Old News: 1884

"WHAT'S THE USE OF BEING GOOD"
The Query of a Fast Young Girl to the Police Justice

NEW YORK, Sept. 5. - Caroline Thiel, aged 14 years, smiled sweetly upon Justice Ford at the Essex Market Police Court today when she was placed at the bar to answer a charge of truancy made by her father, Adolph Thiel, of No. 186 Forsyth street. The father said that three weeks ago she fled from home and was now leading a fast life. Agent Young last night met her in the Bowery near Houston street and caused her arrest. She seemed to be glad that she had been arrested.

"I'll be looked upon as great when I come out," she remarked, and smiled at the thought.

"Why are you a bad girl?" the Justice asked.

"What is the use of being good," she said. "You don't see a bit of life."

"Young lady," said the Court sternly, "in years to come you'll regret the step you have taken. The life that looks so charming and bright to you now, how long will it last? Think of the day when you will be like that woman there," said the magistrate, pointing to a drunken woman. "She looks old, don't she? Well, she isn't a day over thirty and she looks sixty." Agent Young will try to learn more of the girl's life, and in the meantime she was locked up.

From the Pittsburgh Evening Penny Press, 5 September 1884