A dozen or more newsboys can be seen at almost any hour of the day,
dodging here and there around the corners, down alleys, or playing in
the rear of the circulating offices of the great dailies. In all kinds
of weather they will be found at their posts, prompt in delivering
their papers to subscribers, or upon the streets crying the most
important of the many head lines of the transactions of a day. Would
it be possible to get this noisy, hustling crowd of boys together and
gradually to bring this great power, this great force, into a channel
for doing good? To form an association where the boy would be “de whole
thing” with only the hand of man to guide where it was necessary? To
simply push the button? In short, would it result in doing good among
the class of boys who are neglected in more ways than men and women
imagine? Reflection resulted in adopting a name that would imply
everything—
“Boyville.”
It means work with and among newsboys by the boys themselves.
The Boyville Newsboys’ Association.
It was at once organized, and in its preamble of incorporation was
written the Golden Rule. In the formation of Boyville it must not be
understood that its mission was to draw good boys from good homes; but
rather to give help to bad boys, come from where they may, when they
appear on the streets—away from home influences. Whether they come
from the most palatial residences on the shaded avenues, or from the
crowded hovels of alleys, from poorly kept tenements, or even those who
are compelled to sleep in public stairways, barns, or wherever a boy
can creep under shelter without being noticed.
With one hundred and fifty-two newsboys, sellers and bootblacks,
enrolled as active members for life; with an unwritten constitution and
laws that were made to suit conditions, and that were subject to change
at every meeting; with meeting places in alleys, in vacant store-rooms,
theatres or wherever boys could meet on short notice, Boyville was
started. Trustees were chosen from newspaper representatives, and
leading citizens, but the detail work, the real work among the boys,
was placed in the hands of the president—to make a success or failure
of the project. It was first found necessary that the president should
keep in personal daily touch with every boy, not in bunches but each
boy, sellers and bootblacks. A membership card was issued. This card
simply let the public know the bearer was a member of Boyville,
Newsboys’ Association. For this, and all benefits of the association,
the boy paid nothing in money. No assessments of any kind. Nothing
that would permit even a donation. He was simply required to obey the
rules—not to swear, to steal, to play craps, a game so common among
sellers, or smoke cirgarettes.
[Illustration: WHERE THE BOYVILLE NEWSBOYS’ ASSOCIATION WAS ORGANIZED,
DECEMBER 25, 1892.
_See Page 27_
]
There were but three officers, the president, vice-president and
secretary. The two latter, newsboys. Jimmy the newsboy, and Johnny the
bootblack, both leaders of gangs. These two boys were told that the
success of the association depended entirely on their work. They had
charge of the one hundred and fifty-two members. Their first orders
were: “that each boy must watch the other boys and correct a fellow
member for doing anything that would disgrace the association. They
must not wait to see an officer to punish a member for stealing,
swearing or playin’ o’craps. They must not depend on what they heard,
but on what they saw. Take the law into their own hands, and punish on
the spot.”
The end of the first month found twenty-eight membership cards taken
from boys who had violated the rule, “you must not steal,” and nine
taken from boys who smoked cigarettes. The fines were from five to
fifteen days. When the fines numbered fifty membership cards, the
president made arrangements with a theatre to admit the members,
permitting no boy to enter unless he showed his membership card. The
boys who were fined, and did not have their cards, were dealt a pretty
heavy blow, for boys. A little banquet was given and again no boy
admitted to the hall without showing his card. This occasional hit had
its effect in reducing the cards in the hands of the president to an
average of about ten a month.