How has the juvenile court judge been compared to the appellate judge in a custody dispute?

The juvenile court judge was in a position which we are not. He was face to face with the children; he saw and heard the mother, the foster parents, the welfare workers, probation officers, and all the other witnesses. He was in a far better place to make a decision calling for the exercise of discretion than an appellate justice whose only source of guidance is in the cold lifeless pages of the record. As was eloquently stated by Loughran, J., on an appeal involving a parental custody dispute, in People ex rel. Herzog v. Morgan, 287 N.Y. 317, 322, 39 N.E.2d 255, 256: 'Our examination of . . . [the case] has been made with some anxiety because of the nature of the issue. The . . . [trial] judge saw and heard the witnesses. He was face to face with the infants whose paramount interests were to be fostered. The factors that made his duty clear to him can at this distance be seen by us only, as it were, through a glass darkly.'