When Mayor James L. Schaadt, of Allentown, Pa., began his office a year
ago, new ideas were inaugurated for evildoers, and generally with good
effect. When but a few days in office, a party of boys were brought
before him on some trivial charge of disorder. The offence needed some
punishment, and the parents were too poor to pay even a small fine. The
Mayor learned the family shingle was still in use in the boys’ homes,
and as the boys were too young to send to the station-house for a day
or two, the Mayor sent the boys home with instructions that they should
be soundly spanked by their parents as a punishment, and to report at
court the next day whether their sentence had been carried out. The
scheme worked well until some of the fathers refused to do it, then the
Mayor did it himself until he tired of it, and finally it was required
to be done in the court-room by the police officer; the plan has worked
well and the number has greatly decreased.
On many prisoners fines are imposed, and he trusts them to be paid on
instalments, and they never fail to satisfy the obligation. It acts as
a deterrent to committing a like crime. Squads of tramps are put to
work on the city streets without guard, and they very soon skip out of
town, fearing re-arrest and a long sentence.