Fathers & Sons

For nearly a year, four small boys, aged 7 to 10, led the police of Rosenberg, Texas (pop. 6,210) a merry chase. The boys stole keys from a used-car lot just for the thrill, broke innumerable light bulbs, tried to set a local dance hall on fire, scooped money off newsstands, broke into at least five stores. All in all, they were arrested a total of 21 times, but on each occasion, they were able to laugh right in the police chief's face. As the boys knew only too well, they were too young for prosecution under Texas law.

The police lectured their fathers in vain. Once, after the boys broke into an auto-parts store, County Judge George Roane summoned the fathers before him and demanded that they make their sons obey. The fathers shrugged, and the boys carried on as usual. They broke into the Greyhound Bus station, later cracked a food market for candy and change. It was then that Judge Roane decided to invoke a new law. "We decided to try the parents," says he, "not the children."

Last week the judge gave each of the fathers six months' suspended sentence with a warning that "if your children commit any more thefts, you will serve the six months in jail." It was the first time in Texas that a parent has been held liable to imprisonment for the crimes of his children. It was also the first time in many a long month that quiet has reigned in Rosenberg.

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