CHAPTER XVI.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, andtheir 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 sellingpapers. 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.ROLL OF HONOR.SOME OF THE BOYS WHO TURNED IN VALUABLE ARTICLES FOUND ON THE STREET.THE BOYVILLE CADETS—WHEN FIRST ORGANIZED.See Page48“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 twoboys 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 manyhours 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.”
CHAPTER XVI.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, andtheir 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 sellingpapers. 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.ROLL OF HONOR.SOME OF THE BOYS WHO TURNED IN VALUABLE ARTICLES FOUND ON THE STREET.THE BOYVILLE CADETS—WHEN FIRST ORGANIZED.See Page48“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 twoboys 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 manyhours 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.”
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, andtheir 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 sellingpapers. 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.
ROLL OF HONOR.SOME OF THE BOYS WHO TURNED IN VALUABLE ARTICLES FOUND ON THE STREET.
ROLL OF HONOR.SOME OF THE BOYS WHO TURNED IN VALUABLE ARTICLES FOUND ON THE STREET.
ROLL OF HONOR.SOME OF THE BOYS WHO TURNED IN VALUABLE ARTICLES FOUND ON THE STREET.
THE BOYVILLE CADETS—WHEN FIRST ORGANIZED.See Page48
THE BOYVILLE CADETS—WHEN FIRST ORGANIZED.See Page48
THE BOYVILLE CADETS—WHEN FIRST ORGANIZED.
See Page48
“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 twoboys 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 manyhours 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.”