sympathetic touch with the child so that she will be in a receptive mood and willingly amenable to helpful suggestion and treatment.“The plan proposed is to have the case of each delinquent girl heard by a woman, who shall act as the representative and assistant of the presiding judge. To this woman assistant, in the presence of the girl’s father and mother, the witnesses will tell the girl’s story. Every consideration will be shown the girl and her family. In so far as it is possible to do so, this darkened page in their lives will be guarded from the public gaze.“It is believed that these delinquent girls will the more readily unburden their souls to one of their own sex, and especially if allowed to so do out of hearing of the public and surrounded by father and mother and those in sympathy with her and them.“This is the all-important work for delinquent girls which Mary M. Bartelme is expected to do—will do. She is the unanimous choice of the judges of the Circuit Court for the position of assistant to the judge of the Juvenile Court.”
“The delinquent girl, unlike the delinquent boy, is generally brought to court for some sexual irregularity. This means that the story of her shame and downfall is told openly, publicly. There are often present at such times curiosity seekers, sensation hunters, and now and then among the latter, I am sorry to say, are newspaper reporters looking for a story. Frequently the name of the girl, the names of her parents, of her brothers and sisters, and her home address appear in the newspapers, with all the harrowing details of her trouble. She is fortunate if her picture is not surreptitiously taken for publication.
“After such an exploitation of her trouble, you tell the unfortunate child that you want to do something for her—you want to help her. Is it any wonder that she does not readily respond to the proffered aid? Her feelings shocked, her sensibilities blunted, her sense of justice outraged, she is more apt to refuse than accept your suggestions for her future welfare. To my mind this procedure is unnecessary, is wrong, is barbarous. Even under the most favorable conditions possible to a public hearing, it is difficult to get into sympathetic touch with the child so that she will be in a receptive mood and willingly amenable to helpful suggestion and treatment.
“The plan proposed is to have the case of each delinquent girl heard by a woman, who shall act as the representative and assistant of the presiding judge. To this woman assistant, in the presence of the girl’s father and mother, the witnesses will tell the girl’s story. Every consideration will be shown the girl and her family. In so far as it is possible to do so, this darkened page in their lives will be guarded from the public gaze.
“It is believed that these delinquent girls will the more readily unburden their souls to one of their own sex, and especially if allowed to so do out of hearing of the public and surrounded by father and mother and those in sympathy with her and them.
“This is the all-important work for delinquent girls which Mary M. Bartelme is expected to do—will do. She is the unanimous choice of the judges of the Circuit Court for the position of assistant to the judge of the Juvenile Court.”
At the recent annual meeting of the Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, Dr. Edward L. Keyes, Jr., was elected president, to succeed Dr. Prince A. Morrow, founder, and until his death the head of the society.
Dr. Keyes is a charter member of the society and was for many years its secretary. He has also been a member of the Executive Committee, and worked in close touch with Dr. Morrow. Dr. Keyes is a professor at the Cornell Medical School and president of the American Association of Genito-Urinary Surgeons.
Professor Maurice A. Bigelow of Teachers’ College, Columbia University, and Dr. Rosalie Slaughter Morton were elected to fill the vacancies in the Executive Committee. Mr. Marshall C. Allaben of the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions was chosen chairman of the Executive Committee.
The Italian Club of New York is an interesting center. In the low-ceilinged basement opera singers, art importers, physicians, orchestra leaders and the like rub elbows at the club tables.
In the three rooms on the main floor an exhibition is being held this month of the drawings of Joseph Stella, an Italian artist of more than ordinary promise. He is a brother of Dr. Antonio Stella, a pioneer in the tuberculosis movement and a leader in New York’s civic life. The artist himself was a member of the staff of the Pittsburgh Survey, and readers of this magazine will remember the striking character sketches of the steel workers he drew in black and white. An entire room is given up to these Pittsburgh drawings, which in many respects represent the artist’s most forceful workmanship. In another room is his earlier work with East Side types, and in another the canvasses he has produced in Rome and Paris, where he has spent the last two years. These have the color and method of the post-impressionists.
DOWN AND OUTA hitherto unpublished sketch by Joseph Stella.
DOWN AND OUTA hitherto unpublished sketch by Joseph Stella.
DOWN AND OUT
A hitherto unpublished sketch by Joseph Stella.
It is perhaps natural that the social workers who attend the exhibit drift back to the central room, where the artist’s pencil has so sympathetically and vigorously transcribed the writings, which stress and want and hope and striving spread over the faces of the steel district, immigrant and native-born alike.
There are also some charcoal sketches of Pittsburgh at night which did not lend themselves to magazine publication, but reflect marvelously the smoke and energy of the river valleys.
Steadfast and resourceful, with a strong body, a kind heart, a reverent spirit, combining rare judgment with knowledge, a leader well equipped for the service of her fellows has been lost to the Pacific Coast in the death of Dr. C. Annette Buckel of Oakland, Cal. Dr. Buckel was born in Warsaw, N. Y., in 1833. Earning the means for her medical education by teaching, she rendered efficient service in the United States military hospitals of the Southwest during the last two years of the Civil War. She selected and supervised the nurses, kept records in the absence of clerks, wrote letters for sick soldiers, obtained furloughs for convalescents, and comforted the dying.
Dr. Buckel is perhaps better known to readers ofThe Survey, however, for her work in other warfare: as president of the first milk commission in California, which excluded tuberculous cows from the dairy. In all her work she emphasized prevention rather than cure. Through her efforts a school of cookery was opened, which resulted in manual training becoming a part of the public school system in Oakland. She was a director in the Mary R. Smith Trust from its beginning, and took a personal interest in each little girl in the cottage homes. So keen was her concern for handicapped children that at her death she gave her home that the proceeds might help in providing special training for such children.
S. I. S.
Dr. John S. Fulton, secretary of the International Congress on Tuberculosis, since 1907, has resumed at a personal financial sacrifice, the secretaryship of the Maryland State Board of Health. Dr. Fulton has already been connected with the State Board of Health of Maryland and was its secretary for several years before he resigned to accept the position he has just vacated. He succeeds Dr. Marshall L. Price who was medical assistant of the board up to 1907 when he was elected secretary.