An interesting case came to the president showing how one family can
disgrace an entire neighborhood; can give a bad name to a whole street.
On one of the small narrow streets within the two-mile circle, lived a
family, man woman and five boys. One of the boys, a young man, served a
term in the penitentiary for robbery. The names of two of them appeared
on the police station blotter about three times a year for drunkenness.
It was on account of these boys that the neighborhood gained such a bad
reputation. The other two boys, John and Tom, ages nine and twelve,
were newsboys. Boys who were driven from home, by the parents, “to get
something to eat elsewhere.” They frequently slept in stairways, old
buildings, cellar-ways or any place where they could find shelter from
the storms, or where they thought they would not be disturbed. These
two newsboys were doing more to ruin boys on the street than the entire
membership of the association, and when they came into the president’s
office seeking admission, the president concluded that if these boys
could be saved, and their bad acts turned into good, Boyville would
be a success. It wasn’t necessary to ask them if they were eligible to
membership, if they sold papers, if they were newsboys. Every word,
every act told all that was required. With all the rags, and dirt, and
slang talk, these boys were up-to-date in everything. All the leading
topics of the day were discussed by them. Every base-ball player they
knew by name, and it was discovered that all newsies followed them when
they wanted to get into a ball-ground free, or into a circus. They had
their own way, and without money. They feared nothing. They worked for
themselves only. The little sympathy they had for any one was drowned
in their eagerness to move on. They gave no thought for the morrow.
There was no hesitancy by the officers in giving these boys membership
cards, and when they received them, to the question, “Well, now boys,
what does this mean?” they answered:
“We mean to lick any one as doesn’t do right.”
The vice-president, a smart young man with the courage of a lion, went
to the boys’ home to make an investigation of how they lived, and why
they were so bad when on the streets. Here is what he discovered:
They lived in a small cottage and with a man and woman who were not
their parents. Their own father had died leaving several valuable
pieces of property to his wife, who was again married within a year,
and to a man who soon lost all the property, having spent the money for
liquor. The mother died, and her husband again married in less than a
month, and to a woman who drank as much as he did. This was the home of
the two newsboys.
“They both went to bed, nearly every night, with their clothes on,”
said the officer, “and what the boys had to eat wasn’t fit for a dog.”
The case was left entirely in the hands of the young officers with
instructions to report within a month. In less than the appointed time
a report was made. The two newsboys were brought into the president’s
office, each having on a nice suit of clothes, their faces and hands
clean, and their general appearance and deportment remarkably improved.
“What did you do?” was asked the officer.
“We went to the house and demanded that the boys receive care and
attention for what they were doing—they were bringing into the house
from fifty to sixty cents a day earned by selling papers. And instead
of the drunken man and woman spending this for whiskey, we made them
buy good things to eat. A retail clothier gave us the suits of clothes,
and the boys are simply good, and are working their way on the streets.”
While the boys were working on this case the president reported to the
humane officer the condition of things at this home, and in a very
short time the family was quite respectable and the boys attending
school. To the president, remarkable as seemed the turning of two bad
boys into good, honest little sellers, the work of the two officers of
the association with the parents was even more so.
Self-governing boys. Boys whom we think can do nothing, and seldom
trust, for fear of failing, and yet they brought in line two of the
worst cases Boyville had experienced.
As the weeks passed the two boys became favorites among their little
friends.
One afternoon about six or eight months after the two boys became
members, one of them, the younger, came running into the president’s
office, holding a roll of bills in his hand. Everybody had to get
out of the way. He was followed by the “gang,” some twenty boys, all
looking at the little fellow with wonderment.
[Illustration: ROLL OF HONOR.
SOME OF THE BOYS WHO TURNED IN VALUABLE ARTICLES FOUND ON THE STREET.]
[Illustration: THE BOYVILLE CADETS—WHEN FIRST ORGANIZED.
_See Page 48_
]
“See, here, pres., what I found,” he said, laying fifteen dollars on
the desk. “I found this at the post-office.”
“And what do you want me to do with this?” asked the president. “I
wants you to find the owner. That’s what.”
“Well, why didn’t you blow it in? My! what a fortune you have.”
“Blow it in? Would that be honest? No, sir, as soon as I found de dough
I broughts it to you to tell us what we must do wid it, see?”
“That’s all right,” said the president, “and you are teaching us all
a good lesson. How often we say; ‘it is just like finding it.’ and
even grown people wish they could find money, and would they turn it
over to someone, and ask him to please find the owner? Not that they
would think they were doing anything wrong by keeping what they found;
they simply never thought of trying to find the owner. You have done a
great thing, and here is a bright, new dollar, for your honesty. I will
advertise this in the daily papers for thirty days, and if I can’t find
the owner, it shall all go to you.”
Proudly they walked out of the office, all trying to get closer to the
happy finder, the honest boy.
The money was advertised, and in a few days the rightful owner was
found. He wanted to see the newsboy. For his honesty he presented him
with five dollars, adding: “In six months I want to see you in this
hotel. In one year if you are reported all right by the officers of the
association I want you to write me at this address.” And he handed him
his card, which gave Indianapolis, Indiana, as his home. Six months
passed. The boy met him in the hotel. The officers reported that he was
one of the finest and best boys on the street. A year passed, and one
day he received a letter requesting him to “take the next train for
Indianapolis, provided the president of Boyville says you do not swear,
steal, lie or smoke cigarettes.”
The president could truthfully vouch for all these, and the boy was
sent to his new home. Seven years have passed, and that boy today is
foreman of one of the largest manufacturing institutions in the state
of Indiana.
What effect did the good work of these two boys have upon the family?
It caused them to stand on the street posing as relatives to two honest
boys.
Does it pay to take an interest in a bad boy?
A boy of eleven years of age made application to become a member.
He was approved by the proper officers. A sealed note accompanied
the application. It read: “He is accused of giving wrong change to
customers, and runs away with money.”
As soon as he received his membership card, and badge, and left the
president’s office two officers were on his track. They watched him
sell papers. Three days passed when he “stumbled against something.” A
gentleman in the post-office gave him twenty-five cents for a morning
paper. He had no change, but excused himself to “step across the way
to get it.” Instead of going into the store the little boy started in
a run around the building and was lost from sight. The gentleman made
this remark to a friend: “I might of expected it.” This was overheard
by two newsboys. One said: “Oh, no mister, your money is not lost.
We’ll have it for you in ten minutes. Don’t you be uneasy. You stand
right where you are for a few minutes.”
Out ran the boys, one going to the right, the other to the left, and a
third joined them who took to the alley. In less than ten minutes the
boy was brought to bay, and appeared before the gentleman.
An apology was given, the money returned.
“Don’t you say anything to him,” said one of the newsboys, “we won’t
do a thing to him, oh, no.” The man soon forgot the incident, and will
never know the severe punishment that boy had to bear. They took him in
the alley, bumped his head against the wall of the building, rolled him
in the mud, took his badge from him and with a parting word of advice
left him. The badge was turned over to the president with instructions
to return it to the boy at the expiration of fifteen days. What for?
The president did not know and only learned the particulars a month
later from one of the officers. The boy called for his badge, and it
was given to him without a word.
The books show that this same boy, after leaving the junior grade in
school procured a good position and the proprietor particularly called
attention to him for a peculiar trait. He said: “The boy applied for
work, office work. We gave him a job. He asked particularly how many
hours he must work. When he began and when he stopped. This given, we
were surprised to see that he was at the office every morning two hours
before his time, and pegging away at a typewriter. His wages have been
increased three times. He’ll be one of the firm before we’re through
with him.
“The only recommendation he had was that he was a member of The
Boyville Newsboys’ Association—and this we took. In fact, it proved a
better recommendation than that offered by his mother, who called to
get part of his wages to purchase whiskey.”
_PART FOURTH_
[Illustration: MEMBERS OF THE EAST SIDE AUXILIARY.]