Boyville: A History of Fifteen Years' Work Among Newsboys — John Shaqi
Boyville: A History of Fifteen Years' Work Among NewsboysGunckel, John E. (John Elstner)
History
Boyville: A History of Fifteen Years' Work Among Newsboys
Gunckel, John E. (John Elstner)
Newsboys
“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.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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