CHAPTER VII_West Side Studies: Boyhood and Lawlessness; The Neglected Girl

THE CENTER OF THE PROBLEM

In studying the boy of the Middle West Side we are studying the future

as well as the present of his district; and in gathering together for

a composite picture his various traits which have already been noted,

it will not be out of place to refer once more to certain neighborhood

characteristics which he reflects as well as to some aspects of his

life and environment which have not as yet been illustrated. In this

volume we wish mainly to present the boy as he is today, not to

suggest the method of his regeneration. But an attempt to account for

his peculiarities naturally results in deductions which may seem to

argue a basis for some definite plan of reform; and with an increasing

intimacy with West Side conditions it becomes more and more difficult

to resist the conclusion that many of his vices are forced upon him by

circumstances so strong as to be almost unavoidable.

Stealing, for instance, the theft of anything, but especially of coal

and wood, is, as we have seen, encouraged; it is looked upon absolutely

as a matter of course. The boy is brought up to consider it part of the

daily routine;[48] the winter cold drives home his family’s need for

heat, yet the family income is too slender to allow the purchase of

coal. His mother sends him out to get fuel, and he knows that somehow

he must find it. The line of least resistance is worn smooth in his

neighborhood, and it is natural and easy to fall in with the parental

fiction that the fuel which reaches the tenement has miraculously

dropped from heaven.

This fiction does not apply, however, to the more general “swipin’”

or “crookin’” which consists in stealing on the spur of the moment

any unconsidered trifles which may be lying around. Usually things so

stolen are small and of little value. Boys start out on “crookin’”

expeditions, taking anything edible or vendible that they can lay hands

on; and in this they have the example of older fellows, even married

men, who will steal in a desultory way whenever they have the chance.

“Every time I get a vacant house,” said a wrathful real estate agent

one day, “it means that I’ve got to put in new lead pipes, or new

faucets, or new gas fixtures, or perhaps all of them. The damned crooks

of the neighborhood, young and old, break in and rip them out to sell.”

And a certain settlement had the same experience. When it was first

opened practically every removable thing in the house disappeared,

including even the necessaries for meals.

Here again, though such thefts are far less excusable, the boys have a

definite point of view. They are quite non-moral and have never learned

to consider the question of property. Their code is the primitive code

of might and they look upon their booty as theirs by right of conquest.

Further, the very pressure of poverty is an incentive to stealing for

various ends. They are cigarette fiends--they must have cigarettes.

They are hungry; they crave amusement, and “the movin’ pictures” mean

a nickel. All these things cost money, and when one is penniless and

knows no moral code and sees one’s elders acknowledging none, the

temptation to adopt the tactics of the thief and the thug becomes

almost irresistible.

[Illustration: CARRYING LOOT FROM A VACANT BUILDING]

[Illustration: CLOSED BY THE GANGS]

Much that these boys think and do is the direct result of their natural

propensity to imitate, combined with the fact that they have never

been taught the difference between childhood and manhood. Thus they

learn to fight, to smoke, to drink as their elders do. Fist fights in

the street are of the most common occurrence, particularly among the

young men from sixteen to twenty years of age. To “go down to the docks

and fight it out” is one method of settling all disputes, whether of

politics, love, or personal appearance. Homeric tales are related of

some of these combats. A youth of eighteen demands of a bigger man

an apology for an alleged insult to the former’s sister. The two go

behind a sandpile on the docks, where in the presence of a large group

of witnesses they fight fiercely for several hours until both are

exhausted. Gang fights, as we have said, are frequently settled by a

personal fight between two leaders. These fights sometimes end in one

or both of the combatants being maimed, and, with the rougher element,

occasionally in murder.

The seriousness of a fight between older men in this neighborhood

is recognized, and ordinarily every effort is made to separate the

fighters before they become committed to fight to the finish. If a

man is defeated by the fists of his opponent, he will seize a club, a

bottle, a paving stone, or a revolver, if he can get one, and continue

the fight with this advantage. Very frequently a street fight between

two men results in a feud which will be carried on from day to day,

until one or the other is permanently disabled.

Often these feuds result in the destruction of property, which is

here an accepted way of “getting even.” Tenants who are evicted are

not unlikely by way of revenge to do as much damage as they can to

the apartment before leaving. If one club is at war with another, it

is expected that the stronger will invade the premises of the weaker

and smash up furniture and furnishings. Revenge in this district is

wreaked primarily upon person; failing that, upon property. And this

latter custom has become so prevalent and so much developed that much

damage is done from pure maliciousness and from wanton joy of breaking

and destroying. “Scenery Burned by Vandals” runs a recent newspaper

headline.[49]

Vandals destroyed three truckloads of scenery stored last night on

“The Farm,” in Twelfth Avenue between Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixth

Streets....

Shortly after 11 o’clock last night the first truck was set afire.

The scenery was covered with canvas, and when the firemen arrived

it was a total wreck. Three hours later the other two trucks were

set afire. The trucks also were burned, and the total loss was

estimated at $7,000.

Such outrages are quite common. They are merely a development of the

method employed by West Side toughs for “getting a come-back”; merely a

warning of the fact that the district owns to no law but the law of the

Texan or Corsican Vendetta. Does someone habitually steal clothes from

the wash-line? Then the husband “lays for” him with a club. Does some

man or boy strike a boy on the street? The mother, or father, or big

brother goes down to “get even.” Fear and gang ethics forbid the giving

of information, and the whole neighborhood is saturated with treachery

and suspicion.

With examples of this kind all around him, what wonder that the boy

fights often and recklessly; that he turns naturally to violence; and

that his combats, singly or in gangs, make no demands on the spirit of

fair play?

With regard to smoking, the little West Sider’s indulgence is entirely

unrestrained. On the streets, with his gang, and often in his home,

he smokes incessantly from about the time that he is six years old;

though, of course, to a stranger or a settlement worker he will deny

that he has ever touched a cigarette. A boy’s club in the neighborhood

recently insisted that its members be allowed to smoke during club

meetings. All of them said that they smoked at home and with their

parents’ full knowledge. These were boys ranging from ten to fourteen

years of age. In another club, a boy of thirteen said that it was

impossible for him to refrain from smoking more than half an hour at a

time when he was out of school. Other boys sided with him, saying that

they simply had to smoke. By a vote of the club, however, smoking was

abolished during club meetings. After that, this boy went to the roof

or hallway to smoke at intervals during the session of the club. His

was not an extreme case, although he smoked to greater excess than most

of the boys. And in another club, which was formed away from settlement

influence, it was found practically impossible to keep the majority

of the boys from smoking. They were willing enough to vote to abolish

it, but were unable to adhere to the principle which they themselves

had established. A few parents objected on principle to their boys’

smoking, but they had not the power or opportunity of preventing it.

So the cigarette habit is added to the boy’s vices, and the stunted,

anemic cigarette fiend is a frequent figure on these streets.

In the same way drinking and intoxication come quite naturally into

his life. Beer is a great dinner and supper staple in the tenements,

and every day sees a long procession of women, girls, and boys, filing

with tin pails to the saloon for the evening drink. Most of the girls

make for the “Family Entrance,” though many go unblushingly through

the screen door to the main saloon and come out a moment later with a

foaming pail of beer. Others,--and this is particularly characteristic

of the smaller girls,--ask some lounging male of their acquaintance to

go in and get the beer for them. The deputy usually rewards himself

by a long pull from the pail before he comes out of the saloon. It

is astonishing, however, how large a number even of little girls and

boys ten years old or less, walk boldly out of the front door with

their pails. Almost every saloon has also its line of ragged urchins,

crouched on their hands and knees on the stone doorstep, peering under

the screen at the crowd within. Occasionally, on gala Saturday nights,

a group of men will hold what is known as a “beer racket.” Each one

contributes a sum of money, fifty cents, a dollar, or sometimes more,

to a saloon keeper, who agrees to furnish all the beer they can drink.

The party then retires to a convenient neighborhood roof, and keg after

keg is sent up until the last drinker has succumbed. Usually one or

more boys may be found with the group, overcome with drink.

[Illustration: DE WITT CLINTON PARK

The only city playground on a bright Saturday afternoon]

[Illustration: A FAVORITE PLAYGROUND

The beer pail is frequently refilled during the game]

Little attention is paid by the neighborhood to drunkenness, and among

the boys themselves it is regarded as rather a joke for one of their

number to become intoxicated. The worst feature of intemperance here

is, indeed, not the occasional appearance of a boy intoxicated

but the indifference with which the adults treat such a spectacle.

At the last annual outing of the Tammany leaders in this district a

score or more of unaccompanied boys, from ten to fourteen years old,

managed by hook or crook to join the excursion party, which counted

among its numbers many well known and responsible business men of the

neighborhood. From the time the excursion boat left the landing to

the time it discharged its passengers, on both incoming and outgoing

trips, the excursionists were drenched in a torrent of free beer.

Kegs were tapped a dozen at a time, and in pails, in glasses, in

trayloads of “schooners,” it was rushed to the upper decks so fast that

it sometimes went a-begging even among the hundreds of thirsty West

Siders. Naturally, the small boys got hold of it, and on the way home

a group of them with a gang of immature youths scarcely beyond boyhood

themselves, sequestered a couple of kegs in a nook on the after spar

deck and actually emptied both kegs. When the boat landed several of

them plainly showed the effects of their revel, and one boy of fourteen

was helped ashore by his laughing playmates, his legs reeling, his head

rolling from side to side, and his eyes staring with the dull vacuity

of drunkenness. Among the men, hundreds of whom saw this sight, not a

voice was raised in protest; some laughed; some scolded the boys for

their intemperance; most watched with cynical indifference, as though

this were to be expected.

Thus it is seen that all these vices--drinking, smoking,

ruffianism--come very naturally to the West Side boy. Even if he

realizes them for what they are, he is ill-fitted to resist them. He

sees them all around him from infancy; and, boylike, he makes them his

own through imitation.

Another of the many ways in which this versatile youngster amuses

himself is by playing truant.

The equipment of the typical boy of the Middle West Side when he is

first sent to school is pitiable. Excessive cigarette smoking, the

wrangling atmosphere of the home, the excitement of the street, have

sapped his nervous power. He is restless, easily reduced to sulkiness,

and exceedingly hard to interest. The varied excitement of the streets,

combined with the inevitable cigarette, has lost to him all power of

continued thought or concentration. School itself, like the boy, has

little chance. Perhaps it is lacking in anything which makes a vital

appeal to his nature, but from the first it is handicapped. Not only

is the lure of the streets tremendous, but the bewildered school

teacher is presented with a child who has been born into ignorance and

inexpansibility, reared in an atmosphere of discord and vice, and given

every chance of acquiring disastrous physical and moral habits, before

ever he reached the class room; and the problem that confronts the

teacher is not that of building up a character but of making over one

that is already seriously deformed.

The sources of the truancy habit are undoubtedly to be traced in the

boy’s first acquaintance as an infant with the streets. As we have

seen, he is familiar from babyhood with the bustle and confusion of

street life and his first pleasurable experiences are associated with

it. The atmosphere of the street, its scenes and sounds, permeate the

child’s whole existence and fasten upon him the shackles of habit.

After a year or two of more or less complete subjection of his budding

mind to this influence, the child is expected to exchange without

protest the thrilling, lawless streets for the orderly commonplace of

the school room. Of course he is attracted by the novelty of the latter

for a time, but after that he feels the strain of two conflicting

influences--the lure of the street and the instinct of obedience to

authority. If he wishes to yield to the street, he has the traditions

of generations of truants and any number of conniving playmates to aid

him to escape. And here we have the beginnings of the “delinquency”

which almost inevitably sooner or later leads him to the juvenile

court.[50]

Here is the confession of a ten-year-old truant, which is typical of

school life in the district:

“I used to go to the Fifty-second Street school with Jimmie, but they

made me change to Forty-eighth Street because I stayed away so much. I

would leave home in the morning at school time and then come up here

and play in the streets instead of going to school. I would just hang

around the corners with the other boys or go after loot with them. A

little while ago, Jimmie and I wanted money, and we got a dog to follow

us into a candy store on Eleventh Avenue, and there we tried to sell

it. It was a dandy dog, a thoroughbred, but the storekeeper said he had

two already and wouldn’t buy it. We tried to sell it again but it got

away from us. We tried that with another one once but it was a bum

one. Nobody would buy it, and after spending the whole morning trying,

we gave it a kick and chased it off. Jimmie and I and a bunch of boys

all got a duck apiece in Jersey once and we were able to sell them for

fifty cents apiece.”

“How do you get over to Jersey without paying?”

“That’s easy,” said Jimmie, “you go down to de ferry and wait till two

or t’ree ladies comes in togeder. One of ’em gits two or t’ree tickets

for the bunch, and you step right up in front of the first lady, like

you was her son. The gateman sees the tickets in her hand, and then you

beat it, while she’s tryin’ to explain to the gateman. Coming back is

easier still, ’cos you can always sneak through the wagon, or express,

or employes’ entrances there.”

“When our whole family goes to Jersey,” went on the narrator, “all of

us kids sneak in that way. My father buys tickets and then we walk

through the gates and he refuses to pay for us because he don’t know

us. Just now it is too cold to go to Jersey much, or do anything but

keep in school. Besides I’m on parole now. I have to have a good

conduct card and have to go and see Mr. Carson once in so often and

tell him about what I’m doin’.”

Truancy here is developed into a system, which the youngsters can

adjust to any occasion with the greatest facility. If you start to

school with your books in the morning it is an easy matter to leave

them at a candy store or with a friend, and put in the morning

furthering your own interests on the docks or in the streets. If a

truant officer asks you your name or your business on the streets, one

name is as good as another,--if it is far enough from your own; and

there are many plausible reasons for being out of school, if you can

avoid having to prove them. A placating note to your teacher written

by yourself is as good as one by your mother, if you can only make the

teacher believe that your mother wrote it. After two or three days in

the street, it is necessary to maintain a strict watch over the mail

box, if you would beat your parents to the truant officer’s notice

which will sooner or later be found therein. This notice can be removed

from the box by the judicious use of a bent pin, and communication

between the school and the home is thus indefinitely postponed.

Once these details are arranged, the streets of New York are open to

the boys for a holiday. Money, while not an absolute necessity, is much

to be desired, and there are many ways of obtaining it,--witness the

statement of “Jimmie’s” friend, above. It is against the law for boys

under fourteen years to work, and the greater number of employers to

whom they apply do their best to make this law effective; in any case,

labor as a financial resource makes no strong appeal. But there are

things to sell if you can only get hold of them without being caught.

Pennies may be begged, or stolen from other and smaller children.

Similarly food may be begged when necessary, or obtained unobtrusively

from fruit stand and grocery counters. Jimmie’s friend is by no means

the only boy who starts for school regularly every morning and very

often does not return before nine or ten o’clock at night, staving

off the pangs of hunger (which often seems to be the only form of

homesickness known in this district) through the resources here

described.

Akin to truancy is the “wanderlust.” This passion to get out and away,

travel, and court adventure, comes to the boy of the Middle West Side

as it comes to most boys--and often he obeys its call. The resulting

experiences are usually only a short and amusing incident in his life;

very rarely do they lead to a permanent change. One young adventurer

told of a characteristic trip:

“Denny Murphy came over to our house one morning last summer and said,

‘Red, let’s beat it.’ ‘Sure,’ I said, ‘where to?’ ‘Out west,’ Denny

said. I did not have anything else to do and I thought it would be a

good thing to go west. So that afternoon, Denny and I went over to

Jersey City. Denny had some money. I don’t know where he got it, but

he probably stole it, for he was always crazy about robberies; talked

about ‘pulling off’ robberies and things of that kind, and I knew he

had been in some hold-ups. We were going to go to Philadelphia first,

but I thought we needed more money and could probably get a job in

Paterson. So we took a freight train to Paterson. Got there in the

evening and I tried for a job in the factory. I told the man I had been

getting six dollars a week in another factory and told him I lived in

Paterson, but the manager caught me lying about where I lived and fired

me out. So Denny and I slept that night in the doorway of that same

factory.

“In the morning we both looked around for a job, but there was nothing

doing. Finally I got on a barge and they were going to take me on there

washing dishes and being cabin boy, but there was nothing for Denny

to do, and the boat was going up the river instead of down, so there

wasn’t any use in our staying there; so that night Denny came in and

we slept on the back of the boat. Denny had some more money now--No,

I don’t know where he got it--and we went over to Jersey City again

on the trolley car. Then we caught a freight train for Philadelphia.

The cars were locked and we had to climb clear up and ride on top. We

got down to some town just the other side of Trenton before a brakeman

saw us and booted us off, and then we had to wait there the rest of

the afternoon and get on a coal car which took us to Philadelphia.

We spent that night in a freight car and then got on another freight

train out in the West Philadelphia yards and started west. We climbed

in a box car marked ‘Springfield, Ohio,’ shut the door, and I went to

sleep. When I woke up it was daylight, and the car was in another city.

I supposed it was Springfield but it wasn’t; it was only Harrisburg.

We walked all around the town, but we couldn’t find anything to do,

and finally we got out of money. Along about dark we saw a bellboy, we

thought he was, coming out of a hotel. He was a ‘coon’ in uniform, so

we thought he must be a bellboy. Then Denny said, ‘Here’s our chance

to get money.’ He said we could take a club and come up behind and

blackjack the coon and rob him. So we came up in the dark and just as

we got close up behind him, he turned around and we saw that he was not

a bellboy at all but a policeman. I never knew before they had ‘coon’

policemen anywhere.

“Denny and I beat it for the railroad as fast as we could go. We did

not wait to eat or anything, but caught a freight train that we saw

moving, and when we got on we found we were bound for Philadelphia

again. In the car with us was a ‘coon’ bumming like we were. He wanted

to know who we were and where we were going. We told him we were just

looking around the country, and he wanted to take us south with him.

He said the Southern people were mighty fine people and would surely

give us good jobs if we would go with him as far as Atlanta. We had

come back from the west now and we thought we might as well go south

as anywhere else, so we told him we would go with him. Then I went to

sleep again and when I woke up there wasn’t any coon any more. He had

beat it somewhere and left Denny and me behind.

“We got off the train at a little station called Overbrook, just

outside of Philadelphia, and just as we hit the cinders, two railroad

detectives jumped out from behind the switchhouse and grabbed us both

and that ended our western trip.

“They took us into the city to the House of Detention, where we stayed

over that night and the next two or three days. There was a man there

who treated us fine and made us tell all about ourselves, and after two

or three days he put us on a passenger train and sent us back to New

York. I’ve never tried to go west since.”

Parties and dances, now and then a “grand annual ball” or “fête” at a

dance hall or casino, an occasional visit to a moving picture show,

one or two dilapidated poolrooms, and the sordid and ever-present

saloon--these are practically the only amusements definitely offered to

the West Side boy. And as he casts about for means to supplement them

it is natural for him to turn early to indulgence in sexual immorality,

which he has seen and heard talked of in the tenement and the street

since he began to be old enough to notice anything. His sense of

modesty has been strangled at birth. All round him he is accustomed to

hear obscene terms, the meaning of which any older person will freely

explain in a way which robs them of any moral significance whatever.

There are plenty of “big fellers” and “wise girls” on the streets to

teach him anything that he wishes to know. In the tenements themselves

immoral practices are common even among small children, with the full

knowledge of everyone except their parents, who are nevertheless

apathetically aware of the sins of their neighbors’ children. In a

number of ways the boys here learn, not the truth about reproduction,

for that is very little known here, but about sexual enjoyment and its

many forms of perversion, topics which occupy a large share of the mind

of adolescent youth in this environment. Children of both sexes indulge

freely in conversation which is only carried on secretly by adults in

other walks of life. Certain roofs in the neighborhood have a name as

rendezvous for children and young couples for immoral practices.

In common with other districts of the city the neighborhood has

many sexual perverts, and these furnish an actual menace to the

children. As infants, practically, the boys have heard the same

stories repeated until they regard sexual matters as forbidden, of

course,--and therefore, like smoking cigarettes and gambling, to be

hidden from parents, police, or other authorities,--but with no sense

of abhorrence. Knowledge of the methods of the perverts, on the other

hand, leads to experimentation among the boys, and to the many forms

of perversion which in the end make the degenerate. Self-abuse is

considered a common joke, and boys as young as seven and eight actually

practice sodomy. Every night the doorways are blocked with girls from

fourteen to twenty years of age who lean against the walls and rails,

and talk with the young men, the “talk” occasionally degenerating into

a laughing scuffle. Girls as a rule are never mentioned by the boys

except in club-room stories of the grossest immorality.

Universally these boys lack stamina--physical, mental, moral. They

are incapable of prolonged exertion; a minute or two of fast boxing

exhausts them completely, and only the exceptional ones are able to box

continuously for more than two or three rounds. Their baseball teams

are too apt to “blow up” in the fourth or fifth inning, no matter what

individual cleverness some of the members may have shown, because the

players are so shortwinded and feeble of limb. There are, of course,

a number of well developed athletes among them, but a boy of normal

physique stands out far above his playmates, and those of exceptional

skill are few indeed.

Their mental energies are scattered and undependable. They are

incapable of prolonged thought upon any one subject, and lack

absolutely the concentration which mental discipline can impart. Quick

they may be and clever, but they are seldom deep, and through years of

mental inaction they seem unable to grasp anything like an abstract

idea or principle. Of any except the simplest and most exciting card

games they quickly tire.

The lack of moral stamina is even more evident. They are totally unable

to resist physical temptation of any sort. In fact, their training

seems to offer them no basis of resistance. They are accustomed to

striving not to overcome but to gratify every desire. Lack of privacy

and the hopelessly unmoral attitude of the neighborhood toward all

matters of sex have left them without any moral standards. In deceit

and treachery, the use of superior force and of unfair advantage, they

see nothing to be avoided or ashamed of. Revenge and the fiercest

retaliation for real or fancied injury, accidental or otherwise, are

part of their code. Their life is a struggle for self-preservation, and

they are naturally consummately selfish; for the feelings of others

they have not the slightest thought. Calloused into unmorality they are

unconcernedly cruel, and such a thing as the killing of some boy in a

gang fight will be related in a perfectly matter-of-fact manner. They

have no respect for age or authority.

Two types of boy are common in these streets, widely dissimilar, but

equally pathetic. The first is the boy who wants to “make good,”

but cannot shake off the shackles of association and environment;

the boy “who’d make something of himself yet if given half a show.”

Since leaving school and going to work he has perhaps gone through

the process known as “steadying down” and “getting sensible.” Between

the years of fourteen and seventeen there may have come a loosening

of the old gang ties, a change, and a reshaping. A later period

seems to come when after the excitements of his adolescent years he

may realize, as to the loafing and depredations into which he has

drifted, that “there’s nothing in it.” Sometimes even a boy from a

down-at-the-heels and shiftless family makes a desperate effort to

pull up. But he lacks the tremendous energy to struggle through the

bad name he has gotten by his own career and by identification as “one

of that crew.” His bitterness is natural. “Oh, I know--that is another

of those Fifty-third Street stories about Charlie Harris. I’ve heard

enough of them.” Such a boy is most susceptible at this time to home

and outside influence, and if only the opportunity can be taken it will

be not unlikely to prove the turning point in his life. But too often

there is no one at hand to help him. The West Side boy does not always

respond to kindness. He knows little or nothing of it in his life, and

his native fickleness and dislike of direction make him, especially

after the school age, difficult to handle.

Yet sometimes the effort does succeed. George Ruhl, for instance, was

the oldest of three children in a poor German family. Some years ago,

when one of the settlement workers first knew him, he was unruly and

“difficult” and quite beyond the control of his parents. He refused

to go to school, smoked cigarettes, and got into bad company with his

gang. When he was twelve years old a settlement worker sent him away to

the home of the Salvation Army. The superintendent would not keep him

on account of his bad influence upon the other boys. In order to remove

him from his gang Miss Summers had him sent to a Boys’ Republic. The

leader kept him for two years and gained a remarkably good influence

over the boy. He then placed George on a farm in Massachusetts. George

has turned out well. The owner of the farm, a selectman of the town,

treated him like a member of his own family and trusted him with money

and other important matters. Finally he rented a farm to George and

another boy, and they are prospering. They run a truck farm, raising

also chickens, eggs, and squabs. For many years George sent his mother

ten dollars a month to pay the rent. In 1909 he offered to take the

whole family down to his farm, but Miss Summers advised against this

because it would have imposed too much of a burden upon the boy. Here

is a case in which outside help at the right time worked wonders; and

undoubtedly the same success might result in many others, were there

only more knowledge of the West Side and more voices that would answer

to the call. Meanwhile the boy “who can’t make good” is still with us.

The second type commands pity but deserves few excuses. It is the

boy who refuses to make good. When a boy goes to work even the lax

discipline of the irregularly attended school is absent. West Side

boys are not in demand, and his job is often that of an extra “hand,”

easily turned off, or else it is of a “blind alley” nature. His

delinquency, however, cannot be considered the effect of his job, for

boys of this type naturally seek for a low grade of employment.[51] In

a fit of temper or idleness he surrenders his job; perhaps he loses

it unwillingly. Whole days of enforced freedom will follow. One day

in the streets between weeks of monotonous hardship in the factory

may demoralize a boy. Possibly he hears of another position, which

he thinks will be easier and pay more than the one he has. So he

drops his former job and takes the new one. Before he has been in his

new position long, the memory of his day of idleness on the street

overcomes him, and with a little money in his pocket he quits his

position, and this time he does not hunt up a new one until all his

money is spent. The next logical step is to try to obtain food and

money as long as possible without working for it. And so step by step

has evolved the habitual loafer and hanger-on of saloons, the young man

who brags that he does not earn a living and does not have to earn one.

Two boys known to our workers went through this process and are now

young men. Both live off the earnings of mother and sister, and indeed,

one of them ordered his sister to go to work “or else how could he

live?” The other blacked his sister’s eyes over a similar discussion.

Such things are common on the Middle West Side.

Both of these types are direct and logical products of neighborhood

conditions, just as many of the ways in which the boy finds his

recreation simply announce the fact that he must invent for himself

what his home fails to provide. The boy’s inner life is bleak and

wretched because every normal instinct of youth, all the qualities of

which future men are made, have been sapped and stunted by the gray,

grim neighborhood in which even play is crime. There are ten thousand

hopeless little tragedies on the Middle West Side today; and our only

answer to their appeal is to call for the police.

If the school is at a disadvantage in its labors to build up

character, the juvenile court is even more so. A day at court is a

transient experience and soon forgotten. Even the effects of months of

institutional life are soon outlived under the strong influences of the

street and the gang.

* * * * *

Our picture of the West Side boy is now wellnigh complete. Lawless,

defiant, a nuisance to his neighbors and a menace to his playmates, it

seems as though the future citizen of these streets were little likely

to become other than a burden or a detriment to the whole body politic.

Certainly he and his gang, taking them as they are, have little to

recommend them or help them to offset a notoriety which they have

justly gained.

Of course, their days are not on this account all tears and misery.

That side of the story has been emphasized because it bears upon the

purpose of this study; but if it were the only side these boys would

be almost too impossible to be real. But they are very real, and very

boylike, careless and happy-go-lucky, too young to know--of if they

did know to reflect on--what might have been, taking their world as it

is, and ingeniously determined to make the best of it and have a “good

time,” no matter at whose expense. They are quaint little figures, with

their rich street vocabulary, their heartless and yet almost innocent

paganism, their capacity for achieving the dangerous in amusement

though they bump into every corner on the way. Look at the gang ready

for baseball; its members do not seem overwhelmed by the burden of

juvenile delinquency. Look at the little group “playing hookey” under

the dock; fear of the truant officer seems to sit lightly on the

shoulders of these boys.

No, comedy is no stranger to the Middle West Side; only it is

Meredithian comedy and the laughter which it provokes is thoughtful

indeed. And it is assuredly true that if you would see all that is most

typical of the West Side boy, if you would see him as expressing what

in his life he really is, you must turn your back on comedy and gaze on

the sadder picture. Look at the illustrations and see the boy himself;

then read the following sketch as the caption under the portrait. It is

printed verbatim from the New York _Evening World_ of April 10, 1911,

and for its truth to life it cannot be bettered.

Johnnie Moran, twelve years old, ... was arraigned today ... in the

Children’s Court.

The boy was taken in charge Saturday night by Detectives Carter

and Brown from headquarters, after he had watched his father die

of dropsy thirty-six hours previously; after he had seen the body

robbed by a playmate; after he himself had taken “de old man’s”

watch, and had then gone to play in the street as if nothing out of

the usual had occurred.

Johnnie is undersized. His chest is sunken and his shoulders slope;

his furtive little gray eyes are deep set under a bulging brow,

topped by a shock of hair of no particular color; his small fingers

are cigarette-stained, and his clothes look as if their origin had

been the ash barrel. Here is the story he told an _Evening World_

reporter, while swinging his thin legs unconcernedly from a bench

in the room above the Children’s Court, where the little prisoners

were waiting to be called for trial:

“Me old man was sick a week and three days. I didn’t know what wuz

the matter wid him, and he didn’t neither. He just laid around and

groaned and his legs swelled awful. His name? He wuz named John,

too, and he was a night watchman, when he woiked, down to the dock

at Thoity-seventh Street. Yes, sir, he drinked some mostly before

he went to work in the evenin’. But it didn’t seem to bother him.

No, sir, he never treated me bad; hardly ever licked me.

“The old man never had nothing to eat, ’cept what I bringed him the

first day he wuz sick. Yes, sir, I went to school every day. I wuz

’fraid the troont-off’cer’d git me. The old man didn’t mind--he

just stayed by himself. No, sir, nobody come to see him, and he

never told me to git nobody. After school I’d play in the streets

with the other fellows and I’d git some buns and milk. I didn’t

want much--wuzn’t hungry--and the old man never seemed to want

anything.”

Johnnie produced a wad of chewing gum from some recess of his

jacket and a second later the atmosphere around him reeked with the

odor of mint.

“Thursday night,” he went on, “he wuz took woise. I slept on a

bundle of old things in a corner and in the night I heard the

old man git up and go in the kitchen and sit down there. He

groaned somethin’ awful--like this,” and the boy gave a startling

imitation, “and I couldn’t sleep and I told him to shut up. Then,

after a while, he stopped groaning and when I got up to go to

school I see he wuz nearly all in.

“He told me to tie a rope around him and try and pull him onto the

bed and I did it, but it wuzn’t no use. Then I went out and got a

roll and a glass o’ milk and when I come back he wuz half way onto

the bed, and he didn’t answer when I spoke to him and shook him. I

called him four or five times, but he never answered, and so I went

on to school. I didn’t want the troont-off’cer to git me.

“Yes, sir, I knowed he wuz dead, but I had to go to school. Then

after school was out, I told some of the fellers and two of

’em went up in the room with me, and one of ’em--he wuz a big

boy--took five dollars out of the old man’s pocket and I took his

watch. The big boy--his name wuz Frank Reede--wouldn’t give me none

of the five dollars and he and the other kid run away.

“The next day I got hungry and I told the janitor and he told the

cops and they come and got me and took the old man’s watch to keep

for me. Yes, sir, I’m sorry the old man’s dead. He wuz good to me.

No, sir, me muther is dead. She died when I wuz a year old when we

lived in Thoity-thoid Street. I dunno how long we have been living

in Thoity-seckin Street. What’ll they do with me, Mister?”

What shall we do with him? That is a question which the institutions,

the officials, and the people of New York must answer.

APPENDIX

TABLE 1.--SOURCES FROM WHICH THE NAMES OF THE 294 BOYS STUDIED WERE

OBTAINED

============================================================

Source |Names

------------------------------------------------------+-----

1909 Court list | 202

Big Brother Movement | 43

Special club studies | 10

Charity Organization Society | 8

Additional children of interest in families visited | 20

Known through investigators on other topics | 6

Known through other children | 2

School | 1

Church | 1

Settlement | 1

------------------------------------------------------+----

Total | 294

------------------------------------------------------+----

TABLE 2.--AGES OF BOYS[a]

=====================================================

| BOYS

Age |

+--------+----------

| Number | Per cent

---------------------------------+--------+----------

Less than 8 years | 1 | .3

8 years and less than 10 years | 3 | 1.0

10 years and less than 12 years | 24 | 8.2

12 years and less than 14 years | 71 | 24.3

14 years and less than 16 years | 102 | 35.0

16 years and more | 91 | 31.2

---------------------------------+--------+----------

Total | 292 | 100.0

---------------------------------+--------+----------

[a] Information is not available as to the ages of two of the 294 boys.

TABLE 3.--LENGTH OF RESIDENCE IN THE DISTRICT OF 183 FAMILIES[a]

====================================================

| FAMILIES

Years in district +--------+----------

| Number | Per cent

--------------------------------+--------+----------

Less than 5 years | 13 | 7.1

5 years and less than 10 years | 31 | 16.9

10 years and less than 15 years | 25 | 13.7

15 years and less than 20 years | 26 | 14.2

20 years and more | 88 | 48.1

--------------------------------+--------+----------

Total | 183 | 100.0

--------------------------------+--------+----------

[a] Information is not available as to the length of residence in the

district of 58 of the 241 families.

TABLE 4.--COUNTRY OF BIRTH OF PARENTS[a]

=============================================

Country of birth |Fathers |Mothers

----------------------------+--------+-------

United States | 81 | 92

Ireland | 64 | 72

Germany | 27 | 18

Italy | 17 | 15

Scotland | 7 | 8

England | 6 | 4

Sweden | 4 | 4

France | 4 | 2

Austria | 3 | 2

Russia | 1 | 3

Dalmatia | 2 | 2

Roumania | 2 | 1

Armenia | 1 | 1

Switzerland | 1 | 1

West Indies | 1 | 1

Portugal | | 1

Denmark | 1 |

----------------------------+--------+------

Total | 222 | 227

----------------------------+--------+------

[a] Information is not available as to the country of birth of 19

fathers and 14 mothers in 241 families.

TABLE 5.--NATIONALITY OF AMERICAN-BORN PARENTS[a]

=============+=========+=========+

Nationality | Fathers | Mothers |

-------------+---------+---------+

German | 28 | 28 |

Irish | 21 | 25 |

American | 15 | 18 |

English | 3 | 2 |

-------------+---------+---------+

Total | 67 | 73 |

-------------+---------+---------+

[a] Information is not available as to the nationality of 14 of 81

American-born fathers and of 19 of 92 American-born mothers.

TABLE 6.--TWO HUNDRED FAMILIES CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO NUMBER OF

PERSONS IN HOUSEHOLDS AND NUMBER OF ROOMS OCCUPIED[a]

===============+=========================================================================

| FAMILIES OCCUPYING

+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+---------

---------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+---------

Two | 1 | | 1 | 1 | 1 | | | | 4

Three | 1 | 3 | 13 | 7 | 1 | 1 | | | 26

Four | | 1 | 7 | 11 | 6 | 2 | | | 27

Five | 1 | 3 | 11 | 10 | 2 | | | | 27

Six | | 3 | 12 | 12 | 10 | 4 | | | 41

Seven | | | 4 | 11 | 8 | 1 | | 1 | 25

Eight | | | 4 | 17 | 5 | 2 | | | 28

Nine | | | 2 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 2 | | 13

Ten or eleven | | | | 1 | 4 | 1 | | | 6

less than 15 | | | | | 1 | 2 | | | 3

---------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+---------

Total | 3 | 10 | 54 | 75 | 41 | 14 | 2 | 1 | 200

---------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+---------

[a] Information is not available as to the number of rooms occupied

by one household of three persons, six of four persons, six of five

persons, three of six persons, three of seven persons, three of eight

persons, one of nine persons, and one of 12 persons; as to the number

of persons in two households occupying four rooms; nor as to the number

of rooms occupied or the number of persons in 15 households.

TABLE 7.--LIVING CHILDREN IN 231 FAMILIES[a]

============================+===================

| FAMILIES

Number of living children +--------+----------

| Number | Per cent

----------------------------+--------+----------

One | 12 | 5.2

Two | 28 | 12.1

Three | 28 | 12.1

Four | 34 | 14.7

Five | 44 | 19.0

Six | 36 | 15.6

Seven | 24 | 10.4

Eight | 17 | 7.4

Nine | 5 | 2.2

Ten | 2 | .9

Eleven | 1 | .4

----------------------------+--------+--------

Total | 231 | 100.0

----------------------------+--------+--------

[a] Information is not available as to the number of children in 10 of

the 241 families.

TABLE 8.--STATUS OF MOTHERS IN 222 FAMILIES[a]

=============================+====================

| MOTHERS

Status of mother +---------+----------

| Number | Per cent

+---------+----------

Living and earning wages | 87 | 39.2

Living and not earning wages | 103 | 46.4

Dead | 32 | 14.4

-----------------------------+---------+----------

Total | 222 | 100.0

-----------------------------+---------+----------

[a] Information not available as to the status of the mother in 19 of

the 241 families.

TABLE 9.--CONJUGAL CONDITIONS OF PARENTS IN 233 FAMILIES[a]

===================================+===================

| FAMILIES

Conjugal condition of parents +--------+----------

| Number | Per cent

-----------------------------------+--------+----------

Parents living together | 133 | 57.1

Father dead, mother living[b] | 53 | 22.7

Mother dead, father living[c] | 20 | 8.6

Both parents living, but separated | 15 | 6.4

Both parents dead | 12 | 5.2

-----------------------------------+--------+----------

Total | 233 | 100.0

-----------------------------------+--------+----------

[a] Information is not available as to the conjugal condition of

parents in eight of the 241 families.

[b] In eleven cases where the father was dead and the mother living,

the mother had remarried and the step-father was with the family.

[c] In four cases where the mother was dead, and the father living, the

father had remarried and the step-mother was with the family.

TABLE 10.--RELIEF RECORDS OF 241 FAMILIES

=============================================+===================

| FAMILIES

Record +--------+----------

| Number | Per cent

---------------------------------------------+--------+----------

Known to have received aid: | |

From relief societies | 73 | 30.3

In form of institutional care for children | 17 | 7.1

From other sources | 15 | 6.2

---------------------------------------------+--------+----------

Total | 105 | 43.6

Deducting duplicates[a] | 19 | 7.9

---------------------------------------------+--------+----------

Total | 86 | 35.7

Known not to have received aid | 144 | 59.7

Relief record unknown | 11 | 4.6

---------------------------------------------+--------+----------

Grand total | 241 | 100.0

---------------------------------------------+--------+----------

[a] There were 19 cases in which families were known to have received

relief of more than one of the three kinds specified.

TABLE 11.--DURATION OF RELIEF RECORDS OF 73 FAMILIES KNOWN TO HAVE

RECEIVED AID FROM RELIEF SOCIETIES[a]

================================+===================

| FAMILIES

Duration of record +--------+----------

| Number | Per cent

--------------------------------+--------+----------

Less than 1 year | 15 | 20.5

1 year and less than 2 years | 11 | 15.1

2 years and less than 5 years | 10 | 13.7

5 years and less than 10 years | 19 | 26.0

10 years and less than 15 years | 11 | 15.1

15 years and less than 20 years | 4 | 5.5

20 years and less than 25 years | 3 | 4.1

--------------------------------+--------+----------

Total | 73 | 100.0

--------------------------------+--------+----------

[a] Information is not at all available as to the duration of the

relief records of 13 of the 86 families who were known to have received

aid.

TABLE 12.--COURT DISPOSITION OF CASES INVOLVING 454 ARRESTS AFFECTING

259 BOYS AND 221 FAMILIES[a]

======================+=========+==========+==========

Disposition of cases | Arrests | Boys | Families

| | affected | affected

----------------------+---------+----------+----------

Boy let go | 260 | 197 | 176

Boy paroled | 95 | 83 | 76

Boy sent up | 99 | 75 | 67

----------------------+---------+----------+----------

Total | 454 | 259[b] | 221[b]

----------------------+---------+----------+----------

[a] Information is not available as to the disposition of nine cases

involving arrest.

[b] As some of the boys were arrested more times than one, and as some

of the families had two or more boys who were arrested, these figures

are absolute totals, and not the sums of the other figures in the

columns in which they appear.

TABLE 13.--FINAL DISPOSITION OF 92 WEST SIDE PAROLED CASES AND OF 1,492

PAROLED CASES DISPOSED OF BY THE MANHATTAN COURT IN 1909[a]

=================================+===================+===================

| WEST SIDE CASES | ALL CASES

Final disposition of case +--------+----------+--------+----------

| Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent

---------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------

Discharged or sentence suspended | 78 | 84.8 | 1,264 | 89.5

Committed to institutions | 14 | 15.2 | 148 | 10.5

---------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------

Total | 92 | 100.0 | 1,412 | 100.0

---------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------

[a] Information is not available as to two of the 95 paroled cases and

one case was still pending when the study was concluded.

TABLE 14.--TRUANCY RECORDS OF 215 BOYS, CLASSIFIED AS DELINQUENT OR NOT

DELINQUENT[a]

================================+=========================+=======

| BOYS |

+------------+------------+

Extent of truancy | | Not | Total

| Delinquent | delinquent |

--------------------------------+------------+------------+-------

No truancy | 41 | 43 | 84

Occasional truancy | 17 | .. | 17

Serious truancy | 109 | 1 | 110

Boy physically disqualified for | | |

school attendance | 4 | .. | 4

--------------------------------+------------+------------+-------

Total | 171 | 44 | 215

--------------------------------+------------+------------+-------

[a] Information is not available as to the truancy of 79 of the 294

boys included in the study.

TABLE 15.--STATUS OF 163 BOYS NOT GAINFULLY EMPLOYED[a]

==============================+=======

Status | Boys

------------------------------+-------

Less than 14 years of age | 99

14 years of age or more: |

Attending school | 31

In institutions | 8

Out of work and out of school | 25

------------------------------+-------

Total | 163

------------------------------+-------

[a] Of the 294 boys, 100 were gainfully employed. Information is not

available as to the status of 31 boys.

TABLE 16.--OCCUPATION AND WAGES OF 100 BOYS GAINFULLY EMPLOYED[a]

==========================+=========================================+===========+======

| BOYS EARNING | |

+------+------+------+------+------+------+ Boys |

| $2 | $3 | $4 | $5 | $6 | $7 | whose |

Occupation | and | and | and | and | and | and | earnings | All

| $3 | $4 | $5 | $6 | $7 | more | |

--------------------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+-----------+------

Errand boy | 3 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 22

Office boy | .. | .. | 2 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 15

Piano factory worker | .. | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 14

Driver or driver’s helper | .. | .. | .. | 2 | 2 | 3 | .. | 7

Stock boy | .. | 1 | .. | .. | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5

Printer’s apprentice | .. | .. | .. | .. | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4

Plumber’s apprentice | .. | .. | .. | 1 | 1 | .. | 2 | 4

than piano factory | .. | .. | 1 | .. | .. | 2 | .. | 3

Cashboy | .. | 2 | .. | .. | .. | .. | 1 | 3

Tailor’s helper | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 1 | 2 | 3

Farmhand | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 2 | 2

Checkboy | .. | .. | 2 | .. | .. | .. | .. | 2

Messenger boy | .. | .. | .. | 1 | .. | 1 | .. | 2

Bakery worker | .. | .. | 1 | 1 | .. | .. | .. | 2

worker | .. | .. | .. | 1 | .. | .. | .. | 1

Freight checker | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 1 | .. | 1

Packer | .. | .. | .. | 1 | .. | .. | .. | 1

Garage helper | .. | .. | .. | 1 | .. | .. | .. | 1

Plasterer’s helper | .. | 1 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | ..

Railroad | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 1 | 1

Engineer’s helper | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 1 | 1

Newspaper boy | .. | 1 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 1

Furnace company worker | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 1 | .. | 1

Water works worker | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 1

Clerk | .. | .. | .. | .. | 1 | .. | .. | 1

Prisoner in navy prison | .. | 1 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 1

--------------------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+-----------+------

Total | 3 | 9 | 12 | 21 | 11 | 19 | 24 | 99

--------------------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+-----------+------

[a] Of the 294 boys, 163 were not gainfully employed. Information is

not available as to the status of 31 boys.

REPORT OF CHILDREN’S COURT, 1913

EXCERPTS FROM ANNUAL REPORT COURT OF SPECIAL SESSIONS OF THE CITY OF

NEW YORK

For the Year Ending December 31, 1913

The following tables and charts are taken from the annual report of the

children’s court for the county of New York.

In the preparation of this report the court officials had the active

co-operation of the Committee on Criminal Courts of the Charity

Organization Society. With the approval of Frank Smith, the Chief Clerk

of the Court of Special Sessions, and under the direction of Lawrence

Veiller, Secretary of the Committee, the report was planned and

compiled by George Everson, the Assistant Secretary of the Committee.

These statistics, based on a total of 9,019 cases and representing the

juvenile delinquency of the entire county, make it possible for us to

compare some of the features of juvenile lawlessness on the Middle West

Side with corresponding conditions in the larger area. To quote from

the report:

“The total number of arraignments in the Court for the year 1913

was 9,019. The statistical tables of this report are based on this

large number of cases. Any facts concerning juvenile delinquency in

these statistics should be of permanent scientific value because of

the fact of the large number of cases involved.

“In the present report an effort has been made to put before the

public more detailed information, in the form of statistical tables

and charts, than has been done in previous years. These tables, and

their illustrative graphics, will show to some extent the detail of

the work of the Court and will make available for popular use some

of the information which is carefully tabulated for each case that

comes into the Court during the year.

“Many pertinent and interesting facts concerning juvenile

delinquency are available from the court records. Owing to the

limited time at the disposal of the clerical staff for the

compilation of statistics from the individual records of the Court,

we have heretofore been unable to get as much of the information

before the public as we should like to have done. The assistance

which we have received from the Committee on Criminal Courts of the

Charity Organization Society has made it possible for us to put the

statistics in their present form, they having collaborated with our

staff, at the expenditure of considerable time and money, for which

we are considerably indebted.

“The installation of the probation system, with its very accurate

and detailed records of each case investigated by, or placed in

charge of probation officers, has put many more facts at our

disposal in regard to the family conditions, school and employment

records, etc., of children receiving probationary treatment. It

has been our purpose to include some of these facts of general and

scientific interest in this report.

“CHARTS AND GRAPHICS.--An effort has been made to illustrate the

most pertinent facts brought out in the statistical tables by some

simple charts and graphics; it is hoped that the reader will get at

a glance the gist of the tables so illustrated. In some instances,

the charts have been used to supplement the information included in

the tables accompanying them.

“SPECIAL PROCEEDINGS AND JUVENILE DELINQUENCY DISTINGUISHED.--It

will be noted that throughout the statistical tables distinction

has been made between cases of children arraigned as juvenile

delinquents and children arraigned in special proceedings. An

explanation of these terms may help the reader. The general

distinction, broadly stated, is the same distinction which is

generally made between delinquent and dependent children. Special

Proceedings, however, include beside improper guardianship cases,

so-called, all cases of truancy, ungovernable and disorderly

children, and cases of girls in danger of becoming morally

depraved. While these latter are considered by the Court as being

in need of the care and protection of the State, their offenses

often show evidence of grave moral turpitude, and the Court finds

them to be among the most difficult cases to handle.

“Whenever, in the case of a child brought before the Court on the

charge of juvenile delinquency, it shall appear in the course of

the trial that the child is without proper guardianship, or is in

unfavorable environment, he or she may be adjudged to be in need

of the care and protection of the State, and is then arraigned in

Special Proceedings.

“PROBATION.--Within the last two years great advances have been

made in probation in this Court. A complete and well-organized

system of probation records has been installed, and the Court

has the service of twenty-three probation officers who devote

their entire time and energy to the assistance and reformation

of children placed in their charge by the Court. The results of

their investigations are invaluable to the judge in making his

disposition of the cases, and their work in helping the boys and

girls to become good citizens is a great service to the community.

The only fault which we have to find with the present system is the

fact that the period of probation in general is not long enough to

allow the probation officer to do his best work with the children

under his charge. Table XXX, and its accompanying chart, shows the

length of the probation periods; it will be noted that one-quarter

of the cases are on probation for a period of two months or under,

while 80 per cent of them are for periods of less than six months.

It is the opinion of experts that proper probationary treatment

can be given only when the child is placed under the officer

for sufficient length of time to allow the officer to do really

constructive work with the child, so that it will be of lasting

influence in his life. If the offense is not sufficiently serious

to require a substantial probation period, then it is not of

sufficient importance to have the probation officer spend his time

with the case. In order to have longer probation periods a larger

corps of probation officers will be necessary.

“TRUANCY.--The report shows that there were 62 cases of violation

of the compulsory education law brought into the Court during

the year. Investigations of cases by the probation officers have

disclosed the appalling prevalence of truancy among juvenile

delinquents. Hundreds of cases are on record in the probation rooms

showing that children on probation have been habitual truants

previous to being brought into the Court on delinquency charges.”

Under the group of cases defined as Special Proceedings is often found

the neglected young girl of the accompanying study by Ruth S. True. The

columns in the following tables dealing with girls’ cases will throw

some light on the charges on which she sometimes gets into court.

TABLE ONE

(TABLE XVIII.--Residence by Districts of Children Arraigned during

1913.[52] Report, pp. 72-73.)

========================================+===========================================================+

| JUVENILE DELINQUENCY

+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+

Districts and territory in districts | Male | Female | Total

+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+

----------------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+

Bowery and Catharine St. | 1,002 | 21.0 | 23 | 25.2 | 1,025 | 21.1

Bowery and Catharine St. | 604 | 12.7 | 9 | 9.9 | 613 | 12.6

63d St.[a] | 332 | 7.0 | 6 | 6.6 | 338 | 7.0

and 62d St. | 499 | 10.5 | 10 | 11.0 | 509 | 10.5

109th St.[b] | 667 | 14.0 | 16 | 17.6 | 683 | 14.1

Ave., from 62d St. to 126th St. | 253 | 5.3 | 4 | 4.4 | 257 | 5.3

North of 109th St.[c] | 597 | 12.5 | 12 | 13.2 | 609 | 12.5

St. and 155th St. | 91 | 1.9 | .. | .. | 91 | 1.9

River North of 155th St. | 32 | .7 | .. | .. | 32 | .7

X. All of The Bronx | 529 | 11.1 | 8 | 8.8 | 537 | 11.1

Brooklyn[d] | 113 | 2.4 | .. | .. | 113 | 2.3

All others | 29 | .6 | 2 | 2.2 | 31 | .6

Not stated | 15 | .3 | 1 | 1.1 | 16 | .3

----------------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+

Total | 4,763 | 100.0 | 91 | 100.0 | 4,854 | 100.0

----------------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+

========================================+===========================================================+

| SPECIAL PROCEEDINGS

+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+

Districts and territory in districts | Male | Female | Total

+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+

----------------------------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+

Bowery and Catharine St. | 473 | 17.8 | 235 | 15.5 | 708 | 17.0

Bowery and Catharine St. | 278 | 10.4 | 123 | 8.1 | 401 | 9.6

63d St.[a] | 192 | 7.2 | 152 | 10.0 | 344 | 8.3

and 62d St. | 330 | 12.4 | 235 | 15.5 | 565 | 13.6

109th St.[b] | 306 | 11.6 | 186 | 12.3 | 492 | 11.8

Ave., from 62d St. to 126th St. | 98 | 3.7 | 70 | 4.7 | 168 | 4.0

North of 109th St.[c] | 257 | 9.7 | 161 | 10.6 | 418 | 10.0

St. and 155th St. | 46 | 1.8 | 20 | 1.3 | 66 | 1.6

River North of 155th St. | 22 | .8 | 13 | .9 | 35 | .8

X. All of The Bronx | 308 | 11.7 | 191 | 12.6 | 499 | 12.0

Brooklyn[d] | 36 | 1.3 | 13 | .9 | 49 | 1.2

All others | 145 | 5.5 | 37 | 2.4 | 182 | 4.4

Not stated | 159 | 6.1 | 79 | 5.2 | 238 | 5.7

----------------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+

Total | 2,650 | 100.0 | 1,515 | 100.0 | 4,165 | 100.0

----------------------------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+

========================================+===========================================================+

| ALL CASES

+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+

Districts and territory in districts | Male | Female | Total

+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+

----------------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+

Bowery and Catharine St. | 1,475 | 19.9 | 258 | 16.0 | 1,733 | 19.2

Bowery and Catharine St. | 882 | 11.9 | 132 | 8.2 | 1,014 | 11.3

63d St.[a] | 524 | 7.1 | 158 | 9.8 | 682 | 7.6

and 62d St. | 829 | 11.2 | 245 | 15.4 | 1,074 | 11.9

109th St.[b] | 973 | 13.1 | 202 | 12.6 | 1,175 | 13.0

Ave., from 62d St. to 126th St. | 351 | 4.7 | 74 | 4.6 | 425 | 4.7

North of 109th St.[c] | 854 | 11.5 | 173 | 10.8 | 1,027 | 11.4

St. and 155th St. | 137 | 1.9 | 20 | 1.2 | 157 | 1.8

River North of 155th St. | 54 | .7 | 13 | .8 | 67 | .7

X. All of The Bronx | 837 | 11.3 | 199 | 12.4 | 1,036 | 11.5

Brooklyn[d] | 149 | 2.1 | 13 | .8 | 162 | 1.8

All others | 174 | 2.3 | 39 | 2.4 | 213 | 2.3

Not stated | 174 | 2.3 | 80 | 5.0 | 254 | 2.8

----------------------------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+

Total | 7,413 | 100.0 | 1,606 | 100.0 | 9,019 | 100.0

----------------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+

[a] East of 6th Ave., from 14th St. to 63d St. to 3d Ave.; and 64th

St., from 3d Ave. to East River.

[b] East of 5th Ave., from 63d St. to 3d Ave., and 64th St., between

3d Ave. and East River, to 112th St. to 3d Ave., and 109th St. from 3d

Ave. to the East River.

[c] In Manhattan, East of 8th Ave., North of. 110th St. to 5th Ave.,

and 112th St., from 5th Ave. to 3d Ave., and 109th St., from 3d Ave. to

East River.

[d] Children living in Brooklyn, but arrested in Manhattan.

[Illustration: Chart I

(CHART XIV.--Residence by Districts of Children Arraigned During 1913.

Report, p. 74.)]

TABLE TWO

(TABLE IV.--Nature of Charges.[53] Report, p. 52.)

==================================+===================+===================+===================

| MALE | FEMALE | TOTAL

Charges +--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------

----------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------

a. Assault | 236 | 5.0 | 10 | 11.0 | 246 | 5.1

b. Offenses against property | 1,212 | 25.3 | 25 | 27.4 | 1,237 | 25.4

peace | 584 | 12.3 | 12 | 13.2 | 596 | 12.3

peace | 2,253 | 47.3 | 14 | 15.4 | 2,267 | 46.7

e. Unlawfully employed | 312 | 6.6 | 18 | 19.8 | 330 | 6.8

above | 54 | 1.1 | 4 | 4.4 | 58 | 1.2

g. Unclassified | 112 | 2.4 | 8 | 8.8 | 120 | 2.5

----------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------

h. Total | 4,763 | 100.0 | 91 | 100.0 | 4,854 | 100.0

----------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------

| | | | | |

a. Improper guardianship | 2,199 | 82.9 | 1,271 | 83.9 | 3,470 | 83.3

b. Sex offenses | 18 | .7 | 135 | 8.9 | 153 | 3.7

disorderly children | 376 | 14.2 | 104 | 6.9 | 480 | 11.5

d. Truancy | 57 | 2.2 | 5 | .3 | 62 | 1.5

----------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------

e. Total | 2,650 | 100.0 | 1,515 | 100.0 | 4,165 | 100.0

----------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------

| | | | | |

a. Juvenile delinquency | 4,763 | 64.3 | 91 | 5.7 | 4,854 | 53.8

b. Special proceedings | 2,650 | 35.7 | 1,515 | 94.3 | 4,165 | 46.2

----------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------

c. Grand total | 7,413 | 100.0 | 1,606 | 100.0 | 9,019 | 100.0

----------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------

[a] _Juvenile Delinquency_: _Assault_ includes third degree and

felonious assault; _Offenses against property_ includes burglary,

robbery, grand and petit larceny, and unlawful entry; _Major offenses

against the peace_ includes disorderly conduct as defined by Section

43, Penal Law; carrying dangerous weapons and discharging firearms;

_Minor offenses against the peace_ includes disorderly conduct as

defined under Section 720 and violation of railroad law. _Unlawfully

employed_, includes peddling and violation of the labor law.

[b] _Special Proceedings_: _Improper guardianship_ includes destitute,

neglected, and ill-treated children; _Sex offenses_ includes cases

under Section 353, laws of 1886, and cases of sex immorality defined in

West Side Studies: Boyhood and Lawlessness; The Neglected Girl · 第 7 / 10 章