It would be most difficult to assign a reason that would explain all the conditions that have led young people into crime, but we are sure that vicious and intemperate homes, biting poverty and the godless companions of the streets have had much to do with the criminal records made by this class during the past quarter of a century. When we think of the multiplication of evil resorts, such as the saloons, play houses, bawdy houses, gambling hells, policy shops and other places that harbor young lads for drinking and carousing purposes, my only wonder is that so few go astray. These temptations to crime which are presented in every form to the youth of a modern city are altogether unknown in rural settlements and country villages. [Illustration: A Scene in the Children’s Court, corner of Eleventh Street and Third Avenue.] We are glad to say that only a very small number of the child criminals are girls. And the reason for their downfall in almost every case is due to bad homes and profligate parents. One of the things that impress the visitor to the Tombs prison is the large number of poverty struck faces he meets, the sallow complexions, the sunken cheeks, hectic cough, the glassy eyes and stooping frames, all indicating that the young manhood has been harshly dealt with. Some of these boys are so diminutive, that they look as if they were only ten or twelve years of age, when in reality they are sixteen or eighteen. Here is a sample conversation with a small boy: “Hello Johnny, how are you to-day?” He replies, “I ain’t doing well.” “What brought you here?” He hangs his head and gives no answer. “How old are you?” “I ain’t only sixteen.” “Are your parents living?” “Mother has been dead since I was six years old. But pa, he is living. He gets drunk so often that me runs away from home.” “But how did you get here?” “Oh, when I was hungry I stole money to buy food.” This will account in some measure for the boy’s fall. Think of it—a boy without a mother in a large city like New York! After I had made an investigation I found out that his father was an idler and dissipated and took no interest in his family, and the boy has been under no religious influence since his mother died. Poor boy! His only playground was the street with the denizens of the tenements as his associates, and most of them evil. He hated his home and was glad to get away from it, because there he learned to drink, carouse and curse like his father. That home to him was pandemonium! No wonder he was a thief and in prison. A great many children of the tenements learn to drink beer when very young. They are sent by their parents to the saloon with the “growler” and are sure to drink the beer out of the pail before they return home. Although it is illegal to sell to children of this age, saloon keepers take chances for the money. Thus the child forms an appetite for strong drink and is preparing to be a drunkard or a prostitute.