“Fought with another gang to see which was strongest. Fought with clubs.” “Our gang from our school fought a gang from another school. Fought with sticks and stones. Chase fellows in streets. Split fellows’ heads open.” “Fought with High Street and Water Street gang if they touched one of our gang. Fought with fists.” “Had a regular battle with Sewall Street gang. Made a fort on a hill. Sewall Street gang tried to take fort on us. We pelted them with snow balls. They took it once at seven o’clock while we were eating breakfast. We drove them out over a fence.” Gang fights are very common. The following explanations were given for them: “For the fun of it.” “For the possession of a certain street.” “For the possession of a fort.” “The other gang squealed on them over tearing down a shanty.” “Touched one of our fellows.” “Plagued my brother.” “Picked up a fight by throwing stones.” “Arranged for a fight on the seventeenth of June.” A fight between gangs is often a desperate and sometimes a dangerous affair. It is a fight to a finish; and it calls for the highest kind of courage, loyalty, and self-sacrifice. A small boy often has to fight a large boy on the opposite side, and to hold his undivided attention while the fortunes of war are being settled on another part of the field of battle. In a single-handed fight a boy will acknowledge personal defeat; but in a gang fight, never until the whole gang is worsted. After a group victory, the boys enjoy talking it over, and the little heroes receive high praise from their larger comrades. _A Fight between Federations of Gangs_ “C---- gang fought with E---- gang. Everybody thought the E---- fellows were picking on the little fellows too much. We had it all arranged right, but there was a traitor in our gang. He told the E----s. We met in the middle of the ice on M---- River. Fought with clubs, sticks, and stones. There were about four hundred of our boys and about the same number on their side. We licked. One of our fellows got knocked out. Half of us got it on the arms. The ice broke in on the river and a lot of our fellows pulled the other fellows out. We did not like to see them drown. One little fellow on the other side got drowned. In close quarters where we could not use our clubs, we used our fists.” This story reads like a fairy tale, but it is not. The battle was fought to protect the small boys of C----, as noble a principle in the boys as “Taxation without Representation” was to our fathers.