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
When investigation revealed the deplorable fact that seventy per cent.
of our newsboys were being educated and trained with their faces
towards jails and penitentiaries, the question arose, how can we
reduce this number, how can we turn their faces towards a better life,
a happier condition, a delightful ending? How make them honorable
citizens, good men, loved by all who know them, an honor to themselves,
to their parents, their friends, the State and city in which they live?
The problem solved itself in personal experiences, convincing us
that we must try to catch the candidates for prison before they have
been debased and to keep them decent. “It is the Christian, decent,
brotherly way for one thing, and it is the cheapest way in dollars and
cents for another.”
It is a rule, rather than an exception, that people have always
considered a newsboy bad, and he is therefore treated accordingly.
Everybody knows or can soon learn to know, that the street is the great
school of crime. Betting and gambling are typical of the combination of
work and play of man and boy that street work produces.
One of the greatest evils of the street was that of begging; of boys
working on the sympathies of the public by taking advantage of men and
women on street-cars or in public places.
Some boys made a business of begging, the majority not from their own
choice, but by compulsion of their parents.
One boy in particular was doing more to injure the success of the
association’s work on the street than hundreds of others who were bad
in other lines.
The father of this boy would wait until the theatres were out, at
night, and instruct the boy to “work the car,” by begging, and if that
failed by forcing papers upon young men who were compelled to purchase
what they did not want.
It took some time, almost a year, to stop this kind of business, and
then the president had to call upon the efficient Humane officer to
stop it. As every case of begging was traced to the fault of parents
the Humane Society had to deal directly with them.
The Boyville association gradually stamped this evil entirely out.
[Illustration: TWO NEW MEMBERS.]
To stop begging, stealing, swearing and gambling, four leading street
evils among the newsboys and in guiding the footsteps of these little
wanderers, for this they are when seen upon the streets of our great
cities, that Boyville came into existence, and it is to co-operate,
when it is possible or desirable, with the parents and the home in
reclaiming boys who have gone astray or are likely to follow paths that
lead to ruin.
There is no greater, stronger sign of love to young or old than when a
friend gives a warning in the right spirit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account