“‘During the year that I have had the charge of Truants, I have been called upon by the teachers of the Grammar and other Schools, to nearly 300 truant and idle children; and for want of some system by which to be governed, my practice has been as far as possible adapted to the circumstances of the case. I first call upon the parents, find out their condition and the character of the boy complained of, in order to know how to proceed with him; admonish him, and always in the first instance take him back to the school to which he belongs. In many cases this course has been sufficient. If called again to the same boy, by the consent of the parents, I have locked him up for a few hours, and given him to understand that a complaint against him would remain on file to be proceeded with if he again offends. This, sometimes, has been enough, but not often. After taking a boy to School two or three times, and he finds that nothing further is done, the Police-man’s badge and staff have no terrors for him. The reason, I think, is this. The law does not reach his case--the Courts say he is not a vagrant, because he has a home--and he is not a stubborn and disobedient child within the meaning of the statute. He is disobedient only so far as he is a truant; and there is no law against truancy. I have been into Court with a number of such cases and did not succeed in sustaining the complaint. The decision was almost fatal to the boy, and a great injury to the School to which he belonged. The only course left for us after this, was to watch the boy until we could arrest him for some trifling offence _known to the law_, and have him punished, which seemed to be necessary for the good of the boy, as well as the School.’ “The above statistics have been obtained in the following manner. During _school hours_ the officer has visited the wharves, public thoroughfares, and all other places where these children congregate, and by kind treatment and persuasion, learned their names and residence, then gone with them to their homes and ascertained their condition, and that of their parents, a record of which is now in this office, and to which additions are daily made.” This brief history of juvenile vagrancy in the city of Boston, whose school system has been so long and justly regarded as her chief glory, will not surprise those who are familiar with scenes at the wharves, railway-stations and steamboat landings of New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore. Innumerable specimens of the same class of young renegades may be seen also at the doors or in the vestibules of public houses in the large inland towns; and unless some mild compulsory process is devised to form them to better habits, it is certain that a severe one will be demanded to protect the community against their violence and depredations.