September 10, 2025
ATE HIS CAKE IN COURT.
Sammy Hopkins Visits the Juvenile
Court and Likes It.
Sammy Hopkins, 4 years old, was visiting the juvenile court yesterday. He was accompanied by an aunt, but she couldn't keep track of him.
"May I eat a piece of sweet cake after the judge gets here?" Sammy asked Dr. E. L. Mathias, probation officer, just before the afternoon session took up. "Yes, if the judge doesn't catch you at it," the doctor said.
So, while Judge E. E. Porterfield sat at the table and heard case after case, Sammy slipped up to the judge's bench, hid behind it and ate a piece of ginger bread. Then with the crumbs on his face, he crawled up into the chair and looked at the judge's back. He was a cute little tyke, and he wore a cap on his head that attracted considerable attention.
Judge Porterfield turned around to look at the boy, and he slid off the chair and crawled back under the bench.
There he went exploring and finally found a piece of gum sticking on the underside of the bench. Manipulating this with outh and fingers, he came running to his aunt to show what he had found.
"Take it back," she whispered, "it belongs to the judge."
So Sammy took the gum back and stuck it where he had found it under the bench.
"I'm going to be in court regular some day," Sammy said, after his aunt had prevailed upon him to talk for publication. "I hopped a street car once and had a policeman chase me half a block.
"Mamma calls me Sammy, but my real name is S. R. I live at 2808 Bell. I go to Sunday school on Nineteenth street near the school house."
Sammy stayed until the court was adjourned at 5 o'clock. Before he left he hunted up Dr. Mathias:
"The judge didn't catch me, did he?" were Sammy's parting words.
Labels: Bell street, children, doctors, Judges, juvenile court, Nineteenth street
