BOYS “JUMP FREIGHTS” BECAUSE THEY “LIKE TO GO AND SEE PLACES” 20 “WE FOUGHT FOR THE FUN OF IT” 20 A FOOTBALL GAME BETWEEN CITY GANGS 44 “A SHANTY OR CLUBHOUSE IN THE WOODS” 44 AN INADEQUATE PLAYGROUND 170 A MODEL PLAYGROUND 170 INTRODUCTION The gang spirit is the basis of the social life of the boy. It is the spontaneous expression of the boy’s real interests. A boy must have not only companions but a group of companions in which to realize himself. This book had its origin in the minds and hearts of boys still active in their gangs. It is evident that nearly all the activities of boys in their group life are not injurious but wholesome, or can readily be made so. What grown people too often interpret as done from evil motives the boys in the gang do from their love of fun. The educational world has not yet taken the interesting view point, that in the group activities of boys are cultivated the great fundamental virtues, coöperation, self-sacrifice, and loyalty. Now that we are coming to understand and realize what the gang life means, and what can be done with it, the surprise grows that it has until so recently been left almost entirely out of account in the work of helping and saving boys. Mr. Puffer as a graduate student and fellow at Clark University has taken time to acquaint himself with the literature in this and adjacent fields, and as a practical worker has shown himself unusually sympathetic with boys and helpful to them. Mr. Puffer’s writing is uniquely effective and his book ought to be read by all parents and friends of boys. G. STANLEY HALL. WORCESTER, MASS., February 12, 1912. THE BOY AND HIS GANG CHAPTER I THE ETERNAL BOY We adults do not commonly understand boys. Half of us, to be sure, were boys ourselves; but when we became men and settled down to our work, we did not merely put away childish things--we went further and forgot them. To-day, we read a story of boy life and we say, “Why, yes. That’s just the way boys do. I used to do exactly that sort of thing myself.” But the next hour we have forgotten again, and the boy we were is once more a stranger. Boyville is so far removed, both from Delos and from Babylon, that we seldom think the thoughts of its inhabitants, nor see the world with the boys’ eyes. Only a few men are at home in both worlds,--Lindsay, George, some schoolmasters, an occasional father,--and these can do anything with a boy.