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diff --git a/old/60116-0.txt b/old/60116-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 35595db..0000000 --- a/old/60116-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,12563 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of West Side Studies: Boyhood and Lawlessness; -The Neglected Girl, by Ruth Smiley True - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: West Side Studies: Boyhood and Lawlessness; The Neglected Girl - -Author: Ruth Smiley True - -Contributor: Pauline Dorothea Goldmark - -Release Date: August 17, 2019 [EBook #60116] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WEST SIDE STUDIES: BOYHOOD *** - - - - -Produced by ellinora, Wayne Hammond and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - - - - - - - - - WEST SIDE STUDIES - - CARRIED ON UNDER THE DIRECTION OF - - PAULINE GOLDMARK - - FORMERLY ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR NEW YORK - SCHOOL OF PHILANTHROPY, MEMBER OF - INDUSTRIAL BOARD NEW YORK STATE - DEPARTMENT OF LABOR - - - BOYHOOD - AND LAWLESSNESS - - - THE NEGLECTED GIRL - - By RUTH S. TRUE - - - - -PREFACE TO WEST SIDE STUDIES - - -In the summer of 1912 the field work was completed for the West Side -studies published in these volumes. They are part of a wider survey -of the neighborhood which it was proposed to make under the Bureau -of Social Research of the New York School of Philanthropy with funds -supplied by the Russell Sage Foundation. Dr. Samuel McCune Lindsay, -director of the School, and I were in charge of the Bureau and together -planned the scope and nature of the inquiry. To his inspiriting -influence was due in large measure the enthusiasm and harmonious work -of our staff. - -The investigators in the Bureau were men and women who had been -awarded fellowships by the School of Philanthropy. There were junior -fellowships, given for one year only, and intended to provide training -in social research for students without much previous experience, who -were required to give part of their time to class work and special -reading. There were also senior fellowships given to more advanced -students who devoted full time to investigation. After two years’ work -it was felt that to carry out the original plan satisfactorily would -require the employment of a permanent staff of investigators who were -well trained and equipped. The School, therefore, decided not to carry -the survey further and reorganized the Bureau on a different basis. - -This brief account of the Bureau is needed to explain the special -topics dealt with in these volumes. The personal qualifications of the -investigators as well as the available opportunities for investigation -necessarily determined the choice of subjects. - -A word must be said, too, as to the selection of this particular West -Side district of New York City. These 80 blocks which border upon the -Hudson River, between Thirty-fourth and Fifty-fourth Streets, contrast -sharply with almost all other tenement neighborhoods of the city. They -have as nearly homogeneous and stable a population as can be found -in any part of New York. The original stock was Irish and German. In -each generation the bolder spirits moved away to more prosperous parts -of the city. This left behind the less ambitious and in many cases -the wrecks of the population. Hence in this “backset” from the main -current of the city’s life may be seen some of the most acute social -problems of modern urban life--not the readjustment and amalgamation of -sturdy immigrant groups, but the discouragement and deterioration of an -indigenous American community. - -The quarter which we studied is strangely detached from the rest of -the city. Only occasionally an outbreak of lawlessness brings it to -public notice. Its old reputation for violence and crime dates back -many generations and persists to the present day. So true is this -that we considered it essential at the beginning of our undertaking -to ascertain the main facts of the district’s development. To Otho G. -Cartwright was assigned the task of collecting this material. He did -not make an exhaustive inquiry, but obtained from reliable sources -sufficient information to give the historical background of life in -the district today. His work serves as a general introduction to the -more intensive studies which follow. - -The study of juvenile delinquency, Boyhood and Lawlessness, shows -clearly the need of special intimate knowledge of social phenomena -if their underlying causes are to be understood. It describes the -inadequacies of the present system: the innumerable arrests for petty -offenses or for playing in the streets, and the failure of the police -to bring the ringleaders into court. All this seems so unreasonable -to the neighborhood and has so often aroused its antagonism that the -influence of the Children’s Court is seriously undermined. In fact, -the fathers and mothers of its charges look upon it only as a hostile -authority in league with the police, while its real purpose is entirely -hidden from them. The evidence is clear, too, that both parents and -community have failed to understand and provide for the most elementary -physical needs of the boys. - -The same tragic lack of opportunity and care characterizes the lives -of the girls. Ruth S. True’s portrayal of these lives in The Neglected -Girl rests upon close personal acquaintance with a special group of -girls who, though they were not brought up on charges in the Children’s -Court, yet were without question in grave need of probationary care. - -In neither of these two studies was it possible to suggest adequate -remedies for the evils described. It is true that steps have already -been taken by the Children’s Court to make its probation staff more -effective. But the more fundamental need for modification of the -conditions of the child’s life and environment has still to be -pondered. Clearly it is not the child alone who needs reformation. - -Similarly, Katharine Anthony’s report, Mothers Who Must Earn, reveals -much more than isolated cases of hardship and suffering due to accident -or death. She has studied the social and economic causes which compel -the mother of a family to become a wage-earner, and the consequences -of such employment for her home and family. The occupations where her -services are in demand were carefully examined. The underpayment of -many of the husbands, which drives their already overburdened wives -into wage-earning, is perhaps the most significant fact disclosed. To -relieve such severe economic pressure there is certainly need of more -radical and far-reaching readjustments than can be effected by any one -remedial measure. Relief giving is at best only a temporary stop-gap. -This is rather a labor problem of the utmost gravity, affecting whole -classes of underpaid laborers. - -Indeed, if there is any one truth which emerges from these studies, -it is the futility of dealing with social maladjustments as single -isolated problems. They are all closely interrelated, and the first -step in getting order out of our complexities must be knowledge of what -exists. To such knowledge these studies aim to make a contribution. -They are not intended to prove preconceived ideas nor to test the -efficacy of any special remedies. They aim to describe with sympathy -and insight some of the real needs of a neglected quarter of our -city--“to hold, as it were, the mirror up to nature.” - -The various investigators who took part in the inquiry are given -herewith: Edward M. Barrows, Clinton S. Childs, Eleanor H. Adler, -Beatrice Sheets, and Ruth S. True contributed to the study of the West -Side boy, here published under the title Boyhood and Lawlessness. -Thomas D. Eliot, a junior fellow, also assisted. Associated with Ruth -S. True in the study of the neglected girl, were Ann Campion and -Dorothy Kirchwey. All three shared the responsibility of conducting the -Tenth Avenue club for the observation of the girls described in their -report. The volume Mothers Who Must Earn is the result of work done by -Katharine Anthony, who was assisted in her field work by Ruth S. Waldo, -a junior fellow.[1] - -In the fall of 1912 practically the whole staff at that time employed -devoted two months’ time to inspection of the industrial establishments -of the district, under authority of the New York State Factory -Investigating Commission. The results were published as Appendix V, to -Volume I, of the Commission’s Preliminary Report, 1912. - -Thanks are due to many persons who gave unstintedly of their time to -the various investigators. Our indebtedness is especially great to -the staff of the Clinton District office of the Charity Organization -Society, who brought us in touch with many families in their care, -and through their varied experience helped us in interpreting many -aspects of neighborhood life. Among other agencies, Hartley House -was particularly generous in making us acquainted with its Italian -neighbors and in giving us the opportunity to visit them in their -homes. The teachers of various local schools should also be mentioned -with appreciation for the help they gave us in many ways. - - PAULINE GOLDMARK. - -[Illustration: JUST BOYS! - -Why not make them a community asset?] - - - - - RUSSELL SAGE - FOUNDATION - - BOYHOOD - AND LAWLESSNESS - - WEST SIDE STUDIES - - NEW YORK - SURVEY ASSOCIATES, INC. - MCMXIV - - - - - Copyright, 1914, by - THE RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION - - - [Illustration] - - THE TROW PRESS - NEW YORK - - - - -INTRODUCTION - - -When the Bureau of Social Research began, early in 1909, an -investigation of the Middle West Side, it was soon realized that of -all the problems presented by the district, none was more urgent and -baffling, none more fundamental, than that of the boy and his gang. -His anti-social activities have forced him upon public attention as -an obstruction to law and business and a menace to order and safety. -Because of this lawlessness and because of New York’s backwardness in -formulating wise preventive measures to meet it, a special study of the -West Side boy was begun. - -In order to gain an intimate knowledge of neighborhood conditions which -affect the boy, two men workers, Edward M. Barrows and Clinton S. -Childs, went to live in the district, the former remaining for nearly -two years. During their residence they came in close touch with several -gangs and clubs of boys. Their experiences, while they yielded some -of the most vital and significant material of our study, did not lend -themselves to statistical treatment; they were not recorded in the form -of family and individual histories, but as a running day-by-day diary, -which formed the basis of the chapters dealing with the activities and -the environment of the boys. - -Since the West Side boy, either through personal contact or through -association with gang leaders, is inseparable from the Children’s -Court, attention was naturally drawn to the extent and the result of -his relation to this institution. For this reason the Bureau made a -special study of 294 boys[2] selected from the district with particular -reference to their delinquency and their court records.[3] - -Of these boys 28 were under twelve years, 71 more were fourteen, and -102 more were under sixteen. In view of these significant facts it -became necessary not only to examine the environment of the West Side -boy, but also to estimate the influence of the Children’s Court and -other institutions upon him when toughness, truancy, gambling, or other -temptations had carried him over the brink into real delinquency. -That society should feel itself compelled to resort continually to -the arrest and trial of children is in itself a confession of defeat. -But when even these resources fail, it becomes imperative to analyze -all the factors in the situation; to set the destructive and the -constructive elements over against each other, and to determine the -chances which the boy and the various public and private agencies -organized to regenerate him have of understanding one another. - -To many the study may serve to show at their doors a world undreamed -of; a world in which, through causes which are even now, removable, -youth is denied the universal rights of life, liberty, and happiness. -To the court it may be of use in throwing light into dark places and -in showing where old paths should be abandoned, as well as in offering -suggestions at a critical period in its history. - -And, indeed, every suggestion which will tend to lessen the troubles of -the Middle West Side is peculiarly needed. The whole community--from -molested property owners to the most disinterested social workers--are -agreed that the worst elements rule the streets and that neither police -nor court authority succeed in enforcing decency and order. And the -center of the problem is the boy, for in him West Side lawlessness -finds its most perennial and permanent expression. - -The aim of this study, therefore, is to trace the principal influences -which have formed the West Side boy; to consider some of the means -which have heretofore been employed to counteract these influences; and -to picture him as he is, exemplifying the results of circumstances for -which not he but the entire community is responsible. - - - - -TABLE OF CONTENTS - - - CHAPTER PAGE - - INTRODUCTION ix - - I. His Background 1 - - II. His Playground 10 - - III. His Games 24 - - IV. His Gangs 39 - - V. His Home 55 - - VI. The Boy and the Court 79 - - VII. The Center of the Problem 141 - - APPENDIX. - - Tables 165 - - Excerpts from Report of Children’s Court, - County of New York, 1913 177 - - INDEX 201 - - - - -LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - -Photographs by Lewis W. Hine - - - FACING - PAGE - - Just Boys! _Frontispiece_ - - Tenth Avenue 4 - - Eleventh (“Death”) Avenue 4 - - Bounce Ball with Wall as Base. Property is Safe 10 - - Bounce Ball with Steps as Base. Windows in Danger 10 - - Wading in Sewage-laden Water 20 - - A “Den” Under the Dock 20 - - Pigeon Flying. A Roof Game 28 - - Marbles. A Street Game 28 - - Prize Fighters in Training 34 - - Craps with Money at Stake 34 - - Boy Scouts and Soldiers 40 - - After the Battle 40 - - Resting. What Next? 48 - - Early Lessons in Craps 48 - - Approaching the “Gopher” Age 64 - - One Diversion of the Older Boys 64 - - Replenishing the Wood Box 74 - - A Rich Find 74 - - A Ball Game Near the Docks 82 - - “Obstructing Traffic” on Twelfth Avenue 82 - - “We Ain’t Doin’ Nothin’” 98 - - The Same Gang at Craps 98 - - An Embryo Gangster 122 - - The “Toughest Kid” on the Street 122 - - Carrying Loot from a Vacant Building 142 - - Closed by the Gangs 142 - - De Witt Clinton Park 146 - - A Favorite Playground 146 - - - - -LIST OF TABLES - -APPENDIX - - - TABLE PAGE - - 1. Sources from which the names of the 294 boys - studied were obtained 167 - - 2. Ages of boys 167 - - 3. Length of residence in the district of 183 families 168 - - 4. Country of birth of parents 168 - - 5. Nationality of American-born parents 169 - - 6. Two hundred families classified according to number - of persons in households and number of rooms - occupied 169 - - 7. Living children in 231 families 170 - - 8. Status of mothers in 222 families 170 - - 9. Conjugal condition of parents in 233 families 171 - - 10. Relief records of 241 families 171 - - 11. Duration of relief records of families known to have - received aid from relief societies 172 - - 12. Court disposition of cases involving 454 arrests - affecting 259 boys and 221 families 172 - - 13. Final disposition of 92 West Side paroled cases and - of 1,492 paroled cases disposed of by the Manhattan - Court in 1909 173 - - 14. Truancy records of 215 boys, classified as delinquent - or not delinquent 173 - - 15. Status of 163 boys not gainfully employed 174 - - 16. Occupation and wages of 100 boys gainfully employed 175 - - - - -CHAPTER I - -HIS BACKGROUND - - -The influence of environment on character is now so fully recognized -that no study of juvenile offenders would be complete without a -consideration of their background. In the lives of the boys with whom -this study deals this background plays a very large part. One-third -of the 241 families studied, 82, are known to have lived in the -district from five to nineteen years, and a somewhat larger number, -88, for twenty years or more.[4] This means that the boys belonged -almost completely to the neighborhood. Most of them had lived there -all their lives, and many of them always will live there. If they are -to be understood aright, this neighborhood which has given them home, -schooling, streets to play in, and factories to work in must also be -pictured and understood. - -In New York, owing perhaps to the shape of the island, the -juxtaposition of tenement and mansion is unusually frequent. Walk -five blocks along Forty-second Street west from Fifth Avenue and you -are in the heart of the Middle West Side. The very suddenness of the -change which these blocks present makes the contrast between wealth -and poverty more striking and enables you to appreciate the particular -form taken by poverty in this part of the city. Eighth Avenue, at -which our district begins, looks east for inspiration and west for -patronage. It is the West Sider’s Broadway and Fifth Avenue combined. -Here he promenades, buys his clothes, travels up and down town on the -cars, or waits at night in the long queue before the entrance to a -moving picture show. The pavement is flanked by rows of busy stores; -saloons and small hotels occupy the street corners. There is plenty -of life and movement, and as yet no obvious poverty. On Saturdays and -“sale” days, the neighborhood department stores swarm with custom. - -Ninth Avenue has its elevated railroad, and suffers in consequence -from noise, darkness, and congestion of traffic. Here the storekeeper -can no longer rely on his window to attract customers. He knows the -necessity of forceful advertising, and his bedsteads and vegetables, -wooden Indians and show cases, everywhere encroach upon the sidewalk. -On Saturday nights “Paddy’s Market”[5] flares in the open street, -supplying for a few hours a picturesqueness which is greatly needed. -Poor and untidy as this avenue is, the small tradesmen who live in it -profess to look down on their less prosperous neighbors nearer the -river. - -West of Ninth Avenue tenements begin and rents decrease. At Tenth -Avenue, where red and yellow crosstown cars swing round the corner -from Forty-second Street, you have reached the center of the West -Side wage-earning community, and a street which on a bright day is -almost attractive. Four stories of red brick tenements surmount the -plate glass of saloons and shops. Here and there immense colored -advertisements of tobacco or breakfast foods flame from windowless -side walls, and the ever-present three brass balls gleam merrily in -the sunlight. But the poverty is unmistakable. You see it in the -tradesman’s well-substantiated boast that here is “the cheapest house -for furniture and carpets in the city.” You see it in the small -store, eking out an existence with cigars and toys and candy. You see -it in the ragged coats and broken shoes of the boys playing in the -street; in the bareheaded, poorly dressed women carrying home their -small purchases in oil-cloth bags; in the grocer’s amazing values in -“strictly fresh” eggs; in the ablebodied loafers who lounge in the -vicinity of the corner saloon, subsisting presumably on the toil of -more conscientious brothers and sisters. And in one other feature -besides its indigence Tenth Avenue is typical of this district. At -the corner of Fiftieth Street stands the shell of what was once a -flourishing settlement, and beside it a smaller building which was -once a church. Both, as regards their original uses, are now deserted. -Both are a concrete expression not merely of failure, but of failure -acquiesced in. These West Side streets are more than poor. They have -ceased to struggle in their slough of despond, and have forgotten to be -dissatisfied with their poverty. - -Eleventh Avenue is much more dirty and disconsolate. In its dingy -tenements live some of the poorest and most degraded families of this -district. On the west side of the avenue and lining the cross streets -are machine shops, gas tanks, abattoirs, breweries, warehouses, piano -factories, and coal and lumber yards whose barges cluster around the -nearby piers. Sixty years ago this avenue, in contrast to the fair -farm land upon which the rest of the district grew up, was a stretch -of barren and rocky shore, ending at Forty-second Street in the flat -unhealthy desolation of the Great Kill Swamp. Land in such a deserted -neighborhood was cheap and little sought for, and permission to use it -was readily given to the Hudson River Railroad.[6] Today the franchise, -still continued under its old conditions, is an anomaly. All day -and night, to and from the Central’s yard at Thirtieth Street, long -freight trains pass hourly through the heterogeneous mass of trucks, -pedestrians, and playing children; and though they now go slowly and a -flagman stands at every corner, “Death Avenue” undoubtedly deserves its -name. - -De Witt Clinton Park, the only public play space in the district, lies -westward between Fifty-second and Fifty-fourth Streets. It is better -known as “The Lane” from days, not so long ago, when a pathway here -ran down to the river, and on either side of it the last surviving -farm land gave the tenement children a playground, and the young -couples of the neighborhood a place to stroll in. The usual well kept -and restrained air of a small city park is very noticeable here. -There is almost no grass, the swings and running tracks are, perhaps -necessarily, caged by tall iron fences, and uninteresting asphalt paths -cover a considerable part of the limited area. A large stone pergola, -though of course it has obvious uses, somehow deepens the impression -that an opportunity was lost in the laying out of this place. At -one side of the pergola, however, lie the plots of the school farm in -which small groups of boys and girls may often be seen at work. Little -attempt has been made to develop a play center in the park. On a fine -Saturday afternoon it is often practically empty.[7] - -[Illustration: TENTH AVENUE] - -[Illustration: ELEVENTH (“DEATH”) AVENUE] - -Twelfth Avenue adjoins the Hudson River, losing itself here and there -in wharves and pier-heads. Two of the piers belong to the city, one -being devoted to the disposal of garbage, the other to recreation. -Factories and an occasional saloon are on the inland side, but there -are almost no shacks or tenements. - - * * * * * - -At first sight there are no striking features about the Middle West -Side. Hand-to-mouth existence reduces living to a universal sameness -which has little time or place for variety. In street after street are -the same crowded and unsanitary tenements; the same untended groups -of playing children; the same rough men gathered round the stores -and saloons on the avenue; the same sluggish women grouped on the -steps of the tenements in the cross streets. The visitor will find no -rambling shacks, no conventional criminal’s alleys; only square, dull, -monotonous ugliness, much dirt, and a great deal of apathy. - -The very lack of salient features is the supreme characteristic of -this neighborhood. The most noticeable fact about it is that there is -nothing to notice. It is earmarked by negativeness. There is usually a -lifelessness about the streets and buildings, even at their best, which -is reflected in the attitude of the people who live in them. The whole -scene is dull, drab, uninteresting, totally devoid of the color and -picturesqueness which give to so many poor districts a character and -fascination of their own. Tenth Avenue and the streets west of it are -lacking in the crowds and bustle and brilliant lights of the East Side. -Eleventh Avenue by night is almost dark, and throughout the district -are long stretches of poorly lit cross streets in which only the dingy -store windows shine feebly. Over the East River great bridges throw -necklaces of light across the water; here the North River is dark and -unspanned. - -What is it that has brought about this condition? Why is this part -of New York so utterly featureless and depressing? The answer lies -primarily not with the present or past inhabitants, but in the -isolation and neglect to which for years it has been subjected. Much -of the Middle West Side was once naturally attractive, with prosperous -homesteads and cottages with gardens.[8] But while other parts of -Manhattan were being developed as a city, the Middle West Side was left -severely alone. It was one of the last sections of the city to become -thickly populated. When the first factories arrived, they brought the -tenements in their wake. The worst kinds of tenements were hastily -built--anything was supposed to be good enough for the poor Irish who -settled there; and these tenements have long survived in spite of -their dilapidated condition because until recently there has been no -one who cared for the rough and dull West Sider. East Side problems -were much more picturesque and inviting. So our district has grown up -under a heritage of desolation and neglect, uninteresting to look at, -unpleasant to live in, overlooked, unsympathized with, and neglected -into aloofness, till today its static population is almost isolated -from and little affected by the life of the rest of the city. The -casual little horse car which jingles up Tenth Avenue four times an -hour is typical of the West Sider’s home, just as the Draft Riots of -1863 were typical of his temper. - -The nationalities which largely form the basis of the population -on the Middle West Side are the German and the Irish, the latter -predominating.[9] Peculiar to the district is the large number of -families of the second generation with parents who have been born and -brought up in the immediate neighborhood. - -The nationality of the American-born parents throws additional light -on the subject of racial make-up of the population.[10] There were 81 -American-born fathers and 92 American-born mothers in the 241 families. -The parentage of 67 American-born fathers for whom information was -available was as follows: 28, German; 21, Irish; 15, American; and 3, -English. The parentage of 73 American-born mothers was: 28, German; 25, -Irish; 18, American; and 2, English. The country of birth of parents -of 14 of the American-born fathers and 19 of the American-born mothers -could not be ascertained.[11] - -We are accustomed to regard the German as the best of European -emigrants. He brings with him a thrift and solidity which have taught -us to depend on him. He has been a welcome immigrant as he has become -a successful citizen. Yet here are large numbers of Germans living in -a wild no-man’s-land which has a criminal record scarcely surpassed by -any other district in New York. Surely this is more than a case of the -exception proving the rule. It shows that our estimate of the Middle -West Side is correct. - -The district is like a spider’s web. Of those who come to it very few, -either by their own efforts, or through outside agency, ever leave -it. Now and then a boy is taken to the country or a family moves to -the Bronx, but this happens comparatively seldom. Usually those who -come to live here find at first (like Yorick’s starling) that they -cannot get out, and presently that they do not want to. It is not that -conditions throughout the district are economically extreme, although -greater misery and worse poverty cannot be found in other parts of New -York. But there is something in the dullness of these West Side streets -and the traditional apathy of their tenants that crushes the wish for -anything better and kills the hope of change. It is as though decades -of lawlessness and neglect have formed an atmospheric monster, beyond -the power and understanding of its creators, overwhelming German and -Irish alike. - -Such, in brief, is the background of the West Side boy. It is a gray -picture, so gray that the casual visitor to these streets may think it -over-painted. But this is because a superficial glance at the Middle -West Side is peculiarly misleading. So much lies below the surface. It -is obvious that this district has come to be singularly unattractive, -and that its methods of life are extraordinarily rough. And it is -equally true that hundreds of boys never know any other place or life -than this, and that most of their offenses against the law are the -direct result of their surroundings. The charges brought against them -in court are only in part against the boys themselves. The indictment -is in the main against the city which considers itself the greatest and -most progressive in the New World, for allowing any of its children -to start the battle of life so poorly equipped and so handicapped for -becoming efficient American citizens. Not that these youngsters have -not their share of “devilment” and original sin, but in estimating the -work of the juvenile court with the boys of this neighborhood, it is -absolutely essential to bear in mind not only the crimes they commit, -but their chances for escaping criminality. If heredity and environment -have any meaning, Tenth Avenue has much to answer for. - - - - -CHAPTER II - -HIS PLAYGROUND - - -The boy himself is blissfully untroubled by any serious thoughts about -his background; and to him these streets are as a matter of course a -place to play in. This point of view is perfectly natural for several -reasons: - -In the first place, he has never known any other playground. At the -earliest possible stage of infancy he is turned out, perhaps under an -older sister’s supervision, to crawl over the steps of the tenement or -tumble about in the gutter in front of it, watching with large eyes the -new sights around him. Here he is put to play, and here he learns to -imitate the street and sidewalk games of other boys and girls. He is -scarcely to be blamed for a point of view so universally held that it -never occurs to him to doubt it. - -In the second place, the street is the place that he must play in, -whether he wants to or not. There is no room for him in the house; the -janitor usually chases him off the roof. Excepting De Witt Clinton -Park, which, as has been shown, is small, restricted, and inadequate, -there is no park on the West Side between Seventy-second and -Twenty-eighth Streets. Central Park and New Jersey are too inaccessible -to be his regular playgrounds. And besides, not only will a boy not -go far afield for his games, but he cannot. He is often needed at -home after school hours to run errands and make himself generally -useful. Moreover, to go any distance involves a question of food and -transportation; so that except at times of truancy and wanderlust, -or when he is away on some baseball or other expedition, the street -inevitably claims him. - -[Illustration: BOUNCE BALL WITH WALL AS BASE - -Property is safe] - -[Illustration: BOUNCE BALL WITH STEPS AS BASE - -Windows in danger] - -And in the third place, just because this playground is so natural and -so inevitable, he becomes attached to it. It is the earliest, latest, -and greatest influence in his life. Long before he knew his alphabet it -began to educate him, and before he could toddle it was his nursery. -Every possible minute from babyhood to early manhood is spent in it. -Every day, winter and summer, he is here off and on from early morning -till 10 o’clock at night. It gives him a training in which school is -merely a repressive interlude. From the quiet of the class room he -hears its voice, and when lessons are over it shouts a welcome at the -door. The attractions that it offers ever vary. Now a funeral, now a -fire; “craps” on the sidewalk; a stolen ride on one of Death Avenue’s -freight trains; a raid on a fruit stall; a fight, an accident, a game -of “cat”--always fresh incident and excitement, always nerve-racking -kaleidoscopic confusion. - -No wonder, then, that the streets are regarded by the boy as his -rightful playground. They are the most constant and vivid part of his -life. They provide companionship, invite to recklessness, and offer -concealment. Every year their attraction grows stronger, till their -lure becomes irresistible and his life is swallowed up in theirs. - -But unfortunately for the boy everyone does not agree with him as to -his right of possession. The storekeeper, for instance, insists on the -incompatibility of a vigorous street ball game with the safety of his -plate glass windows. Drivers not unreasonably maintain that the road -is for traffic rather than for marbles or stone throwing. Property -owner, pedestrian, the hardworking citizen, each has a point of view -which does not altogether favor the playground theory. At the very -outset of his career, therefore, in attempting to exercise childhood’s -inalienable right to play, the boy finds himself colliding with the -rights of property; the maintenance of public safety, the enforcement -of law and order, and other things equally puzzling and annoying, -all apparently united in being inimical to his ideas of amusement. -He is too young to understand that in his city’s scheme children -were forgotten. No one can explain to him that he has been born in a -congested area where lack of play space must be accepted patiently; -that life is a process of give and take in which the rights of others -demand as much respect as his own. He does not know that his dilemma is -the problem which eternally confronts the city child. But he does know -that he must play. He has a store of nervous energy and animal spirits -which simply must be let loose. Yet when he tries to play under the -only conditions possible to him he is hampered and repressed at every -turn. Inevitably he revolts; and long before he is old enough to learn -why most of his street games are illegal, fun and law-breaking have -become to him inseparable, and the policeman his natural enemy. - -So far the boy’s attitude is normal. Childish antagonism to arbitrary -authority is natural. In any large town it extends to the police. All -over New York games are played with one eye on the corner and often -with a small scout or two on the watch for the “cop.” But at this -point two facts differentiate the Middle West Side from the rest of the -city, and make its situation peculiar. On the one hand, the parents and -older people of the district, instead of showing the usual indifference -or at most a passive antipathy toward the police, openly conspire -against and are actively hostile to them. On the other, the police, -largely because of this neighborhood feeling, are utterly unable to -cope with the lawless conditions which they find around them. - -This state of things has been brought about in various ways. The lurid -record of criminals in the district has for years necessitated methods -of policing which have not made the Irish temper any less excitable. -Public sentiment here is almost static, and hatred of the police has -become a tradition. No one has a good word for them; everyone’s hand is -against them. The boys look on them as spoil-sports and laugh at their -authority. The toughs and gangsters are at odds with them perforce. -Fathers and mothers, resenting the trivial arrests of their children, -consign the “cop,” the “dinny” (detective), and “the Gerrys” to outer -darkness together. The better class of residents and property owners, -though their own failure to properly support them is partly to blame -for the failure of the police to do their duty, frankly distrust them -for being so completely incompetent and ineffective. And now perhaps -no one would dare to support them. For the toughs of the district -have taken the law into their own hands, and with the relentlessness -and certainty of a Corsican vendetta every injury received by them is -repaid, sooner or later, by some act of pitiless retaliation. Honest -or dishonest, successful or otherwise, the policeman certainly has -a hard time of it. Wherever he goes he is dangerously unpopular. He -cannot be safely active or inactive, and whatever he does seems to add -to his difficulties. Hectored on duty, frequently bullied in court, -misunderstood and abused by press and public alike, he stands out -solitary, the butt and buffer of the neighborhood’s disorder. - -It is scarcely remarkable that under these circumstances the guardian -of the law is bewildered, and tends to become unreasonably touchy and -suspicious. “I tried to start a club in a saloon on Fiftieth Street a -while ago,” said a young Irishman of twenty-five. “After we had had -the club running one night, a policeman came in and asked me for my -license. I told him I didn’t have any. He said he would have to break -up the club then. I kicked about this and he pinched me. They brought -me up for trial next morning, and the judge told me I would have to -close up my club. I asked him why, and said the club was perfectly -orderly and was just made up of young fellows in the neighborhood; and -he said, ‘Well, your club has a bad reputation, and you’ve got to break -it up.’ Now, how could a club have a bad reputation when it had only -been running one day? Tell me that? But that’s the way of it. Those -cops will give you a bad reputation in five minutes if you never had -one before in your life.” “The cops are always arresting us and letting -us go again,” said a small West Sider. “I’ve been taken up two or three -times for throwing stones and playing ball, but they never took me to -the station house yet. You can’t play baseball anywhere around here -without the cops getting you.” And so it has come about that relations -between police and people in this section of New York are abnormally -strained. Provocation is followed by reaction, and reaction by reprisal -and a constant aggravation of annoyances, till the tension continually -reaches breaking point. - -This situation shows very definite results in the boy. Gradually his -play becomes more and more mischievous as he finds it easier to evade -capture. Boylike, his delight in wanton and malicious destruction is -increased by the knowledge that he will probably escape punishment. -Six-year-old Dennis opens the door of the Children’s Aid Society school -and throws a large stone into the hall full of children. Another -youngster of about the same age recently was seen trying for several -minutes to break one of the street lamps. He threw stone after stone -until finally the huge globe fell with a crash that could have been -heard a block. Then he ran off down the street and disappeared around -the corner. No one attempted to stop him; no one would tell who he -was. Later on, the boy begins to admire and model himself on the -perpetrators of picturesque crimes whom he sees walking unarrested in -the streets around him. And by the time that he reaches the gang age -he is usually a hardened little ruffian whom the safety of numbers -encourages to carry his play to intolerable lengths. He robs, steals, -gets drunk, carries firearms, and his propensity for fighting with -stones and bottles is so marked that for days whole streets have been -terrorized by his feuds. Insurance companies either ask prohibitive -rates for window glass in this neighborhood or flatly refuse to insure -it at all. - -Meanwhile the police are not idle. Public opinion and their own -records at the station house demand a certain amount of activity, and -every week the playground sees its arrests. In the following table -we have classified by causes, from our own intimate knowledge of each -individual case, the arrests which took place during 1909 among the -boys of our 241 families. The court’s legal system of classification -has been discarded here in favor of the classification made to show -the real nature of each offense. The result illustrates how entirely -police intervention has failed to meet the issue in the district, and -consequently explains in part why the work of the children’s court with -boys from this neighborhood has not proved more effectual. - -OFFENSES IN 463 CASES OF ARREST AS CLASSIFIED IN THE BUREAU OF SOCIAL -RESEARCH[a] - - Offenses of vagrancy and neglect: - - Truancy 38 - Begging 3 - Selling papers at ten 18 - Selling papers without a badge 5 - Run-away 7 - Sleeping in halls and on roofs 6 - Improper guardianship 12 - General incorrigibility 23 - --- - Total 112 - - Offenses due to play: - - Playing ball 20 - Playing cat 3 - Playing shinny 2 - Pitching craps 26 - Pitching pennies 9 - Throwing stones and other missiles 44 - Building fires in the street 15 - Fighting 6 - --- - Total 125 - -[a] For the classification of these arrests according to the court -charges see Chapter VI, The Boy and the Court, p. 82. - - Offenses against persons: - - Assault 5 - Stabbing 4 - Use of firearms 3 - Immorality 0 - Intoxication 1 - -- - Total 13 - - Offenses against property: - - Illegal use of transfers 1 - Petty thievery 58 - Serious thievery 18 - Burglary, i. e., breaking into houses and theft 36 - Forgery 0 - Breaking windows 4 - Picking pockets 2 - --- - Total 119 - - Offenses of mischief and annoyance: - - Upsetting ash cans 2 - Shouting and singing 6 - Breaking arc lights 3 - Loitering, jostling, etc 12 - Stealing rides on cars 4 - Profanity 1 - -- - Total 28 - - Unknown 73 - --- - Total 470 - - Deducting duplicates 7 - --- - Grand Total 463 - -Not only is this table extraordinarily interesting in itself, but its -importance to our investigation is inestimable, because it brings out -certain features of the problem with a vividness which could not be -equaled in pages of discussion or narrative. - -On the one hand, it is noticeable how large a proportion of the -arrests are for offenses which are more or less excusable in these -boys. Almost every one of their offenses is due to one of four causes: -neglect on the part of the parent, the pressure of poverty, the -expression of pure boyish spirits, or the attempt to play. Thievery, -for instance, particularly the stealing of coal from the docks or -railroad tracks, is quite often encouraged at home. “Johnnie is a good -boy,” said one mother quite frankly. “He keeps the coal and wood box -full nearly all the time. I don’t have to buy none.” And her attitude -is typical. Shouting and singing too, and even loitering, do not seem -on the face of them overwhelmingly wicked. Of course, boys sometimes -choose the most impossible times and places in which to shout and sing, -but is no allowance to be made for “the spirit of youth”? And as for -the arrests for play, they speak for themselves. Some of these games, -played when and where they are played, are unquestionably dangerous to -passersby and property, while others are simply forms of gambling. But -it must be remembered that the West Side boy has nowhere else to play; -that his games are the games which he sees around him, and he plays -them because no one has taught him anything better. The policeman, -however, has no interest in the responsibility of the boys for their -offenses; he is concerned merely with offenses as such, and his arrests -must be determined chiefly by opportunity and by rule. All that we can -ask of him is to be tolerant, broad-minded, and sympathetic--a request -with which he will find it difficult enough to comply if only because -of the atmosphere of hostility against him. - -On the other hand, it is remarkable how seldom the boys are caught -for very serious offenses.[12] Most of the arrests shown here are for -causes which are comparatively trifling. Yet the whole neighborhood -seethes with the worst kinds of criminality, and many of the boys are -almost incredibly vicious. Stabbing, assault, the use of firearms, -acts of immorality, do not appear in this table to an extent remotely -approximating the frequency with which they occur. In other words, the -police absolutely fail to cover the ground. Although a large proportion -of arrests does take place, they are mostly on less important charges, -and often involve any one but the young criminal whose capture is -really desirable. The little sister of one boy who was “taken” -expressed the position exactly when she said, “The only time Jimmy was -caught was when he wasn’t doin’ anything bad.” - -In this way it happens that the fact of a boy’s arrest is no clue -to his character. Again and again boys “get away with” their worst -crimes, secretly committed, in which they are protected from discovery -by the neighborhood’s code of ethics; whereas for minor offenses, of -which they are openly guilty, they are far more likely to be arrested. -Some of the worst offenders may never be caught at all. And if one of -them is taken, it is probably for some technical misdemeanor which -the officer has used less for its own importance than as a pretext -for getting the boy into court. What is the result? The policeman is -lectured by the judge for being an oppressor of the poor, and the boy -is discharged, though his previous record would entitle him to a severe -sentence, as both boy and policeman know. - -Not unnaturally, respect for the court is soon lost, and an arrest -quickly comes to be treated with indifference, or is looked upon merely -as a piece of bad luck, like a licking or a broken window. One boy -recounted recently with amusement how he moved the judge to let him -off: “I put on a solemn face and says, ‘Judge, I didn’t mean to do it; -I’ll promise not to do it again,’ and a lot of stuff like that, and -the judge gives me a talkin’ to and lets me go.” “Gee, that court was -easy!” was the comment of another. “You can get away with anything down -there except murder.” Experiences in the juvenile court are invariably -related with a boyish contempt for the judges, who are looked upon -either as “easy guys to work” or as “a lot of crooks” who “get theirs” -out of their jobs. And so the boy comes back to the streets, and plays -there more selfishly and more recklessly than ever. - -His activities are not confined to the block in which he lives or even -to the streets of his neighborhood. Any kind of space, from a roof or -an area to a cellar or an empty basement, is utilized as an addition to -the playground. But two places attract him particularly. All the year -around at some time of day or night you can find him on the docks. In -summer they provide a ball ground, in winter, coal for his family, and -always a hiding place from the truant officer or the police. Here along -the river front he bathes in the hot weather, encouraged by the city’s -floating bath which anchors close by, and regardless of the fact that -the water is filthy with refuse and sewage. In the stifling evenings, -too, when the band plays on the recreation pier and there are lights -and crowds and “somethin’ goin’ on,” he is again drawn toward the water. - -[Illustration: WADING IN SEWAGE LADEN WATER] - -[Illustration: A “DEN” UNDER THE DOCK] - -And next to the streets and docks he loves the hallways. There is -something about those dark, narrow passages which makes them seem built -for gangs to meet or play or plot in. The youth of the district and -his girl find other uses for them, but the boy and his playmates have -marked them for their games. Neighbors who have no other place to “hang -around in” may protest, but the boys play on. They dirty the floors, -disturb the tenements by their noises, run into people, and if they -are lying here in wait are apt to chip away the wainscoting or tear -the burlap off the walls. But what do they care! It’s all in the day’s -play; and if the janitor objects, so much the better, for he can often -be included in a game of chase. - -Streets, roofs, docks, hallways,--these, then, are the West Side boy’s -playground, and will be for many years to come. And what a playground -it is! Day and night, workdays and holidays alike, the streets are -never quiet, from the half-hour before the factory whistles blow in the -early morning, when throngs of men and boys are hurrying off to work, -to still earlier morning hours when they echo with the footsteps of the -reveler returning home. All day long an endless procession of wagons, -drays, and trucks, with an occasional automobile, jolts and clatters -up and down the avenue. Now and then an ambulance or undertaker’s cart -arrives, drawing its group of curious youngsters to watch the casket -or stretcher carried out. Drunken men are omnipresent, and drunken -women are seen. Street fights are frequent, especially in the evening, -and, except for police annoyance or when “guns” come into play, -are generally regarded as diversions. Every crime, every villainy, -every form of sexual indulgence and perversion is practiced in the -district and talked of openly. The sacredness of life itself finds no -protecting influence in these blocks. There is no rest, no order, no -privacy, no spaciousness, no simplicity; almost nothing that youth, the -city’s everlasting hope, should have, almost everything that it should -not. - -A family from another state moved recently into one of these tenements. -The only child, a boy of fifteen, after several tentative efforts to -reconcile himself to street life, came in and announced his intention -of staying in the flat in leisure time thereafter, as he was shocked -and his finer feelings were hurt by what he saw of the street life -around him. His mother tried to persuade him to go out, but the boy -told her she had no idea what she was doing, and refused to go. He -attempted to take his airings on the roof, but was ordered down by the -janitor. Finally he yielded to his mother’s persuasion and went back to -the street. Within three months this boy, a type of the bright, clean -boyhood of our smaller towns, had become marked by dissipation and had -once even come home intoxicated. - -What chance has the best of boys who must spend two-thirds of his -school days in such a playground? What wonder that he becomes a callous -young criminal, when the very conditions of his play lead him to crime? -The whole influence of such conditions on a child’s life can never -be gauged. But just as apart from his traditions and background he -is incomprehensible as a boy, so, as a wanton little ruffian, he is -unintelligible apart from his playground. This develops his play into -mischief and his mischief into crime. It educates him superficially in -the worst sides of life, and makes him cynical, hard, and precocious. -It takes from him everything that is good; almost everything that -it gives him is bad. Its teachings and tendencies are not civic but -anti-social, and the boy reflects them more and more. Every year he -adds to a history of lawless achievement which the court, police, and -institutions alike have proved powerless to prevent. And every day the -Middle West Side bears witness to the truth of the saying that “a boy -without a playground is the father of the man without a job.” - - - - -CHAPTER III - -HIS GAMES - - -It would be impossible to describe the thousand and one uses to which -the West Side boy puts his playground. After all, the street is not -such a bad place to play in if you have known nothing better; and as -you tumble out of school on a fine afternoon, ready for mischief, it -offers you almost anything, from a fight with your best friend to a -ride on the steps of an ice wagon. But certain games and sports are so -universal in this district as to deserve separate mention. - -Spring is the season for marbles. On any clear day in March or February -you may find the same scene on roadway and sidewalks of every block--a -huddle of multicolored marbles in the middle of a ring, and a group -of excited youngsters, shrieking, quarreling, and tumbling all over -each other, just outside the circle. Instead of the time-honored chalk -ring the boys often use the covers of a manhole, whose corrugated iron -surface offers obstacles and therefore gives opportunity for unusual -skill. Another game consists in shooting marbles to a straight line -drawn along the middle of the sidewalk; thus one such game may be -continued through the whole length of the block. In another the marbles -are pitched against a brick wall or against the curbstone, and the boy -whose marbles stop closest to a chalked mark wins the marbles of all -competitors. - -As the fall days grow shorter and the afternoons more crisp, bonfires -become the rage. The small boy has an aptitude for finding wood at -need in places where one would suppose that no fuel of any kind would -be obtainable. A careless grocer leaves a barrel of waste upon the -sidewalk. In five minutes’ time that barrel may be burning in the -middle of the street with a group of cheering youngsters warming their -hands at the blaze, or watching it from their seats on the curbstone. -The grocer may berate the boys and threaten disaster to the one who -lit the barrel, but he is seldom able to find the culprit. Before the -barrel is completely burned some youngster produces a stick or two -which he has found in an areaway or pulled from a passing wagon, and -adds it to the fire. Stray newspapers, bits of excelsior, rags, and -even garbage are contributed to keep the fire going, regardless of -the effect on the olfactory nerves of the neighborhood. The police -extinguish these fires whenever they can, but the small boy meets this -contingency by posting scouts, and on the alarm of “Cheese it!” the -fire is stamped out and the embers are hastily concealed. The “cop” -sniffs at the smoke and looks at the boys suspiciously, but suspicions -do not bother the boys--they are used to them--and when he has passed -on down the street the fragments of the fire are reassembled and -lighted again. On a cold evening one may see half a dozen of these -bonfires flaming in different directions, each with a group of small -figures playing around them. Sticks are thrust into the fire and waved -in figures in the air; and among them very often circle larger and -brighter spots of light which glow into a full flame when the motion -ceases. These are fire pots, an ingenious invention consisting of an -empty tomato can with a wire loop attached to the top by which to swing -it, and filled with burning wood. This amusement might seem harmless -enough if it were not for the fact that these fire pots, being of small -boy construction, have an unfortunate habit of slipping from the wire -loop just as they are being most rapidly hurled. - -On election night, until recently, the boys’ traditional right of -making bonfires has been observed. These bonfires are sometimes -elaborate. As early as the middle of October the youngsters begin -hoarding wood for the great occasion. They pile the fuel in the rear -of a tenement or in the areaway or basement of some friendly grocer, -or perhaps in a vacant lot or at the rear of a factory. Frequently to -save their plunder they find it necessary to post guards for the few -days preceding election, and even so, bonfire material often becomes -the center of a furious gang fight. A few of the stronger gangs have -a settled policy of letting some other gang collect their fuel for -them, and then raiding them at the last minute. The victors carry the -wood back triumphantly to their own block, and the vanquished are left -either to collect afresh or to make reprisal on a still weaker gang. -This kind of warfare continues even while the fires are burning on -election night. A gang will swoop down unawares on a rival bonfire, -scatter the burning material, and retire with the unburnt pieces to -their own block.[13] A recent election time, however, proved a gloomy -one for the little West Siders. Wagons appeared in the streets, filled -with fire hose and manned by firemen and police. The police scattered -the boys while the firemen drenched the fires, and by 8 o’clock the -streets, formerly so picturesque and so dangerous, presented a sad and -sober appearance. The tenement lights shone out on heaps of blackened -embers and on groups of despairing youngsters who were not even -permitted to stand on the corners and contemplate the destruction of -their evening’s festivities. - -In the winter the shortcomings of the street as a playground are -especially evident. Frost and sleet and a bitter wind give few -compensations for the discomfort which they bring. Traffic, the street -cleaning department, and the vagaries of the New York climate, make -most ways of playing in the snow impossible. But snowballing continues, -in spite of the efforts of the police to prevent it. It is open to the -same objections as baseball in the street, for the freedom which is -possible in the small towns or in the country cannot be tolerated in -a crowded district where a snowball which misses one mark is almost -certain to hit another. Moreover, owing to the facility with which -these boys take to dangerous forms of sport, the practice of making -snowballs with a stone or a piece of coal in the middle and soaking -them in ice water is even more prevalent here than in most other -localities. Of course, snowballing is forbidden and abhorred by the -neighborhood, and everyone takes a hand in chastising the juvenile -snowball thrower. Nevertheless, the afternoon of the first fall is -sure to bring a snow fight, and the innocent passerby is likely to be -involuntarily included in the game. - -Marbles and bonfires and snowballs are the sports of the smaller boys -exclusively, but other games which are less seasonal are played by -old and young alike. “Shooting craps,” for instance, and pitching -or matching pennies, are occupations which endure all the year round -and are participated in by grown men as well as by boys. On a Sunday -morning dozens of crap games are usually in full swing along the -streets. Only two players handle the dice, but almost any number -of bystanders can take part by betting amongst themselves on the -throw--“fading,” as it is called. Pennies, dimes, or dollar bills, -according to the prosperity of the bettor, will be thrown upon the -sidewalk, for craps is one of the cheapest and most vicious forms of -gambling, since there is absolutely no restriction in the betting. -Perfect strangers may join in at will if the players will let them, and -there are innumerable opportunities for playing with crooked dice. It -is one of the chief forms of sidewalk amusements in this neighborhood. - -Up above the sidewalks, on the roofs of the tenements, there is some -flying of small kites, but pigeon flying is the chief sport. It -provides an occupation less immediately remunerative, perhaps, than -games of chance, but developed by the same unmoral tendencies which -seem to turn all play in the district into vice. Some boys, through -methods of accretion peculiar to this neighborhood, have a score or -more of pigeons which are kept in the house, and taken up to the roof -regularly every Sunday, and oftener during the summer, for exercise. -The birds are tamed and carefully taught to return to their home -roofs after flight, but ingenious boys have discovered many ways of -luring them to alien roofs, so that now the sport of pigeon flying is -as dangerously exciting as a commercial venture in the days of the -pirates. Pigeon owners also train their birds to circle about the -neighborhood and bring back strangers. These strangers are taken -inside, fed, and accustomed to the place before they are released -again. On Sunday mornings and Sunday evenings the pigeons are to be -seen flying around the neighborhood, while behind the chimneys of every -fourth or fifth tenement house are crouched one or two small boys armed -with long sticks, occasionally giving a low peculiar whistle to attract -the pigeons coming from distant roofs. The sticks have a triple use. -Pigeon owners use them to force their pigeons to fly for exercise; -the little pigeon thieves on the roofs have a net on the end of their -sticks for catching the bird when it alights; and most pigeons are -trained to remain passive at the touch of the stick so that they may be -picked up easily by their owner. This training, of course, operates to -the advantage of the thief as well as of the owner, and valuable birds -are sometimes lured away and held for ransom. - -[Illustration: PIGEON FLYING. A ROOF GAME] - -[Illustration: MARBLES. A STREET GAME] - -The two chief sports of the Middle West Side--baseball and boxing--are -perennial. The former, played as it always is, with utter carelessness -and disregard of surroundings, is theoretically intolerable, but it -flourishes despite constant complaints and interference. The diamond -is marked out on the roadway, the bases indicated by paving bricks, -sticks, or newspapers. Frequently guards are placed at each end of -the block to warn of the approach of police. One minute a game is in -full swing; the next, a scout cries “Cheese it!” Balls, bats, and -gloves disappear with an alacrity due to a generation of practice, and -when the “cop” appears round the corner the boys will be innocently -strolling down the streets. Notwithstanding these precautions, as the -juvenile court records show, they are constantly being caught. In a -great majority of these match games too much police vigilance cannot be -exercised, for a game between a dozen or more boys, of from fourteen to -eighteen years of age, with a league ball, in a crowded street, with -plate glass windows on either side, becomes a joke to no one but the -participants. A foul ball stands innumerable chances of going through -the third-story window of a tenement, or of making a bee line through -the valuable plate glass window of a store on the street level, or -of hitting one of the passersby. And if the hit is a fair one, it is -as likely as not to land on the forehead of a restive horse, or to -strike some little child on the sidewalk farther down the street. When -one sees the words “Arrested for playing with a hard ball in a public -street” written on a coldly impersonal record card in the children’s -court one is apt to become indignant. But when you see the same hard -ball being batted through a window or into a group of little children -on this same public street, the matter assumes an entirely different -aspect. - -Clearly, from the community’s point of view, the playing of baseball -in the street is rightly a penal offense. It annoys citizens, injures -persons and property, and interferes with traffic. But for all that, -it is not abolished, and probably under present municipal conditions -never will be, simply because there is another point of view, that of -the boy, and his protest against its suppression is almost equally -unanswerable. The store windows are filled with a tempting array of -baseball gloves and bats offered at prices as close as possible to -his means, and every effort is made by responsible business men, who -themselves know the law and the need for order on the streets, to -induce him to buy them. Selling the boy those bats and balls is a -form of business and is perfectly legal. And the boy cannot see why, -after having paid his money for them, the merchant should have all the -benefit of the transaction. The game is in itself perfectly harmless; -and childhood has an abiding resentment against apparently inexplicable -injustice. Perhaps the small boy believes that except for the odds -against him his right to make use of the street in his own way is as -assured as that of anyone else. Perhaps he reflects that he too has to -make sacrifices; that a broken window means usually a lost ball, and a -damaged citizen, a ruined game. At any rate he continues to play, and -as things are, has a fairly good case for doing so. - -This neighborhood is also full of regularly organized ball teams, -ranging in the age of players from ten to thirty years. Many of the -large factories have teams made up of their own employes. Almost every -street gang has its own team, as has almost every social club. These -teams meet in regularly matched games, on the waterfront, in the -various city parks, or over in New Jersey. Practically all the teams, -old and young alike, play for stakes, ranging from two to five dollars -a side. When they do not, they call it simply a “friendly” game. There -is no organization among them; one team challenges another, and the -two will decide on some place to play the game. A few of the adult -teams lease Sunday grounds in New Jersey, but most of them trust to the -chance of finding one. The baseball leaders of the neighborhood usually -have uniforms, and to belong to a uniformed team is one of the great -ambitions of the West Side boy. - -Down on the waterfront the broad, smooth quays offer a tempting -place for baseball, especially on Sundays and summer evenings, when -they are generally bare of freight. But it has one serious drawback, -that a foul ball on one side invariably goes into the river, and the -players must have either several balls or a willing swimmer if the -game is to continue long. One Sunday game, for instance, between two -fourteen-year-old teams, played near the water, cost five balls, -varying in price from 50 cents to $1.00 each. The game was played -before a scrap-iron yard, the high fence of which was used as a -backstop. Fifty feet to the right was the Hudson River. Within a -hundred feet of second base, in the center field, a slip reached from -the line of the river to the street, which was just beyond third base -on the other side. Behind the sixteen-foot fence of the scrap-iron yard -were a savage dog at large and a morose watchman to keep out river -thieves. Thus hemmed in by water on two sides, a street car line and a -row of glass windows on the third side, and a high fence, a savage dog, -and a watchman on the fourth, the boys started the game. In the first -inning a new dollar ball was fouled over the fence into the scrap-iron -yard and the watchman refused to let the boys in to hunt for it. The -game was stopped while a deputation of boys from both sides walked up -to a nearby street to buy a new fifty-cent ball. The first boy up when -the game was resumed batted this ball into the Hudson River, where -a youthful swimmer got it, and climbing ashore down the river, made -away with it. A third ball was secured, and before the game was half -over this ball was batted into the river, where it lodged underneath -a barge full of paving stones which was made fast to the dock, and -could not be recovered. Then a fourth ball was produced. This lasted -till the game was almost finished, though it was once batted deep into -center field, where it bounced into the slip and stopped the game while -it was being fished out. Finally it followed the first ball into the -scrap-iron yard, and neither taunts nor pleas could move the obdurate -watchman to let the boys in to find it. The game was finished with a -fifth ball which was the personal property of one of the boys. On the -occasion of another game in this same place two balls were batted into -the scrap-iron yard and lost while the teams were warming up before -the match began. A third ball was batted into the river twice but both -times it was recovered. Baseball is played on the docks unmodified, but -in the streets the boys make use of various adaptations, some of which -dispense with the bat and in consequence lessen the dangers of the game. - -Ball playing continues sporadically all the year round, and never -loses popularity, but it is, of course, mainly a game for the summer. -During the winter among the small boys, youths, and men alike, boxing -is the all-absorbing sport. It is hard for an outsider to understand -the tremendous hold which prize fighting has upon the boys in a -neighborhood of this kind. Fights are of course of common occurrence, -not only among children but among grown men. This in itself gives a -great impetus to the study of the art of self-defense. Good fighters -become known early in this district. Professional prize fighters are -everywhere; and for every boy who has actually succeeded in getting -into the prize ring on one or more occasions, there are a dozen who are -eager and anxious for an opportunity. The various athletic clubs of -the city always offer chances to boys from fourteen to sixteen years -old to appear in the “preliminaries,” as the boxing contests which -precede the main bout of the evening are called. A boy who gains a -reputation as a street fighter and boxer will be recommended to the -manager of an athletic club as a likely aspirant. He is given a chance -to box in one or two rounds with another would-be prize fighter in a -“preliminary.” If he makes a good showing, he is paid from five to -fifteen dollars according to his ability and experience, and is given -another chance. If he can continue to make favorable appearances in -these preliminaries, he will soon be given a chance of taking part -in a six or eight-round bout at one of the smaller athletic clubs, -and from that time on he takes regular status as a prize fighter, and -accordingly becomes a hero in his circle of youthful acquaintances. -There are many such small prize fighters in our district, none of them -over twenty-one years of age, and all earning just enough to make it -possible to lead a life of indolence. If they can make ten or fifteen -dollars by appearing in a ring once a week, they are quite content. - -But boxing and street fighting by no means always go together on the -Middle West Side. The real professional boxers of the neighborhood -dissociate them in practice as well as in theory; they take their -profession for what it is--a game to be played in a sportsmanlike -manner--and they are usually good-natured. One of the best known prize -fighters of the city, who lives on the Middle West Side, states that -it is years since he was mixed up in a fight of any kind. “I box -because I like the game,” he said, “but I’ve no use for fighting.” - -[Illustration: PRIZE FIGHTERS IN TRAINING] - -[Illustration: CRAPS WITH MONEY AT STAKE] - -Another man, an exceedingly clever lightweight boxer, who has appeared -several times in the ring in New York City clubs, was boxing one night -with a rather crude amateur. The bout was really for the instruction -of the amateur, and both boxers were going very easily by agreement. -Suddenly the amateur landed an unintentionally hard blow upon the eye -of his opponent, just as the latter was stepping forward. The eye -became fearfully discolored and the whole side of the boxer’s face -swelled. But in spite of his evident feeling that the amateur had taken -an unfair advantage in striking so hard when his opponent was off his -guard, the lightweight fighter laughed and submitted to treatment for -the eye without losing his temper in the least, and freely accepted the -apologies of the other. - -This is boxing at its best, but unfortunately its tendencies are more -usually toward unfairness and brutality than otherwise. Boys are taught -to box early in this district. It is not uncommon to see a bout between -youngsters of seven or eight being watched by a crowd of young men, who -encourage the combatants by cheering every successful blow, but pay no -attention to palpable fouls or obvious attempts to take a dishonest -advantage. Even some of the best of the prize fighters frankly say that -once in the ring the extent to which they foul is only a question of -how much they can deceive the referee. And when this questionable code -of ethics is passed on by these heroes and leaders of sentiment to -the boys who have no referee and no thought beyond that of winning by -disabling an opponent as much as possible, the sport degenerates into -an unfair and tricky test of endurance. Striking with the open hand, -kicking, tripping, hitting in a clinch, all these unfair practices -are considered a great advantage if one can “get away with it.” The -West Side youngster sees very little of the real professional boxers -who, from the very nature of their somewhat strenuous employment, must -keep in good condition, as a rule retire early, drink little, and do a -great deal of hard gymnastic work. But of their brutalized hangers-on, -the “bruisers,” who frequent the saloons and street corners and pose -as real fighters, he sees a great deal; consequently, as a whole, -prize fighting must be classed as one of the worst influences of the -neighborhood. It is too closely allied with street fighting, and too -easily turned to criminal purposes. The bully who learns to box will -use his acquired knowledge as a means of enforcing his superiority on -the street, and if he is beaten will have recourse to weapons or any -other means of maintaining his prestige. - -Baseball and boxing bring to a close the list of common outdoor games -played by boys on the Middle West Side,--just ordinary games, modified -by a particular environment and played in a shifting and spasmodic -way which is characteristic of it. It remains to emphasize the lesson -taught by their effects on boy life as they are practiced in this -neighborhood. - -The philosophy of the West Side youngster is practical and not -speculative. Otherwise he could not fail to notice very early in his -career that the world in general, from the mother who bundles him out -of an overcrowded tenement in the morning, to the grown-ups in the -street playground where most of his time is spent, seem to think him -very much in the way. All day long this fact is borne in upon him. -If a wagon nearly runs over him the driver lashes him with the whip -as he passes to teach him to “watch out.” If he plays around a store -door the proprietor gives him a cuff or a kick to get rid of him. If -he runs into someone he is pushed into the gutter to teach him better. -And if he is complained of as a nuisance the policeman whacks him with -hand or club to notify him that he must play somewhere else. Moreover, -everything that he does seems to be against the law. If he plays ball -he is endangering property by “playing with a hard ball in a public -place.” If he plays marbles or pitches pennies he is “obstructing the -sidewalk,” and craps, quite apart from the fact that it is gambling, -constitutes the same offense. Street fighting individually or -collectively is “assault,” and a boy guilty of none of these things may -perforce be “loitering.” In other words he finds that property or its -representatives are the great obstacles between him and his pleasure in -the streets. And in considering our problem neither the principal cause -of this situation nor its results must be lost sight of. - -The great drawback to normal life on the Middle West Side is that it -is a dual neighborhood. Tenements and industrial establishments are -so inextricably mixed that the demands of the family and the needs of -industry and commerce are eternally in conflict. The same streets must -be used for all purposes; and one of the chief sufferers is the boy. -More obvious, however, than this cause of a complex situation are the -results of it, two of which are especially noticeable. The first is the -inevitableness with which the boy accepts--and must accept--illegal -and immoral amusements as a matter of course. The spirit of youth is -forced to become a criminal tendency, and sport and the rights of -property are forced into antagonism. And in the second place, partly -because of this, partly because their association with the toughs of -the street predisposes them to imitate vice and rowdyism, the boys come -to take a positive pleasure in such activities as retaliation by theft -and destruction of property. Stores and basements in this district -are sometimes completely abandoned owing to the stone throwing and -persecution of a youthful gang which has found their occupants too -strenuously hostile or defensive. Undoubtedly the street is the most -inadequate of playgrounds and throws many difficulties of prevention -and interruption in the path of sport. But these obstacles are from -their nature provocative of contest, and sport flourishes with a -Hydra-like vitality. Nothing short of impossibility will keep the boy -and his game apart. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -HIS GANGS - - -It is frequently necessary in these chapters to consider the boy of -the Middle West Side as a type; and in discussing the causes and -possible solution of the conditions which have produced him it is easy -to forget that what the individual boy actually is at the moment is -also of very real importance. But as a matter of fact it is not the -boy individually but the boy collectively that is the policeman’s bane -and the district’s despair. Once on the street the boy is no longer -an individual but a member of a gang; and it is with and through the -gang that he justly earns a reputation which provoked an irate citizen -recently to suggest that for the New York street urchin boiling in -burning oil was too good a fate. The court finds him a little villain, -and newspapers tell the public that he is a little desperado; but those -who know him best know that he is probably worse than either court or -public suppose, and that for this the development of the gang on the -West Side is primarily responsible. - -The formation of “sets” or “gangs” is almost a law of human nature, and -boyhood one of its most constant exponents, for a boy is gregarious -naturally as well as by training. And over here, where the sociable -Irish-American element predominates and children rarely mention the -word “home,” it is inevitable that the gang should flourish and its -members try to find in its activities the rough affection, comfort, -and amusement which a dirty and overcrowded tenement room has failed to -give. - -The West Side gang is in its origin perfectly normal. In the words of -one of the boys, “De kids livin’ on de street jist naturally played -together, an’ stuck together w’en anything came up about kids from -any other street.” Nothing is more entirely natural and spontaneous, -and it is exasperating to reflect that nothing could be a more -persuasive and uplifting power in the boy’s life than the gang’s -development when given proper scope and direction. Its influence is -strong and immediate. The gang contains the friends to whose praise -and criticism he is most keenly sensitive, its standards are his aims, -and its activities his happiness. Untrammeled by the perversion of -special circumstances it might encourage his latent interests, train -him to obedience and loyalty, show him the method and the saving of -co-operation, and teach him the beauty of self-sacrifice. Gang life -at its best does so. The universal endorsement and success of the Boy -Scout movement, for instance, in almost every country living under -Western civilization, shows this most clearly. Association and rivalry -should bring out what is best in a boy; but on the Middle West Side it -almost invariably brings out what is worst. Practically, under present -conditions, it is inevitable that this should be so; but with the first -movement toward amelioration such a result becomes less necessary. - -[Illustration: BOY SCOUTS AND SOLDIERS] - -[Illustration: AFTER THE BATTLE] - -Take the case of a certain gang typical of this neighborhood. This gang -is now several years old, but its membership is almost exactly what it -was four or five years ago. Its members singled each other out from -the throng of children in their immediate neighborhood and first -made for themselves a cave between two lumber piles in a neighboring -yard. All one summer they met in this “hang-out”; here they brought -the “loot,” as they call the product of their marauding expeditions, -threw craps, pitched pennies, played cards, smoked, told stories, and -fought. But they were disturbed by early disaster in the shape of -the business needs of the lumber company, which one day caused their -shack to be torn down over their heads. They made their headquarters -next in the empty basement of a tenement, but soon moved at the well -reinforced request of the landlord. After an exiled period of meeting -on the street corners, the boys conceived the idea of building their -own habitation in the protection of their own homes. They began a small -wooden structure in the areaway of the tenement in which the leader -lived. But civil war broke out, and in one unhappy culmination the -leader of the gang chased his own little brother up two flights of -stairs with a hatchet. The little brother promptly “squealed,” and the -projected headquarters was destroyed by parental decree. - -There followed another interval of meeting on the streets, and then -one of the workers in a neighboring settlement became interested. -She arranged to have the boys hold meetings in the settlement once a -week. They were given certain privileges in the gymnasium and game -rooms also, which kept them happily occupied and away from the street -influences. But the settlement was closed suddenly and the gang went -back to the streets once more. Here is a case in which a gang were from -the outset driven from pillar to post by the deficiencies of their -surroundings as a playground, and made to feel that every man’s hand -was against them. When kindness was shown to them they responded at -once. And scores of other gangs, if they were given the chance, would -respond in the same way. - -There are two salient features of gang life in this neighborhood. Both -can be easily explained and abundantly illustrated; the second alone -applies equally to schoolboy gangs and to adult gangs--for bands of -adult rowdies exist, too, and the semi-mythical “Gopher Gang”[14] is -a terror to conjure with. The first of these features is the loyalty -which the gang invariably shows to a single street or block. As a -gang is naturally formed of boys who live in the same tenement or -next door to each other, or at least in the same block, and as their -chief playground is likely to be the street in front of that block, it -naturally becomes a matter of convenience as well as of honor to defend -that playground from the inroads of any other gang. In this way loyalty -to one block becomes a principle and a basis of gang organization. But -individuals are not always loyal to their home block. If a boy becomes -a member of a gang on Fiftieth Street, for example, and then moves to -Thirtieth Street, or even farther, he may return and continue to belong -to his old gang. Similarly, a Thirtieth Street gang will number among -its ranks former residents who now live in other localities. At the -same time, both gangs are continually being recruited by new arrivals -in the community. When a boy moves he simply uses his own discretion -as to whether to join the new gang or to continue to belong to the old. - -The gang is constantly increasing or decreasing its numbers. It -does not necessarily include the whole street except in a very -general sense. Its nucleus is to be found in probably a dozen or -fifteen kindred spirits in the street. For purposes of war, or for -demonstrations at election time, or on any such occasion when there -is either safety or pleasure in numbers, the other boys in the street -are added to this group. Thus the real Fiftieth Street gang may not -number more than 20 or 25 members, but its fighting strength when -pitted against the Fifty-thirds will be nearly a hundred. Again, -while there may be one group of 15 or 20 boys known as “The Fiftieth -Street Gang,” yet on Fiftieth Street between any two avenues will -be found a dozen or more similar groups, each with a leader and a -coherent social consciousness. The one among these groups which will -be called the Fiftieth Street gang is likely to be so known either -because it contains the boy who, for one reason or another, has become -the recognized street leader, or because its members are better known -or more daring than any other group, so that it will be around this -particular group that all the others will rally when the occasion -calls. The territorial limit of a gang is usually the length of one -single cross street between two avenues. In a single week fights took -place between the Fiftieth Street gang between Tenth and Eleventh -Avenues, and the Fifty-third Street gang in the same district; between -the Forty-ninth Street gang between Ninth and Tenth Avenues combined -with the Forty-ninth Street gang between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues, -and the Forty-seventh Street gang between Ninth and Tenth Avenues. - -Loyalty to their home block would be a good habit in boyish -_camaraderie_ if it merely took the form of peaceable rivalry; but -as gang life exists at present on the Middle West Side it becomes a -chronic incentive to lawlessness. For the second salient feature of -gang life is the propensity of the gang to street fighting. Personal -and collective jealousies and feuds have become so habitual and endless -among the boys here that the history of their gangs is little less than -a record of continuous violence of every kind. No doubt the strain of -the constant repression before alluded to in some measure accounts -for this; but possibly it is due in general to a contact with the -streets and in particular to the bad influence of the older toughs -on whom they model themselves and who often attain heroic position -in their eyes. The boys of gangs in the country play that they are -armies, emperors, or kings that they have read of in books or heard of -in stories told. But the city boys of the West Side prefer to imitate -local celebrities whom they know or local deeds of fame with which -they are more intimately acquainted. And the danger of this vulgarized -hero worship lies in the fact that, while a country lad must imagine -the surroundings and implements for imitating the deeds of story book -heroes, the city boy can find on every side of him the real materials -used by his models, the Gophers. - -The jargon of the thief and the yeggman is common among these boys’ -gangs. They talk casually of murder and robbery as though these were -familiar events in their lives. They lay tentative plans for the -robbery of stores or saloons with no more real intention of commission -than the schoolboy football player has of actual achievement when -he imagines what he would do if his team were playing Yale. They -talk easily and knowingly of “turning off” various people in the -neighborhood, by which they mean robbing them. They threaten each other -with murder and other dire forms of assault, and undoubtedly think that -they mean to carry out their threats. The first active manifestation -of this state of mind consists often in carrying concealed weapons. -The boy obtains a broken revolver from some place or finds or steals -a good one. He will reveal this weapon to his awestruck playmates -and soon come to pose as a bold, ruffianly spirit. Usually this -phase passes away harmlessly enough. Few of the younger residents of -this neighborhood are really armed, though most of them would have -their companions believe that they are. Occasionally some youngster -does manage to carry a revolver, bowie knife, or slingshot, and his -subsequent career is likely to bring him very early into serious -contact with the police. But however late or soon the manifestation, -the gangs are permeated by the tendency to disorder and crime which is -the result of criminal example. It is the old story; only the worst and -most vicious form of the gang spirit has a chance of finding expression -in these streets. And so gang warfare has become not the exception -but the rule, and the violence and ferocity with which the small boys -pursue their feuds excites the alarm of the entire neighborhood. - -“There has always been more or less fighting among the gangs of boys on -the streets,” a physician of long residence recently remarked, “but -they are getting worse in character every year until now it seems that -they will stop at nothing. They carry knives, clubs, and even, I have -heard, revolvers. Sometimes arrests are made, but they never amount -to anything, for the boys are always released without punishment. If -an outsider tries to interfere, ordinarily both gangs turn on him. -They terrorize the neighborhood with their fights, breaking windows -and injuring passersby with stones. Only recently one of these fights -broke out almost in front of my house, and a score or more, most of -them armed with beer bottles, were engaged in it. I got a boy by the -shoulder and asked him what he was doing with the bottle. ‘Oh,’ he -said, ‘I am just taking it to the store to get it filled.’ Then he -laughed in my face and the rest of the gang burst out laughing. I could -do nothing with them, and had to retire to my office.” - -Sometimes fights are more or less unpremeditated, arising from chance -encounters between two rival gangs; but very often they are formally -arranged and generaled in approved military fashion. One evening -recently a furious battle took place between two gangs of small boys -numbering nearly 50 to the gang, and all apparently from eight to -fifteen years old. One gang proceeded down the street from the corner -at which they had assembled and met the other gang coming from the -opposite direction. They stopped about 100 feet apart and formed two -compact masses, screaming and shouting encouragement to their own side -and insults to the enemy. Then one of the gangs moved slowly forward. -Some one among their opponents threw a beer bottle into the advancing -crowd, and a scene of wild riot followed. Clubs, stones, and beer -bottles were hurled through the air, many of them taking effect and -many of the bottles smashing on the pavement. A crowd gathered on both -sides behind the combatants and windows on all sides were filled with -spectators. None of the boys came into personal contact with their -opponents. Most of them contented themselves with hurling missiles -indiscriminately into the opposing group. In the midst of the mêlée two -boys were maneuvering for over a minute, each armed with a beer bottle -which he was trying to land on his opponent from a distance of not more -than eight or ten feet. They ducked, dodged, and side-stepped, then -finally one boy threw his bottle. The other boy dropped flat to the -pavement and the bottle came so close to his body that it looked for -an instant as though it had hit him. If it had, it might easily have -killed him, for it was hurled with terrific force. But the boy sprang -up and threw his bottle at the other youngster, who was now retreating. - -Just as it was growing dark someone fired two shots from a -revolver--whether loaded with blank or bullet cartridges it was of -course impossible to tell--and now for the first time protest from the -spectators began to rise even above the din of the fight. At the same -moment from scouts in the rear guard of both armies came the watchword -of the West Side, “Cheese it!” In an incredibly short space of time -both gangs were rushing at top speed back toward their respective -gathering places. When everything was quiet, two policemen turned the -corner, walked solemnly down to the middle of the block, and returned. -There were, of course, no arrests. One gang had rallied at a point -about 100 yards to the west of the avenue, and were starting back to -the battleground again when two small boys concealed in a cellarway -at the corner shrieked out another warning. The gang broke up again -and the next minute a discomfited policeman stepped out from a doorway -where he had been concealed and came along the street. - -At the corner of Ninth Avenue two men were indignantly discussing the -fight. “Those boys do more to ruin property and lower real estate -values around here than any other three causes,” said one of the men. -“They’re having these fights continually now and they seem to grow -worse all the time. Suppose that some passerby had been in the way of -that revolver which was shot down the street just now. Nothing could -have been done. You can’t find out who had the revolver. The police -won’t try to make any arrests, and if they do, the boys are always let -right out again. The insurance companies won’t insure plate glass in -this neighborhood any more, and the whole place seems to be just at the -mercy of these little ruffians.” - -On one occasion a gang was short of bonfire material at election -time. The members raided a neighboring street, took the gang there by -surprise, extinguished its celebration bonfires, and carried the wood -in triumph back to their own street. War was immediately declared by -the despoiled, and a regular after-school campaign followed. Through -an injury to one of their number the gang in an intervening street -became involved, and sided with the bonfire stealers. War then became -general and for a year was a constant subject for discussion among old -and young in the neighborhood. The boys of the defensive gang more than -held their own. They descended upon the allies from the intervening -street and vanquished them on their own territory. They fought with -even honors in foreign territory the gang which originally started the -trouble, and repelled several invasions decisively. Finally these terms -were offered: The defensive gang formally notified their opponents that -if they could succeed in forcing their way from the upper avenue to a -Roman Catholic church about three-quarters of the way down the street, -they would accept defeat. Night after night the gang thus challenged -made the attempt, but never succeeded. - -[Illustration: RESTING. WHAT NEXT?] - -[Illustration: EARLY LESSONS IN CRAPS] - -It is not uncommon for fights to end by a formal match between two -opposing leaders, though very often, particularly if the leader of the -weaker gang wins, these conflicts are indecisive because the stronger -gang will not accept defeat. In one case two gangs entered into a -formal truce because one gang was obliged to go through the other’s -territory on the way to school, and found it inexpedient to fight a -battle four times a day. The other gang recognized the justice of this -position and according to compact permitted their enemies to go through -the street unmolested throughout the school year. - -Tales of this kind could be multiplied almost indefinitely, for the -exploits of boyish gangs dominate the West Side problem. Such headlines -as - - UPPER WEST SIDE DISTURBED - - BOYS DISCHARGE RIFLES--ONE MAN SHOT AND WINDOWS BROKEN[15] - - GIRL SHOT IN GANG FIGHT - - SERIOUSLY WOUNDED WHILE WALKING IN ELEVENTH AVENUE--ASSAILANT - ESCAPES[16] - -are comparatively common in the newspapers; yet most of the occurrences -of this kind in the district never reach the ears of a reporter. The -following is from the press account of a typical gang war: - - BOY STABBED BY YOUNG FEUDISTS - - IS SECOND HURT[17] - - This is the second boy to receive serious injuries because of - the feud which has been raging for the last three weeks between - stone-throwing bands of boys who live in the vicinity of Fiftieth - Street and Tenth Avenue.... Fifty or more boys have received - injuries.... Not only are the lives of school children endangered - but the size of the weapons used makes it perilous for adults to - venture near during the battles. There are a half dozen bands in - the neighborhood, and when any two of them meet there is a fight. - The principal pastime, however, seems to be in a whole crowd - attacking one or two boys who belong to another band. - - Teachers in the public schools and Sunday school teachers have - joined in the demand that the Police Department give full - protection against assault to all living in the vicinity. The fever - for stone throwing seems to be spreading through all the territory - between Ninth and Tenth Avenues between Fiftieth and Sixtieth - Streets, and the situation is said to be beyond the control of the - present force of police on duty in that part of the city. - -Gang fighting is most prevalent when the nervous youngsters are just -released from the school room and must inevitably encounter their -schoolmate antagonists on the streets. - -Here is an account of a gang fight, the events of which were described -by one of the small marauders: - -“Last night a gang of boys came down with their pockets full of -brickbats, looking for Willie Harrigan, but Johnnie and Jimmie heard of -it and got the gang together. I came up with my pockets full of stones -and was throwing them when I got hit in the leg myself and it hurt so I -couldn’t throw. Just then three cops suddenly jumped off a car, right -in the middle of the fight. Everybody beat it, but a cop grabbed me and -I dropped my stones and jerked away and ran. They caught three of the -others though, and took them to the station house. I don’t know whether -they got there. Every afternoon this gang comes down and tries to catch -our fellows alone as they did with Willie. We fight with stones and -bottles. No one has been very much hurt lately. One of our gang has a -gun, too, but he can’t fire it for fear of the cops.” - -These last sentences reveal, or at least refer to, the most repulsive -of all the ways in which the demoralizing effect of West Side gang -development is shown. Even a confirmed pessimist, if he has any -sympathy with boys and any knowledge of their ways, can discern in the -gang’s activities a striving after the unattainable which is yet a -birthright, an effort which is essentially more pathetic than vicious. -In the raid and the “loot,” the chase and the “hang-out,” it is not -difficult to mark the trail of the Redskin and the hunt and the lure -of danger which is so dear to the heart of a boy. But even the most -persistent of optimists, willing to make many allowances, must demur -against the coldblooded and treacherous methods to which the feuds and -enmities of West Side gangs have reduced their members. If ever these -boys had a sense of the spirit of fair play, they seem to have lost it -completely. They win by planning overwhelming advantages. An attack -upon three or four or even one defenseless boy by 30 or 40 merciless -youngsters, who even attempt to surround their prey and strike from -behind, is not a disgraceful thing to them but an exploit to be proud -of. No mercy is shown to the vanquished. Stories are rife in the -neighborhood of boys of thirteen or fourteen being attacked when alone -and undefended, by 10 or more assailants from another street. - -That casualties are not more frequent is due to the dominant spirit of -cowardice with which the mob always taints its members. In the thick of -the fight when no responsibility can be placed and every member feels -secure in the presence of his friends, there is no atrocity which these -boys will not attempt; but relying as they do on the strength of the -mob instead of on individual strength, the first feeling of timidity -immediately develops into a panic. An unexpected move by the enemy at -bay will rout an attacking party of four times their strength. Half a -dozen boys caught at a disadvantage will charge unscathed through a -gang of nearly two score, who fly in all directions at this unexpected -display of bravery. One boy, for instance, was recently beset by eight -others when he was about to leave the factory. Instead of retreating -as they expected, he suddenly seized a club, charged one wing of his -assailants, and escaped unhurt. On the other hand, here is a case in -which one of the victims was caught: - -“Jim and me was goin’ down the street, w’en about six fellers from the -Fiftieth Street gang hot-footed after us. We ran but they got right -close and hollered to us to halt. I made out like I was goin’ to stop -but got a fresh start w’en they slacked up and got away. Jim did stop -and they near killed him, they beat him up so.” - -“Oh! They would-a killed me if they’d got me,” said one boy, relating -how he had been chased into a hallway by five or six of a rival gang, -armed with bottles, clubs, and bricks. “I hid in a toilet, and when -they came up to look in I rushed out on ’em and took ’em by surprise; -I pushed one feller down the steps and beat it, but they didn’t catch -me.” And a similar story was told by another. “After I wins in my fight -with bot’ Mike and his pal me little brother hears ’em telling one day -how they was goin’ to lay for me in the hallway wit clubs. I runs up -tru de house next door on the roof tru de house where dey was goin’ to -lay for me and hides in the toilet wit a big club. When I hear Mike and -his pal come in an’ talkin’ right near me I rushes out and bangs right -an’ left wit me club. I hits ’em bot’ on de bean (head) an’ dey runs -out. After that they never bothered me.” - -Gang fighting, in fact, as practiced in this neighborhood, is conducive -to neither manliness, honor, courage, nor self-respect. The strength -of the boy is the strength of the gang, and under its protection -unspeakable horrors take place for which it is impossible to place -responsibility. Rumors of boys being stabbed, shot, clubbed, maimed, -and even killed are current everywhere, and there is good reason to -believe that many of them are true. Such things are, of course, never -mentioned to strangers, and residents learn of them only by chance -conversation. The moment that any definite questions are asked, the -boys become reticent and change the subject. But there can be no doubt -that many crimes are committed in these blocks which never reach the -ears of the police, and that a considerable proportion of them are due -to the boy and his gang. - -And so the word “gang” here has grown to be synonymous with the -worst side of boy life, and the group itself, which might in other -surroundings and under other traditions be a positive civic asset, -simply adds the irresponsibility of the mob to the recklessness of -youth and becomes a force which turns West Side boyhood into cowards -and savages. As a priest of one of the Roman Catholic churches said the -other day, “The social evil may be an important one, but _the_ question -in this neighborhood is that of the gangs.” - - - - -CHAPTER V - -HIS HOME - - -Among the influences which mold the destinies of the West Side boy -one still remains to be mentioned. We have tried to sketch the -characteristics of the community in which he finds himself and to -indicate the causes and the traditions which have produced them. -We have watched him in the daylight glare of his playground, and -followed him through his games and the maneuvers of his gang. School, -and in later years, the shop or factory, rarely work any appreciable -change in his make-up. The former is usually treated by the class of -boys with whom we are dealing as a long game between himself and the -truant officer. The latter comes into his life too late and often too -unsuitably to be regarded by him as anything but so many dreary years -of necessary imprisonment. But back of his chequered little life on the -docks and streets stand his mother and his tenement home, and surely it -is to them, if anywhere, that we must look for the guidance that is to -help him and the influence that is to counteract the wild persuasions -of the playground. - -Is this home attractive? Can it be? Does his mother understand her boy -and his difficulties, even if she can cope with her own? If she does, -how far can she help him? If she does not, how far is she blameworthy? -What is her attitude toward the West Side problems? To what extent is -she--can she be--responsible for her children’s conduct? How far right -are the judges of the New York children’s court, and how far wrong, in -holding West Side parents responsible for the misdemeanors of their -sons? Let us look at the home outside and within, visit the mother and -hear her side of the story; for these are questions which must be asked -and answered before our picture of the West Side boy is complete. - -It would be impossible with any truth to call the tenement buildings -externally attractive. Surrounding the factories on all sides, wedged -between tall, noisy buildings, standing almost alone in a block -of lumber and wagon yards, or sometimes occupying entire blocks -to the exclusion of everything else, they rise singly, in groups, -or in rows along the streets and avenues, ugly, monotonous, of an -indistinguishable sameness. Most of them face squarely up to the -sidewalk, with no areaway in front, behind them narrow cement-paved -courts, round which the shabby walls rear themselves, cutting off -sunlight and giving to each little well of air-space the gloominess of -a cañon. Every type of obsolete dwelling, condemned by the building -laws of a decade ago, is present in block lengths, teeming and seething -with human life, and accepted with that philosophy of poverty which -holds that such things are a part of the natural scheme which created -Fifth Avenue for the man who doesn’t have to work and Eleventh Avenue -for the man who does. The “dumb-bell” and “railroad” types of tenement -with dark inner rooms, first sanctioned by the laws of the late -70’s but condemned as dangerous and unsanitary nearly a decade ago, -predominate. These buildings were erected for the most part over -twenty-five years ago (some are forty years old or more), and in the -ten years preceding 1911 only two modern tenements had been erected in -the whole district. Most of the tenements so adjoin that the roofs of -one are accessible from those on either side. Frequently this condition -continues through the whole block, so that a marauder, a fleeing small -boy, or a fugitive from justice, may dodge up one stairway, cross -several roofs, and descend by another. Similarly, if one street door is -locked, the tenement can usually be entered from the adjoining building -by way of the roof. - -Inside, the tenements offer a depressing study in bad housing -conditions. The hall is dark, the stairway small and ill-lighted; -modern toilet and sanitary facilities in many cases are absent. -The rooms are often infested with mice, roaches, and bed-bugs. The -slender airshaft is frequently so inaccessible that refuse and rubbish -thrown into it from adjacent windows may lie for months in a rotting -accumulation at the bottom. A large proportion of the families are -herded in flats containing from two to four rooms, which are very -small and receive a minimum of light and air from their few and often -overshadowed windows. - -The number of rooms occupied by 200 of these families, as shown by the -table given in the Appendix,[18] is to some extent misleading, for the -rooms are often not really separate. Owing to restrictions of space -there are rarely doors between the rooms in the prevailing type of -tenements; only doorways; and whether these are hung with curtains or -not, privacy within the home is naturally almost impossible. Family -quarrels or Saturday night’s drunken brawl too often take place in the -presence of the children. Moreover, walls are so thin that every word -spoken above an ordinary tone of voice is plainly audible through them -to the inmates of the next flat. A social worker who was for a time -resident here said recently: “In the first part of this month there -were three cases of wife-beating in one tenement alone. This tenement -is of so-called ‘model’ construction, has an exceptionally high rent, -attempts to restrict crowding, and prides itself on an extra high -grade of tenants. Yet the quarreling and brawling between husband and -wife in all parts of the building seem to be incessant. It even breaks -the sleep of the children and other tenants in the early hours of the -morning.” - -In homes like these it is scarcely possible for even the smallest -families to live in decency. But small families are not the rule on -the West Side. Of the 231 families for which information regarding the -number of living children was secured, 163, or 71 per cent, had four or -more children. Families having five children formed the largest group; -and one family had 11 living children.[19] - -Day begins for the housewife at 6 o’clock, or even earlier if she works -outside the home, and ordinarily her children are up and on the streets -by half past seven. For breakfast she usually prepares a quantity of -food and leaves it at the disposal of the family. The members, as -they rise, successively go to the kitchen and help themselves. The -workers go to the stores and factories, and the children to school or -the streets. By half past seven the factories are in full operation, -the stores are open, and the day’s work has begun. From half past -eight to nine, the streets are thronged with children going to school, -or sometimes to steal a riotous holiday on the streets and docks as -truants. At noon they return to snatch a hasty lunch served in the same -impromptu way as breakfast, and then the woman is left alone again to -wash and cook and mend and gossip till supper time, if she is not one -of the many West Side mothers who must go out to earn.[20] In that -case, the household tasks must be done after she returns home at night. - -Such is the average tenement home, abiding place of our West Side -boy and his family. In a very large number of cases the family is a -“broken” one.[21] - -As regards ambitions and ideals, the word “home” may stand for anything -from the thrifty German household with its level head for the budget -to a down-at-the-heels, loose-hinged group of people who share the -same abiding place, but scarcely claim the name of family. Of course, -it must be remembered that this is a neighborhood from which the -sturdiest, those having the lucky combination of prosperity, vigor, -and ambition, have pulled away. They have shaken clear both from the -ill-repaired and inconvenient houses and from the district’s reputation -for “toughness.” Here and there a fairly well-to-do family has been -held by the ownership of a business or a house, or because to be a -power even in a block like one of these is more satisfying than to be -second elsewhere. Others have stayed from inertia, shaking their heads -over lax West Side customs, but on the whole accepting them with the -acquiescence of habit; and naturally, on the level of the neighborhood, -they have entered into its life and made their friends here. They will -drift back after brief outward excursions, from sheer loneliness. But -most commonly the people here are too strongly fettered to break loose; -they are bound to these dreary surroundings for their lives. - -Practically every family has rubbed elbows with poverty too familiar -for comment,[22] or seen it close at hand among the neighbors in -the house and the children who play with their own on the street. -In many families poverty is a basic condition underlying their many -catastrophes and the whole tenure of their unstable fortunes. Often -the budget simply cannot be stretched by any system of economy to -cover the requisites for healthy and sturdy growth. Such requisites -become luxuries, too extravagant for many a child. Teeth and eyes go -uncared for, nourishment is inadequate, and misbehavior may easily -spring in the wake of this negligence; often it does. For none of these -children is good air obtainable except in short intervals. And very -closely associated with the moral indifference of many an adolescent -boy are the noise and overcrowding within his own home to which he is -accustomed from babyhood. Sleep in a stuffy, dark bedroom, with two or -three other occupants, has a telling effect both on mind and body, -and never from morning to night are these tenements quiet. At the very -outset poverty destroys the possibilities of normal development. The -tenement child runs his race, but it is always a handicap. - -Facing these harsh circumstances is a set of women who, though -intimacy reveals among them varied dispositions and abilities, have -yet developed out of the common experience many of the same ideas and -lines of action. To their share falls the heaviest responsibility for -the discipline and training of the children. The father is in the -background and may be used as a court of appeal. Or perhaps he is to be -guarded against,--another source of anxiety to the mother, who assumes -the difficult role of “standing between.” Among the more intelligent -families he usually has a decisive voice in important questions as to -school or work, and frequently he is the stricter parent, and carries -more authority. But the day-in and day-out management and care is the -woman’s. These mothers of the tenements are confronted by the same -problems, and they conform to certain types which it is not difficult -to recognize. - -Very familiar is the figure of the well-meaning woman who has kept -her own decency, not without a struggle, but has proved hopelessly -ineffective as a mother. She is usually ill-equipped to conceive -or enter into the feelings of an imperious, self-absorbed, and -overstimulated youngster. Her very decency has often forced her into -a dull routine with a gray, colorless outlook, out of sympathy with -youth that refuses to accept the shadows of her own overworked and -saddened lot. Many of these women came from Ireland as mere girls, -alone or “brought by a friend,” to go into the drudgery of living out. -Their working days began in childhood. Mrs. Macy drew her own picture: -Herself a child of twelve, she started out to “mind” children. “I had a -little hat wi’ daisies all roun’ the brim an’ ribbons hangin’ off the -back with daisies fastened on, and with one hand I was hangin’ on to -a hunk of m’lasses candy. I sure was childish lookin’ help but I held -the job for six years.” Then came the marriage “to get a home of my -own,” followed by those terrible first years of bitter disillusionment -and wretchedness. “He’d leave me alone in the house of an evening--I’d -never been used to that. I was frightened, an’ I’d cry.” Soon child -came after child, probably with a quota early given to death, and with -those who lived arose the problem of their rearing. - -Almost at once the women are awakened to the menace of the streets -which become their common enemy. “To keep the boy off the streets” is -the phrase everywhere repeated, pitiful in its futility. For every -contrivance or device is useless once the boy has responded to their -lure. The “fixed up” parlor with its lavishness of staring rugs and -curtains, its piano, the symbol of many an hour’s toil and ambition, -or its phonograph, is exhibited by the mother with much satisfaction. -Yet it crops out that in spite of these attractions Willie does not -stay at home, and that only for severe punishment is he “kept up.” Or, -where restriction is tried, a boy makes use of every sort of subterfuge -in order to escape. An errand, a visit to a boy’s house, a club, even -church, are the alleged destinations which really serve as a pathway -to the “hang-out” of the gang. - -If such competition with the street is futile when the family is -comparatively well-to-do, what chance has the mother with no such -attractions at hand? Her home consists of three or four dark, stuffy -rooms, destitute of carpet, or perhaps with a frayed strip or two, -and a meager allowance of shabby furniture. There is no space for a -separate parlor. The evening meal, the one family event, is eaten in -the kitchen, perhaps in cramped quarters where each one takes his turn -for a chair. The very conditions which her own standards impose, the -fact that she “does not bother with such like in this house,” has “no -time for comp’ny,” or “never set foot in one o’ them silly shows,” cut -her off completely from comprehending the excitement and charm of the -streets to which her children yield so eagerly. - -Some of these women have carried for years the burden of a shiftless -husband. With dumb patience they accept their lot--there is always the -fact that “four or five dollars is better than none, an’ it means a lot -to me on the rent.” And when even this help is lacking, it may be “he -did used t’ be a good man t’ me an’ in his day he’s worked hard in the -slaughter house. He sez I’d be pretty mean t’ turn him out after all -these years. He can’t last much longer, an’ it’s hard t’ know what’s -right. Most every night he comes up here done. We have to laugh at him -a good deal an’ so manage t’ get along.” A pretty grim kind of humor, -this. In such cases it is well if the man is no longer there. Sometimes -the wife has mustered all her power of decision and made the effort -to eject a chronic loafer from the home. “I talked and I talked for -years,” said Mrs. McCarthy, “an’ he thought I wouldn’t do nothin’. I -couldn’t put him away, but I got the judge t’ make him keep out of my -home. ‘Don’t you never bother this woman,’ he sez. I had got to hate -him so I couldn’t stand it to look at him when I heard him come down -the hall to the door an’ me standin’ there over me irons and me tub.” - -The bitter lesson of endurance so well learned, familiar as second -nature, is repeated again and again with sons who are too lazy to work -and depend upon the mother’s earnings for what they cannot get by -gambling or stealing. Often her force is spent. She is weak, querulous, -discouraged. To expect her to stem the tide of outside forces which are -molding the boy into the nerveless or vicious man his father was before -him is to ask the utterly impossible. Perhaps she will close her eyes, -like Mrs. Gates, whose only son has joined a gang of sneak thieves but -who maintains that “Jimmy is a good boy and never was no trouble to -me.” In her heart she knows there is something amiss, but she turns -a deaf ear to any hint of wrongdoing. Sometimes the mother admits -everything, enlarging and complaining, but at the end sits weakly -back. “What can I do? What th’ b’ys does outside they don’t bes aifter -tellin’ inside, an’ I can’t be keepin’ tracks on thim all th’ toime.” - -[Illustration: APPROACHING THE “GOPHER” AGE] - -[Illustration: ONE DIVERSION OF THE OLDER BOYS] - -In the judgment of such mothers a boy’s good nature makes up for -serious dereliction. A fellow who is thoroughly “in wid de push,” -according to her is “just wild like, not bad. He’s thot obliging and -does onything I ask about the house.” Many a slip is forgiven a -stalwart fellow by the woman who is feeding and clothing him if he -brings in her coal, puts up a curtain, and does not “answer back.” So -great in their lives is the dearth of common kindliness. When he takes -to his heels, she confesses to “feelin’ kind o’ lonely without Dan -around,” and nine times out of ten she welcomes him back when his spell -of wandering is over. - -Too often, however, this good feeling is absent and active antagonism -and bickering marks the spirit of the place called “home.” The mother -who from “feelin’ it her duty to talk to ’em though they don’t pay no -heed” degenerates into the “nagger,” and so has taken the fatal step -which makes impossible anything like affection or harmony between her -and the boy. The result is always the same: the sullen fellow slouching -before the querulous, upbraiding parent, resentful in every line, ready -to jerk away snarling, or to flash out in a pitched battle of tempers, -leaving behind bitterness, misunderstanding and anger. Sometimes this -shipwreck is accepted with a Spartan quiescence; lifelong experience -forces these women for mere self-preservation into an endurance grown -easier than revolt. Yet the suffering is great, and these mothers, -inadequate and weak as they are, form one of the most pitiful chapters -in the story of juvenile delinquency. - -But there is the woman, here as everywhere, who refuses to fold her -hands, who is alert and decisive. She is not likely to be found in -homes where the most stringent pressure of want or overwork is felt. -Yet she is not of necessity the best educated or most refined. She -is always shrewd, with a keen perception of the boy’s side of the -story, but also with a very clear and determined perception of her -own. Very likely she was born and brought up within a few blocks of -her present home. But the experiences of her own childhood form no -parallel to those of this generation. In her day everything to the west -of Tenth Avenue was open playgrounds; truant officers were unknown, -and an arrest was a thing to be spoken of in whispers. Still she has -grown up with the district and has listened to the current gossip. Her -first axiom is that no knowledge of a boy’s doings will come amiss; -her second, that such information cannot be expected from the boy -himself. Even among the best of women a system of spying is carried on, -although the wisest do not make this apparent unless occasion demands, -but quietly “keep an eye on that boy.” It may be a strong motive for -staying in an undesirable block that “If we go, James’ll just be back -here an’ then he’ll be out from under me.” They understand the fallacy -of moving to separate a boy from bad company, unless one can go to a -suburb, from which there are difficulties in the way of transportation -to the West Side. When conversation among the boys can be overheard -they “take occasion to listen.” “I don’t go out very much but I’ve me -ways o’ findin’ out,” says Mrs. Moran, “an’ they know they can’t fool -me.” - -The amount of credit to give to tale bearing and complaints is a -question to puzzle the shrewdest. It is an important source of -information, yet “you can’t believe everything you hear.” The irate -complainant who fails to get the expected warmth of support from -maternal authority needs to realize that the life of the West Side boy -is one continuous fracas with the landlord, the janitress, the corner -grocery man, the “Ginnie” paper dealer, and the “cop.” Complaints come -to the mother from all sides and are often unfounded. “I had him up -in the house for playin’ hookey, an’ I watched them fellows crookin’ -the bolognie off the cart myself, or I might a’ thought it was him.” -Moreover, it is understood that a boy has a right to expect a certain -amount of support from his mother. Her defense is natural, but she -cannot carry it too far or a boy may lose all fear of restraint at -home. One mother told of hearing a youngster boast, “Aw--g’wan--tell -my mother--she don’t care what I do.” “And that hurts,” she said with -emphasis, “fer a boy to give his own mother a name like that.” - -Altogether “it’s no easy matter bringin’ up a boy in New York.” Truancy -and cigarettes are issues on which many a judicious woman must confess -defeat. She knows that surface evidence is not to be taken. The -appearance of a boy at the proper hours with his books does not prove -that they have not been “kept” in a candy store while the youngster had -an eye on the time. Smoking is still harder to regulate, and though a -youngster “don’t dare to do it in the house” few women feel sure as to -what happens outside. One confessed to avoiding the issue. “I knew he -was smoking a long time--smelt it--but I never let on. I thought he’d -do it open if I did and do it more.” Amusements which can safely be -sanctioned are hard to find. Pigeon flying almost always is frowned -upon for fear of accidents on the roofs and because “them pigeons are -the ruination of b’ys, keepin’ them out o’ school, an’ into the comp’ny -of them big toughs as has ’em.” Every shade of opinion is expressed in -regard to the “nickel dumps,” as the moving picture shows are called. -Some believe that “them places is the worst thing that ever happened to -New York, settin’ b’ys to gamblin’ and stealin’.” Others set upon them -the seal of approval. “A b’y’s got t’ do somethin’ an’ I don’t see no -harm in a good show that keeps him off the streets.” - -It goes without saying that these families have no very large sums of -money to give their children, but the wisdom of allowing a boy some -spending money is recognized. It is, in fact, far more essential than -in most communities, for here almost everything desirable must be paid -for, from carfare to a ball ground to the highly coveted coin for a -nickel show. Money is usually given to school boys in small quantities -and for definite things. “If he gets a quarter a week, he doesn’t get -it all at once.” And the boy must show that it was spent as intended. -With the boy who is working, the amount he contributes to the household -is an important basis of judgment on his character. If he works -regularly and hands over his envelope, he may still have peccadilloes, -but his main duties are accomplished. If, on the other hand, he is -“wise” and “deep,” he will lie as to what he is earning and keep more -than is thought to be his due. Or, all too often, he will scorn work -altogether and his mother will be known to “have had bad luck with -that boy.” The outsider often expresses pity for the child who must -hand over the bulk of his meager earnings. But the moral sentiment of -the neighborhood insists upon this duty, and with good reason, for the -rearing of children is indeed no easy matter here, even when it has not -gone much further than supplying necessities. Often the price paid -in weariness, pain, and ill-health has been sore, and the slight help -that the child can contribute after the long years of waiting is the -father’s or mother’s due. - -Nevertheless, when a boy reaches working age, some allowance from his -earnings is his by right, and it is this fact which adds to his desire -to leave school early. During the first year, when the wage ranges from -$3.50 to $5.00 a week, an allowance of 50 cents seems to be general. -Occasionally, 25 cents is considered enough, but this is generally felt -to be “stingy.” At the same time, “it is not for a boy’s good havin’ -too much in his hands.” Sometimes he has $1.00 a week and buys his -own clothes. Lunch money and carfares to work are, of course, allowed -extra. Tips are generally accorded to be his own; it is a mark of high -virtue to surrender them. A woman will tell with pride, “He knew I -was hard up and he gave me his tips.” Occasionally a mother dislikes -to have her son working in a place where he is tipped, because it -is then impossible to know how much money is rightfully his. He can -account very easily for the possession of a surplus. The amount a boy -is spending is always a matter on which a canny mother “has her eye.” -Any doubt brings the sharp question, “Now, where did you get the money -for that?” If he is unduly “flush” he is on the borderline of danger, -and her suspicions are keen. She knows that the temptation to petty -theft is constant. As his wages rise his spending money increases, -and if he still lives at home at the age of eighteen or nineteen he -usually ceases to hand over his earnings but pays for his board. With -this increased independence comes a general feeling that the time of -subservience is passing and that “you can’t say much to a boy of that -age.” - -On the whole, this type of mother is lenient and broadminded, realizing -that “you can’t keep a boy tied to your apron strings,” and too -sensible to set up any impossible standards. But the wisest of them -know--and rare and valuable, indeed, is such wisdom--that once a boy -has passed the boundary line, punishment must be meted out in no -faltering or indecisive way. “He don’t dare do that, he knows he won’t -be let,” spoken with a certain emphasis, carries weight, and lucky is -the boy who with consistency and firmness “is not let.” But on the West -Side such discipline is not common. - -Many of the mothers reflect the average opinions of the neighborhood. -They are rough-and-ready Irish women who give themselves no airs and -“don’t pretend to be better than the people they was raised with”; -women with a coarse and hearty good nature, easy-going standards, and, -if occasion demands, a good assertive tongue. As a rule, the burden -of discipline sits easily on their shoulders. “Oi juist drrive thim -out--th’ whole raft o’ thim,” says Mrs. Haggerty, blessed with eight -children and four rooms. “Oi can’t be bothered with th’ noise o’ thim, -Oi’m that nearvous.” These women are not necessarily “a bad lot” as the -district goes, but neither are they over-particular. If a boy has no -complaints from school, or has held his job and managed to keep out of -the hands of the “cop” for the last few months, “he’s a good b’ye,” and -any “wildness” in his past can be excused and forgotten. On the other -hand, if he has happened to give “trrouble,” the chance visitor is -likely to hear the tale from A to Z and, if the youngster has had the -bad luck to be present, with a good, round scolding for him thrown in. - -There is little delicacy or finesse about this discipline; it is of -the hammer and tongs variety. In the vast majority of these homes, -even those of higher type, the emotions rule at one moment with cuff -and shout, at the next with a caress or a laugh. No consistency is -maintained, and the clever youngster soon learns by the signs when to -duck and when to “clear out,” just as a little later he learns the -earmarks of the “dinny” and knows when to “cheese it.” There is a -constant piling up of threats which mean nothing. When Joseph boasts of -his gang and their glories, “What, are youse fightin’ with that crew?” -Mrs. Dooley raps out. “You just better not let me catch you or you’ll -get all that’s comin’ to youse.” But she can back him up as hotly and -unreasonably as she berates him, and the ill-starred policeman who -comes beneath the onslaught of her tongue and within the range of her -invective will find discretion the better part of valor and do well to -hold his peace. - -But most tragic and helpless of all is the mother who has gone down -before the vicissitudes of her life. She belongs to the scum of our -cities, accorded no respect and scant pity, only the scorn of her more -“decent” neighbor of the tenements. She may still be holding her family -together, but is almost always weak and enervated. Their unkempt and -wretched quarters, their nomadic wanderings from house to house and -block to block, reflect her own failure. The father may be the “better -of the two,” but without her aid he is almost always incapable of -keeping their heads far above water. Often he is another of her kind, -and both have become the victims of their own habits. Suspicion and -surliness may well be expected from such a family, for they have often -much to fear. - -Yet it may be that even such a woman as Mrs. Catesby, in her three -barren rooms at the top of a rear tenement shack on one of the far -river blocks, will receive you without questioning your right to enter -and to share her confidence. Perhaps it is a latent desire for human -intercourse, perhaps merely the spirit of simple courtesy, so universal -among the women of the tenements. She is a slatternly little figure, -dressed in a shabby black waist that scarcely covers her, with a tangle -of frizzled red hair slipping over her face and held in tether by an -odd hairpin or two. Her cheeks are pink, though the skin is loose and -flabby, and her eyes are watery but clear and blue. An empty whiskey -bottle on the table is a needless index to the chief interest of her -sordid life. But although she may not share your opinions, which in -her life have proved mere extra weight and have gone overboard as -valueless, she is nevertheless very well aware of them. It is harsh to -term her effort to play up to your standards deception; perhaps it is -a genuine remnant of more decent aspirations. “If company comes it’s -then I’m bound not to be clean. Now, don’t you look at the dirt in this -house.” The dirt is of long standing, but conventions are appeased. - -The picture of her life, her husband, and her children, which the woman -paints for you, is colored for your benefit, and is not to be taken -at its face value. There are plenty of evasions and falsehoods. Yet -the poor shams which she raises to shield herself from your criticism -are pitifully weak defenses through which may easily be caught many -an illuminating glimpse of the dingy realities behind. Nor is her -confidence difficult to gain, once your claim to friendliness is -established. “Yes, once I was down to that children’s court. I was -that frightened they’d take the children off. They was only ten an’ -eight when they come in one day, Jenny an’ Paul, with a man I’d never -seed before. ‘Good day,’ says he, ‘you’re Mrs. Catesby?’ ‘I am,’ says -I, ‘but I’ve never had the pleasure.’ ‘No,’ says he, ‘I’m from the -Gerries, and I’ve come for the children. They’ll have to come along -with me.’ I was that upset I a’most fainted an’ I was all shaky like. -Well, I went out to call papa,--he had work that day,--an’ when we come -back, he’d took them clear off just like they was. He’d even left their -little caps, an’ there they was, layin’ on the table. There’d been a -complaint, I found out, yes, a complaint about how papa was drinkin’ -too much, but we got ’em back all right. Wouldn’t it been awful if -they’d been took!” - -Sometimes the family is broken up, the children are carried away, and -the parents left to drink out the rest of their lives as they will. To -remove the children may seem high-handed and brutal, but the reverse -picture--the family left to vent its weakness and its vice on the -plastic children in its care--is surely a worse alternative. Some of -these women are known as “harborers.” They send the youngsters out to -beg, and wink at their pilfering if they do no worse. School in their -eyes, as in the boys’, is an unnecessary regulation and enforced by an -arbitrary society. Evasion of law is part of their code, quite as much -as is the “working” of any organization or church, which is legitimate -prey if there is something to be gained. Beyond the calls upon their -children to gather coal and wood and to mind babies there are few -restrictions. “Lord, I can’t be aifter botherin’ me heads over thim, -lady, they do be off somewheres an’ ye can thrust thim younguns to take -care o’ thimselves.” And take care of themselves they do, and quite -effectually, until they have the bad luck to run foul of the police. -Even then it is probably no very serious matter till Tommy gets to be -an old offender. His mother at least is not worried about the condition -of his morals, and can be counted on to give the most glowing character -to “the Gerry man.” What need to fear the streets for him? Surely they -can furnish him few sights more sordid and more impressive to his -childish imagination and prematurely sharpened mind than those with -which he has grown intimate within the walls of his “home.” - -Truly they have a hard life, these West Side tenement mothers, and -though many fail and many despair, from first to last the majority make -a brave fight of it. When one is born to the lowest rung of the ladder -and lives among people who seldom aspire beyond, existence becomes a -difficult matter. How can the boy’s home be attractive when there is -scarcely room to turn round in it, the family is large, and when year -in and year out his mother is merely a drudge? How can his mother, -under such conditions, hope to make the home rival the ever-changing -lure of the streets? What time and mental energy can she give to her -children separately, when she is struggling from morning till night -to clothe and feed them? Is the child, produced as he is, so much her -fault? Is he not much more a product of a situation for which her -responsibility is small? - -[Illustration: REPLENISHING THE WOOD BOX] - -[Illustration: A RICH FIND] - -Home conditions, the tension of constant quarreling, broken sleep, -fear, hatred, and excitement, combine to break down the nervous -constitution of the child before it gets a fair start. Little is known -or cared about infant nutrition; there is no time to bother over such -things. In many families not even once a day is there a regular meal -or meal time. Father and children eat the same food, and the boy is -accustomed to the stimulus of tea and coffee from childhood. Sugar -comes from the grocery fairly clogged with flour. The coffee contains -barley and other cheap ingredients. Cheap jellies and condiments poison -him with their acids and coloring materials. The owners of delicatessen -stores say in defense that it is not worth while to keep the higher -grade brands for the neighborhood will not pay the few necessary cents -extra to secure them. A storekeeper recently advertised a keg of cider -for sale at one cent a glass. When asked for his reason, he said that -the cider was so spoiled that nobody but the children would buy it. -While he was making this explanation two small boys came in; one gave -his penny to the storekeeper and received a glass of cider which he -shared with his mate. Often the home food is not sufficient, and it is -not at all uncommon for a boy to pick up at least one meal a day in -the streets, leaving the house at noon and not returning till late at -night. Crushed fruit and stale cakes and rolls are sold to children at -half price, and the stalls provide candy which, like the staple foods -of this neighborhood, is usually adulterated. But the boys care for -quantity rather than quality. The mixture of glue, glucose, aniline -dyes, and coarse flour which they eat would upset the digestion of -children far better nourished than they, and most adults find it -impossible to drink the soda water flavored with cheap compounds which -is sold on the streets. It is scarcely to be wondered at that boyhood -on the Middle West Side is physically and morally subnormal; and it can -scarcely be contended that West Side motherhood is greatly to blame for -it. - -If there is cause for wonder at the results of the home life of these -tenements, it is wonder that parents do not give up more often. For -here indeed it does seem that “the struggle naught availeth.” Perhaps -they do not know how to give up. Their ethical sense, even their sense -of life itself, is dulled or deadened by the hopelessness and squalor -around them. The father’s struggle to meet the rent, provide food and -occasional clothes for the family, and still leave enough for the hour -or two at the saloon, which is often his only recreation; the mother’s -pitiful, incessant effort to keep her dingy tenement habitable and her -family together; to make one penny buy the groceries of two; and withal -to keep up to some slight extent a decent appearance,--these things -have left scant time or energy for attention to the moral needs of the -children. So long accustomed to the dangers of the streets, to the open -flaunting of vice, drunkenness, and gambling on all sides, they do not -take into account the impressions which these conditions are making -upon young minds, now and with ever-growing inquisitiveness seeking -information and experimenting on all manner of things which come within -their ken. Their very poverty itself aids in dimming the moral sense. -Mothers frankly say they have no room for their children in the house, -and it is nearly always true. They are between the devil and the deep -sea. Physical and moral conditions in the home are bad for the boy; -the street gives him more light and air but is more dangerously -immoral. In the face of so many apparently insoluble difficulties is it -surprising that the parents’ attitude is bewildered and discouraged? - -From the midst of this squalid and disjointed home life one fact -emerges--that the recreation of the West Side boy lies beyond the -power of the family. To look to such homes as those of this district -to counteract the tremendous forces that play upon him outside is as -unreasonable as it is useless. Wretched as it is, the tenement home -has an influence, usually vaguely restrictive, and in a few cases wise -enough and strong enough to help a boy who is “steadying down” and -“getting sensible”; but this influence can rarely bear the strain of -competition with the pull of the street and the gang. And so it happens -that one type of mother--most pitiful because so near to efficient -motherhood and yet so far from it--is perhaps the saddest of them all; -the type that is fully alive to her son’s dangers, but realizes that it -is impossible for her to cope with them. - -Let us repeat, it is the inadequacy of the tenement home that is the -greatest curse of these blocks. Its lack of space for storage helps to -force uneconomical marketing; its lack of size and equipment drives -the boy to the street. The mother is compelled to become her own boy’s -worst enemy. She would gladly keep him off the streets, but the very -conditions of her drudgery force him to them, and cut her off from the -sympathy which she knows she cannot show him. Of course, the picture -is not totally unrelieved. East of the tenements are the brownstone -houses, and both here and in other parts of the district there are -families which form exceptions of kindliness and comparative success -in dealing with the problem of living. But by far the most of our boys -would recognize their own homes and mothers in these pages. Dirt, -frowsiness, dissoluteness, darkness, and rags--these are too often -known to him from infancy. In the far West Side, home seems to be the -one place which the children desire to keep away from. - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -THE BOY AND THE COURT - - [This investigation was made in 1909-10. Since that time great - progress has been made in the children’s court of Manhattan. The - failure of the kind of treatment described in Sections II and III - of this chapter has been recognized by the court and a great step - forward has been taken in the reorganization of its probation work. - A number of improvements give evidence of a genuine and growing - desire to make the work of the court more thorough and humane. - These and other modifications will be noted in detail by footnotes - in the following pages. - - The description of court procedure here given is therefore to be - read with the fact always in mind that the conditions described are - those of several years ago. The account has been included because - the material relating to the court, while partly out of date, is - inextricably interwoven with the material describing neighborhood - conditions which are practically unchanged. The improvements in - the children’s court have not yet had time to seriously affect the - district. - - A further reason for including some statements regarding partly - outgrown court conditions here is that they are not wholly - outgrown in other cities. There are still children’s courts in - other places which have no special children’s judge, where parole - is used instead of probation, and where the records are entirely - inadequate.] - - -The foregoing chapters have reviewed the situation back of the boy’s -delinquency and have shown that his difficulties are deeply rooted -in the whole neighborhood life of the Middle West Side. It cannot be -denied that the courts are a necessary instrument in the handling of -such lawlessness as we have found to be characteristic of our tenement -neighborhood. But it must also be admitted that the unsupplemented -efforts of a court of law, however humane its methods, cannot be the -ultimate answer to our question of what to do with the West Side boy. - -From the point of view of the neighborhood the children’s court takes -its place among the various forces which influence him as wholly -foreign. In the first place, the point of view of the tribunal is -strange to his little savage mind. The judge is a sort of Setebos whom -the little Caliban, sprawling in his West Side mire, both fears and -scorns. In the second place, the court building itself is far from the -district and beyond the range of his familiar haunts. After the boy is -arrested, he is taken to the children’s court by way of the detention -rooms of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. In his -own estimation he has made a notable journey by the time he reaches -the court. His parents, too, view the trip to court as a considerable -journey, which involves putting on their best clothes and the spending -of carfare. It may also mean the loss of a day’s work and the possible -loss of a job. - -In order to make clear the experience of the boy in the court, at this -point we must give a brief description of the growth, equipment, and -processes of the Manhattan Children’s Court and its allied agencies. -Later we shall examine some of the tangible results of this treatment -in individual cases from the West Side neighborhood. - -As a first essential to an understanding of the causes of arrest and -the methods of the court, we must know the legal definition of juvenile -delinquency. Chapter 478 of the Laws of 1909 provided that “a child -of more than seven and less than sixteen years of age, who shall -commit any act or omission which, if committed by an adult, would be -a crime not punishable by death or life imprisonment, shall not be -deemed guilty of any crime, but of juvenile delinquency only.”[23] -The offenses, however, are still registered in the court according to -the law violated. The clauses under which charges are most frequently -made are given below. The number of the paragraph in the Penal Law -containing the full text of the law is given in each case. - -Sec. 486 Penal Law - - a. Improper guardianship (peculiar in that the child was arraigned - for the offense of his guardians). - - b. Disorderly or ungovernable child (on complaint of parents or - guardian). - -Sec. 720 Penal Law - - “Any person who shall by an offensive or disorderly act or - language, annoy or interfere with any person in any place or with - the passengers of any public stage, railroad car, ferry boat, or - other public conveyance, ... shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.” - -Sec. 43 Penal Law - - A person who commits “any act which seriously injures the person or - property of another, or which seriously disturbs or endangers the - public peace or health, or which openly outrages public decency, - for which no other punishment is expressly prescribed by this - chapter, is guilty of a misdemeanor.” - -Sec. 1310 Penal Law - - a. Petty Larceny. - - b. Grand Larceny. - -Sec. 405 Penal Law - - Burglary and Unlawful Entry. - -Sec. 242 Penal Law - - Assault. - -Sec. 1610 Penal Law - - Peddling without License. - -Sec. 1990 Penal Law - - “Riding on freight trains; boarding cars in motion; obstructing - passage of car.” - -Sec. 2120 - - Robbery. - -Besides the violations of the penal law, violations of the compulsory -education law and of the child labor law are frequently the ground of -complaint. - -The list of offenses with which our special group of 294 boys was -charged agrees in the main with those given above. The list of court -charges[24] according to the number of arrests for each is given -herewith for the whole group of 463 arrests. - -OFFENSES IN 463 CASES OF ARREST CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO COURT CHARGES - - Violation of compulsory education law 29 - Improper guardianship 60 - (According to Penal Law, Sec. 486.) - Ungovernable child 12 - Disorderly child 4 - Violation of child labor law 10 - In danger of being morally depraved 1 - Disorderly conduct 186 - (According to Penal Law, Sec. 720.) - Injury or destruction to property 15 - Injuring railroad and appurtenances 1 - Petty larceny 43 - (According to Penal Law, Sec. 1298.) - Grand larceny 12 - (According to Penal Law, Sec. 1296.) - Robbery 5 - (According to Penal Law, Sec. 2124) - Burglary 38 - (According to Penal Law, Sec. 404.) - Riding on freight train 3 - (According to Penal Law, Sec. 1990.) - Assault 15 - (According to Penal Law, Sec. 242-246.) - Unknown 31 - --- - 465 - Deducting duplicates[25] 2 - --- - Total 463 - - -[Illustration: A BALL GAME NEAR THE DOCKS] - -[Illustration: “OBSTRUCTING TRAFFIC” ON TWELFTH AVENUE] - -As early as 1892, a law was passed permitting the separate trial of -children in New York City, but it was not until September, 1902, that -a separate court was established in Manhattan in a building of its own -at the corner of Third Avenue and Eleventh Street.[26] The children’s -court, including all those sitting in the various boroughs of Greater -New York, is called the Children’s Part of the Court of Special -Sessions. The court sits daily until the calendar is cleared.[27] The -cases before the court had to be rushed through with great speed. In -1909, over 11,000 cases were handled by the Manhattan court. This -allowed the judge an average of five minutes for a trial, including the -most serious and perplexing.[28] - -The court building, which was once the headquarters of the Department -of Corrections, has long been congested, inconvenient, dingy, and -unsanitary.[29] The room where the hearing is given is always crowded -and noisy. - -An account of the court’s equipment is incomplete without a word in -regard to the detention quarters set aside in its own building by -the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. The detention -home, with dormitories and dining rooms, is given rent free. The -total expense of caring for the children temporarily in the care of -the society in 1909 amounted to something over $20,000.[30] The total -amount spent by the city for court service in handling over 11,000 -cases in 1909 was $56,012.15. This averages $5.00 less per capita than -any other large city in the country. - -The development of a probation system for juvenile delinquents was -of very slow growth in New York City. The first probation law in -New York state was passed in 1901, but children under sixteen were -excluded through the efforts of the Society for the Prevention of -Cruelty to Children.[31] In 1903, a compromise was made which permitted -the appointment of an official probation staff. Until the series of -adjustments and improvements recommended by the reports of the Page -Commission[32] in April, 1910, was begun, the agents of the Society -for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and the volunteer probation -societies did the only work approaching probation in nature.[33] The -court process, however, was not probation, but parole, though until -recently the words were used as synonymous in the court. “At the end -of the period of parole, sentence is suspended if the child has done -well,” wrote Mr. Homer Folks. “The term ‘parole’ as used in this court -signifies practically an adjournment of the case. The oversight of the -children on parole is not clearly separated from the work of the agents -of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.”[34] - -Very early in the history of the court private efforts were made to -help the many children who, it was felt, were not receiving adequate -attention. The impulse to reform and save the child, being largely -moral, naturally originated in the churches. The result was a division -of volunteer probation along church lines which left its impress on the -later developments of probation work. - -In Manhattan the first to enter the field were the Catholics. The -Catholic Probation League, incorporated February 3, 1907, under the -auspices of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, was the appropriate -sponsor for the movement. The pioneer work had already been done, -however, by a small group of women known as the Catholic Ladies’ -Committee. After the formation of the Probation League, its parole -committee co-operated with the ladies’ committee by taking over the -cases of the older boys. The committee took all the girls’ cases and -gave them especial attention. The members themselves did the visiting, -and at one time maintained a paid worker. Some of them favored the -establishment of an official probation staff. They thought that the -willingness of volunteer agencies to shoulder the entire burden was -delaying this important move. - -The Jewish Protectory and Aid Society had for several years engaged in -parole and probation work to a certain extent. The society maintained -a paid worker who represented its legal authority as guardian of all -Jewish juvenile delinquents in the city and who was made a special -officer by the police commissioner. Until the recent establishment of -the Jewish Big Brother movement he bore the brunt of all the visiting -of Jewish cases, and handled as best he could all the cases passing -through the court or paroled from the Hawthorne School. - -Before the founding of the Big Brother movement, there was no organized -effort in behalf of the children of Protestant parents who passed -through the court and were not committed to an institution. Ernest K. -Coulter, clerk of the court, seeing the need of work similar to that -of the other two great religious groups, induced a club of men in the -Central Presbyterian Church to promise that each one would act as “Big -Brother” to one court boy. The preliminary work was carried on by the -club for a couple of years, and the movement aroused considerable -interest. Other church clubs also took up the work. In March, 1907, -the movement was reorganized, so as to be independent of the churches. -For a time the branches of the Young Men’s Christian Association acted -as “centers” while neighboring church clubs acted as “locals.” Later -the alliance with the Association was severed, the work becoming -independent of sponsorship. - -The Jewish Big Brother movement, modeled in many respects upon the -Big Brother movement of the Protestants, was formally organized in -February, 1909. At first, this society took only the boys on parole -from the Hawthorne School, but later the work was extended to include -parole cases from the House of Refuge. - -All these religious agencies,[35] in contrast to the Society for the -Prevention of Cruelty to Children, have not been in any way connected -officially with the court.[36] - - -1. GETTING INTO COURT - -Let us follow a boy, accused of violation of the law, through all the -possible vicissitudes of a court experience in Manhattan previous -to September, 1910. The task may prove tedious but not nearly so -meaningless or bewildering for the reader as for the thousands of -families who had to go through it every year. - -Once arrested, he was led to the nearest police station, followed by -a throng of curious onlookers. At the station house children were -occasionally discharged, but ordinarily their names were entered on -the police docket and the parents were informed. If no one was found -at home, a message was left with a near neighbor. Some one must vouch -for the boy’s appearance in court the next day before he could be -liberated. If the boy was arrested in the evening, he might be taken -directly to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children for -detention and the parent notified to appear there for the child before -midnight or at court the following morning. - -The law provides that in cases of delinquency which do not involve -a felony the police sergeant may accept the word of the parent or -guardian as sufficient surety for presence at trial, without bail. -However, the decision is left to the discretion of the officer, -and bail was sometimes required for trivial offenses.[37] There is -opportunity here for the local political “boss” to foster the belief -that he is able to help a friendless family, and later to send his -henchman to enlist the vote at the next election. There was no evidence -that the local “boss” had any influence in the children’s court; it is -significant, however, that the people thought he had. - -In one case the great political “boss” of the district personally -accompanied the mother to the court. This was when Mrs. Hannon, -apparently believing that it was the thing to do, had “got up her -‘noive’” and appealed to him at once, without waiting for her husband -to tell her. Furthermore, Mrs. Hannon triumphantly pointed out, the -boy who had been brought in simultaneously with her son, was fined -$3.00 “because his father was not ‘in’ with the Senator” at that time. -In two other cases it was the aged mother of the “boss” who seemed to -have the deciding voice as to his actions! There were other parents, -one a saloon keeper, who boasted that they could have secured aid if -they had happened to need it. One old woman resident said she had -“enough friends to get the boy off the gallus if nade be!” These -stories illustrate the Celtic feudal relation which existed between the -political sponsor of the district and its inhabitants.[38] - -Bail was seldom demanded at the headquarters of the Society for the -Prevention of Cruelty to Children. When the boy was once inside this -building, the general public could learn little of what went on except -through the annual reports of the society, a formal visit, or reports -from the families themselves. To many families the functions of the -court and “the Gerry,” as the society is called after its founder, -were indistinguishable amidst the irritating confusion of their court -experience. If any distinction was made, there was a dread of “the -Gerry man” (sometimes used as a “bogey”) which was not felt regarding -the court. - -By 10 o’clock of the first court day following the arrest, the boy was -deposited by the society’s agents in the waiting room on the second -floor of the court building, or brought by his parents to the court -room. After a tedious wait his name was shouted through the corridor -back of the court, and relayed to the waiting room. He was then taken -into the noisy court room, where he stood one step below the witness -stand while the officer or complainants were sworn in and corroborated -the data on the judge’s or their own memoranda. The judge had only a -brief record of the arrest and charge at this time, with an occasional -verbal report from an officer of the society or a volunteer.[39] No -investigation of the case, individual or social, was made before the -trial. Our records contain cases which, had they been investigated, -would have shown feeble-mindedness, adenoids, bad eyes, frail -constitution, self-abuse, or terrible home conditions. On the other -hand, there were cases where the character and family surroundings -of the child should have shown a severe sentence to be unnecessary. -Sometimes faulty records failed to show a previous arrest and the boy’s -word was taken that he had never been in court before. - -Following the accusation the boy was allowed to speak for himself, -pleading guilty or not guilty. He stood on the top step, the center of -a small group, about three feet from the judge. The distracting noise -of the court room had at least one advantage; it prevented the audience -from hearing what was said. After the boy had spoken, the mother or -guardian might be admitted inside the rail to speak to the judge. In -some cases, this privilege was refused. This constituted the distinct -grievance of a group of parents who were not all of low type by any -means. On the other hand, in two of our worst cases the judge, ignorant -of conditions, proved susceptible to a shrewd appeal by the mother. -It is hard to see, however, how the court could avoid such mistakes -without an adequate investigating staff. - -Occasionally the parents had engaged a lawyer, who was semi-officially -recognized by the court and who collected what fees he could from -the defendants. Sometimes the engagement was due to the initiative -of the lawyer. In fully 80 per cent of the cases there was no lawyer -formally pleading, and even when one was engaged he was in most cases -unnecessary. The delay, and the cost to defendants, would have been -much reduced if he had not been present. Since, however, every case -registered as pleading “not guilty” was supposed to have had the -opportunity of counsel, a lawyer’s name was formally entered in the -record after every such case. - -Before disposing of a case the judge might remand the boy to the care -of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children while an -investigation was made, if he were not sure of the proper treatment -to be given. Only flagrantly bad conditions show up, however, under -superficial investigation. A case was occasionally “remanded for -investigation” in order to give the boy and the family a lesson; a -remand of this sort being in reality a mild punishment. Since the -reformatories have refused short commitments, this has frequently been -the substitute. - -Unless the boy was an old case, it was only after the court had acted -and he had stepped down from the stand that the volunteer probation -agencies took a hand. By this time the boy and his parents were pretty -well bewildered, and in the excitement it was often impossible to make -clear to them what was meant by the questions asked or the suggestions -offered by these volunteers. The entire court experience meant for the -more sensitive among both parents and children a nervous shock, or, -at least, an extremely trying ordeal which was frequently out of all -proportion to the triviality of the offense in question. Where the -type of family which passed through the ordeal with indifference was -concerned, it was correspondingly ineffective. - - * * * * * - -The kinds of disposition which the judge might make of any given case -are as follows: - -(1) Dismissal for insufficient evidence. Evidence applies, as in -criminal courts, only to the specific act; and if it be lacking, the -court is powerless to act as guardian of the child as it could do if -it had equity powers. However, in especially flagrant cases a child -dismissed under one charge may be returned for improper guardianship. - -(2) Acquittal, if the boy pleads not guilty, and there is some evidence -that he was not involved in the escapade. This is sometimes technical -and takes no account of serious delinquency which may lie back of the -affair. - -(3) Suspended sentence, after conviction, with a warning of reprimand, -but no supervision or visiting. - -(4) A fine, usually one or two dollars, though it may be as low as 50 -cents or as high as five dollars. This is used ordinarily as a lesson -to the parents, since the burden of the fine falls upon them. - -(5) “Committed for one day to the parental care of John Ward.” This is -for the purpose of having an officer give the boy a “licking” upstairs -in the court, when a parent refuses to do so. Occasionally sentence is -suspended, or fine remitted, on condition that the parent do this, in -case the boy or his parents have not learned to say, when the judge -asks the question that he has already been licked. This method is said -by some of the judges to be very effective in preventing recidivation. -Its reforming effect is not quite so certain. - -(6) Parole in the custody of the parents, to be visited by the agents -of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. A boy’s -parole is often continued month by month. At its expiration the boy -may be discharged from parole, committed to an institution, or given a -suspended sentence. In the case of school children, especially truants, -the principal acts as a parole officer and signs the parole card daily, -vouching for the boy’s attendance and conduct. In case of serious -offense during this period, parole may be revoked, and disposition made -on both offenses, one sentence being held in reserve for its deterrent -effect. If a child and his parents fail to appear on the prescribed -date, a bench warrant is issued and the child is arrested and brought -in. The same thing is sometimes done in improper guardianship cases, -if the agent’s investigation has revealed conditions unimproved. - -(7) Commitment to an institution, if possible to one of the same -religious faith as the child. Neglected children are sent to charitable -institutions; delinquents, usually older boys, after several offenses, -violation of parole, or serious incorrigibility, to one of the -reformatories. The House of Refuge is in many respects a prison for -minors. Boys are committed to it who cannot be cared for by the New -York Juvenile Asylum, Catholic Protectory, or Hawthorne School. -Truants, if committed from this court, are sent to one of the truant -schools. - -This résumé of dispositions forms a basis for a natural division of our -case material. We have studied the effects of the court experience upon -different groups of children according to the sentence received. To a -large extent the home visiting was apportioned among our investigators -along the same lines. The disposition indicates the judgment of the -court as to the seriousness of the offense, and it is the effect of -this judgment which is to be tested. - -As has been stated in the introduction, a statistical study of the -delinquency of boys was made in 241 West Side families. Four hundred -and sixty-three arrests of boys occurred among these families during -the period covered by our investigation. Data are available concerning -the offenses committed and the action taken in court for 454 of these -463 cases. As some boys were arrested more than once, and as some -families had two or more boys who were arrested, the 454 arrests -affected but 259 boys and 221 families.[40] - -There were, in the families investigated, a number of boys who were -not themselves arrested, but who were, nevertheless, properly included -in our study of delinquency. Their gang relations or other connections -with the boys who were arrested made their cases significant. As -these boys and the boys concerning whose arrests complete statistical -information is lacking numbered, together, 35, the total number of boys -dealt with is 294. - -Not all the boys were really delinquent. Some were brought into -court because of improper guardianship, an offense on the part of -the parents rather than on that of the children; and others who were -not incorrigible came to the notice of the investigators. The word -“delinquent” seems properly to apply to 249 of the 294 boys. - -We shall divide the 454 arrests studied into three main groups: (1) -The group of 260 cases in which the court did nothing after the child -left its doors; namely, those acquitted, discharged, released under -suspended sentence, whipped, or fined; (2) the group of 95 paroled -cases; (3) the group of 99 cases committed to institutions. Each of -these groups will be considered separately in the following sections. - - -II. THE BOY WHO IS LET GO - -The majority of the children who daily passed through the court were -dismissed either on the day of the trial or, at the latest, after -the rehearing a day or two later.[41] We have recorded 260 of these -cases, considered trivial by the court and closed officially as soon -as the offender passed out of the door on Eleventh Street. As some -children were arrested more than once on these petty charges, the 260 -arrests affected 197 individuals and 176 families. In the words of the -district, these 197 boys were simply “let go.” - -The district phrase does not discriminate between the several verdicts -under which this might happen. If evidence was wanting to prove the -child guilty of the special act of which he was accused, he was -“discharged.” If, on the other hand, he was convicted, he might still -be allowed to go free with a “suspended sentence,” under which he might -be retried at any time during the ensuing year. However, a retrial -practically never occurred unless the boy was rearrested under a new -charge. This fundamental distinction, then, between innocence and guilt -becomes a mere technical difference and must be gleaned by the stickler -for verbal accuracy from the court records and the rulings of the law. -It is not to be discovered in the minds of either parents or children. -Both verdicts came to the same thing in the end. “Aw, he got out a’ -right the next day. They couldn’t do nothin’ to him for a little thing -like that.” - -Sometimes the boy was let go but a fine was imposed. This was a fact -never to be forgotten by his parents. Several years after the event, -the mother would recall ruefully: “He cost me two dollars for that -fine, he did--an’ him only standin’ and lookin’ on.” When the fine was -not forthcoming, the youngster might be held for the day in the court -building and then dismissed. Sometimes the record reads “Committed for -a day,” which means that the culprit had received a trouncing from an -official of the court. But there was very little difference after -the lapse of a few months in the effect of these verdicts, whether of -discharge or suspended sentence, because none projected themselves very -far into the later experience of the boy. There was some additional -hectoring at home and the full recital of events to the gang. Then, -with a few exceptions, the experience became past history. - -Owing to the thousands of petty cases which flood the court the -individual case was cursorily handled during the hearing as well -as afterward. There was seldom any effort to probe deeper into the -affair than appeared from the version given by the little group -before the bench, consisting of the officer who made the arrest, the -complainant, if there was one, perhaps a friend or witness who was -interested and chose to be present, and the boy’s parents. Sometimes -the mother did not even reach the bench, so great was the speed with -which such cases were reeled off. Very seldom was there any time for -patient questioning, without which the truth cannot be obtained from a -reluctant and fearful child or from a parent already on the defensive. -The disposition of the case, according to the routine procedure, must -be based on an inadequate knowledge of the circumstances. On a minor -charge the judge would seldom utilize his right to adjourn a hearing, -and even this so-called “Remand for Investigation” might be used merely -as a light punishment, since the child was kept for several days in -the detention rooms of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to -Children. It did not necessarily mean that any further inquiry was made. - -In so rough a hopper as our system of arrests, boys of all sorts are -run in on petty complaints. Of course, many of the tales of needless -and mistaken arrests must be taken with a large grain of salt, as -the mother is often quite ready to accept the boy’s version. But the -evidence of disinterested residents and social workers in the district -indicated the casual nature of many of the arrests. An arrest was -simply bad luck, like the measles. “I ain’t been in court yet!” said -Joey Burns. “I’ve only been in court twice,” said Patrick Coogan. - -Nor is the argument entirely against the “cop.” The chances are that, -if the boy wasn’t throwing craps then, he had done it often enough -before, and the policeman, as the mother bitingly comments, “has got -his job to hold down.” In case of a bonfire or a fight, it is humanly -impossible to select from a horde of running boys the exact one who -threw the can or lit the match. An onlooker is pretty sure to be hauled -in and an angry woman to be down around the officer’s ears with, “It’s -a foine sight of a strappin’ strong man ye are t’ be takin’ up a poor -innicint b’y an’ lettin’ thieves and sluggers get away on yez.” - -Yet there are important differences among these boys arrested on a -seemingly trivial class of charges, such as “Loitering in the hallway -of a house in West Forty-ninth Street,” “Making a noise,” “Shouting -and creating a disturbance to the annoyance of the occupants of said -house.” The offender may be a weakling, frail, ill-nourished, and -backward. For this type of boy, sensitive and timid as he already is -by nature, the court experience simply serves to increase his defect. -Or, at the other extreme, he may be the leader on his block, and the -prime spirit of all its “deviltry.” Hardened by a long career of -semi-vagabondage in the streets, this boy is likely to be utterly -scornful of the courts and their discipline. But most of the boys -brought in on minor charges belong somewhere between these two -extremes. Many of them are merely “wild,” like scores of other fellows -on their streets, and would have a fair prospect of turning out well -under proper supervision. - -[Illustration: “WE AIN’T DOIN’ NOTHIN’”] - -[Illustration: THE SAME GANG AT CRAPS] - -It is safe to say that “delinquent” was a misnomer for at least -one-fifth of the 197 boys so easily dismissed from court. On a -conservative estimate, 39 of these boys could not be charged with real -misdemeanor, still less with crime. The sum of their iniquity was the -violation of a city ordinance; they had “obstructed a sidewalk of a -public street while engaged in playing” some game ranging from football -to craps. - -One boy, for instance, was arrested for pitching pennies. His parents -were sending him to high school and had managed to give each of his -older brothers two years in a business college--facts which betoken -in our district unusual family energy and ambition. The boy himself -was the leading spirit of an especially vigorous settlement club. -His mother was firm in her protest that “parents ought to be given a -chance to punish for such little things themselves.” Even the graver -offense of stone throwing, when traced to its origin, does not always -proceed from criminal instincts. The course of public opinion on his -block draws any spirited boy, sooner or later, into some of the closely -contested fights which occur periodically in lieu of a better form of -recreation. - -These charges are less a reflection of the boy’s waywardness than of -the community’s disregard for his needs and rights. Apart from the -misdemeanors which brought them into court, these 39 boys were well -up to the best standard of behavior in the neighborhood. In only one -case was there any serious truancy and the boys of working age all had -steady jobs. The explanation of their better behavior was to be found, -for the most part, in the better circumstances of their families; for -most of them lived in fair homes in the more prosperous blocks of the -district. - -A few of this group, however, belonged to the most heavily handicapped -families of our acquaintance. One boy, in particular, stands out for -a degree of courage and energy remarkable for his years. His name -was Sam Sharkey. His family lived on a river block from which it was -assumed that no good could ever come. “If the rent’s paid, there ain’t -nothing more looked for from that lot,” was the neighborhood opinion -of this particular row. On the ground floor of one of these squalid -houses Sam and his mother kept up a home for the younger brothers and -sisters. Mrs. Sharkey scrubbed the floors of the dental college and the -boy drove a delivery wagon. Sam was his mother’s steadfast right hand, -sharing every responsibility with her. During one period of four weeks, -for instance, while Mrs. Sharkey lay in the hospital with peritonitis, -fifteen-year-old Sam kept up the home without her. “All the time I was -out of my head,” said Mrs. Sharkey, speaking of her hospital experience -later, “I was talking about Sam and calling on him to do things. The -nurse, she says to me when I was myself again, ‘Who is this Sam that -you’ve been talking about all this time?’ says she. ‘That’s my boy,’ -says I. And I was for getting up and coming right home to help him, -only they wouldn’t let me.” This was the same boy who had been arrested -not long before his mother’s illness, for playing craps. In his case -there was great need of outside help and interference of the right -sort; but thanks to the marvelous stamina of young life still to be -found occasionally even in the depths of squalor, there was certainly -no problem of delinquency. - -The largest group among the 197 boys discharged from court, which -numbered 96, were of the type which the neighborhood characterizes as -“wild.” This means boys who are troublesome in school and are probably -truants. They are common nuisances, marauding on streets and roofs, -damaging property, lying, and pilfering. Boys of this sort may be -counted by the hundreds through these blocks. There was nothing to -indicate that the 96 representatives who had been in court were very -different from their neighbors, except by their ill luck in being -“pinched.” It would be a desperate outlook indeed if all the “wild” -lads of the West Side were likely to develop into the lawless Gopher -element which as boys they emulate. Still, for all of them the chances -are precarious. There can be no question, however, that it is still -possible to counteract the influences which are hastening many of these -boys along a criminal path. - -The record of one twelve-year-old boy shows the typical cross currents -of influence which affect the boys in this class. Hugh Mallory was the -youngest of eight children. During the first ten years of his life his -family had lived in the house in which he was born. Here they suffered -so much from sickness, death, and poverty that they finally moved to -another street, hoping to “change their luck.” After this they were -more prosperous for a time until the father and one of the older boys -got out of work and things began to look less cheerful. Mallory was a -hard drinker, especially when out of work. The younger children feared -him when he was in liquor, as it made him ugly-tempered. A special -antagonism existed between him and the second son, who would get out -of bed even late at night and go out on the streets if his father came -home drunk and in a quarrelsome mood. - -Still, the family had “never had to ask help but had had enough to -eat and could get along.” James, the oldest son, a young man of -twenty-three, was the mainstay of the family. The mother had done well -under the hard load she had had to carry. She was thrifty, making all -the children’s clothes, even to the boys’ jackets, but she showed the -effects of her hard life in both her thin, worn appearance and her -slack moral standards. She was not above conniving at such pilfering -on the part of the boys as would “help along.” For two years Hugh had -brought home coal regularly from the neighboring freight yard. Mrs. -Mallory said that he was very smart about it and showed with pride two -large bags which he had gathered. The method, she explained, was for -one boy to climb on a car and throw down the coal to the others, who -picked it up. She was, however, constantly in fear lest Hugh should be -arrested. The court records showed that Hugh had never been brought in -for stealing coal, but he had been arrested for stealing old iron. It -was natural that “swiping coal for his mother” should lead to “swiping” -things for his own purposes. Hugh and his fifteen-year-old brother were -members of a club in a Protestant institutional church. The club had -a camp to which both boys went in the summer. They had to pay their -railroad expenses, and got the money, in part at least, from their -winnings at craps. The outcome for Hugh was hard to foretell. It was a -toss-up as to which of the elements playing on the boy’s nature would -ultimately assume the dominant place. An effort to swing the balance -with boys like these seems thoroughly worth while. - -Youngsters like these form a large group, and are perhaps the most -vulnerable point of attack for a court. With those who are merely -“wild,” the oversight and help of a good probation officer should bring -the best results. Leaders in settlement clubs, Big Brothers and social -workers generally, agree that the problem of the boy of this type, -whatever his surroundings, is largely one of wise direction of his -sports and other activities. If the families of the culprits and the -social agencies which have the welfare of the city boy at heart could -be brought into close co-operation with the court through an efficient -probation department, it is believed that results would quickly be -shown in the diminution of the delinquent boy problem. - -The remaining 62 of the group of boys let go presented a less hopeful -aspect. The court charge was not an index to be trusted. Charges of -petty theft were frequent, and six burglaries were recorded against -this group. On the other hand, some of the boys, whom we knew to be -seriously delinquent, had been brought before the judge for playing -craps, building a fire, or some equally trifling offense, and -discharged. When we pushed the investigation further, we found in the -case of all these 62 boys a situation whose elements already foretold a -useless if not a vicious manhood, unless vigorous and sustained effort -were made to rescue them. - -Matty Gilmore, for instance, had been brought in on the charge of -“maintaining a bonfire on a public street.” On nearer acquaintance, he -proved to be a boy in whom a definite criminal tendency was already -noticeable. He had never worked more than a week or two at a time in -spite of the many jobs to which he had been “chased.” In this he was -carrying out the tradition of his family. His father and three older -brothers had always loafed by spells “on” the mother and sisters, who -worked steadily. - -One of the jobs he had held for two weeks was that of delivering -packages and collecting for the Diamond Laundry. At the end of the -first week, his employer discovered that he was pilfering. Accused by -the manager, Matty confessed his guilt but earnestly declared that he -had been induced to pilfer by a friend of his, “a bad boy,” who was -also in the service of the laundry and who was discharged forthwith. -Matty remained. On Tuesday of the next week, two friends of his brought -back a package with the tale that Matty had been run over by a train -and was too badly hurt to work. He had entrusted them with the package -to see that it was returned. It was not until several days later that -the laundry discovered that Matty and his friends had delivered all the -packages but one that morning and had pocketed the money collected. -His mother and sisters made good the laundryman’s loss and the boy was -not brought into court. A year later, he was arrested for disposing of -several gold watches which had been stolen in a Connecticut town. As he -was sixteen by this time he was sent, after a week or so in the Tombs, -to the town where the theft had been committed, and spent several weeks -in jail awaiting trial. He was then dismissed and allowed to come home -again, where he took up his old habits, lounging in the streets and -“hanging out” with the gang in its headquarters at “Fatty” Walker’s -candy store. - -The transient court experience leaves perhaps a deeper impression on -the mother than on the boy. Many, to be sure, take it lightly enough -and look upon the whole elaborate system as a sort of adjunct to their -family discipline. “It was just as well,” one would say, “Oh, of -course, he plays now, but he did keep off the streets there for awhile. -I guess it did him some good, scared him some.” As for its effect upon -herself, this type of mother is likely to show the indifference of the -woman who “don’t seem to mind, she has seen so much of them courts.” - -This statement does not necessarily mean that the woman has been to -the court repeatedly. A single experience may go a long way toward -inducing this state of mind. Mrs. Tracy’s account of Michael’s trial, -for instance, shows how the cursory hearing given the case was bound -to diminish her respect for the court. Michael’s actual trial, which -was over in three minutes, was the anticlimax of a distressful day. -It had begun with a hurried appeal to the local political boss, which -had been followed by a trip to the court under the direction of one of -his henchmen and by a long, anxious wait at the court from nine in the -morning until two in the afternoon. And then, according to Mrs. Tracy, -“The judge says, ‘Officer, did you see the stone in his hand?’ ‘No,’ -says he. ‘Well,’ says the judge, ‘don’t bring me any more cases like -this.’ We none of us got a chance to speak, me nor Michael, nor the man -who made the complaint, and who come down to court.” - -But many cannot take it so philosophically, especially those who work -hard and are not so much in the drift of neighborhood events and -sentiments. They have not heard enough gossip to regard an arrest as -a necessary episode and to discount its dangers. Instantly the great -fear looms up that their boy is to be taken away. In the momentary -panic, good women who have the welfare of their children most sincerely -at heart will falsify to the judges without a scruple. A clergyman of -the district said that more than once he had heard the same mother -who had previously come to him in deep anxiety concerning her son’s -misconduct give him an unblemished reputation before the judge. It -rarely occurred to one of these women that any real aid was to be had -from the court. To them it was simply another of the many hardships -which worried and harassed their overburdened lives. Loss of time, and -perhaps of money for a fine, are a very real sacrifice for the woman -who works; but even these are nothing to compare with their worry and -distress. “I couldn’t help crying, do you know, all the time I was -there, and it made me sick for a week.” - -We have then to consider the result of this whole cumbersome system -of minor arrests and discharges. On the whole, we were led to the -conclusion that the handling of minor cases in the manner described -did hold in check the trifling delinquencies, more properly termed -nuisances, especially in the better blocks. In the poorer sections it -was not very successful even as a check on nuisances, as the casual -passerby quickly learned; and it did not seem to have the slightest -effect on serious lawlessness, where the need of restraint and -discipline was greatest. The hurried hearing, the slight consideration, -and the facile discharge were not only ineffective but often positively -harmful. There is no getting around the fact that the court dealt with -unjust severity with some boys, while with others its very leniency -tended to make order and justice a mockery. - -There is no simple panacea for all these troubles, but in the immediate -situation and along the lines of court action some changes are worth -trying out. The matter of arrests is a difficult one to control; often -no valid distinction between the guilty and the innocent can be made on -the spot, and even the best of police are in no way equipped to decide -with certainty as to the degree of an offender’s guilt. However, it -would be better to eliminate altogether a number of the most trifling -arrests rather than to treat the offenders in too cursory a manner -after they are brought into court. - -The greater expenditure of time and money which a more thorough -treatment of those arrested presupposes is an absolute necessity if -we are to increase to any marked degree the success of the court in -grappling with the real problem of delinquency. For this problem, as -has been indicated, the best solution undoubtedly is to be found in the -maintenance of an adequate and efficient probation staff, whose duty -it shall be to furnish data concerning the situation back of the minor -charges as well as of the more serious ones, upon which the judge may -base his action. - - -III. PAROLED IN THE CUSTODY OF HIS PARENTS - -As there was no official probation[42] in the children’s court of -Manhattan, the judges had to rely on volunteer probation and what is -known as “parole.”[43] Under the so-called parole system as it existed -in connection with the Manhattan Court, no constructive effort was -brought to bear on the boy beyond reproof and advice given in court and -an attempt to impress him with a fear of the consequences to himself -if these were disregarded. This method was used in cases deemed too -serious for immediate discharge, yet not suitable for commitment -to institutions. There are among our records 95 arrests where this -solution was tried. The number of children concerned was 83; the number -of families, 76. - -The procedure in such cases took more time and consideration than when -the child was simply discharged. Sometimes the “parole” was granted on -the day of the first hearing without any previous investigation, but -usually the child was sent to the detention rooms of the Society for -the Prevention of Cruelty to Children for two or three days to await -a second hearing. During this time an officer of the society made an -inquiry and brought a report to the court. If the judge then decided -to “parole” the culprit, he was sent home to his parents, to whom the -following card was given: - - “Your child ..................., paroled in your custody until - ............, on which date you will report with h... at the - Children’s Court, 66 Third Avenue (Corner of Eleventh Street), at - 10 a. m. for further instructions from the Court. - - “The disposition of the case will depend entirely upon h... conduct - while so released and your supervision over h.... - - “The case will be re-investigated by the New York Society for the - Prevention of Cruelty of Children, and a full report submitted on - the date set for the return to Court.” - -The date set for his next appearance was generally about a month later. -Just before it arrived another inquiry was made to form the basis of a -new report to the court. The officer of the society to whom the case -was assigned had no responsibility for the conduct of the child during -this interval. His sole task was to discover what it had been and to -report it correctly. The judge glanced over the papers concerning the -previous hearing, read the new report, and accordingly terminated or -extended the “parole.” As a usual thing it was only two or three months -before the forces of the law ceased to concern themselves with the boy, -and for the time at least he passed beyond the oversight of the court. -He might have to report, perhaps once, perhaps four times--very seldom -more. In case of failure to do this, a bench warrant might be issued on -which he would be brought in, but this happened very seldom. - -A comparison of our 95 paroled cases with all the cases, 1,805 in -number, under the care of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to -Children during 1909, shows that the average period of parole was about -the same for both groups. Speaking in general terms, about one-third -of the children in each group were on parole a month or even less, and -at the end of three months the parole was ended for all but a small -proportion of the cases in both groups. The inadequacy of the one to -three months’ parole is best indicated by comparing it with the usual -term of commitments. The institutions have, by common consent, declared -that a commitment of less than one and a half to two years is not -sufficient to effect any real change in the character of the offender. -There is, then, little to expect in the way of actual reformation -from brief parole terms. Especially is this true so long as they are -not re-enforced by any direct effort to modify the conditions of the -child’s life or to influence his character and conduct. - -A second defect of the parole system was the important part played in -the court’s decision by the written word of the parole officer. Meager -statements, even when accurate in themselves, may be as misleading as -if they were false. Two reports placed in the hands of the judge may, -on the face of them, be not dissimilar; but in the light of further -investigation, one of the cases may prove to be far more serious than -the other. - -An investigation too frequently was made as follows: The parole officer -secured the mother’s statement as to the boy’s conduct, hours, and -associates; the testimony of the neighbors as to the character of the -family; a statement from the boy’s school; and, perhaps, if he was -working, a statement from his employer as to his regularity, conduct, -and quality of work. The following is a typical record of such an -investigation: - - This record concerns Patrick Staley, a boy of twelve, living at - West ---- Street, “charged with disorderly conduct in that he did - climb on the rear of a truck moving through said street and take - and carry away merchandise, to wit: one jar, containing a quantity - of mustard.” - - The report of the investigation reads: “Defendant lives at the - above address with his widowed mother, in a very poorly furnished - home of three rooms, where they have resided the past two years. - Mother of the defendant is employed as a cleaner in Public School - 51 where she earns $6.00 a week. This is the only income of the - family. Mrs. Staley was seen and states that her son Patrick has - been very well behaved since arrested and paroled. Further states - that he attends school every day at Public School 51 and that he - has no bad associates that she knows of. Further states that he - is never on the street at night and is well behaved in and about - the house. Neighbors, all of the poorest class, state that the boy - Patrick is a good boy. No school record was obtained as there is no - school this week.” - -With every rehearing the same ground was covered in the -reinvestigation--a second interview with the mother, the neighbors, -the school, and possibly the employer. In addition to the parole -officer’s report, the boy was supposed to present a card signed daily -by his teacher and parent. Of the full family make-up, its history, -the attitude of the parents, the temper of the home, the character of -the neighborhood, the boy’s individuality and interest,--in a word, of -the whole vital human situation represented, nothing is to be gleaned -from the curt and general phrases of hastily gathered reports. The -importance, therefore, of insuring complete and thorough investigation -through the employment of a trained staff of workers cannot be -over-emphasized.[44] - -The following record, as brief as the one quoted above, was based on a -very thorough investigation by a trained worker. - - This report concerns James Riley, a boy of fourteen, living in - West 53rd Street, charged with creating a disturbance by “throwing - missiles and knocking off a man’s hat.” - - The report of the investigation reads: “Defendant resides at the - above address with his parents in a fairly clean and comfortable - home of four rooms. Mrs. Riley was seen and she states that her - son has been very well behaved since on parole. That he has - been attending school regularly and has no bad associates to - her knowledge. Further states that he is never out of the house - evenings. Further states that her daughter Mary practically - takes care of the home and that she herself is employed in - Bellevue Hospital and her husband is a longshoreman. Neighbors - and janitress all speak favorably of the Riley family and state - that the boy James since on parole is very well behaved in and - about the premises and seems to attend school more regularly. At - Public School 82 the following report was obtained: “Attendance - satisfactory, conduct excellent, work fair to good.” - -The two boys, the two homes, the two situations were radically -different. Yet, although there may be no misstatement, the cases of the -boy James and the boy Patrick appear, on the face of the reports, to be -quite similar. - -It does not follow from the brevity with which facts may be presented -that they are the sifted truth from which the chaff of falsehood has -been blown away. And yet in gathering this kind of evidence, judicious -sifting is absolutely necessary. The word of the parents must be -considered and is of great importance, but it cannot be taken on its -face value. In a district such as ours, with its marked hostility -toward the forces of the law, it would indeed be strange if a parent -on the defensive would choose to give reliable evidence rather than -evasive and misleading statements. And the more serious the charge, the -less reliable, naturally, is the parent’s word. At best it is merely -indicative of the father’s or mother’s judgment, which is often too -feeble a staff to be depended upon. - -For similar reasons, the testimony of neighbors is open to question. -The Bransfields, who had a reputation from one end of the block to -the other as being the “toughest of the tough” were nevertheless, -according to court records, “favorably spoken of in the house.” Thus, -also, the parents of James Burckel were set down as “to all appearances -respectable. They are favorably spoken of in the house. They have lived -there for the past four years.” Yet the father of James Burckel had -served three terms in prison. On the other hand, really respectable -parents deeply resent the stigma of having the news spread through the -house that a probation officer has been inquiring about them. Evidence -of this sort, unreliable as it is likely to be for the court on the one -hand and mortifying to the parents on the other, should be gathered -only with the greatest care and discrimination. - -The school has been in the past, and must continue to be in the future, -one of the most important contributors to the information of the -court. Here is to be found a group of people--principal, teachers, and -possibly truant officer--who are free from the personal bias of the -family and who have been in daily contact with the child arraigned. -This joining of forces with the school was one of the great advances -made by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in its -development of the parole system. A good school record was a concrete -argument in favor of the boy, while truancy and loafing were nearly -certain to go hand in hand with any very serious misconduct. But -in order to be useful such records need to be as full as possible. -School attendance, for instance, is best reported by giving the exact -number of days absent and present. Similarly, inquiry concerning his -employment should include the statement of his hours of work and the -exact periods of unemployment as far as this is possible. - -The work record of the wage-earner corresponds in importance to the -school records of the younger boy. This inquiry must be handled very -carefully. The fact of a boy’s delinquency, if brought directly to -his employer’s attention, may bear disproportionately hard upon him. -But often the mere recital of his work history by his parents or by -himself would reveal the essential facts, such as the number of shifts -in employment, the speedy “throwing up” of his job, and the long waits -between work. - -Parents, neighbors, school, and place of work--this completes the list -of sources from which, at the time of our investigation, the court -drew its information. The start made with the schools had not been -extended to the social and charitable agencies of the neighborhood. Yet -the records of the relief societies often contained in compact form, -ready to hand, facts which were vital to a full understanding of the -case. In 41 of the 95 parole cases which came under our observation, -the families had records in the offices of relief societies. Some of -the family histories extended back fifteen or twenty years, but in none -of these cases had the records been consulted by the court. - -The agencies which keep less systematic records and yet come in close -personal touch with handicapped families--settlements and churches--are -no less valuable as sources of information. In one of the parole cases, -involving a rather serious charge of burglary, the insufficient account -of the home surroundings was supplemented by the apology, “As the house -in which the family lived is tenanted entirely by Italians, very little -information could be obtained for or against the boy.” Yet across the -street was a settlement in which the boy’s history was well known -and which was well qualified to sponsor plans for his improvement. -No opportunity was given it to advise commitment for this lad in -preference to the parole and suspension of sentence which sent him back -to the streets absolutely without supervision. Thus the social worker -who may have been watching a hopeless situation drag on for years -without power to intervene may lose the chance to carry out a plan for -the child’s welfare, and the court may fall back upon a hasty judgment -in place of the social worker’s well matured program. The decision -which may hang upon a slender thread of scanty information is one of -no slight importance. It determines the environment of the child for -several years during one of the most plastic periods of his life. The -verdict of the judge will determine whether these will be spent either -in his own home or in an institution. - -The main test of any system which either assumes the name or takes -the place of probation is its effect on the individual child. What is -the consequence for the boy? Does it improve or encourage him so that -he makes any effort in a new direction? This is a difficult task to -accomplish, and to measure results is perhaps still more difficult. -Yet a priori it is evident that with a system of parole carried on as -here described permanent benefit for the individual will not result. -In studying the entire history of any boy, the few months of parole -seem such a minor influence in comparison with the other forces -constantly working upon him, that it is impossible to assign any large -share in the final outcome to the effect of such casual oversight -as the court has given. Nor was insufficient supervision from this -source compensated for by the volunteer probation. As far as we could -discover, only 36 per cent of the paroled children on our records -had been visited by volunteers. Yet this percentage was undoubtedly -higher than the percentage for all cases brought into court, because -we deliberately selected more than a due proportion of our cases from -among those under volunteer probation. - -We have traced as accurately as possible the outcome of parole in -our 95 cases.[45] In 78 cases the boy was discharged or sentence -was suspended when the parole period ended; in 14 cases the boy was -committed to an institution during parole. There were other cases in -which the boy was either rearrested and committed or rearrested and -discharged after parole. In fact, our records show that this was true -of about one-half of the boys. A considerable group, however, did not -return to court at all before the age of sixteen. The fact that the -boys of this latter group escaped being arrested again does not justify -us in concluding that they were “reformed.” We therefore studied the -later histories of the 83 boys concerned in the 95 cases of arrest -and parole, to ascertain, as far as possible, whether the outcome was -poor or satisfactory. This inquiry was conducted, and the results were -considered, on the basis of boys rather than of cases. Our judgment was -determined by each boy’s regularity at school or work subsequent to -his parole, by the accounts of his parents as to whether he was “out -from under them” or doing well, and especially as to whether he had -committed any offense more serious than the mere prank, which in most -of the cases had led to the original arrest. It appeared that of the -boys rearrested almost all had conduct records that amply justified -their being again brought into court. In less than one-third of the -histories studied was the recent record so satisfactory, or the cause -for complaint so slight, that reformation may be said to have taken -place. That the system had a deterrent effect on some of the boys is -undoubtedly true, but that it accounted for any real reformation is not -very probable. - - -IV. THE BOY THAT GETS “SENT UP” - -The theory of commitment is in itself a matter for serious -consideration. It involves an attempt by the state to undo in a new -environment the evil results of old environmental and home influences. -In other words, the law decides that the family life has broken down -for the time being and that others shall undertake to do what the -parents have failed to accomplish. This is a grave step, presupposing -a crisis and justifying itself only through absolute necessity and the -actual achievement of its purpose. - -The first question to be asked concerning any sentence of commitment -is, was no better alternative possible? The preceding discussion -has shown that the judge has been seriously hampered through lack -of provision for more adequate methods of treatment. He could not -obtain for the boy, who needed also guidance and incentive as well as -discipline, the careful oversight which a well organized probation -system would have afforded. - -The second question concerns the effectiveness of the sentence. Has the -boy himself been helped in the direction of discipline and an ordered -life, and has the neighborhood been benefited by the removal of a -lawless spirit? These are the questions which we shall try to answer -concerning some of the boys “sent up.” - -The emphasis put upon the neighborhood point of view has excluded -any critical examination of the institutions to which the boys were -committed or any statistical inquiry into their results. As in the -previous chapters, the angle of vision was exclusively that of the -district. A certain group of the neighborhood boys had been committed, -and we tried to find out how the neighborhood appraised this action and -what its results had been for the neighborhood and the boys concerned. -The methods of different institutions, whether sound or otherwise, -their successes and failures, did not concern us in themselves, -but only as they had influenced the lives of our children and were -reflected in the attitude of our people. - -The conclusions of this section are based on a study of 99 commitments, -meted out to 75 children, in 67 families. In this group were the boys -who had the longest and most serious delinquency histories, and it was -important that the account should be made as complete as possible. Five -different sources were consulted--the court record of the trial, the -report of the investigating agent of the Society for the Prevention of -Cruelty to Children, the school records, the relief society records, -and statements from the family and neighbors. None of these sources -was complete in itself. However, the outline of the boy’s delinquency -history, including trivial arrests and more serious escapades for which -no arrest had been made, was pieced together as fully as possible. -There is surely much more, at least in the way of illuminating -detail, that cannot be known because it had been left unrecorded. The -meagerness of the information is a serious handicap to the agencies -which seek to reform the boy, and to the judge who must pronounce -sentence upon him. - -There are several different institutions to which the boys of this -group had been committed from the children’s court. The division -of these cases falls largely along religious lines. The Catholic -Protectory receives all the children of Catholic parents, excepting -the extreme cases of delinquent girls, who are sent to the House of -the Good Shepherd. The children of Protestant parents are sent, if -they are truants merely, to the New York and Brooklyn truant schools. -In the more serious cases of delinquency, the boys are sent to the -Juvenile Asylum and the girls to the House of Mercy. There is one city -institution, the House of Refuge, which is nonsectarian and usually -takes charge of the most seriously delinquent boys. - -In committing a boy to an institution, the judge was obliged to be -guided mainly by the culprit’s court record. The number of the boy’s -arrests had perhaps mounted past all ignoring and he was “put away.” On -the other hand, he may have been caught in some particularly striking -offense, or his gang may have been in need of a subduing example. In -some of these cases the judge meted out the drastic punishment even -where there had been only a single previous arrest. He had, as we have -seen, no facilities at hand for having a thorough investigation made of -the situation. - -The absence of investigation was definitely traceable in our group of -committed cases. The records of 53 arrests were studied to discover -whether the cases had been remanded for investigation or not. Eleven, -or about one-fifth, of the 53 cases had been so remanded; 42, or -four-fifths, had not been remanded. The significance of the 42 cases -lies in the fact that the decision was given on the day of the first -hearing. Therefore it is certain that no new investigation was made, -and that the boys were removed from their homes at a time when it was -impossible for the court to have known what these homes were like.[46] -In these cases, it was the home and the family rather than the boy -which were tried and judged without investigation. Moral bankruptcy -was declared without the necessary evidence in hand. We may well doubt -whether in the cases of some of these boys there was not a better -alternative to the institution sentence. - -Even when from the point of view of the court the crisis has been -reached, a thorough investigation will often make the sentence more -intelligent, and occasionally reverse the decision for a commitment. -Certain cases that seem desperate at the hearing do not prove hopeless -when conditions are thoroughly understood, and are sometimes capable of -disentanglement at home. Certainly every intelligent effort should be -made by the court before allowing the odium of commitment to rest upon -one of its charges. - -There were three boys in the group of 53 in whose cases commitment -had been a serious error. The first was a Jewish boy who had been -caught pilfering with a gang of thieves. At his school, where he was -rated as a well behaved and promising pupil, the teachers declared -that the act was foreign to his character. In fact, the school refused -to believe that the charge was true. The boy was overwhelmed by his -sentence. He refused to return to his class, gave up his previous -plans of going to the high school, and settled down as an assistant -in a trade for which he had no aptitude. A thorough knowledge of his -home and school relations would have shown the court the sufficiency -of a lighter sentence and would have left the boy his elasticity and -ambition. A second lad, who came from a family of very high morals, -was arrested during the slack season of his trade. His entire previous -history from all sources showed that the sentence was unnecessarily -severe. The third case was that of a boy who was in the care of a Big -Brother. During the temporary absence of the latter from the city, the -boy got into trouble and was immediately “sent up” without waiting -until the Big Brother could be consulted. The boy had had a brutalized -childhood, but was being slowly won back to confidence in his fellows, -and the temporary lapse should have been condoned. Commitment took away -practically all his chances, and all the work of his Big Brother friend -had gone for nothing. - -But let us consider the boy whose case really cried out for extreme -discipline, and who was accordingly “put away.” This drastic step -ought to have formed the climax of his delinquency history. The test -of commitment is whether it really pulls the boy up short in his -delinquency career. As a matter of fact we find that it frequently -did not. The boy who had several arrests on his record tended to add -another commitment to his first. - -The final criticism of the system lies in the fact that the commitment -was often only the beginning of further trouble. This is illustrated -by the history of two brothers, John and Michael Moran. The Morans -were respectable Irish people who had lived in the district for years. -The careers of the two boys given below were by no means in line with -family precedents. The mother was a decent, hardworking woman who had -been a widow for many years. The boys, as she said apathetically, had -“got out from under her” and conditions had been too much for them. -More terrible pictures of childhood than those given in these records -would be hard to find. - -John’s court career was begun before he was ten years old. A year later -he was brought into court a second time on a charge of theft. A few -months afterward a third arrest sent him to the Catholic Protectory. -The commitment was a short-term one--thirty days--and obviously had -little effect. Six months later he was brought into court a fourth -time and in this case he was paroled. One month later there was a -fifth arrest, and although his parole had not yet expired, his case -was neither investigated nor his parole revoked, but he was simply -discharged. Three months afterward a sixth arrest sent him to the -Protectory for a second term. - -Michael, his brother, had had three different sentences to the same -institution, where he had in fact spent a great part of his short -life. His first arrest was for the theft of a pair of shoes. He was -committed to the Protectory for ten months. Three months after he had -been set at liberty he was recommitted for over a year, this time for -stone throwing. A year and a half intervened,--only one arrest during -that time, though that was on the serious charge of burglary--and then -he was once more sentenced to the Catholic Protectory for a year and a -half. The charge was truancy. Four months after his discharge he was -arrested again, and a year after he had been discharged from his third -term he was back in an institution. In this last arrest his mother -testified “that he wouldn’t work at all, and might just as well be -put away.” There was a touch of humor in the fact that he expressed a -preference for some other institution, because “he had been in the -College three times already.” He was sent to the truant school. - -[Illustration: AN EMBRYO GANGSTER] - -[Illustration: THE “TOUGHEST KID” ON THE STREET - -These eleven-year-old delinquents are a challenge to the community] - -The following outlines give in graphic form the delinquency records of -these two brothers: - - -JOHN MORAN’S DELINQUENCY RECORD - - May 7, 1907 Arrested in company with other - boys. Remanded until the 8th. - Pleaded guilty. Sentence suspended. - June 9, 1908 Arrested for theft with another boy. - No complaint. Discharged. - October 22, 1908 Arrested for selling newspapers at - midnight. (No record of this at - S. P. C. C.) Committed to - the Catholic Protectory. Discharged - November 20, 1908. - June 10, 1909 Arrested on a charge of improper - guardianship; found asleep in a - hallway at 2:30 a. m. Adjourned - until June 14, then paroled until - August 14. - July 24, 1909 Arrested for begging and selling - newspapers at night. Discharged. - (No parole investigation.) - October 7, 1909 Arrested at 11 p. m. in a disturbance - in the street. Recommitted to - the Catholic Protectory. - - -MICHAEL MORAN’S DELINQUENCY RECORD - - November 9, 1905 Arrested for theft of shoes and committed - to the Catholic Protectory. - Released September, 1906. - December 12, 1906 Arrested for stone throwing and - committed to the Catholic Protectory. - Released January, 1908. - May 1, 1908 Arrested for burglary--stole iron - fixtures from a vacant house. - Paroled. - June 23, 1908 Charged with truancy. Committed - to the Catholic Protectory. Released - December 14, 1909. - April 23, 1910 Arrested. Hearing 25th. Fined - $1.00. - January, 1911 Arrested for stone-throwing. Sent - to the truant school. - -One of the most important elements in the problem is the attitude of -parents toward the commitment of a child. Perhaps most of them resent -it and look upon it as a misfortune and a disgrace. The very fact of -commitment is denied if possible; the boy is “in the country,” or he is -“visiting relatives.” The parents are anxious to have him home again as -soon as the term is up or an application will be accepted. - -Another group of families take a commitment with the same indifference -with which they accept all the other unavoidable facts of life. -If babies die, or the husband is out of work, or the children are -sent away for a couple of years, it is all a part and parcel of the -inevitable, all equally removed from choice and regret. Often the -parents are so busy earning a meager living that they hardly know where -the children are passing their time, and so the boys develop into -rowdies who spend their nights on roofs or stairs and their days in -loafing. Victims of drunkenness, need, and sickness, they do not know -the meaning of discipline, and it rarely occurs to their families that -they can do anything in the matter, much less that they ought to. - -More rarely the judge has to deal with a parent who sees in the court -the child’s best chance of improvement. This happens chiefly in cases -where the father or mother is at work away from home, and cannot be -personally responsible for the children’s attendance at school. The -father of one of our boys, for instance, was a skilled English waiter, -whose wife had died some years before. His oldest daughter kept house, -but the two younger boys were beyond her control. The father recognized -the danger of their becoming increasingly delinquent through his -absence and the influence of the neighborhood, and therefore allowed -them to be placed in the truant school as a safeguard. - -Indeed, a large part of the trouble with the children comes from the -impossibility of proper supervision by the parents. The absence of the -father or mother is a prolific cause of delinquency. The women say, -“He was all right until his father died”; or, “I can’t do nothin’ with -him since my man’s sick”; or, “Since my husband went to all-night work -in the slaughter house, Jimmy and Tommy are always out late”; or, “I -go out to scrubbin’ at five o’clock in the mornin’ and there’s nobody -to give the children breakfast and chase them to school.” In other -instances, the prospect of the long summer’s vacation spent idling on -the streets makes the mother uneasy, and she asks the judge to “put -him away until school begins to keep him off the streets.” At other -times the parents grow discouraged at the strain of gang influence as -against family discipline and tell the judge to send the boy up “as -his last chance to be decent.” They occasionally have masses said for -the improvement of the child under commitment and hope great things -from his return home, sobered down by a year or two of routine life. In -these cases, the parents have given the problem the most intelligent -thought of which they are capable and have concluded that the -institution is a preferable alternative to the home and the streets. - -Again, there is a group of families who use commitment for their -own purposes. They are usually very poor and seek by this means to -make provision for children whom they are unable to support. In some -of these instances, the parents had made an effort to have the boy -committed as a dependent. Failing in this, they had then brought him -into court on the charge that he was “ungovernable” and was “in danger -of becoming morally depraved.” In other cases, the mother of a child -who will not stir himself to find a job, or will not hand over his pay -envelope at the end of the week, tells the judge to send him up, as she -“has only bad of him.” In all these cases, the children have somehow -or other proved a burden, and the parents utilize the court to relieve -themselves of a responsibility which, for a time, they are unable to -meet. When these children come of age, or are sufficiently disciplined -to go to work, there is generally an application for their release. The -connection between the lack of earning power and the commitment is an -obvious one. - -But whatever attitude the different families took toward the juvenile -court, whether they were resentful, or apathetic, or whether they -co-operated with the court or used it for their own purposes, it was -certainly true that the more intelligent and disinterested element in -the district was strongly against commitment. Temporary improvement -there may have been, but little if any permanent help resulted. - -Wherein, then, lay the weakness of the method of commitment employed? -First, let us examine the histories of boys whose lives showed -notable improvement after the sentence. There were two such boys, in -particular, who had been distinctly “bad” boys before their sojourn in -the institution. - -Martin Donnelly was one of the “successful” institution cases. His -mother “lived out” as a cook, and he stayed with an aunt and uncle who -had no children of their own. His aunt said he was “a merry little -grig” until about his eleventh year, when “he began to know too much.” -He began to smoke, play truant, fib, and avoid his home. Entreaties or -punishment merely made matters worse, and the notices from school and -officers became numerous. Martin set his whole gang as spies upon his -aunt, stole out of the back door when she had followed him to school, -and generally so upset the family that it was an actual relief to -them when his petty thieving finally landed him in the Protectory. He -stayed away for months, and returned much sobered down. His aunt said -that he hardly spoke aloud when he first returned, and that he “went -about so quiet” whereas he used to “racket down the stairs as if the -house was afire.” Soon after his return events proved his friend, for -his mother remarried and settled in the country. He was taken into a -new environment and given a steady job. Ten months later he was still -faithfully at work and proud of his weekly six-dollar pay envelope. -Further report said there was not a gang of boys within a mile of him, -and that he was safely out of trouble. In this instance the commitment -made a break in the life with the gang, but it was left to mere chance -events to complete the break. - -A still more exceptional case was that of Stephen Waters. He had been -involved in all kinds of trouble and had a court record. At the age -of thirteen he had been arrested for burglary but had been allowed to -go free. A half year later he had quit school entirely and had spent -all his time on the streets. Arrested for theft and committed to the -Catholic Protectory, he had escaped after three days and it was almost -a year before he returned to finish his sentence. In spite of all this, -Stephen was not really a vicious boy. He was merely weak and feared -a beating if he did not follow the gang. Upon his discharge from the -Protectory he decided to change his life. He left his family, took a -room on the East Side, and obtained a regular job driving an express -wagon. At the time of our inquiry he had been steadily at work for a -year. - -These two boys, then, were exceptional cases in which commitment, -combined with other circumstances, had actually and radically -accomplished its purpose. The discipline of institutional life had been -followed by a total separation from old comrades and by steady work. -In both cases, fortunate circumstances combined with the effects of -commitment produced happy results. - -On the other hand, the boys who return to the old streets and the -old gangs have not much chance for progressive improvement. In the -Doyle gang, for instance, we had eleven boys who had all been serious -delinquents and who had been committed to institutions, some of them -many times over. It is true that several of these terms had been -short, determinate ones, but every one of these boys had had a longer -commitment also. The leader of the Doyle gang came from an entirely -respectable family. The father, a steady and reliable man, had set a -very fair example of conduct to the boys. But Mrs. Doyle was a “slack” -mother at home and shielded her boys continually from any discipline -from outside, including the school. Proceeding on the principle that -“there has to be a black sheep in every family,” she had achieved -the distinction of being the mother of five of the “wildest” boys -in the neighborhood. All five of the Doyle boys were enrolled in -“tough” gangs, and even the two youngest were bad influences in the -neighborhood. Even six-year-old Dennis one day opened the school door, -and, with all his childish strength, hurled a stone into the hall full -of children. All of these boys had a sophisticated air and a certain -hard look of withdrawal when in the presence of teachers or strangers, -or, indeed, of anybody outside the gang. - -Raymond Doyle, the oldest of the brothers, was sixteen. He was -described by the principal of the school as “having energy enough to -supply ten boys.” He made cat’s-paws of those that were weaker than he, -and domineered over even the stronger spirits of his gang. In fact, he -had been one of the very worst influences, and responsible for a great -many lawless happenings in the street. - -In May, 1906, he was arrested for robbing a grocery store, but there -was no complaint and he was discharged. Later on in the same year he -was arrested on some unknown charge, and fined $5.00. At this time his -continual truancy became too serious to be ignored and he was committed -to the New York Truant School. Mrs. Doyle resented this action and -immediately transferred the other children from the public school to -the parochial school. - -Raymond was released from the truant school in 1907, but was not -long out of trouble. He was in company with John Larrabie and the -two Rafferty boys when Larrabie threw a brick and killed an organ -grinder. He escaped arrest for his complicity in this affair, but -six months later he was again in court, this time on a charge of -burglary. Together with two other boys, he had broken a pane of glass -in a stationery store and had run away with some fishing tackle and -two baseballs. The boys were put on parole and later the sentence was -suspended for all three. - -In the fall of the same year, Raymond conceived a bold plan for -outwitting the truant officer. He persuaded George Riley to join him, -and together they arranged a home on one of the tenement roofs. Here -they lived for three months, stealing enough food for their needs or -money to buy it and going down to the streets only when necessary. One -day in January, when life must have been growing chilly out of doors, -George Riley was caught stealing a dozen eggs. He was taken down to -court, and sent to the Protectory on his former record. Raymond was -clever enough to escape without even an arrest. A year and a half after -this episode, in August, 1909, Raymond was again in court, this time -on a charge of petty larceny. He was discharged. Four months later he -was involved with his brother Patrick and another boy in a very serious -burglary and re-committed to an institution. - -Patrick Doyle, his brother, had also had a grave delinquency history. -It is true that Patrick was not considered an instinctively wayward -child and might have been influenced for better at the proper time -and by the use of wise methods. But under his brother’s unchecked -leadership his mischievous tendencies had led him into lawless ways, -and the court’s way of dealing with him did not prove reformative. At -the age of nine he was brought into the public school by the truant -officer, but the next day he ran out during the session and did -not return. Toward the end of that year, 1908, he was arrested for -stealing bread from a wagon. Three months later he was caught with -Matthew Rooney in the burglary of a grocery store, and paroled for -two months. After one month of this parole had expired he was caught -again in another burglary and committed to the Catholic Protectory -for three months on account of having violated his parole. Six months -after he had been discharged from this commitment he and his brother -Raymond, and a third member of their gang were caught stealing in an -apartment--the serious case mentioned above--and all three were sent -away for long terms. - -The circumstances of this burglary were secured from various -sources--the court records, the newspapers, the school, and -neighborhood gossip--all of the accounts tallying in an unusually neat -and accurate way. Raymond and Patrick Doyle took Charlie Muller in -tow and broke into a neighbor’s apartment in search of anything that -could be readily converted into money. They found a trunk standing in -a corner and turned the contents upside down upon the floor. From the -pile they selected a few articles of underwear and a watch. They took -a gun that was lying on a chair and snatched up a canary bird in its -cage. As they turned to go, they were confronted by the older son of -the family, who had returned from work and was standing in the doorway. -One of the boys, this young man declared, “pulled a knife for him,” -so that he “ran for his life.” On the corner of the street he found -a policeman, who took his address and promised to send a detective. -Meanwhile the boys came out of his house and went to a restaurant, -where they were subsequently taken in charge by the detective. The -judge sentenced two of the boys to the House of Refuge and one to the -Protectory, each for fifteen months. Raymond, after his discharge, -refused to work and spent his time loafing at his usual “hang-outs.” - -The attitude of the neighbor whose apartment had been entered was -significant. The older son, Samuel, who had arrived at the climax -and intercepted the gang, was very vindictive. He appeared in the -children’s court as complainant and did all in his power to secure -the three convictions. On the other hand, Samuel’s brother and sister -wished to hush the matter up or, at least, to keep it out of court. -“All boys will be wild and these are little things and mean nothing. -They just wanted nickels for moving pictures.” Reasoning in this way, -according to the easy-going standards of the neighborhood, they tried -to dissuade Samuel from going to court and appearing against the boys. - -Charles Muller, who was sent to the House of Refuge with Patrick -Doyle, came from a respectable home. His father had been dead for -many years and the family income consisted of the wages of his mother -and older sisters. Before the girls had become old enough to earn the -family had passed through a period of the direst poverty. Charlie was -not an ungovernable lad. On the contrary, he had a weak and sullen -disposition and was often used as a tool by his comrades. His first -arrest was for playing craps in the street, and he was put on what his -mother called “patrole.” A son-in-law went down to court and “paid -$5.00 to a red-headed lawyer fellow who said he could get him off, and -did so.” Some time later he stayed away from school for seven weeks -without his family’s knowledge, always coming in regularly at lunch -time and pretending to go back to classes. At this time his mother -had a stroke of paralysis, and he took advantage of her lameness to -disregard the previous rules about bedtime, meals, and so on. He was -arrested again, and this time it was the daughter who paid the lawyer -$5.00. In the last arrest, for the apartment burglary, the family -refused to re-engage this man, and, according to Mrs. Muller’s vehement -declaration, “every boy in court that day was sent away for fifteen -months, Charles among the rest.” - -Joseph McGratty was another of the Doyle gang who was first arrested at -the age of nine. The McGratty family was supported by the father, who -was a street-cleaner, and by an older son who was a jockey. Joseph’s -irregularities began with truancy and his first arrest was for petty -larceny. On this occasion he was discharged. Shortly afterward he -applied for a transfer from his school on the ground that his family -were moving to a certain address in West Twenty-sixth Street. The -story of the moving was entirely untrue, and Joseph never presented -his transfer at any other school. The school has since learned that -the McGrattys were still living at their old address, but it has never -been able to lay hands upon Joseph by any means in its power and force -him to attend. He has been arrested for stone throwing, for theft, for -larceny of an automatic clock in company with the notorious Rafferty -boys, and twice for burglary, the first time in company with the -brother of the gang leader. His last arrest sent him to the Catholic -Protectory. - -John Larrabie, who killed an organ grinder, was no worse than several -of his gang. His family was degraded and desperately poor. The father -drank and the mother was given to loud-voiced harangues and to calling -maledictions down upon neighbors who displeased her. John came to -school ugly-tempered and resentful. At a rebuke from his teacher he -attempted to jump out of the window. One day as he stood on a roof with -Raymond Doyle and the two Rafferty boys, the quartette spied in the -street below a couple of Italian organ grinders with whom they were -carrying on a feud. Loose bricks were at hand for missiles and in an -instant John Larrabie had thrown one at the “ginnies.” The boys saw -one of the men drop in the street--the victim died, in fact, only a -few minutes later--and two of them escaped across the roofs. The other -two, Larrabie and Joe Rafferty, were caught and taken to court on a -charge of felonious assault. They were remanded for four days and then -discharged to the coroner. The court records show that John Larrabie -was rearrested at the coroner’s for manslaughter, that his guilt was -patent, but that no complaint was taken. Four months later he was -committed to the Catholic Protectory, at his father’s instance, as an -ungovernable child, his father being ordered to pay $2.00 a week toward -his support in the institution. - -The brothers Riemer, Henry and Alexander, were two of the “wildest” -boys of this gang. Both were incorrigible truants. They were arrested -in November, 1906, for stealing coal from a neighbor’s cellar and were -paroled. In February, 1907, Alexander was sent to the Protectory for -three months for stealing a chicken from the Washington Market. Four -months after his discharge he was re-committed for nearly a year’s -term. Shortly after this, in April, 1909, he was arrested for stone -throwing, fined $1.00, and imprisoned one day. In November he was -arrested for assaulting another boy. As he had been away from home four -days, and from school a week, and had been involved in the theft of a -pair of gloves, and also because his mother recommended commitment, -he was sent to the Protectory for a third term. He was not discharged -until of working age, when the family secured him a job directly under -his father’s supervision. Henry Riemer was arrested several times with -his brother, and also twice for theft, once for striking a boy over the -head with a pistol, and once for injuring property. He saved himself -from a commitment in one affair, a glove robbery, by informing on Harry -Rafferty and sending the latter to the Protectory on his evidence. He -himself had had two terms there, and was still under commitment up to -date. - -The report of this extraordinary gang can fitly be ended by a -description of two of its most conspicuous members, Joe and Harry -Rafferty. Their home was the scene of continuous brawling. The floors -were littered with broken crockery, with ham bones, and glass--with -anything that could be used as missiles. The father and mother were -drunkards, although both had taken the pledge at times to obtain -charitable relief. After the father’s death from typhoid the conditions -grew still more serious. Joe “beat up” his mother cruelly whenever -there had been beer in the house, and Mrs. Rafferty at last deserted -her family for several months in order to go and live on a sympathetic -neighbor, leaving the small children to shift for themselves. When she -returned home it was to bring back a “boarder” with whom she lived in -immoral relations. - -The records of the Rafferty boys were, of course, very bad. Joe was -taken to the court with John Larrabie at the time of the killing of the -Italian organ grinder. The neighborhood reported that Joe, who was over -sixteen, “saved his own skin by turning state’s evidence.” The fact -that there was no record of Joe Rafferty in the court history of the -case does not necessarily contradict this statement. Certain it is that -he was credited with having “snitched” by the neighborhood and also by -the rest of his gang. The boy fully believed that the latter intended -to “do him up” and that his only chance for safety was to leave the -city. - -Harry Rafferty’s teacher described him as “a little dock rat who is -usually dressed in rags and with the skin of his face half torn off -because of his many fights.” He had always been a bad truant. In 1908 -he was arrested twice, once for stealing boards from a wagon, and -once for stealing two loaves of bread. In April, 1909, he and Matthew -Rooney, mentioned above as an associate of Patrick Doyle in thieving, -ran off with a clock stolen out of a waiting automobile. Harry was -committed to the Catholic Protectory for three months. In July he was -discharged, and in November he was recommitted for stealing a pair of -gloves with Henry and Alexander Riemer. This second commitment was also -for a short term, and soon after his release he was once more in court -on a minor charge. In October he was sent to the Protectory for his -third term. - -In the face of these facts it was astonishing to find that these -boys were not completely ruined; that, indeed, there was something -distinctly worth while in both Joe and Harry. Of course, their records -were very bad, and both were growing less sensitive to moral control -with the years. But Joe had an instinct of family loyalty and had -struggled hard to keep his brothers and sisters together. He had -visited and written them when they were sent away to institutions, -and had turned up promptly to take charge of them on the day of their -release. This affection and protective instinct had been his only -anchor, and the necessary breaking up of the family, consequent on the -mother’s immorality, had promised to deprive him of his last motive to -reform. - -The Rafferty family was one in which vice, drunkenness, and squalor had -combined to misshape the lives of the children. The law should have -proved the salvation of the good qualities that in some miraculous way -still existed in that atmosphere. It is obvious, however, that the -law’s method in such extreme cases--the frequent commitment--had failed -to change the conduct of these boys and to accomplish any reformation -in their lives. - - * * * * * - -Commitment ought to induce a radical alteration of life. But in many -of our cases the commitments merely proved interludes in wrongdoing. -Even a temporary improvement after discharge was not met with; the -dates of the subsequent offenses followed closely upon liberation. In -the face of such records a comparatively short commitment, followed by -the return of the boy to the same neighborhood without any official -supervision and guidance, seems futile indeed. The histories recorded -here indicate clearly that with few exceptions neither boy nor family -nor community had been benefited by the action of the court. - -It must be conceded that this district is exceptionally lawless and -gang-ridden and that the gang which we have described was one of the -worst in the whole neighborhood. But what is here presented is not -a study of average results of commitments in average cases. Such a -study would have necessitated establishing close co-operation with -the institutions, in order to follow up those children who had not -returned to their old environment at all after commitment, but had -been placed out in employment, or adopted into new homes. It is from -among these children that the institutions claim the greatest number of -their successes, and it would have been necessary to include them if a -presentation of the whole problem had been attempted. - -On the other hand, since commitment is conceded to be an extreme method -of dealing with extreme situations, our examination and our conclusions -seem all the more pertinent. To examine the results in the most extreme -cases seems to be a perfectly fair way of testing the working of the -system. If a method particularly planned for helping the worst cases of -delinquency does not help them, we must question the use of the method -in these cases, at least, and ask what we should substitute for it. - - -V. SUMMARY - -Reviewing our study of the three groups of boys described in the -preceding sections--the boy who is let go, the boy who is paroled in -the custody of his parents, and the boy that gets sent up--we find -that the impression made by the court was rarely a permanent one. One -after the other we have seen how the typical boy of each group passes -through the hands of the court and returns to his West Side environment -scarcely changed by his experience. For the boy who is let go, it means -but a ripple in his life. The court again goes further and “paroles” -him. At the end, he is still the same boy. The most drastic treatment -of all, commitment to an institution for a definite short term usually -fails to remake the character of a boy who has been subjected both -before and after his sojourn in the institution to the full force of -the neighborhood influences. When a boy is so difficult to manage -that commitment becomes the only adequate remedy, the term should -be indefinite so that release may depend on education, behavior and -development of character. And release should be followed by supervision -by a representative of the court or of the institution until the boy -shows that he can stand morally without such assistance. - -A well organized official probation staff without doubt furnishes -the most effective method for dealing with most of these cases. This -applies to all three classes described in the preceding sections--the -boy who is let go, the boy who is paroled in the custody of his -parents, and the boy that gets sent up. The use of official probation -does not necessarily exclude volunteer probation, but it should make -possible careful supervision and co-ordination of volunteer work under -the court. - -Our study points out the necessity of recognizing both the family -unit and the neighborhood unit in handling cases. In order to do -efficient probation work, the investigator must be familiar with local -conditions. He needs to know, on the one hand, all the influences which -have helped to make the boy what he is, and, on the other hand, the -neighborhood agencies which are familiar with his individual and family -history, and may be enlisted in reforming him. - -A thorough physical and mental examination is necessary in many cases -before the court can proceed intelligently in its treatment.[47] A -fundamental need also in the treatment of juvenile delinquency is -the conferring of equity powers on the court, in order to avoid the -hindrances of purely criminal trials and to reach the child and his -family more directly. - -Finally, we must not forget, in considering the darker aspects of -the extreme cases presented in the section on commitments, that all -delinquent boys are not of that type. As a rule, the boy delinquent -stands out among the ranks of mishandled West Side youngsters only as -one of them who has had the misfortune to be apprehended where others -equally guilty have escaped; in most cases he does not differ in any -great degree from his mates. Viewed from the standpoint of the district -and in the light of what we know of its manner of life, juvenile -delinquency is seen to be largely the product of conditions dangerous -to youth in the homes and on the streets. To deal with the boy only -after he has committed a crime is to deal with the product and not at -all with the source of his offending; to allow him to return to his old -surroundings without official supervision and control is, except in -rare instances, a futile expedient. - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -THE CENTER OF THE PROBLEM - - -In studying the boy of the Middle West Side we are studying the future -as well as the present of his district; and in gathering together for -a composite picture his various traits which have already been noted, -it will not be out of place to refer once more to certain neighborhood -characteristics which he reflects as well as to some aspects of his -life and environment which have not as yet been illustrated. In this -volume we wish mainly to present the boy as he is today, not to -suggest the method of his regeneration. But an attempt to account for -his peculiarities naturally results in deductions which may seem to -argue a basis for some definite plan of reform; and with an increasing -intimacy with West Side conditions it becomes more and more difficult -to resist the conclusion that many of his vices are forced upon him by -circumstances so strong as to be almost unavoidable. - -Stealing, for instance, the theft of anything, but especially of coal -and wood, is, as we have seen, encouraged; it is looked upon absolutely -as a matter of course. The boy is brought up to consider it part of the -daily routine;[48] the winter cold drives home his family’s need for -heat, yet the family income is too slender to allow the purchase of -coal. His mother sends him out to get fuel, and he knows that somehow -he must find it. The line of least resistance is worn smooth in his -neighborhood, and it is natural and easy to fall in with the parental -fiction that the fuel which reaches the tenement has miraculously -dropped from heaven. - -This fiction does not apply, however, to the more general “swipin’” -or “crookin’” which consists in stealing on the spur of the moment -any unconsidered trifles which may be lying around. Usually things so -stolen are small and of little value. Boys start out on “crookin’” -expeditions, taking anything edible or vendible that they can lay hands -on; and in this they have the example of older fellows, even married -men, who will steal in a desultory way whenever they have the chance. -“Every time I get a vacant house,” said a wrathful real estate agent -one day, “it means that I’ve got to put in new lead pipes, or new -faucets, or new gas fixtures, or perhaps all of them. The damned crooks -of the neighborhood, young and old, break in and rip them out to sell.” -And a certain settlement had the same experience. When it was first -opened practically every removable thing in the house disappeared, -including even the necessaries for meals. - -Here again, though such thefts are far less excusable, the boys have a -definite point of view. They are quite non-moral and have never learned -to consider the question of property. Their code is the primitive code -of might and they look upon their booty as theirs by right of conquest. -Further, the very pressure of poverty is an incentive to stealing for -various ends. They are cigarette fiends--they must have cigarettes. -They are hungry; they crave amusement, and “the movin’ pictures” mean -a nickel. All these things cost money, and when one is penniless and -knows no moral code and sees one’s elders acknowledging none, the -temptation to adopt the tactics of the thief and the thug becomes -almost irresistible. - -[Illustration: CARRYING LOOT FROM A VACANT BUILDING] - -[Illustration: CLOSED BY THE GANGS] - -Much that these boys think and do is the direct result of their natural -propensity to imitate, combined with the fact that they have never -been taught the difference between childhood and manhood. Thus they -learn to fight, to smoke, to drink as their elders do. Fist fights in -the street are of the most common occurrence, particularly among the -young men from sixteen to twenty years of age. To “go down to the docks -and fight it out” is one method of settling all disputes, whether of -politics, love, or personal appearance. Homeric tales are related of -some of these combats. A youth of eighteen demands of a bigger man -an apology for an alleged insult to the former’s sister. The two go -behind a sandpile on the docks, where in the presence of a large group -of witnesses they fight fiercely for several hours until both are -exhausted. Gang fights, as we have said, are frequently settled by a -personal fight between two leaders. These fights sometimes end in one -or both of the combatants being maimed, and, with the rougher element, -occasionally in murder. - -The seriousness of a fight between older men in this neighborhood -is recognized, and ordinarily every effort is made to separate the -fighters before they become committed to fight to the finish. If a -man is defeated by the fists of his opponent, he will seize a club, a -bottle, a paving stone, or a revolver, if he can get one, and continue -the fight with this advantage. Very frequently a street fight between -two men results in a feud which will be carried on from day to day, -until one or the other is permanently disabled. - -Often these feuds result in the destruction of property, which is -here an accepted way of “getting even.” Tenants who are evicted are -not unlikely by way of revenge to do as much damage as they can to -the apartment before leaving. If one club is at war with another, it -is expected that the stronger will invade the premises of the weaker -and smash up furniture and furnishings. Revenge in this district is -wreaked primarily upon person; failing that, upon property. And this -latter custom has become so prevalent and so much developed that much -damage is done from pure maliciousness and from wanton joy of breaking -and destroying. “Scenery Burned by Vandals” runs a recent newspaper -headline.[49] - - Vandals destroyed three truckloads of scenery stored last night on - “The Farm,” in Twelfth Avenue between Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixth - Streets.... - - Shortly after 11 o’clock last night the first truck was set afire. - The scenery was covered with canvas, and when the firemen arrived - it was a total wreck. Three hours later the other two trucks were - set afire. The trucks also were burned, and the total loss was - estimated at $7,000. - -Such outrages are quite common. They are merely a development of the -method employed by West Side toughs for “getting a come-back”; merely a -warning of the fact that the district owns to no law but the law of the -Texan or Corsican Vendetta. Does someone habitually steal clothes from -the wash-line? Then the husband “lays for” him with a club. Does some -man or boy strike a boy on the street? The mother, or father, or big -brother goes down to “get even.” Fear and gang ethics forbid the giving -of information, and the whole neighborhood is saturated with treachery -and suspicion. - -With examples of this kind all around him, what wonder that the boy -fights often and recklessly; that he turns naturally to violence; and -that his combats, singly or in gangs, make no demands on the spirit of -fair play? - -With regard to smoking, the little West Sider’s indulgence is entirely -unrestrained. On the streets, with his gang, and often in his home, -he smokes incessantly from about the time that he is six years old; -though, of course, to a stranger or a settlement worker he will deny -that he has ever touched a cigarette. A boy’s club in the neighborhood -recently insisted that its members be allowed to smoke during club -meetings. All of them said that they smoked at home and with their -parents’ full knowledge. These were boys ranging from ten to fourteen -years of age. In another club, a boy of thirteen said that it was -impossible for him to refrain from smoking more than half an hour at a -time when he was out of school. Other boys sided with him, saying that -they simply had to smoke. By a vote of the club, however, smoking was -abolished during club meetings. After that, this boy went to the roof -or hallway to smoke at intervals during the session of the club. His -was not an extreme case, although he smoked to greater excess than most -of the boys. And in another club, which was formed away from settlement -influence, it was found practically impossible to keep the majority -of the boys from smoking. They were willing enough to vote to abolish -it, but were unable to adhere to the principle which they themselves -had established. A few parents objected on principle to their boys’ -smoking, but they had not the power or opportunity of preventing it. -So the cigarette habit is added to the boy’s vices, and the stunted, -anemic cigarette fiend is a frequent figure on these streets. - -In the same way drinking and intoxication come quite naturally into -his life. Beer is a great dinner and supper staple in the tenements, -and every day sees a long procession of women, girls, and boys, filing -with tin pails to the saloon for the evening drink. Most of the girls -make for the “Family Entrance,” though many go unblushingly through -the screen door to the main saloon and come out a moment later with a -foaming pail of beer. Others,--and this is particularly characteristic -of the smaller girls,--ask some lounging male of their acquaintance to -go in and get the beer for them. The deputy usually rewards himself -by a long pull from the pail before he comes out of the saloon. It -is astonishing, however, how large a number even of little girls and -boys ten years old or less, walk boldly out of the front door with -their pails. Almost every saloon has also its line of ragged urchins, -crouched on their hands and knees on the stone doorstep, peering under -the screen at the crowd within. Occasionally, on gala Saturday nights, -a group of men will hold what is known as a “beer racket.” Each one -contributes a sum of money, fifty cents, a dollar, or sometimes more, -to a saloon keeper, who agrees to furnish all the beer they can drink. -The party then retires to a convenient neighborhood roof, and keg after -keg is sent up until the last drinker has succumbed. Usually one or -more boys may be found with the group, overcome with drink. - -[Illustration: DE WITT CLINTON PARK - -The only city playground on a bright Saturday afternoon] - -[Illustration: A FAVORITE PLAYGROUND - -The beer pail is frequently refilled during the game] - -Little attention is paid by the neighborhood to drunkenness, and among -the boys themselves it is regarded as rather a joke for one of their -number to become intoxicated. The worst feature of intemperance here -is, indeed, not the occasional appearance of a boy intoxicated -but the indifference with which the adults treat such a spectacle. -At the last annual outing of the Tammany leaders in this district a -score or more of unaccompanied boys, from ten to fourteen years old, -managed by hook or crook to join the excursion party, which counted -among its numbers many well known and responsible business men of the -neighborhood. From the time the excursion boat left the landing to -the time it discharged its passengers, on both incoming and outgoing -trips, the excursionists were drenched in a torrent of free beer. -Kegs were tapped a dozen at a time, and in pails, in glasses, in -trayloads of “schooners,” it was rushed to the upper decks so fast that -it sometimes went a-begging even among the hundreds of thirsty West -Siders. Naturally, the small boys got hold of it, and on the way home -a group of them with a gang of immature youths scarcely beyond boyhood -themselves, sequestered a couple of kegs in a nook on the after spar -deck and actually emptied both kegs. When the boat landed several of -them plainly showed the effects of their revel, and one boy of fourteen -was helped ashore by his laughing playmates, his legs reeling, his head -rolling from side to side, and his eyes staring with the dull vacuity -of drunkenness. Among the men, hundreds of whom saw this sight, not a -voice was raised in protest; some laughed; some scolded the boys for -their intemperance; most watched with cynical indifference, as though -this were to be expected. - -Thus it is seen that all these vices--drinking, smoking, -ruffianism--come very naturally to the West Side boy. Even if he -realizes them for what they are, he is ill-fitted to resist them. He -sees them all around him from infancy; and, boylike, he makes them his -own through imitation. - -Another of the many ways in which this versatile youngster amuses -himself is by playing truant. - -The equipment of the typical boy of the Middle West Side when he is -first sent to school is pitiable. Excessive cigarette smoking, the -wrangling atmosphere of the home, the excitement of the street, have -sapped his nervous power. He is restless, easily reduced to sulkiness, -and exceedingly hard to interest. The varied excitement of the streets, -combined with the inevitable cigarette, has lost to him all power of -continued thought or concentration. School itself, like the boy, has -little chance. Perhaps it is lacking in anything which makes a vital -appeal to his nature, but from the first it is handicapped. Not only -is the lure of the streets tremendous, but the bewildered school -teacher is presented with a child who has been born into ignorance and -inexpansibility, reared in an atmosphere of discord and vice, and given -every chance of acquiring disastrous physical and moral habits, before -ever he reached the class room; and the problem that confronts the -teacher is not that of building up a character but of making over one -that is already seriously deformed. - -The sources of the truancy habit are undoubtedly to be traced in the -boy’s first acquaintance as an infant with the streets. As we have -seen, he is familiar from babyhood with the bustle and confusion of -street life and his first pleasurable experiences are associated with -it. The atmosphere of the street, its scenes and sounds, permeate the -child’s whole existence and fasten upon him the shackles of habit. -After a year or two of more or less complete subjection of his budding -mind to this influence, the child is expected to exchange without -protest the thrilling, lawless streets for the orderly commonplace of -the school room. Of course he is attracted by the novelty of the latter -for a time, but after that he feels the strain of two conflicting -influences--the lure of the street and the instinct of obedience to -authority. If he wishes to yield to the street, he has the traditions -of generations of truants and any number of conniving playmates to aid -him to escape. And here we have the beginnings of the “delinquency” -which almost inevitably sooner or later leads him to the juvenile -court.[50] - -Here is the confession of a ten-year-old truant, which is typical of -school life in the district: - -“I used to go to the Fifty-second Street school with Jimmie, but they -made me change to Forty-eighth Street because I stayed away so much. I -would leave home in the morning at school time and then come up here -and play in the streets instead of going to school. I would just hang -around the corners with the other boys or go after loot with them. A -little while ago, Jimmie and I wanted money, and we got a dog to follow -us into a candy store on Eleventh Avenue, and there we tried to sell -it. It was a dandy dog, a thoroughbred, but the storekeeper said he had -two already and wouldn’t buy it. We tried to sell it again but it got -away from us. We tried that with another one once but it was a bum -one. Nobody would buy it, and after spending the whole morning trying, -we gave it a kick and chased it off. Jimmie and I and a bunch of boys -all got a duck apiece in Jersey once and we were able to sell them for -fifty cents apiece.” - -“How do you get over to Jersey without paying?” - -“That’s easy,” said Jimmie, “you go down to de ferry and wait till two -or t’ree ladies comes in togeder. One of ’em gits two or t’ree tickets -for the bunch, and you step right up in front of the first lady, like -you was her son. The gateman sees the tickets in her hand, and then you -beat it, while she’s tryin’ to explain to the gateman. Coming back is -easier still, ’cos you can always sneak through the wagon, or express, -or employes’ entrances there.” - -“When our whole family goes to Jersey,” went on the narrator, “all of -us kids sneak in that way. My father buys tickets and then we walk -through the gates and he refuses to pay for us because he don’t know -us. Just now it is too cold to go to Jersey much, or do anything but -keep in school. Besides I’m on parole now. I have to have a good -conduct card and have to go and see Mr. Carson once in so often and -tell him about what I’m doin’.” - -Truancy here is developed into a system, which the youngsters can -adjust to any occasion with the greatest facility. If you start to -school with your books in the morning it is an easy matter to leave -them at a candy store or with a friend, and put in the morning -furthering your own interests on the docks or in the streets. If a -truant officer asks you your name or your business on the streets, one -name is as good as another,--if it is far enough from your own; and -there are many plausible reasons for being out of school, if you can -avoid having to prove them. A placating note to your teacher written -by yourself is as good as one by your mother, if you can only make the -teacher believe that your mother wrote it. After two or three days in -the street, it is necessary to maintain a strict watch over the mail -box, if you would beat your parents to the truant officer’s notice -which will sooner or later be found therein. This notice can be removed -from the box by the judicious use of a bent pin, and communication -between the school and the home is thus indefinitely postponed. - -Once these details are arranged, the streets of New York are open to -the boys for a holiday. Money, while not an absolute necessity, is much -to be desired, and there are many ways of obtaining it,--witness the -statement of “Jimmie’s” friend, above. It is against the law for boys -under fourteen years to work, and the greater number of employers to -whom they apply do their best to make this law effective; in any case, -labor as a financial resource makes no strong appeal. But there are -things to sell if you can only get hold of them without being caught. -Pennies may be begged, or stolen from other and smaller children. -Similarly food may be begged when necessary, or obtained unobtrusively -from fruit stand and grocery counters. Jimmie’s friend is by no means -the only boy who starts for school regularly every morning and very -often does not return before nine or ten o’clock at night, staving -off the pangs of hunger (which often seems to be the only form of -homesickness known in this district) through the resources here -described. - -Akin to truancy is the “wanderlust.” This passion to get out and away, -travel, and court adventure, comes to the boy of the Middle West Side -as it comes to most boys--and often he obeys its call. The resulting -experiences are usually only a short and amusing incident in his life; -very rarely do they lead to a permanent change. One young adventurer -told of a characteristic trip: - -“Denny Murphy came over to our house one morning last summer and said, -‘Red, let’s beat it.’ ‘Sure,’ I said, ‘where to?’ ‘Out west,’ Denny -said. I did not have anything else to do and I thought it would be a -good thing to go west. So that afternoon, Denny and I went over to -Jersey City. Denny had some money. I don’t know where he got it, but -he probably stole it, for he was always crazy about robberies; talked -about ‘pulling off’ robberies and things of that kind, and I knew he -had been in some hold-ups. We were going to go to Philadelphia first, -but I thought we needed more money and could probably get a job in -Paterson. So we took a freight train to Paterson. Got there in the -evening and I tried for a job in the factory. I told the man I had been -getting six dollars a week in another factory and told him I lived in -Paterson, but the manager caught me lying about where I lived and fired -me out. So Denny and I slept that night in the doorway of that same -factory. - -“In the morning we both looked around for a job, but there was nothing -doing. Finally I got on a barge and they were going to take me on there -washing dishes and being cabin boy, but there was nothing for Denny -to do, and the boat was going up the river instead of down, so there -wasn’t any use in our staying there; so that night Denny came in and -we slept on the back of the boat. Denny had some more money now--No, -I don’t know where he got it--and we went over to Jersey City again -on the trolley car. Then we caught a freight train for Philadelphia. -The cars were locked and we had to climb clear up and ride on top. We -got down to some town just the other side of Trenton before a brakeman -saw us and booted us off, and then we had to wait there the rest of -the afternoon and get on a coal car which took us to Philadelphia. -We spent that night in a freight car and then got on another freight -train out in the West Philadelphia yards and started west. We climbed -in a box car marked ‘Springfield, Ohio,’ shut the door, and I went to -sleep. When I woke up it was daylight, and the car was in another city. -I supposed it was Springfield but it wasn’t; it was only Harrisburg. -We walked all around the town, but we couldn’t find anything to do, -and finally we got out of money. Along about dark we saw a bellboy, we -thought he was, coming out of a hotel. He was a ‘coon’ in uniform, so -we thought he must be a bellboy. Then Denny said, ‘Here’s our chance -to get money.’ He said we could take a club and come up behind and -blackjack the coon and rob him. So we came up in the dark and just as -we got close up behind him, he turned around and we saw that he was not -a bellboy at all but a policeman. I never knew before they had ‘coon’ -policemen anywhere. - -“Denny and I beat it for the railroad as fast as we could go. We did -not wait to eat or anything, but caught a freight train that we saw -moving, and when we got on we found we were bound for Philadelphia -again. In the car with us was a ‘coon’ bumming like we were. He wanted -to know who we were and where we were going. We told him we were just -looking around the country, and he wanted to take us south with him. -He said the Southern people were mighty fine people and would surely -give us good jobs if we would go with him as far as Atlanta. We had -come back from the west now and we thought we might as well go south -as anywhere else, so we told him we would go with him. Then I went to -sleep again and when I woke up there wasn’t any coon any more. He had -beat it somewhere and left Denny and me behind. - -“We got off the train at a little station called Overbrook, just -outside of Philadelphia, and just as we hit the cinders, two railroad -detectives jumped out from behind the switchhouse and grabbed us both -and that ended our western trip. - -“They took us into the city to the House of Detention, where we stayed -over that night and the next two or three days. There was a man there -who treated us fine and made us tell all about ourselves, and after two -or three days he put us on a passenger train and sent us back to New -York. I’ve never tried to go west since.” - -Parties and dances, now and then a “grand annual ball” or “fête” at a -dance hall or casino, an occasional visit to a moving picture show, -one or two dilapidated poolrooms, and the sordid and ever-present -saloon--these are practically the only amusements definitely offered to -the West Side boy. And as he casts about for means to supplement them -it is natural for him to turn early to indulgence in sexual immorality, -which he has seen and heard talked of in the tenement and the street -since he began to be old enough to notice anything. His sense of -modesty has been strangled at birth. All round him he is accustomed to -hear obscene terms, the meaning of which any older person will freely -explain in a way which robs them of any moral significance whatever. -There are plenty of “big fellers” and “wise girls” on the streets to -teach him anything that he wishes to know. In the tenements themselves -immoral practices are common even among small children, with the full -knowledge of everyone except their parents, who are nevertheless -apathetically aware of the sins of their neighbors’ children. In a -number of ways the boys here learn, not the truth about reproduction, -for that is very little known here, but about sexual enjoyment and its -many forms of perversion, topics which occupy a large share of the mind -of adolescent youth in this environment. Children of both sexes indulge -freely in conversation which is only carried on secretly by adults in -other walks of life. Certain roofs in the neighborhood have a name as -rendezvous for children and young couples for immoral practices. - -In common with other districts of the city the neighborhood has -many sexual perverts, and these furnish an actual menace to the -children. As infants, practically, the boys have heard the same -stories repeated until they regard sexual matters as forbidden, of -course,--and therefore, like smoking cigarettes and gambling, to be -hidden from parents, police, or other authorities,--but with no sense -of abhorrence. Knowledge of the methods of the perverts, on the other -hand, leads to experimentation among the boys, and to the many forms -of perversion which in the end make the degenerate. Self-abuse is -considered a common joke, and boys as young as seven and eight actually -practice sodomy. Every night the doorways are blocked with girls from -fourteen to twenty years of age who lean against the walls and rails, -and talk with the young men, the “talk” occasionally degenerating into -a laughing scuffle. Girls as a rule are never mentioned by the boys -except in club-room stories of the grossest immorality. - -Universally these boys lack stamina--physical, mental, moral. They -are incapable of prolonged exertion; a minute or two of fast boxing -exhausts them completely, and only the exceptional ones are able to box -continuously for more than two or three rounds. Their baseball teams -are too apt to “blow up” in the fourth or fifth inning, no matter what -individual cleverness some of the members may have shown, because the -players are so shortwinded and feeble of limb. There are, of course, -a number of well developed athletes among them, but a boy of normal -physique stands out far above his playmates, and those of exceptional -skill are few indeed. - -Their mental energies are scattered and undependable. They are -incapable of prolonged thought upon any one subject, and lack -absolutely the concentration which mental discipline can impart. Quick -they may be and clever, but they are seldom deep, and through years of -mental inaction they seem unable to grasp anything like an abstract -idea or principle. Of any except the simplest and most exciting card -games they quickly tire. - -The lack of moral stamina is even more evident. They are totally unable -to resist physical temptation of any sort. In fact, their training -seems to offer them no basis of resistance. They are accustomed to -striving not to overcome but to gratify every desire. Lack of privacy -and the hopelessly unmoral attitude of the neighborhood toward all -matters of sex have left them without any moral standards. In deceit -and treachery, the use of superior force and of unfair advantage, they -see nothing to be avoided or ashamed of. Revenge and the fiercest -retaliation for real or fancied injury, accidental or otherwise, are -part of their code. Their life is a struggle for self-preservation, and -they are naturally consummately selfish; for the feelings of others -they have not the slightest thought. Calloused into unmorality they are -unconcernedly cruel, and such a thing as the killing of some boy in a -gang fight will be related in a perfectly matter-of-fact manner. They -have no respect for age or authority. - -Two types of boy are common in these streets, widely dissimilar, but -equally pathetic. The first is the boy who wants to “make good,” -but cannot shake off the shackles of association and environment; -the boy “who’d make something of himself yet if given half a show.” -Since leaving school and going to work he has perhaps gone through -the process known as “steadying down” and “getting sensible.” Between -the years of fourteen and seventeen there may have come a loosening -of the old gang ties, a change, and a reshaping. A later period -seems to come when after the excitements of his adolescent years he -may realize, as to the loafing and depredations into which he has -drifted, that “there’s nothing in it.” Sometimes even a boy from a -down-at-the-heels and shiftless family makes a desperate effort to -pull up. But he lacks the tremendous energy to struggle through the -bad name he has gotten by his own career and by identification as “one -of that crew.” His bitterness is natural. “Oh, I know--that is another -of those Fifty-third Street stories about Charlie Harris. I’ve heard -enough of them.” Such a boy is most susceptible at this time to home -and outside influence, and if only the opportunity can be taken it will -be not unlikely to prove the turning point in his life. But too often -there is no one at hand to help him. The West Side boy does not always -respond to kindness. He knows little or nothing of it in his life, and -his native fickleness and dislike of direction make him, especially -after the school age, difficult to handle. - -Yet sometimes the effort does succeed. George Ruhl, for instance, was -the oldest of three children in a poor German family. Some years ago, -when one of the settlement workers first knew him, he was unruly and -“difficult” and quite beyond the control of his parents. He refused -to go to school, smoked cigarettes, and got into bad company with his -gang. When he was twelve years old a settlement worker sent him away to -the home of the Salvation Army. The superintendent would not keep him -on account of his bad influence upon the other boys. In order to remove -him from his gang Miss Summers had him sent to a Boys’ Republic. The -leader kept him for two years and gained a remarkably good influence -over the boy. He then placed George on a farm in Massachusetts. George -has turned out well. The owner of the farm, a selectman of the town, -treated him like a member of his own family and trusted him with money -and other important matters. Finally he rented a farm to George and -another boy, and they are prospering. They run a truck farm, raising -also chickens, eggs, and squabs. For many years George sent his mother -ten dollars a month to pay the rent. In 1909 he offered to take the -whole family down to his farm, but Miss Summers advised against this -because it would have imposed too much of a burden upon the boy. Here -is a case in which outside help at the right time worked wonders; and -undoubtedly the same success might result in many others, were there -only more knowledge of the West Side and more voices that would answer -to the call. Meanwhile the boy “who can’t make good” is still with us. - -The second type commands pity but deserves few excuses. It is the -boy who refuses to make good. When a boy goes to work even the lax -discipline of the irregularly attended school is absent. West Side -boys are not in demand, and his job is often that of an extra “hand,” -easily turned off, or else it is of a “blind alley” nature. His -delinquency, however, cannot be considered the effect of his job, for -boys of this type naturally seek for a low grade of employment.[51] In -a fit of temper or idleness he surrenders his job; perhaps he loses -it unwillingly. Whole days of enforced freedom will follow. One day -in the streets between weeks of monotonous hardship in the factory -may demoralize a boy. Possibly he hears of another position, which -he thinks will be easier and pay more than the one he has. So he -drops his former job and takes the new one. Before he has been in his -new position long, the memory of his day of idleness on the street -overcomes him, and with a little money in his pocket he quits his -position, and this time he does not hunt up a new one until all his -money is spent. The next logical step is to try to obtain food and -money as long as possible without working for it. And so step by step -has evolved the habitual loafer and hanger-on of saloons, the young man -who brags that he does not earn a living and does not have to earn one. -Two boys known to our workers went through this process and are now -young men. Both live off the earnings of mother and sister, and indeed, -one of them ordered his sister to go to work “or else how could he -live?” The other blacked his sister’s eyes over a similar discussion. -Such things are common on the Middle West Side. - -Both of these types are direct and logical products of neighborhood -conditions, just as many of the ways in which the boy finds his -recreation simply announce the fact that he must invent for himself -what his home fails to provide. The boy’s inner life is bleak and -wretched because every normal instinct of youth, all the qualities of -which future men are made, have been sapped and stunted by the gray, -grim neighborhood in which even play is crime. There are ten thousand -hopeless little tragedies on the Middle West Side today; and our only -answer to their appeal is to call for the police. - -If the school is at a disadvantage in its labors to build up -character, the juvenile court is even more so. A day at court is a -transient experience and soon forgotten. Even the effects of months of -institutional life are soon outlived under the strong influences of the -street and the gang. - - * * * * * - -Our picture of the West Side boy is now wellnigh complete. Lawless, -defiant, a nuisance to his neighbors and a menace to his playmates, it -seems as though the future citizen of these streets were little likely -to become other than a burden or a detriment to the whole body politic. -Certainly he and his gang, taking them as they are, have little to -recommend them or help them to offset a notoriety which they have -justly gained. - -Of course, their days are not on this account all tears and misery. -That side of the story has been emphasized because it bears upon the -purpose of this study; but if it were the only side these boys would -be almost too impossible to be real. But they are very real, and very -boylike, careless and happy-go-lucky, too young to know--of if they -did know to reflect on--what might have been, taking their world as it -is, and ingeniously determined to make the best of it and have a “good -time,” no matter at whose expense. They are quaint little figures, with -their rich street vocabulary, their heartless and yet almost innocent -paganism, their capacity for achieving the dangerous in amusement -though they bump into every corner on the way. Look at the gang ready -for baseball; its members do not seem overwhelmed by the burden of -juvenile delinquency. Look at the little group “playing hookey” under -the dock; fear of the truant officer seems to sit lightly on the -shoulders of these boys. - -No, comedy is no stranger to the Middle West Side; only it is -Meredithian comedy and the laughter which it provokes is thoughtful -indeed. And it is assuredly true that if you would see all that is most -typical of the West Side boy, if you would see him as expressing what -in his life he really is, you must turn your back on comedy and gaze on -the sadder picture. Look at the illustrations and see the boy himself; -then read the following sketch as the caption under the portrait. It is -printed verbatim from the New York _Evening World_ of April 10, 1911, -and for its truth to life it cannot be bettered. - - Johnnie Moran, twelve years old, ... was arraigned today ... in the - Children’s Court. - - The boy was taken in charge Saturday night by Detectives Carter - and Brown from headquarters, after he had watched his father die - of dropsy thirty-six hours previously; after he had seen the body - robbed by a playmate; after he himself had taken “de old man’s” - watch, and had then gone to play in the street as if nothing out of - the usual had occurred. - - Johnnie is undersized. His chest is sunken and his shoulders slope; - his furtive little gray eyes are deep set under a bulging brow, - topped by a shock of hair of no particular color; his small fingers - are cigarette-stained, and his clothes look as if their origin had - been the ash barrel. Here is the story he told an _Evening World_ - reporter, while swinging his thin legs unconcernedly from a bench - in the room above the Children’s Court, where the little prisoners - were waiting to be called for trial: - - “Me old man was sick a week and three days. I didn’t know what wuz - the matter wid him, and he didn’t neither. He just laid around and - groaned and his legs swelled awful. His name? He wuz named John, - too, and he was a night watchman, when he woiked, down to the dock - at Thoity-seventh Street. Yes, sir, he drinked some mostly before - he went to work in the evenin’. But it didn’t seem to bother him. - No, sir, he never treated me bad; hardly ever licked me. - - “The old man never had nothing to eat, ’cept what I bringed him the - first day he wuz sick. Yes, sir, I went to school every day. I wuz - ’fraid the troont-off’cer’d git me. The old man didn’t mind--he - just stayed by himself. No, sir, nobody come to see him, and he - never told me to git nobody. After school I’d play in the streets - with the other fellows and I’d git some buns and milk. I didn’t - want much--wuzn’t hungry--and the old man never seemed to want - anything.” - - Johnnie produced a wad of chewing gum from some recess of his - jacket and a second later the atmosphere around him reeked with the - odor of mint. - - “Thursday night,” he went on, “he wuz took woise. I slept on a - bundle of old things in a corner and in the night I heard the - old man git up and go in the kitchen and sit down there. He - groaned somethin’ awful--like this,” and the boy gave a startling - imitation, “and I couldn’t sleep and I told him to shut up. Then, - after a while, he stopped groaning and when I got up to go to - school I see he wuz nearly all in. - - “He told me to tie a rope around him and try and pull him onto the - bed and I did it, but it wuzn’t no use. Then I went out and got a - roll and a glass o’ milk and when I come back he wuz half way onto - the bed, and he didn’t answer when I spoke to him and shook him. I - called him four or five times, but he never answered, and so I went - on to school. I didn’t want the troont-off’cer to git me. - - “Yes, sir, I knowed he wuz dead, but I had to go to school. Then - after school was out, I told some of the fellers and two of - ’em went up in the room with me, and one of ’em--he wuz a big - boy--took five dollars out of the old man’s pocket and I took his - watch. The big boy--his name wuz Frank Reede--wouldn’t give me none - of the five dollars and he and the other kid run away. - - “The next day I got hungry and I told the janitor and he told the - cops and they come and got me and took the old man’s watch to keep - for me. Yes, sir, I’m sorry the old man’s dead. He wuz good to me. - No, sir, me muther is dead. She died when I wuz a year old when we - lived in Thoity-thoid Street. I dunno how long we have been living - in Thoity-seckin Street. What’ll they do with me, Mister?” - -What shall we do with him? That is a question which the institutions, -the officials, and the people of New York must answer. - - - - -APPENDIX - - - - -APPENDIX - - -TABLE 1.--SOURCES FROM WHICH THE NAMES OF THE 294 BOYS STUDIED WERE -OBTAINED - - ============================================================ - Source |Names - ------------------------------------------------------+----- - 1909 Court list | 202 - Big Brother Movement | 43 - Special club studies | 10 - Charity Organization Society | 8 - Additional children of interest in families visited | 20 - Known through investigators on other topics | 6 - Known through other children | 2 - School | 1 - Church | 1 - Settlement | 1 - ------------------------------------------------------+---- - Total | 294 - ------------------------------------------------------+---- - - -TABLE 2.--AGES OF BOYS[a] - - ===================================================== - | BOYS - Age | - +--------+---------- - | Number | Per cent - ---------------------------------+--------+---------- - Less than 8 years | 1 | .3 - 8 years and less than 10 years | 3 | 1.0 - 10 years and less than 12 years | 24 | 8.2 - 12 years and less than 14 years | 71 | 24.3 - 14 years and less than 16 years | 102 | 35.0 - 16 years and more | 91 | 31.2 - ---------------------------------+--------+---------- - Total | 292 | 100.0 - ---------------------------------+--------+---------- - -[a] Information is not available as to the ages of two of the 294 boys. - - -TABLE 3.--LENGTH OF RESIDENCE IN THE DISTRICT OF 183 FAMILIES[a] - - ==================================================== - | FAMILIES - Years in district +--------+---------- - | Number | Per cent - --------------------------------+--------+---------- - Less than 5 years | 13 | 7.1 - 5 years and less than 10 years | 31 | 16.9 - 10 years and less than 15 years | 25 | 13.7 - 15 years and less than 20 years | 26 | 14.2 - 20 years and more | 88 | 48.1 - --------------------------------+--------+---------- - Total | 183 | 100.0 - --------------------------------+--------+---------- - -[a] Information is not available as to the length of residence in the -district of 58 of the 241 families. - - -TABLE 4.--COUNTRY OF BIRTH OF PARENTS[a] - - ============================================= - Country of birth |Fathers |Mothers - ----------------------------+--------+------- - United States | 81 | 92 - Ireland | 64 | 72 - Germany | 27 | 18 - Italy | 17 | 15 - Scotland | 7 | 8 - England | 6 | 4 - Sweden | 4 | 4 - France | 4 | 2 - Austria | 3 | 2 - Russia | 1 | 3 - Dalmatia | 2 | 2 - Roumania | 2 | 1 - Armenia | 1 | 1 - Switzerland | 1 | 1 - West Indies | 1 | 1 - Portugal | | 1 - Denmark | 1 | - ----------------------------+--------+------ - Total | 222 | 227 - ----------------------------+--------+------ - -[a] Information is not available as to the country of birth of 19 -fathers and 14 mothers in 241 families. - - -TABLE 5.--NATIONALITY OF AMERICAN-BORN PARENTS[a] - - =============+=========+=========+ - Nationality | Fathers | Mothers | - -------------+---------+---------+ - German | 28 | 28 | - Irish | 21 | 25 | - American | 15 | 18 | - English | 3 | 2 | - -------------+---------+---------+ - Total | 67 | 73 | - -------------+---------+---------+ - - [a] Information is not available as to the nationality of 14 of 81 -American-born fathers and of 19 of 92 American-born mothers. - -TABLE 6.--TWO HUNDRED FAMILIES CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO NUMBER OF -PERSONS IN HOUSEHOLDS AND NUMBER OF ROOMS OCCUPIED[a] - - ===============+========================================================================= - | FAMILIES OCCUPYING - +-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+--------- - Persons in | One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | Seven | Eight | All - household | Room | Rooms | Rooms | Rooms | Rooms | Rooms | Rooms | Rooms | families - ---------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+--------- - Two | 1 | | 1 | 1 | 1 | | | | 4 - Three | 1 | 3 | 13 | 7 | 1 | 1 | | | 26 - Four | | 1 | 7 | 11 | 6 | 2 | | | 27 - Five | 1 | 3 | 11 | 10 | 2 | | | | 27 - Six | | 3 | 12 | 12 | 10 | 4 | | | 41 - Seven | | | 4 | 11 | 8 | 1 | | 1 | 25 - Eight | | | 4 | 17 | 5 | 2 | | | 28 - Nine | | | 2 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 2 | | 13 - Ten or eleven | | | | 1 | 4 | 1 | | | 6 - Twelve and | | | | | | | | | - less than 15 | | | | | 1 | 2 | | | 3 - ---------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+--------- - Total | 3 | 10 | 54 | 75 | 41 | 14 | 2 | 1 | 200 - ---------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+--------- - -[a] Information is not available as to the number of rooms occupied -by one household of three persons, six of four persons, six of five -persons, three of six persons, three of seven persons, three of eight -persons, one of nine persons, and one of 12 persons; as to the number -of persons in two households occupying four rooms; nor as to the number -of rooms occupied or the number of persons in 15 households. - - -TABLE 7.--LIVING CHILDREN IN 231 FAMILIES[a] - - ============================+=================== - | FAMILIES - Number of living children +--------+---------- - | Number | Per cent - ----------------------------+--------+---------- - One | 12 | 5.2 - Two | 28 | 12.1 - Three | 28 | 12.1 - Four | 34 | 14.7 - Five | 44 | 19.0 - Six | 36 | 15.6 - Seven | 24 | 10.4 - Eight | 17 | 7.4 - Nine | 5 | 2.2 - Ten | 2 | .9 - Eleven | 1 | .4 - ----------------------------+--------+-------- - Total | 231 | 100.0 - ----------------------------+--------+-------- - -[a] Information is not available as to the number of children in 10 of -the 241 families. - - -TABLE 8.--STATUS OF MOTHERS IN 222 FAMILIES[a] - - =============================+==================== - | MOTHERS - Status of mother +---------+---------- - | Number | Per cent - +---------+---------- - Living and earning wages | 87 | 39.2 - Living and not earning wages | 103 | 46.4 - Dead | 32 | 14.4 - -----------------------------+---------+---------- - Total | 222 | 100.0 - -----------------------------+---------+---------- - -[a] Information not available as to the status of the mother in 19 of -the 241 families. - - -TABLE 9.--CONJUGAL CONDITIONS OF PARENTS IN 233 FAMILIES[a] - - ===================================+=================== - | FAMILIES - Conjugal condition of parents +--------+---------- - | Number | Per cent - -----------------------------------+--------+---------- - Parents living together | 133 | 57.1 - Father dead, mother living[b] | 53 | 22.7 - Mother dead, father living[c] | 20 | 8.6 - Both parents living, but separated | 15 | 6.4 - Both parents dead | 12 | 5.2 - -----------------------------------+--------+---------- - Total | 233 | 100.0 - -----------------------------------+--------+---------- - -[a] Information is not available as to the conjugal condition of -parents in eight of the 241 families. - -[b] In eleven cases where the father was dead and the mother living, -the mother had remarried and the step-father was with the family. - -[c] In four cases where the mother was dead, and the father living, the -father had remarried and the step-mother was with the family. - - -TABLE 10.--RELIEF RECORDS OF 241 FAMILIES - - =============================================+=================== - | FAMILIES - Record +--------+---------- - | Number | Per cent - ---------------------------------------------+--------+---------- - Known to have received aid: | | - From relief societies | 73 | 30.3 - In form of institutional care for children | 17 | 7.1 - From other sources | 15 | 6.2 - ---------------------------------------------+--------+---------- - Total | 105 | 43.6 - Deducting duplicates[a] | 19 | 7.9 - ---------------------------------------------+--------+---------- - Total | 86 | 35.7 - Known not to have received aid | 144 | 59.7 - Relief record unknown | 11 | 4.6 - ---------------------------------------------+--------+---------- - Grand total | 241 | 100.0 - ---------------------------------------------+--------+---------- - -[a] There were 19 cases in which families were known to have received -relief of more than one of the three kinds specified. - - -TABLE 11.--DURATION OF RELIEF RECORDS OF 73 FAMILIES KNOWN TO HAVE -RECEIVED AID FROM RELIEF SOCIETIES[a] - - ================================+=================== - | FAMILIES - Duration of record +--------+---------- - | Number | Per cent - --------------------------------+--------+---------- - Less than 1 year | 15 | 20.5 - 1 year and less than 2 years | 11 | 15.1 - 2 years and less than 5 years | 10 | 13.7 - 5 years and less than 10 years | 19 | 26.0 - 10 years and less than 15 years | 11 | 15.1 - 15 years and less than 20 years | 4 | 5.5 - 20 years and less than 25 years | 3 | 4.1 - --------------------------------+--------+---------- - Total | 73 | 100.0 - --------------------------------+--------+---------- - -[a] Information is not at all available as to the duration of the -relief records of 13 of the 86 families who were known to have received -aid. - - -TABLE 12.--COURT DISPOSITION OF CASES INVOLVING 454 ARRESTS AFFECTING -259 BOYS AND 221 FAMILIES[a] - - ======================+=========+==========+========== - Disposition of cases | Arrests | Boys | Families - | | affected | affected - ----------------------+---------+----------+---------- - Boy let go | 260 | 197 | 176 - Boy paroled | 95 | 83 | 76 - Boy sent up | 99 | 75 | 67 - ----------------------+---------+----------+---------- - Total | 454 | 259[b] | 221[b] - ----------------------+---------+----------+---------- - -[a] Information is not available as to the disposition of nine cases -involving arrest. - -[b] As some of the boys were arrested more times than one, and as some -of the families had two or more boys who were arrested, these figures -are absolute totals, and not the sums of the other figures in the -columns in which they appear. - - -TABLE 13.--FINAL DISPOSITION OF 92 WEST SIDE PAROLED CASES AND OF 1,492 -PAROLED CASES DISPOSED OF BY THE MANHATTAN COURT IN 1909[a] - - =================================+===================+=================== - | WEST SIDE CASES | ALL CASES - Final disposition of case +--------+----------+--------+---------- - | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent - ---------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+---------- - Discharged or sentence suspended | 78 | 84.8 | 1,264 | 89.5 - Committed to institutions | 14 | 15.2 | 148 | 10.5 - ---------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+---------- - Total | 92 | 100.0 | 1,412 | 100.0 - ---------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+---------- - -[a] Information is not available as to two of the 95 paroled cases and -one case was still pending when the study was concluded. - - -TABLE 14.--TRUANCY RECORDS OF 215 BOYS, CLASSIFIED AS DELINQUENT OR NOT -DELINQUENT[a] - - ================================+=========================+======= - | BOYS | - +------------+------------+ - Extent of truancy | | Not | Total - | Delinquent | delinquent | - --------------------------------+------------+------------+------- - No truancy | 41 | 43 | 84 - Occasional truancy | 17 | .. | 17 - Serious truancy | 109 | 1 | 110 - Boy physically disqualified for | | | - school attendance | 4 | .. | 4 - --------------------------------+------------+------------+------- - Total | 171 | 44 | 215 - --------------------------------+------------+------------+------- - -[a] Information is not available as to the truancy of 79 of the 294 -boys included in the study. - - -TABLE 15.--STATUS OF 163 BOYS NOT GAINFULLY EMPLOYED[a] - - ==============================+======= - Status | Boys - ------------------------------+------- - Less than 14 years of age | 99 - 14 years of age or more: | - Attending school | 31 - In institutions | 8 - Out of work and out of school | 25 - ------------------------------+------- - Total | 163 - ------------------------------+------- - -[a] Of the 294 boys, 100 were gainfully employed. Information is not -available as to the status of 31 boys. - - -TABLE 16.--OCCUPATION AND WAGES OF 100 BOYS GAINFULLY EMPLOYED[a] - - ==========================+=========================================+===========+====== - | BOYS EARNING | | - +------+------+------+------+------+------+ Boys | - | $2 | $3 | $4 | $5 | $6 | $7 | whose | - Occupation | and | and | and | and | and | and | earnings | All - | less | less | less | less | less | less | are not | boys - | than | than | than | than | than | than | available | - | $3 | $4 | $5 | $6 | $7 | more | | - --------------------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+-----------+------ - Errand boy | 3 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 22 - Office boy | .. | .. | 2 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 15 - Piano factory worker | .. | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 14 - Driver or driver’s helper | .. | .. | .. | 2 | 2 | 3 | .. | 7 - Stock boy | .. | 1 | .. | .. | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 - Printer’s apprentice | .. | .. | .. | .. | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 - Plumber’s apprentice | .. | .. | .. | 1 | 1 | .. | 2 | 4 - Worker in factory other | | | | | | | | - than piano factory | .. | .. | 1 | .. | .. | 2 | .. | 3 - Cashboy | .. | 2 | .. | .. | .. | .. | 1 | 3 - Tailor’s helper | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 1 | 2 | 3 - Farmhand | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 2 | 2 - Checkboy | .. | .. | 2 | .. | .. | .. | .. | 2 - Messenger boy | .. | .. | .. | 1 | .. | 1 | .. | 2 - Bakery worker | .. | .. | 1 | 1 | .. | .. | .. | 2 - Moving picture show | | | | | | | | - worker | .. | .. | .. | 1 | .. | .. | .. | 1 - Freight checker | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 1 | .. | 1 - Packer | .. | .. | .. | 1 | .. | .. | .. | 1 - Garage helper | .. | .. | .. | 1 | .. | .. | .. | 1 - Plasterer’s helper | .. | 1 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. - Water boy, Metropolitan | | | | | | | | - Railroad | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 1 | 1 - Engineer’s helper | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 1 | 1 - Newspaper boy | .. | 1 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 1 - Furnace company worker | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 1 | .. | 1 - Water works worker | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 1 - Clerk | .. | .. | .. | .. | 1 | .. | .. | 1 - Prisoner in navy prison | .. | 1 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 1 - --------------------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+-----------+------ - Total | 3 | 9 | 12 | 21 | 11 | 19 | 24 | 99 - --------------------------+------+------+------+------+------+------+-----------+------ - -[a] Of the 294 boys, 163 were not gainfully employed. Information is -not available as to the status of 31 boys. - - - - -REPORT OF CHILDREN’S COURT, 1913 - -EXCERPTS FROM ANNUAL REPORT COURT OF SPECIAL SESSIONS OF THE CITY OF -NEW YORK - -For the Year Ending December 31, 1913 - - -The following tables and charts are taken from the annual report of the -children’s court for the county of New York. - -In the preparation of this report the court officials had the active -co-operation of the Committee on Criminal Courts of the Charity -Organization Society. With the approval of Frank Smith, the Chief Clerk -of the Court of Special Sessions, and under the direction of Lawrence -Veiller, Secretary of the Committee, the report was planned and -compiled by George Everson, the Assistant Secretary of the Committee. - -These statistics, based on a total of 9,019 cases and representing the -juvenile delinquency of the entire county, make it possible for us to -compare some of the features of juvenile lawlessness on the Middle West -Side with corresponding conditions in the larger area. To quote from -the report: - - “The total number of arraignments in the Court for the year 1913 - was 9,019. The statistical tables of this report are based on this - large number of cases. Any facts concerning juvenile delinquency in - these statistics should be of permanent scientific value because of - the fact of the large number of cases involved. - - “In the present report an effort has been made to put before the - public more detailed information, in the form of statistical tables - and charts, than has been done in previous years. These tables, and - their illustrative graphics, will show to some extent the detail of - the work of the Court and will make available for popular use some - of the information which is carefully tabulated for each case that - comes into the Court during the year. - - “Many pertinent and interesting facts concerning juvenile - delinquency are available from the court records. Owing to the - limited time at the disposal of the clerical staff for the - compilation of statistics from the individual records of the Court, - we have heretofore been unable to get as much of the information - before the public as we should like to have done. The assistance - which we have received from the Committee on Criminal Courts of the - Charity Organization Society has made it possible for us to put the - statistics in their present form, they having collaborated with our - staff, at the expenditure of considerable time and money, for which - we are considerably indebted. - - “The installation of the probation system, with its very accurate - and detailed records of each case investigated by, or placed in - charge of probation officers, has put many more facts at our - disposal in regard to the family conditions, school and employment - records, etc., of children receiving probationary treatment. It - has been our purpose to include some of these facts of general and - scientific interest in this report. - - “CHARTS AND GRAPHICS.--An effort has been made to illustrate the - most pertinent facts brought out in the statistical tables by some - simple charts and graphics; it is hoped that the reader will get at - a glance the gist of the tables so illustrated. In some instances, - the charts have been used to supplement the information included in - the tables accompanying them. - - “SPECIAL PROCEEDINGS AND JUVENILE DELINQUENCY DISTINGUISHED.--It - will be noted that throughout the statistical tables distinction - has been made between cases of children arraigned as juvenile - delinquents and children arraigned in special proceedings. An - explanation of these terms may help the reader. The general - distinction, broadly stated, is the same distinction which is - generally made between delinquent and dependent children. Special - Proceedings, however, include beside improper guardianship cases, - so-called, all cases of truancy, ungovernable and disorderly - children, and cases of girls in danger of becoming morally - depraved. While these latter are considered by the Court as being - in need of the care and protection of the State, their offenses - often show evidence of grave moral turpitude, and the Court finds - them to be among the most difficult cases to handle. - - “Whenever, in the case of a child brought before the Court on the - charge of juvenile delinquency, it shall appear in the course of - the trial that the child is without proper guardianship, or is in - unfavorable environment, he or she may be adjudged to be in need - of the care and protection of the State, and is then arraigned in - Special Proceedings. - - “PROBATION.--Within the last two years great advances have been - made in probation in this Court. A complete and well-organized - system of probation records has been installed, and the Court - has the service of twenty-three probation officers who devote - their entire time and energy to the assistance and reformation - of children placed in their charge by the Court. The results of - their investigations are invaluable to the judge in making his - disposition of the cases, and their work in helping the boys and - girls to become good citizens is a great service to the community. - The only fault which we have to find with the present system is the - fact that the period of probation in general is not long enough to - allow the probation officer to do his best work with the children - under his charge. Table XXX, and its accompanying chart, shows the - length of the probation periods; it will be noted that one-quarter - of the cases are on probation for a period of two months or under, - while 80 per cent of them are for periods of less than six months. - It is the opinion of experts that proper probationary treatment - can be given only when the child is placed under the officer - for sufficient length of time to allow the officer to do really - constructive work with the child, so that it will be of lasting - influence in his life. If the offense is not sufficiently serious - to require a substantial probation period, then it is not of - sufficient importance to have the probation officer spend his time - with the case. In order to have longer probation periods a larger - corps of probation officers will be necessary. - - “TRUANCY.--The report shows that there were 62 cases of violation - of the compulsory education law brought into the Court during - the year. Investigations of cases by the probation officers have - disclosed the appalling prevalence of truancy among juvenile - delinquents. Hundreds of cases are on record in the probation rooms - showing that children on probation have been habitual truants - previous to being brought into the Court on delinquency charges.” - -Under the group of cases defined as Special Proceedings is often found -the neglected young girl of the accompanying study by Ruth S. True. The -columns in the following tables dealing with girls’ cases will throw -some light on the charges on which she sometimes gets into court. - - -TABLE ONE - -(TABLE XVIII.--Residence by Districts of Children Arraigned during -1913.[52] Report, pp. 72-73.) - - ========================================+===========================================================+ - | JUVENILE DELINQUENCY - +-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - Districts and territory in districts | Male | Female | Total - +--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent - ----------------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - I. Below 14th St., East of 4th Ave., | | | | | | - Bowery and Catharine St. | 1,002 | 21.0 | 23 | 25.2 | 1,025 | 21.1 - II. Below 14th St., West of 4th Ave., | | | | | | - Bowery and Catharine St. | 604 | 12.7 | 9 | 9.9 | 613 | 12.6 - III. East of 6th Ave., from 14th St. to | | | | | | - 63d St.[a] | 332 | 7.0 | 6 | 6.6 | 338 | 7.0 - IV. West of 6th Ave., between 14th St. | | | | | | - and 62d St. | 499 | 10.5 | 10 | 11.0 | 509 | 10.5 - V. East of 5th Ave., from 63d St. to | | | | | | - 109th St.[b] | 667 | 14.0 | 16 | 17.6 | 683 | 14.1 - VI. West of Central Park and 8th | | | | | | - Ave., from 62d St. to 126th St. | 253 | 5.3 | 4 | 4.4 | 257 | 5.3 - VII. In Manhattan, East of 8th Ave., | | | | | | - North of 109th St.[c] | 597 | 12.5 | 12 | 13.2 | 609 | 12.5 - VIII. West of 8th Ave. between 126th | | | | | | - St. and 155th St. | 91 | 1.9 | .. | .. | 91 | 1.9 - IX. West of 8th Ave. and Harlem | | | | | | - River North of 155th St. | 32 | .7 | .. | .. | 32 | .7 - X. All of The Bronx | 529 | 11.1 | 8 | 8.8 | 537 | 11.1 - Brooklyn[d] | 113 | 2.4 | .. | .. | 113 | 2.3 - All others | 29 | .6 | 2 | 2.2 | 31 | .6 - Not stated | 15 | .3 | 1 | 1.1 | 16 | .3 - ----------------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - Total | 4,763 | 100.0 | 91 | 100.0 | 4,854 | 100.0 - ----------------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - - ========================================+===========================================================+ - | SPECIAL PROCEEDINGS - +-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - Districts and territory in districts | Male | Female | Total - +-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent - ----------------------------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - I. Below 14th St., East of 4th Ave., | | | | | | - Bowery and Catharine St. | 473 | 17.8 | 235 | 15.5 | 708 | 17.0 - II. Below 14th St., West of 4th Ave., | | | | | | - Bowery and Catharine St. | 278 | 10.4 | 123 | 8.1 | 401 | 9.6 - III. East of 6th Ave., from 14th St. to | | | | | | - 63d St.[a] | 192 | 7.2 | 152 | 10.0 | 344 | 8.3 - IV. West of 6th Ave., between 14th St. | | | | | | - and 62d St. | 330 | 12.4 | 235 | 15.5 | 565 | 13.6 - V. East of 5th Ave., from 63d St. to | | | | | | - 109th St.[b] | 306 | 11.6 | 186 | 12.3 | 492 | 11.8 - VI. West of Central Park and 8th | | | | | | - Ave., from 62d St. to 126th St. | 98 | 3.7 | 70 | 4.7 | 168 | 4.0 - VII. In Manhattan, East of 8th Ave., | | | | | | - North of 109th St.[c] | 257 | 9.7 | 161 | 10.6 | 418 | 10.0 - VIII. West of 8th Ave. between 126th | | | | | | - St. and 155th St. | 46 | 1.8 | 20 | 1.3 | 66 | 1.6 - IX. West of 8th Ave. and Harlem | | | | | | - River North of 155th St. | 22 | .8 | 13 | .9 | 35 | .8 - X. All of The Bronx | 308 | 11.7 | 191 | 12.6 | 499 | 12.0 - Brooklyn[d] | 36 | 1.3 | 13 | .9 | 49 | 1.2 - All others | 145 | 5.5 | 37 | 2.4 | 182 | 4.4 - Not stated | 159 | 6.1 | 79 | 5.2 | 238 | 5.7 - ----------------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - Total | 2,650 | 100.0 | 1,515 | 100.0 | 4,165 | 100.0 - ----------------------------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - - ========================================+===========================================================+ - | ALL CASES - +-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - Districts and territory in districts | Male | Female | Total - +-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent - ----------------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - I. Below 14th St., East of 4th Ave., | | | | | | - Bowery and Catharine St. | 1,475 | 19.9 | 258 | 16.0 | 1,733 | 19.2 - II. Below 14th St., West of 4th Ave., | | | | | | - Bowery and Catharine St. | 882 | 11.9 | 132 | 8.2 | 1,014 | 11.3 - III. East of 6th Ave., from 14th St. to | | | | | | - 63d St.[a] | 524 | 7.1 | 158 | 9.8 | 682 | 7.6 - IV. West of 6th Ave., between 14th St. | | | | | | - and 62d St. | 829 | 11.2 | 245 | 15.4 | 1,074 | 11.9 - V. East of 5th Ave., from 63d St. to | | | | | | - 109th St.[b] | 973 | 13.1 | 202 | 12.6 | 1,175 | 13.0 - VI. West of Central Park and 8th | | | | | | - Ave., from 62d St. to 126th St. | 351 | 4.7 | 74 | 4.6 | 425 | 4.7 - VII. In Manhattan, East of 8th Ave., | | | | | | - North of 109th St.[c] | 854 | 11.5 | 173 | 10.8 | 1,027 | 11.4 - VIII. West of 8th Ave. between 126th | | | | | | - St. and 155th St. | 137 | 1.9 | 20 | 1.2 | 157 | 1.8 - IX. West of 8th Ave. and Harlem | | | | | | - River North of 155th St. | 54 | .7 | 13 | .8 | 67 | .7 - X. All of The Bronx | 837 | 11.3 | 199 | 12.4 | 1,036 | 11.5 - Brooklyn[d] | 149 | 2.1 | 13 | .8 | 162 | 1.8 - All others | 174 | 2.3 | 39 | 2.4 | 213 | 2.3 - Not stated | 174 | 2.3 | 80 | 5.0 | 254 | 2.8 - ----------------------------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - Total | 7,413 | 100.0 | 1,606 | 100.0 | 9,019 | 100.0 - ----------------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - -[a] East of 6th Ave., from 14th St. to 63d St. to 3d Ave.; and 64th -St., from 3d Ave. to East River. - -[b] East of 5th Ave., from 63d St. to 3d Ave., and 64th St., between -3d Ave. and East River, to 112th St. to 3d Ave., and 109th St. from 3d -Ave. to the East River. - -[c] In Manhattan, East of 8th Ave., North of. 110th St. to 5th Ave., -and 112th St., from 5th Ave. to 3d Ave., and 109th St., from 3d Ave. to -East River. - -[d] Children living in Brooklyn, but arrested in Manhattan. - -[Illustration: Chart I - -(CHART XIV.--Residence by Districts of Children Arraigned During 1913. -Report, p. 74.)] - - -TABLE TWO - -(TABLE IV.--Nature of Charges.[53] Report, p. 52.) - - ==================================+===================+===================+=================== - | MALE | FEMALE | TOTAL - Charges +--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+---------- - | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent - ----------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+---------- - 1. Juvenile delinquency:[a] | | | | | | - a. Assault | 236 | 5.0 | 10 | 11.0 | 246 | 5.1 - b. Offenses against property | 1,212 | 25.3 | 25 | 27.4 | 1,237 | 25.4 - c. Major offenses against the | | | | | | - peace | 584 | 12.3 | 12 | 13.2 | 596 | 12.3 - d. Minor offenses against the | | | | | | - peace | 2,253 | 47.3 | 14 | 15.4 | 2,267 | 46.7 - e. Unlawfully employed | 312 | 6.6 | 18 | 19.8 | 330 | 6.8 - f. Violation of corporation | | | | | | - ordinances not included | | | | | | - above | 54 | 1.1 | 4 | 4.4 | 58 | 1.2 - g. Unclassified | 112 | 2.4 | 8 | 8.8 | 120 | 2.5 - ----------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+---------- - h. Total | 4,763 | 100.0 | 91 | 100.0 | 4,854 | 100.0 - ----------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+---------- - | | | | | | - 2. Special proceedings:[b] | | | | | | - a. Improper guardianship | 2,199 | 82.9 | 1,271 | 83.9 | 3,470 | 83.3 - b. Sex offenses | 18 | .7 | 135 | 8.9 | 153 | 3.7 - c. Ungovernable and | | | | | | - disorderly children | 376 | 14.2 | 104 | 6.9 | 480 | 11.5 - d. Truancy | 57 | 2.2 | 5 | .3 | 62 | 1.5 - ----------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+---------- - e. Total | 2,650 | 100.0 | 1,515 | 100.0 | 4,165 | 100.0 - ----------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+---------- - | | | | | | - 3. Total, all cases: | | | | | | - a. Juvenile delinquency | 4,763 | 64.3 | 91 | 5.7 | 4,854 | 53.8 - b. Special proceedings | 2,650 | 35.7 | 1,515 | 94.3 | 4,165 | 46.2 - ----------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+---------- - c. Grand total | 7,413 | 100.0 | 1,606 | 100.0 | 9,019 | 100.0 - ----------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+---------- - -[a] _Juvenile Delinquency_: _Assault_ includes third degree and -felonious assault; _Offenses against property_ includes burglary, -robbery, grand and petit larceny, and unlawful entry; _Major offenses -against the peace_ includes disorderly conduct as defined by Section -43, Penal Law; carrying dangerous weapons and discharging firearms; -_Minor offenses against the peace_ includes disorderly conduct as -defined under Section 720 and violation of railroad law. _Unlawfully -employed_, includes peddling and violation of the labor law. - -[b] _Special Proceedings_: _Improper guardianship_ includes destitute, -neglected, and ill-treated children; _Sex offenses_ includes cases -under Section 353, laws of 1886, and cases of sex immorality defined in -Section 486, Penal Law; _Ungovernable and disorderly children_ includes -children complained of by parents, children who desert home, and so -forth. - -[Illustration: CHART II - -(CHART II.--Nature of Charges. Report, p. 53.) - -(Percentages shown are of the total number (9,019) of all cases -arraigned.)] - -[Illustration: - -JUVENILE DELINQUENCY SPECIAL PROCEEDINGS ALL CASES - -CHART III - -(CHART V.--Disposition on First Hearing of all Cases Arraigned During -the Year. - -Report, p. 57.)] - - -TABLE THREE - -(TABLE IX.--Disposition on First Hearing of all Cases Arraigned During -the Year.[54] Report, p. 57.) - - =========================+===========================================================+ - | JUVENILE DELINQUENCY - +-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - Disposition | Male | Female | Total - +--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent - -------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - 1. Summarily disposed of | 2,668 | 56.0 | 29 | 31.9 | 2,697 | 55.6 - 2. Remanded[a] | 1,389 | 29.2 | 40 | 44.0 | 1,429 | 29.4 - 3. Paroled[b] | 706 | 14.8 | 22 | 24.1 | 728 | 15.0 - -------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - 4. Total | 4,763 | 100.0 | 91 | 100.0 | 4,854 | 100.0 - -------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - - =========================+===========================================================+ - | SPECIAL PROCEEDINGS - +-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - Disposition | Male | Female | Total - +-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent - -------------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - 1. Summarily disposed of | 669 | 25.2 | 325 | 21.5 | 994 | 23.9 - 2. Remanded[a] | 1,552 | 58.6 | 896 | 59.1 | 2,448 | 58.8 - 3. Paroled[b] | 429 | 16.2 | 294 | 19.4 | 723 | 17.3 - -------------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - 4. Total | 2,650 | 100.0 | 1,515 | 100.0 | 4,165 | 100.0 - -------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - - =========================+===========================================================+ - | ALL CASES - +-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - Disposition | Male | Female | Total - +--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent - -------------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - 1. Summarily disposed of | 3,337 | 45.0 | 354 | 22.0 | 3,691 | 40.9 - 2. Remanded[a] | 2,941 | 39.7 | 936 | 58.3 | 3,877 | 43.0 - 3. Paroled[b] | 1,135 | 15.3 | 316 | 19.7 | 1,451 | 16.1 - -------------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - 4. Total | 7,413 | 100.0 | 1,606 | 100.0 | 9,019 | 100.0 - -------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - -[a] _Remanded_ means number of children detained temporarily at the -rooms of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children while -case is being investigated, etc. - -[b] These numbers include cases placed on probation without remand. - - -TABLE FOUR - -(TABLE XII.--Disposition in Cases of Adjudged Juvenile Delinquents.[55] -Report, p. 63.) - - ============================+=========================================================== - | TOTAL - +-------------------+-------------------+------------------- - Disposition | Male | Female | Total - +--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+---------- - | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent - ----------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+---------- - Sentence suspended | 748 | 22.8 | 13 | 25.0 | 761 | 22.8 - Placed on probation | 1,440 | 44.2 | 31 | 59.6 | 1,480 | 44.4 - Committed without probation | 508 | 15.5 | 4 | 7.7 | 512 | 15.4 - Fined | 575 | 17.5 | 4 | 7.7 | 579 | 17.4 - ----------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+---------- - Total | 3,280 | 100.0 | 52 | 100.0 | 3,332 | 100.0 - ----------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+---------- - - -TABLE FIVE - -(TABLE XIII.--Disposition in all Cases of Special Proceedings where -Complaint was Sustained. Report, p. 64.) - - =======================================+=========================================================== - | TOTAL IN ALL CASES - +-------------------+-------------------+------------------- - Disposition | Male | Female | Total - +--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+---------- - | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent - ---------------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+---------- - Committed to institutions | 793 | 38.8 | 539 | 41.8 | 1,332 | 39.9 - Placed in charge of probation officers | 1,253 | 61.2 | 751 | 58.2 | 2,004 | 60.1 - ---------------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+---------- - Total | 2,046 | 100.0 | 1,290 | 100.0 | 3,336 | 100.0 - ---------------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+---------- - - -TABLE SIX - -(TABLE XVI.--Ages of all Children Arraigned During the Year.[56] -Report, p. 68.) - - ==========================================+===========================================================+ - | JUVENILE DELINQUENCY - +-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - Ages | Male | Female | Total - +--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent - ------------------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - 7 years and under | 16 | .4 | | | 16 | .4 - 8 and 9 years | 236 | 5.0 | 7 | 7.7 | 243 | 5.0 - 10 and 11 years | 670 | 14.1 | 10 | 11.0 | 680 | 14.0 - 12 and 13 years | 1,515 | 31.8 | 29 | 31.9 | 1,544 | 31.8 - 14 and 15 years | 2,322 | 48.7 | 44 | 48.3 | 2,366 | 48.7 - 16 and over (Transferred to other courts) | 4 | .0 | 1 | 1.1 | 5 | .1 - ------------------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - Total | 4,763 | 100.0 | 91 | 100.0 | 4,854 | 100.0 - ------------------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - - ==========================================+===========================================================+ - | SPECIAL PROCEEDINGS - +-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - Ages | Male | Female | Total - +-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent - ------------------------------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - 7 years and under | 581 | 21.9 | 484 | 32.0 | 1,065 | 25.6 - 8 and 9 years | 319 | 12.0 | 161 | 10.6 | 480 | 11.5 - 10 and 11 years | 433 | 16.4 | 191 | 12.6 | 624 | 15.0 - 12 and 13 years | 625 | 23.6 | 265 | 17.5 | 890 | 21.4 - 14 and 15 years | 692 | 26.1 | 414 | 27.3 | 1,106 | 26.5 - 16 and over (Transferred to other courts) | | | | | | - ------------------------------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - Total | 2,650 | 100.0 | 1,515 | 100.0 | 4,165 | 100.0 - ------------------------------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - - ==========================================+===========================================================+ - | ALL CASES - +-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - Ages | Male | Female | Total - +-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent - ------------------------------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - 7 years and under | 597 | 8.1 | 484 | 30.2 | 1,081 | 12.0 - 8 and 9 years | 555 | 7.5 | 168 | 10.5 | 723 | 8.1 - 10 and 11 years | 1,103 | 14.9 | 201 | 12.5 | 1,304 | 14.5 - 12 and 13 years | 2,140 | 28.9 | 294 | 18.3 | 2,434 | 26.9 - 14 and 15 years | 3,014 | 40.6 | 458 | 28.5 | 3,472 | 38.5 - 16 and over (Transferred to other courts) | 4 | .0 | 1 | 1.1 | 5 | .1 - ------------------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - Total | 7,413 | 100.0 | 1,606 | 100.0 | 9,019 | 100.0 - ------------------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - -[Illustration: - -CHART IV - -(CHART XI.--Showing Ages of Boys Arraigned During the Year. Report, p. -69.) Total number of boys, 7,413.] - -[Illustration: - -CHART V - -(CHART XII.--Showing Ages of Girls Arraigned During the Year. Report, -p. 69.) Total number of girls, 1,606.] - -(_Black_ indicates Juvenile Delinquency. _White_ indicates Special -Proceedings.) - -TABLE SEVEN - -(TABLE XIV.--Single and Group Delinquency.[57] Report, p. 65.) - - ===============================+===================+===================+=================== - | JUVENILE | SPECIAL | TOTAL - | DELINQUENCY | PROCEEDINGS | ALL CASES - +--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+---------- - | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent - -------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+---------- - Number of cases where children | | | | | | - were arraigned singly | 2,169 | 44.7 | 1,937 | 46.5 | 4,106 | 45.5 - Number of cases arraigned in | | | | | | - groups of two | 1,138 | 23.4 | 850 | 20.4 | 1,988 | 22.1 - Number of cases arraigned in | | | | | | - groups of three or more | 1,547 | 31.9 | 1,378 | 33.1 | 2,925 | 32.4 - -------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+---------- - Total | 4,854 | 100.0 | 4,165 | 100.0 | 9,019 | 100.0 - -------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+---------- - -CHART VI - -(CHART X.--Single and Group Delinquency. Report, p. 65.) - - -TABLE EIGHT - -(TABLE XX.--Parental Condition of all Children Investigated.[58] -Report, p. 78.) - - ==========================================+===========================================================+ - | JUVENILE DELINQUENCY - +-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - Parental condition | Male | Female | Total - +--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent - ------------------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - Father dead | 270 | 16.0 | 6 | 14.6 | 276 | 15.8 - Mother dead | 131 | 7.8 | 2 | 4.9 | 133 | 7.7 - Both parents dead | 28 | 1.6 | 1 | 2.4 | 29 | 1.8 - Parents separated | 14 | .8 | | | 14 | .8 - Deserted by father | 44 | 2.6 | 2 | 4.9 | 46 | 2.6 - Deserted by mother | 7 | .4 | | | 7 | .4 - Deserted by both parents | 5 | .3 | | | 5 | .2 - One or both parents in prison | 2 | .1 | 1 | 2.4 | 3 | .1 - One or both parents in other institutions | 15 | .9 | | | 15 | .9 - Mother not in America | 6 | .3 | | | 6 | .3 - Father not in America | 3 | .1 | | | 3 | .1 - Neither parent in America | | | | | | - None of above conditions existing | 1,162 | 68.5 | 29 | 70.8 | 1,191 | 68.7 - Parental condition not reported | 10 | .6 | | | 10 | .6 - ------------------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - Total | 1,697 | 100.0 | 41 | 100.0 | 1,738 | 100.0 - ------------------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - - ==========================================+===========================================================+ - | SPECIAL PROCEEDINGS - +-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - Parental condition | Male | Female | Total - +-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent - ------------------------------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - Father dead | 149 | 17.6 | 47 | 23.1 | 196 | 18.7 - Mother dead | 99 | 11.7 | 29 | 14.4 | 128 | 12.3 - Both parents dead | 19 | 2.3 | 8 | 4.0 | 27 | 2.5 - Parents separated | 17 | 2.0 | | | 17 | 1.6 - Deserted by father | 25 | 3.0 | 2 | 1.0 | 27 | 2.5 - Deserted by mother | 5 | .6 | 3 | 1.5 | 8 | .7 - Deserted by both parents | | | 4 | 1.9 | 4 | .4 - One or both parents in prison | 4 | .5 | | | 4 | .4 - One or both parents in other institutions | 7 | .8 | 1 | .5 | 8 | .7 - Mother not in America | 6 | .7 | | | 6 | .6 - Father not in America | 1 | .1 | | | 1 | .1 - Neither parent in America | 1 | .1 | | | 1 | .1 - None of above conditions existing | 507 | 60.0 | 104 | 51.1 | 611 | 58.5 - Parental condition not reported | 5 | .6 | 5 | 2.5 | 10 | .9 - ------------------------------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - Total | 845 | 100.0 | 203 | 100.0 | 1,048 | 100.0 - ------------------------------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - - ==========================================+===========================================================+ - | ALL CASES - +-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - Parental condition | Male | Female | Total - ++-------------------+-------------------+------------------+ - | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent - ------------------------------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - Father dead | 419 | 16.5 | 53 | 21.8 | 472 | 16.9 - Mother dead | 230 | 9.0 | 31 | 12.8 | 261 | 9.5 - Both parents dead | 47 | 1.8 | 9 | 3.7 | 56 | 2.0 - Parents separated | 31 | 1.2 | | | 31 | 1.1 - Deserted by father | 69 | 2.7 | 4 | 1.6 | 73 | 2.6 - Deserted by mother | 12 | .5 | 3 | 1.2 | 15 | .5 - Deserted by both parents | 5 | .2 | 4 | 1.6 | 9 | .3 - One or both parents in prison | 6 | .2 | 1 | .4 | 7 | .3 - One or both parents in other institutions | 22 | .9 | 1 | .4 | 23 | .8 - Mother not in America | 12 | .5 | | | 12 | .4 - Father not in America | 4 | .2 | | | 4 | .1 - Neither parent in America | 1 | | | | 1 | - None of above conditions existing | 1,669 | 65.7 | 133 | 54.5 | 1,802 | 64.7 - Parental condition not reported | 15 | .6 | 5 | 2.0 | 20 | .8 - ------------------------------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - Total | 2.542 | 100.0 | 244 | 100.0 | 2,786 | 100.0 - ------------------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - -NOTE.--In several cases two conditions are reported in one case. - - -TABLE NINE - -(TABLE XV.--Previous Records.[59] Report, p. 67.) - - ==================================+===========================================================+ - | JUVENILE DELINQUENCY - +-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - | Male | Female | Total - +--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent - ----------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - Number arraigned first time | 3,528 | 74.1 | 90 | 98.9 | 3,618 | 74.5 - Number arraigned who had previous | | | | | | - court record | 1,235 | 25.9 | 1 | 1.1 | 1,236 | 25.5 - ----------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - Total | 4,763 | 100.0 | 91 | 100.0 | 4,854 | 100.0 - ----------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - - ==================================+===========================================================+ - | SPECIAL PROCEEDINGS - +-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - | Male | Female | Total - +--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent - ----------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - Number arraigned first time | 2,198 | 82.9 | 1,461 | 96.4 | 3,659 | 87.9 - Number arraigned who had previous | - court record | 452 | 17.1 | 54 | 3.6 | 506 | 12.1 - ----------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - Total | 2,650 | 100.0 | 1,515 | 100.0 | 4,165 | 100.0 - ----------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - - ==================================+===========================================================+ - | ALL CASES - +-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - | Male | Female | Total - +-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent - ----------------------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - Number arraigned first time | 5,726 | 77.2 | 1.551 | 96.6 | 7,277 | 80.7 - Number arraigned who had previous | | | | | | - court record | 1,687 | 22.8 | 55 | 3.4 | 1,742 | 19.3 - -----------------------------------------------------+-------------------+--------------------+ - Total | 7,413 | 100.0 | 1,606 | 100.0 | 9,019 | 100.0 - ----------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - -NOTE.--The number of children before the court who had previous records -was probably slightly in excess of the number shown by the figures. - - -TABLE TEN - -(TABLE XVII.--School and Employment Record of Children -Investigated.[60] Report, p. 70.) - - ===============================+===========================================================+ - | JUVENILE DELINQUENCY - +-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - | Male | Female | Total - +--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent - -------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - Children in regular grades | 1,124 | 66.9 | 26 | 63.4 | 1,150 | 66.8 - Children in special classes | 75 | 4.5 | | | 75 | 4.4 - Children in ungraded classes | 19 | 1.1 | | | 19 | 1.1 - Children having working papers | 339 | 20.2 | 6 | 14.6 | 345 | 20.0 - Children not in school | 98 | 5.8 | 9 | 22.0 | 107 | 6.2 - Not reported | 25 | 1.5 | | | 25 | 1.5 - -------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - Total | 1,680 | 100.0 | 41 | 100.0 | 1,721 | 100.0 - -------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - - ===============================+===========================================================+ - | SPECIAL PROCEEDINGS - +-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - | Male | Female | Total - +-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent - -------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - Children in regular grades | 613 | 73.4 | 110 | 55.0 | 723 | 69.8 - Children in special classes | 41 | 4.9 | 7 | 3.5 | 48 | 4.6 - Children in ungraded classes | 11 | 1.3 | 2 | 1.0 | 13 | 1.3 - Children having working papers | 111 | 13.2 | 53 | 26.5 | 164 | 15.8 - Children not in school | 46 | 5.5 | 14 | 7.0 | 60 | 5.8 - Not reported | 14 | 1.7 | 14 | 7.0 | 28 | 2.7 - -------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - Total | 836 | 100.0 | 200 | 100.0 | 1,036 | 100.0 - -------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - - ===============================+===========================================================+ - | ALL CASES - +-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - | Male | Female | Total - +--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent - -------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - Children in regular grades | 1,737 | 69.0 | 136 | 56.4 | 1,873 | 67.9 - Children in special classes | 116 | 4.6 | 7 | 2.9 | 123 | 4.5 - Children in ungraded classes | 30 | 1.2 | 2 | .8 | 32 | 1.2 - Children having working papers | 450 | 17.9 | 59 | 24.5 | 509 | 18.5 - Children not in school | 144 | 5.7 | 23 | 9.6 | 167 | 6.0 - Not reported | 39 | 1.6 | 14 | 5.8 | 53 | 1.9 - -------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - Total | 2,516 | 100.0 | 241 | 100.0 | 2,757 | 100.0 - -------------------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - - -[Illustration: - -CHART VII - -(CHART XIII.--School and Employment Record of Children Investigated. -Report, p. 71.)] - - -TABLE ELEVEN - -(TABLE XXVII.--General Summary of Probation.[61] Report, p. 84.) - - =============================+========================+========================+======================== - | JUVENILE | SPECIAL | - | DELINQUENCY | PROCEEDINGS | ALL CASES - +-------+--------+-------+-------+--------+-------+-------+--------+------- - | Male | Female | Total | Male | Female | Total | Male | Female | Total - -----------------------------+-------+--------+-------+-------+--------+-------+-------+--------+------- - Number pending on probation | | | | | | | | | - Jan. 1, 1913 | 391 | 40 | 431 | | | | 391 | 40 | 431 - Number placed on probation | | | | | | | | | - during year | 1,386 | 36 | 1,422 | 720 | 184 | 904 | 2,106 | 220 | 2,326 - Number whose probation | | | | | | | | | - terminated during year | 1,278 | 55 | 1,333 | 501 | 117 | 618 | 1,779 | 172 | 1,951 - Number pending Dec. 31, 1913 | 499 | 21 | 520 | 219 | 67 | 286 | 718 | 88 | 806 - -----------------------------+-------+--------+-------+-------+--------+-------+-------+--------+------- - - -TABLE TWELVE - -(TABLE XXVIII.--Age of Children Placed on Probation during 1913.[62] -Report, p. 85.) - - ==================+===========================================================+ - | JUVENILE DELINQUENCY - +-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - Age | Male | Female | Total - +--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent - ------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - 7 Years and under | 4 | .3 | | | 4 | .3 - 8 and 9 years | 83 | 5.9 | 3 | 8.3 | 86 | 6.0 - 10 and 11 years | 206 | 14.9 | 5 | 13.9 | 211 | 14.8 - 12 and 13 years | 486 | 35.2 | 12 | 33.3 | 498 | 35.0 - 14 and 15 years | 584 | 42.1 | 16 | 44.5 | 600 | 42.2 - 16 years and over | 10 | .7 | | | 10 | .8 - Not stated | 13 | .9 | | | 13 | .9 - ------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - Total | 1,386 | 100.0 | 36 | 100.0 | 1,422 | 100.0 - ------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - - ==================+===========================================================+ - | SPECIAL PROCEEDINGS - +-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - Age | Male | Female | Total - +--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent - ------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - 7 Years and under | 9 | 1.2 | 2 | 1.1 | 11 | 1.2 - 8 and 9 years | 58 | 8.1 | 6 | 3.3 | 64 | 7.1 - 10 and 11 years | 142 | 19.7 | 9 | 4.8 | 151 | 16.7 - 12 and 13 years | 234 | 32.5 | 39 | 21.2 | 273 | 30.1 - 14 and 15 years | 269 | 37.3 | 126 | 68.5 | 395 | 43.8 - 16 years and over | 1 | .2 | 2 | 1.1 | 3 | .3 - Not stated | 7 | 1.0 | | | 7 | .8 - ------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - Total | 720 | 100.0 | 184 | 100.0 | 904 | 100.0 - ------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - - ==================+===========================================================+ - | ALL CASES - +-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - Age | Male | Female | Total - +--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent - ------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - 7 Years and under | 13 | .6 | 2 | .9 | 15 | .6 - 8 and 9 years | 141 | 6.7 | 9 | 4.1 | 150 | 6.4 - 10 and 11 years | 348 | 16.5 | 14 | 6.4 | 362 | 15.6 - 12 and 13 years | 720 | 34.2 | 51 | 23.1 | 771 | 33.2 - 14 and 15 years | 853 | 40.6 | 142 | 64.6 | 995 | 42.7 - 16 years and over | 11 | .5 | 2 | .9 | 13 | .6 - Not stated | 20 | .9 | | | 20 | .9 - ------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - Total | 2,106 | 100.0 | 220 | 100.0 | 2,326 | 100.0 - ------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - - -TABLE THIRTEEN - -(TABLE XXX.--Duration of Probation, Cases Ended During 1913. Report, p. -88.) - - ====================+===========================================================+ - | JUVENILE DELINQUENCY - +-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - Length of probation | Male | Female | Total - +--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent - --------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - 2 months and under | 312 | 25.4 | 8 | 33.3 | 320 | 25.5 - 3 months | 220 | 18.0 | 5 | 21.0 | 225 | 18.0 - 4 months | 288 | 23.4 | 8 | 33.3 | 296 | 23.6 - 5 months | 100 | 15.4 | 2 | 8.3 | 192 | 15.3 - 6 months | 97 | 7.9 | 1 | 4.1 | 98 | 7.8 - 7 months | 43 | 3.5 | | | 43 | 3.4 - 8 months | 34 | 2.8 | | | 34 | 2.7 - 9 months | 19 | 1.5 | | | 19 | 1.5 - 10 months | 14 | 1.1 | | | 14 | 1.1 - 11 months | 5 | .4 | | | 5 | .4 - 12 months and over | 8 | .6 | | | 8 | .7 - --------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - Total | 1,230 | 100.0 | 24 | 100.0 | 1,254 | 100.0 - --------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - - ====================+===========================================================+ - | SPECIAL PROCEEDINGS - +-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - Length of probation | Male | Female | Total - +--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent - --------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - 2 months and under | 169 | 26.2 | 38 | 25.3 | 207 | 26.0 - 3 months | 138 | 21.4 | 28 | 18.6 | 166 | 20.9 - 4 months | 137 | 21.2 | 26 | 17.3 | 163 | 20.5 - 5 months | 64 | 9.8 | 10 | 6.7 | 74 | 9.3 - 6 months | 59 | 9.2 | 16 | 10.7 | 75 | 9.4 - 7 months | 31 | 4.8 | 11 | 7.4 | 42 | 5.3 - 8 months | 15 | 2.4 | 5 | 3.3 | 20 | 2.5 - 9 months | 10 | 1.6 | 5 | 3.3 | 15 | 1.9 - 10 months | 6 | .9 | 3 | 2.0 | 9 | 1.2 - 11 months | 6 | .9 | 6 | 4.0 | 12 | 1.5 - 12 months and over | 10 | 1.6 | 2 | 1.4 | 12 | 1.5 - --------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - Total | 645 | 100.0 | 150 | 100.0 | 795 | 100.0 - --------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - - ====================+===========================================================+ - | ALL CASES - +-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ - Length of probation | Male | Female | Total - +--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent - --------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - 2 months and under | 481 | 25.7 | 46 | 26.4 | 527 | 25.7 - 3 months | 358 | 19.1 | 33 | 19.0 | 391 | 19.1 - 4 months | 425 | 22.7 | 34 | 19.4 | 459 | 22.4 - 5 months | 254 | 13.5 | 12 | 6.9 | 266 | 13.0 - 6 months | 156 | 8.3 | 17 | 9.6 | 173 | 8.5 - 7 months | 74 | 3.9 | 11 | 6.4 | 85 | 4.1 - 8 months | 49 | 2.6 | 5 | 2.9 | 54 | 2.6 - 9 months | 29 | 1.5 | 5 | 2.9 | 34 | 1.7 - 10 months | 20 | 1.1 | 3 | 1.8 | 23 | 1.1 - 11 months | 11 | .6 | 6 | 3.5 | 17 | .8 - 12 months and over | 18 | 1.0 | 2 | 1.2 | 20 | 1.0 - --------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - Total | 1,875 | 100.0 | 174 | 100.0 | 2,049 | 100.0 - --------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ - -[Illustration: - -CHART VIII - -(CHART XVII.--Duration of Probation. Report, p. 89.)] - - -TABLE FOURTEEN - -(TABLE XXXI.--Volume of Business Before Court During 1913. Report, p. -89.) - - ==================+===================+===================+=================== - | NEW CASES | CASES REARRAIGNED | TOTAL CASES - Month +--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+---------- - | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent - ------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+---------- - January | 1,060 | 11.8 | 1,337 | 9.8 | 2,397 | 10.6 - February | 635 | 7.0 | 595 | 4.4 | 1,230 | 5.4 - March | 766 | 8.5 | 1,013 | 7.4 | 1,779 | 7.8 - April | 834 | 9.3 | 1,141 | 8.4 | 1,975 | 8.7 - May | 882 | 9.8 | 1,410 | 10.3 | 2,292 | 10.2 - June | 786 | 8.7 | 1,142 | 8.4 | 1,928 | 8.5 - July | 615 | 6.8 | 1,039 | 7.6 | 1,654 | 7.3 - August | 644 | 7.1 | 1,115 | 8.2 | 1,759 | 7.8 - September | 728 | 8.1 | 990 | 7.3 | 1,718 | 7.6 - October | 786 | 8.7 | 1,349 | 9.9 | 2,135 | 9.4 - November | 694 | 7.7 | 1,166 | 8.5 | 1,860 | 8.2 - December | 589 | 6.5 | 1,335 | 9.8 | 1,924 | 8.5 - ------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+---------- - Total | 9,019 | 100.0 | 13,632 | 100.0 | 22,651 | 100.0 - Average number of | | | | | | - cases per day | | | | | 75 | - ------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+---------- - - - - -INDEX - - - - - INDEX - - - ABATTOIRS ON WEST SIDE: location of, 3 - - ACQUITTAL: in children’s court, 92 - - ADENOIDS: In court cases studied, 90 - - AGES OF BOYS STUDIED, 167 - - AMERICAN-BORN PARENTS OF BOYS: nationality of, 7, 169 - - ANTHONY, KATHARINE: Mothers Who Must Earn, cited, 7, 59, 141 - - ARRESTS OF BOYS: court disposition of cases involving, 92-95, 97, 172; - for trivial offenses, 18, 19; - for trivial offenses, elimination of, preferable to cursory treatment - in court, 107; - mistaken, 97, 98; - offenses in 463 cases, according to court charges, 82; - offenses in 463 cases, as classified by Bureau of Social Research, 16, 17; - previous, failure of faulty court records to show, 90 - - ASSAULT: boys arrested for, according to court charges, 82; - boys arrested for, according to classification of Bureau of Social - Research, 17; - penal law regarding, cited, 81; - street fighting and, 37 - - - BACKGROUND OF THE WEST SIDE BOY, 1-9 - - BAIL: seldom demanded at S. P. C. C. headquarters, 89; - when not required, in cases of juvenile delinquency, 88 - - BALL PLAYING: illegality of, 37. - See _Baseball_ - - BALLS: on West Side, 154 - - BASEBALL: on the West Side, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 - - BEGGING: by children whose mothers are “harborers,” 73; - by West Side boys, 151 - - BIG BROTHER MOVEMENT: as a source of names of boys, 167; - probation work of, 86, 87 - - BONFIRES: boys’ fondness for, 25, 26; - stealing wood for, as a cause of gang warfare, 48 - - BOSS, THE: and the children’s court, 88, 89 - - BOXING: on the West Side, 29, 33, 34, 35, 36 - - BOY FROM ANOTHER STATE: on West Side, case of, 22 - - BOY SCOUT MOVEMENT: illustrates possibilities in gang for good, 40 - - BOYS, WEST SIDE: ages of those studied, 167; - and the court, 79-140; - background of, 1-9; - court disposition of cases involving arrests of, 95, 172, 173; - drinking by, 146, 147; - fighting by, 143, 144; - gainfully employed, occupation and wages of, 175; - games of, 24-38; - gang life of, 39-54; - growth in lawlessness of, 15; - homes of, 55-78; - lack of stamina of, 156; - not arrested, who were included in study of delinquents, 95; - not gainfully employed, status of, 174; - not properly delinquent, 95, 99, 100; - offenses of, largely excusable, 18; - offenses in 463 cases of arrest of, 16, 17, 82; - playground of, 10-23; - recreation of, beyond control of family, 77; - scope of study of delinquency of, 94, 95; - sexual immorality of, 154; - smoking by, 145; - sources from which names of those studied were obtained, 167; - spendings and earnings of, 68, 69; - stealing by, 141, 142; - successful institution cases among, 127, 128; - truancy of, 148-151; - truancy records of, classified as delinquent or not delinquent, 173; - two types of, 157, 159; - wanderlust of, 151-154; - who are brought into court, 87-95; - who are let go, 95-107; - who are paroled, 107-116; - who are “sent up,” 117-138 - - BOYS’ REPUBLIC: George Ruhl sent to a, 158 - - BRANSFIELDS: reputation of, 112 - - BREWERIES ON WEST SIDE: location of, 3 - - “BRUISERS”: rather than real prize fighters furnish example to - West Side boy, 36 - - BUDGET, FAMILY: often inadequate to cover requisites for healthy - growth, 60 - - BURCKEL, JAMES: value of neighborhood testimony in case of, 112 - - BUREAU OF SOCIAL RESEARCH: offenses in 463 cases of arrest as - classified by, 16, 17 - - BURGLARY: and unlawful entry, penal law regarding, 81; - arrest of boys for, 17, 82 - - BURNS, JOEY: who had not been in court, 98 - - - CALIBAN OF THE WEST SIDE: and his Setebos, 80 - - CARSON, MR.: parole of Jimmie to, 150 - - CARTWRIGHT, O. G.: The Middle West Side, cited, 4, 6 - - CATESBY, MRS.: case of, 72, 73 - - CATHOLIC LADIES’ COMMITTEE: probation work of, 85, 86 - - CATHOLIC PROBATION LEAGUE: work of, 85 - - CATHOLIC PROTECTORY: children received by, 118, 119; - commitment by children’s court to, 94 - - CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH: Big Brother movement in, 86 - - CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS: commitment by children’s court to, 94 - - CHARITABLE SOCIETIES. See _Relief Records_; _Relief Societies_ - - CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY: as a source of names of boys, 167 - - CHICAGO: probation cases and officers in, 87 - - CHILD LABOR LAW: arrests for violation of, in children’s court, 82 - - CHILD WELFARE EXHIBIT, NEW YORK: Handbook cited, on trivial offenses, 95 - - CHILDREN: number of, in families studied, 58, 170 - - CHILDREN, NEGLECTED: children’s court commits to charitable institutions, 94 - - CHILDREN’S COURT, MANHATTAN: as viewed by West Side boy and his parents, 80; - description of growth, equipment, and processes of, 80-84; - disposition of cases in, 92, 93, 94, 172, 173; - hearings in, cursory and hurried, 97, 105, 106, 107; - investigation in, 90, 91, 92, 110; - judges of, 83; - parole system of, 107-116; - probation cases and officers of, 87; - progress made in, since 1910, 79, 83, 87, 90, 111, 120; - records in, consulted in study of commitment cases, 118; - records in, faulty, 90; - records in, new system of, 90, 111; - records in, samples quoted, 110, 111; - reputed influence of “boss” in, 88, 89; - summary of results of action by, in cases studied, 138-140; - things needed to increase effectiveness of, 107, 140; - trials in, average time given to each, 83. - See also _Juvenile Court_; _Juvenile Delinquency_; _Probation_ - - CHILDREN’S COURTS: where defects corrected in Manhattan still exist, 79 - - CHURCH: among sources from which boys’ names obtained for study, 167 - - CHURCH, A DESERTED: on West Side, 3 - - CHURCHES: not consulted in court investigations, 114; - probation work of, 85-87 - - CIGARETTES: boys’ demand for, 142, 145 - - CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION, NEW YORK MUNICIPAL: refusal of, to declare - positions of physicians for children’s court exempt, 140 - - CLUB STUDIES: as a source of names of boys, 167 - - COAL AND WOOD: theft of, a matter of course on West Side, 18, 141 - - COAL YARDS ON WEST SIDE: location of, 3 - - COMEDY, MEREDITHIAN: on West Side, 161 - - COMMISSION TO INQUIRE INTO THE COURTS OF INFERIOR CRIMINAL JURISDICTION - IN CITIES OF THE FIRST CLASS. - See _Page Commission_ - - COMMITMENT, COURT: considerations that guide judge in determining on, 119; - different attitudes of parents toward, 124-126; - during parole, in cases studied, 116; - effectiveness of, 117, 137, 138, 139; - frequently made on insufficient evidence, 119, 120; - institutions to which made, 94, 118-119; - length of, compared with length of parole period, 109; - theory of, 117 - - COMMITTED CASES: absence of investigation in, 119; - scope and method of study of, 118; - where sentence a serious error, 120, 121 - - “COMMITTED FOR ONE DAY TO THE PARENTAL CARE OF JOHN WARD,” 93, 96 - - CONCEALED WEAPONS: carrying of, among boys, 45 - - CONJUGAL CONDITION: of parents of boys, 171 - - COOGAN, PATRICK: and his court experience, 98 - - “COPS,” “DINNYS,” AND “GERRYS” ON WEST SIDE, 13 - - CORRECTIONS, DEPARTMENT OF: former building of, used as children’s court, 83 - - COULTER, ERNEST K.: Big Brother movement initiated by, 86 - - COUNTRY OF BIRTH: of parents of boys, 168 - - COURT DISPOSITION: of cases of boys studied, 172, 173. - See _Children’s Court_ - - Court, Getting Into, 87-95. - See _Children’s Court_ - - COURT, JUVENILE: lack of respect for, among boys, 19, 20. - See _Children’s Court_ - - COURT LIST: names of boys obtained from, 167 - - COURT OF SPECIAL SESSIONS: children’s court part of the, 83. - See _Children’s Court_ - - COWARDICE: among West Side gangs. 52, 53, 54 - - CRAPS, SHOOTING: a year round amusement on West Side, 28; - leads to arrest for obstructing sidewalks, 37 - - CRIMINAL RECORD: of Middle West Side, 8, 13, 19 - - CRIMINAL TENDENCY: spirit of youth forced to become a, 38 - - CRUELTY OF WEST SIDE BOYS, 157 - - - DANCES: among amusements offered to West Side boy, 154 - - DARK ROOMS: common on West Side, 56 - - “DEATH AVENUE,” 4 - - DELINQUENCY OF BOYS: bail in cases of, 88; - scope of study of, 94, 95. - See _Juvenile Delinquency_ - - DELINQUENT BOYS: those studied who were not properly so called, 95, 99, - 100, 173 - - DELINQUENTS: commitment of, by children’s court, to reformatories, 94 - - DETENTION HOME OF SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO CHILDREN, 8. - See _Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children_ - - DE WITT CLINTON PARK: described, 4, 5; - the only park on Middle West Side, 10 - - DIAMOND LAUNDRY: Matty Gilmore and the, 104 - - “DINNYS,” “COPS,” AND “GERRYS” ON WEST SIDE, 13 - - DISCHARGE: of boys against whom no evidence found, 96. - See also _Dismissal_ - - DISCHARGES: following parole, in cases studied, 116 - - DISCIPLINE: meted out to the boy, 70, 71 - - DISMISSAL FOR INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE: In children’s court, 92 - - DISORDERLY CHILD: boys arrested as, according to court charges, 82; - penal law regarding, 81 - - DISORDERLY CONDUCT: boys arrested for, 82 - - DISPOSITION OF CHILDREN’S COURT CASES, 92-95, 97, 172. - See _Children’s Court_ - - DOCKS: attraction of, for the boy, 20; - baseball on the, 33. - See also _Quays_ - - DONNELLY, MARTIN: a “successful” institution case, 127 - - DOOLEY, MRS.: and her Joseph, 71 - - DOYLE, DENNIS: stone throwing by, 15, 129 - - DOYLE, MRS.: and her five boys, 128 - - DOYLE, PATRICK: delinquency record of, 130, 131, 132 - - DOYLE, RAYMOND: delinquency record of, 129, 130, 131, 132, 134 - - DRAFT RIOTS: typical of West Sider’s temper, 7 - - DRINKING: among West Side boys, 146 - - DRUNKENNESS: among West Side boys, 146, 147 - - “DUMB-BELL” TENEMENTS: common on West Side, 56 - - - EARNINGS AND SPENDINGS: of the West Side boy, 68, 69 - - EAST SIDE AND WEST SIDE: compared, 6, 7 - - EDUCATION LAW, COMPULSORY: boys arrested for violations of, 82 - - EIGHTH AVENUE: characteristics of, 2 - - ELECTION NIGHT BONFIRES, 26. - See also _Bonfires_ - - ELEVENTH AVENUE: characteristics of, 3, 4 - - EMPLOYED AND UNEMPLOYED BOYS, 174, 175 - - EMPLOYERS: statements from, in parole cases, 110, 113 - - EMPLOYMENT: low grade, sought by West Side boys, 159 - - ENGLISH PARENTAGE: of parents of boys, 8 - - ENVIRONMENT: influence of, 1 - - EQUITY POWERS: needed by children’s court, 140 - - EYES: bad, in court cases studied, 90; - neglect to care for, 60 - - - FAMILIES OF BOYS STUDIED: conjugal condition of parents in, 59, 171; - country of birth and nationality of parents in, 168, 169; - different attitudes of, toward commitment, 124-126; - length of residence in district of, 1, 168; - number involved in delinquency study, 94; - number of children in, 58, 170; - persons in households of, and rooms occupied by, 169; - relief records of, 171, 172; - statements from, secured in study of commitment cases, 118; - status of mothers in, 170; - varying types represented among, 59 - - FAMILIES, WEST SIDE: - typical day of housewife in, 58, 59. - See also _Mothers_; _Parents_ - - FAMILY FROM ANOTHER STATE: on West Side, case of boy in, 22 - - FAMILY QUARRELS: in a “model” tenement, 58 - - FATHERS OF BOYS STUDIED: absence of, as a cause of delinquency, 125; - American-born, nationality of, 7, 169; - conjugal condition of, 171; - country of birth of, 7, 168; - influence of, in family life, 61. - See also _Parents_ - - FEEBLE-MINDEDNESS: back of some court cases studied, 90. - See also _Mental Examination_ - - FERRY RIDES TO JERSEY: the “sneaking” of, 150 - - “FÊTES” ON WEST SIDE, 154 - - FEUDS ON WEST SIDE, 143, 144 - - FIGHTING: and boxing not necessarily associated, 34; - between gangs of West Side boys, 45-53; - street, and assault, 37; - with fists on West Side, 143. - See also _Prize Fighting_; _Boxing_ - - FINES: in children’s court cases, 93, 96 - - FIRE-ARMS: arrest of boys for use of, 17. - See also _Weapons_ - - FIRE POTS, 25, 26 - - FOLKS, HOMER: quoted on parole, 85 - - FOOD: adulterated and damaged, commonly sold on West Side, 75 - - FUEL: theft of, regarded as a matter of course on West Side, 141 - - - GAMES OF THE WEST SIDE BOY, 24-38 - - GANG: a typical, history of, 40, 41; - responsibility of, for lawlessness of West Side boy, 39; - synonymous with worst side of boy life on West Side, 54 - - GANG FIGHTS: among boys on West Side, 45-53 - - GANG LIFE: salient features of, 42, 43, 44 - - GARBAGE DISPOSAL PIER: on Twelfth Avenue, 5 - - GAS TANKS: location of, on West Side, 3 - - GATES, MRS.: and her Jimmy, 64, 65 - - GERMAN ELEMENT: on Middle West Side, 7 - - GERMAN PARENTAGE: of American-born parents of boys, 7, 8 - - GERMANY: parents of boys born in, 7 - - “GERRY MEN”: dreaded more than the court, 90; - unpopularity of, on West Side, 13 - - GILMORE, MATTY: case of, 103, 104 - - “GOPHER GANG,” 42 - - GREAT KILL SWAMP, 4 - - GUARDIANSHIP, IMPROPER: among offenses leading to arrest of boys, 16; - arraignment of children for, 81; - boys arrested for, according to court charges, 82; - child dismissed under one charge may be returned for, 92; - warrants issued in cases of, 94 - - - HAGGERTY, MRS.: her system of discipline, 70 - - HALLWAYS: boys’ use of, 20, 21 - - HANNON, MRS.: and the “boss” in court, 88, 89 - - “HARBORERS”: mothers who are, 73 - - HARRIS, CHARLIE: stories about, 157 - - HAWTHORNE SCHOOL: Big Brother work for boys paroled from, 87; - commitment by children’s court to, 94. - See also _Jewish Protectory_ - - HEALTH CONDITIONS: involved in court cases studied, 90 - - HEARINGS AT CHILDREN’S COURT: cursory and hurried, 97, 105, 106, 107. - See also _Trials_ - - HOME CONDITIONS: in court cases studied, 90 - - HOME OF THE WEST SIDE BOY, 55-78 - - HOUSE OF GOOD SHEPHERD: extreme cases of delinquent girls sent to, 119 - - HOUSE OF MERCY: Protestant girls sent to, 119 - - HOUSE OF REFUGE: and Jewish Big Brother movement, 87; - class of cases received by, 119; - commitment by children’s court to, 94 - - HOUSEWIFE OF WEST SIDE: day of the, 58, 59 - - HOUSING CONDITIONS ON WEST SIDE, 56, 57, 58 - - HUDSON RIVER RAILROAD: franchise of, an anomaly, 4 - - HUSBANDS, SHIFTLESS: treatment of, by their wives, 63, 64 - - - IMMORALITY, SEXUAL: among West Side boys, 154-156 - - INSTITUTION CASES: successful, 127, 128 - - INSTITUTIONS: no critical examination made of, 117, 118; - to which children’s court commits, 94, 118, 119. - See also _Commitment_ - - INSURANCE COMPANIES: and window glass on West Side, 15 - - INTOXICATION: among West Side boys, 146; - as a cause of arrest of boys, 17 - - INVESTIGATION: in children’s court, before disposition of case, 90, 91, 92; - in commitment of cases studied, absence of, 119; - in parole cases, how made, 110-114; - rewards for, a light form of punishment, 97 - - IRELAND: parents of boys born in, 7 - - IRISH: of Middle West Side, 7 - - IRISH PARENTAGE: of parents of boys, 8 - - ITALY: parents of boys born in, 7 - - “JERSEY”: “sneaking” ferry rides to, 150 - - JEWISH BIG BROTHER MOVEMENT: probation work of, 86, 87 - - JEWISH PROTECTORY AND AID SOCIETY: probation work of, 86. - See also _Hawthorne School_ - - JIMMY: who was caught “when he wasn’t doin’ anything bad,” 19 - - JUDGES IN CHILDREN’S COURT: attitude of boys toward, 20, 80; - formerly and at present, 83. - See also _Children’s Court_ - - JUVENILE ASYLUM: commitment by children’s court to, 94, 119 - - JUVENILE COURT: boys’ contempt for judges in, 20; - understanding of neighborhood conditions essential in estimating work of, 9. - See also _Children’s Court_ - - JUVENILE DELINQUENCY: a product of conditions in homes and on streets, 140; - as defined in New York, 80, 81; - need of equity powers by court dealing with, 140 - - JUVENILE DELINQUENTS: history of probation system for, in New York, 84-87 - - JUVENILE OFFENDERS: consideration of background essential to study of, 1 - - JUVENILE PROBATION IN NEW YORK: Homer Folks, quoted, 85 - - - KITE FLYING: on West Side, 28 - - - LARCENY, Grand and Petty: boys arrested for, 82; - penal law regarding, 81 - - LARRABIE, JOHN: and the organ-grinder, 129, 134 - - LAWYERS: extent to which involved in proceedings of children’s court, 91 - - “LICKINGS”: place of, in children’s court scheme, 93 - - “LOITERING”: as an offense against the law, 37 - - LUMBER YARDS ON WEST SIDE: location of, 3 - - - MCCARTHY, MRS.: and her worthless husband, 64 - - MCGRATTY, JOSEPH: case of, 133 - - MACHINE SHOPS ON WEST SIDE: location of, 3 - - MACY, MRS.: a minder of children at twelve, 62 - - _Mail, Evening_, New York: - quoted on vandalism on West Side, 144 - - MALLORY, HUGH: case of, 101, 102 - - MALLORY, MRS.: her strong and weak points as a mother, 102 - - MANHATTAN CHILDREN’S COURT. - See _Children’s Court_ - - MARBLES: games played with, on West Side, 24; - may lead to arrest for obstructing sidewalk, 37 - - MEALS: irregularity of, in families of boys, 75 - - MENTAL CONCENTRATION: impossible to West Side boy, 156 - - MENTAL EXAMINATION: need of, and arrangements for, in children’s - court cases, 140 - - MEREDITHIAN COMEDY ON WEST SIDE, 161 - - MISCHIEF AND ANNOYANCE: arrest of boys for offenses of, 17 - - MISDEMEANORS: penal law regarding, 81 - - “MODEL” TENEMENT: a social worker’s testimony regarding family brawls - in a, 58 - - MONEY: boys’ ways of getting, 151 - - MORAL STAMINA: lacking in West Side boy, 156 - - MORALLY DEPRAVED: boys arrested as in danger of being, according to - court charges, 82 - - MORAN, JOHNNIE: story, 161, 162 - - MORAN, JOHN AND MICHAEL: delinquency records of, 121-124 - - MORAN, MRS.: and her “ways of finding out,” 66; - character of, 121 - - MOTHERS OF BOYS STUDIED: absence of, a cause of delinquency, 125; - American-born, nationality of, 7, 169; - conjugal condition of, 171; - country of birth of, 7, 168; - court experiences of, 105, 106; - problems and types of, 55, 61-74, 76-78; - statements of, secured by parole officer, 110; - status of, 170. - See also _Parents_ - - MOVING PICTURE SHOWS: among amusements offered West Side boy, 154; - desire of boys for, incites to theft, 142; - opinions of mothers regarding, 68 - - MULLER, CHARLIE: case of, 131, 132, 133 - - MURPHY, DENNY: wanderings of, 152-154 - - - NAMES OF BOYS: those used fictitious - - NATIONALITY: of American-born parents of boys, 7, 169; - of parents of boys studied, 7. - See also _Country of Birth_ - - NEIGHBORS: statements from, included in study of commitment cases, 118; - statements of, obtained by parole officer, 110; - value of testimony of, 112 - - NEW YORK CENTRAL. See _Hudson River Railroad_ - - NEW YORK CHILDREN’S COURT. See _Children’s Court_ - - NEW YORK CITY PROBATION SYSTEM. See _Probation_ - - NEW YORK JUVENILE ASYLUM: commitment by children’s court to, 94, 119 - - NEWSPAPERS, NEW YORK: quoted, 49, 50, 144, 161 - - NINTH AVENUE: characteristics of, 2 - - NOURISHMENT: available in West Side families, often inadequate, 60 - - NUTRITION, INFANT: ignorance regarding, in West Side families, 75 - - - OBSTRUCTING THE SIDEWALKS: games which lead to arrest for, 37 - - OCCUPATION AND WAGES: of boys gainfully employed, 175 - - OFFENSES: due to play, enumerated, 37 - - OFFENSES IN 463 CASES OF ARREST OF BOYS: according to court charges, 82; - as classified by Bureau of Social Research, 16, 17 - - OFFENSES OF BOYS: serious, few arrests for, 19; - to which arrests due, largely excusable, 18 - - OFFENSES OF CHILDREN: for which bail is not required, 88; - still registered according to law violated, 81; - trivial, proportion of, according to Handbook of Child Welfare Exhibit, 95 - - - “PADDY’S MARKET,” 2 - - PAGE COMMISSION: improvements in children’s court recommended by, 84 - - PARENTS OF BOYS: conjugal condition of, 171; - country of birth of, 7, 168; - different attitudes of, toward commitment of children, 124-126; - nationality of American-born, 7, 169; - responsibility of, for misdemeanors of sons, 56; - value of testimony of, 112. - See also _Families_; _Father_; _Mother_ - - PARENTS, PAROLE IN CUSTODY OF. See _Parole_ - - PARKS: none except De Witt Clinton on Middle West Side, 10. - See _De Witt Clinton Park_ - - PAROLE: and probation in New York, 85; - correct meaning of term, 107; - outcome of, in cases studied, 115, 116; - period of, 109; - system of, in Manhattan Children’s Court, 93, 107-116 - - PAROLE CARD: form of, 108 - - PAROLED CASES: final disposition of, 173; - study of, 107-116 - - PARTIES AND DANCES: on West Side, 154 - - PAY ENVELOPE: boy’s duty regarding, as viewed by community, 68 - - PEDDLING WITHOUT LICENSE: penal law regarding, 81 - - PENAL LAW: juvenile delinquency according to the, 80, 81 - - PEOPLE’S INSTITUTE: new work on West Side undertaken by, 5 - - PERVERSION, SEXUAL: among West Side boys, 155 - - PHYSICAL EXAMINATION: needed in many cases brought to children’s court, 140 - - PHYSICAL STAMINA: lacking in West Side boy, 156 - - PIANO FACTORIES: on West Side, location of, 3 - - PICKING POCKETS: arrest of boys for, 17 - - PIERS OWNED BY CITY: and their uses, 5 - - PIGEON FLYING: as a West Side sport, 28, 29; - disapproved by mothers, 67 - - PITCHING PENNIES: a year round amusement on West Side, 28; - may lead to arrest for obstructing sidewalk, 37 - - PLAY: Offenses due to, among those for which boys arrested, 16 - - PLAYGROUND: of West Side boy, 10-23 - - PLUNKETT OF TAMMANY HALL: quoted, 89 - - POLICE: attitude of, toward boys’ offenses, 18; - boys’ antagonism to, explained, 12; - fires extinguished by, 25; - situation regarding, on West Side, 13, 14, 15, 16, 19 - - POLICE SERGEANT: discretion permitted to, regarding bail, 88 - - POLITICAL “BOSS”: and children’s court, 88, 89 - - POOLROOMS: on West Side, 154 - - POST-GRADUATE HOSPITAL: clinic conducted by Dr. Max Schlapp at, 140 - - POVERTY: in West Side homes, 60, 61. - See also _Relief Records_ - - PRISON ASSOCIATION, NEW YORK: first probation bill as prepared by, 84 - - PRIZE FIGHTING: and the West Side boy, 33, 34, 35, 36 - - PROBATION: and parole, in children’s court, 85, 107; - class of boys for whom likely to be most effective, 103 - - PROBATION AGENCIES, VOLUNTEER: history and scope of, 85-87; - part played by, in first court experience of boy, 92; - proportion of paroled cases studied that were under care of, 115 - - PROBATION COMMISSION OF STATE OF NEW YORK: report of, quoted, 84 - - PROBATION LAW, FIRST: in New York, 84 - - PROBATION OFFICERS, OFFICIAL: in New York, appointment and numbers of, 87; - preliminary investigation by, 90 - - PROBATION STAFF: an adequate and efficient, needed, 107 - - PROBATION WORK: essentials to efficient, 139 - - PROPERTY: antagonism between sport and the rights of, 37, 38; - destruction of, on West Side, 144; - offenses against, leading to arrest of boys, 17, 82 - - PUSH CART VENDORS: on Ninth Avenue, 2 - - - QUAYS: as a field for baseball, 32. - See also _Docks_ - - - RAFFERTY, JOE AND HARRY: cases of, 135, 136, 137; - gang associates and adventures of, 129, 133, 134 - - RAFFERTY, MRS.: case of, 135 - - RAILROAD AND APPURTENANCES: boys arrested for injury to, 82 - - “RAILROAD” TENEMENTS: common on West Side, 56 - - REARRESTS FOLLOWING PAROLE: in cases studied, 116 - - RECORDS IN CHILDREN’S COURT: old and new, 90, 111 - - RECREATION: of West Side boy, beyond control of family, 77 - - RECREATION ACTIVITIES: on Middle West Side, and the People’s Institute, 5 - - RECREATION PIER: on Twelfth Avenue, 5 - - “RED”: and his wanderings with Denny Murphy, 152-154 - - REFORMATORIES: commitment to, by children’s court, 94; - short-term commitments refused by, 92 - - RELIEF RECORDS: of families of boys, 171, 172 - - RELIEF SOCIETIES: duration of relief records of families known to - have received aid from, 172; - records of, consulted in study of commitment cases, 118; - records of, not consulted in children’s court cases, 114 - - REMAND FOR INVESTIGATION: did not necessarily mean further inquiry, 97 - - REPRODUCTION: ignorance of West Side boys regarding, 155 - - RESIDENCES IN DISTRICT: of families of boys, length of, 168 - - RETRIAL: rare in suspended sentence cases, 96 - - REVENGE: among West Side boys, 156, 157 - - RIDING ON FREIGHT CARS, ETC.: boys arrested for, 82; - penal law regarding, 81 - - RIEMER, HENRY AND ALEXANDER: cases of, 134, 135, 136 - - RILEY, GEORGE: case of, 130 - - RILEY, JAMES: report of investigation in case of, 111 - - RIORDAN, W. L.: Plunkett of Tammany Hall, quoted, 89 - - ROBBERY: boys arrested for, 82; - penal law regarding, 81. - See also _Burglary_; _Theft_; _Thievery_ - - ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST: quoted on gangs, 54 - - ROOMS IN WEST SIDE TENEMENT HOUSES: dark, 56; - lack of privacy in, 57, 58 - - ROOMS, NUMBER OF: occupied by families of boys, 169 - - ROONEY, MATTHEW: case of, 131, 136 - - RUHL, GEORGE: case of, 158 - - - ST. VINCENT DE PAUL SOCIETY: Catholic Probation League organized - under auspices of, 85 - - SALOON: children’s visits to, 146 - - “SCENERY BURNED BY VANDALS,” 144 - - SCHLAPP, DR. MAX: children sent for mental examination to clinic - conducted by, 140 - - SCHOOL: as a source of names of boys, 167; - principal of, as a parole officer in cases of truancy, 93; - records consulted in study of commitment cases, 118; - statements from, obtained by parole officer, 110; - value of evidence from, in parole cases, 113; - West Side boy and the, 148, 149 - - SCHOOL FARM: in De Witt Clinton Park, 5 - - SELF-ABUSE: involved in court cases studied, 90 - - SETEBOS: judge of children’s court as a, 80 - - SETTLEMENT, A: among sources from which boys’ names obtained, 167; - thefts from, 142 - - SETTLEMENT, A DESERTED: at Tenth Avenue and Fiftieth Street, 3 - - SETTLEMENTS: value of evidence to be obtained from, in court cases, 114 - - SEXUAL IMMORALITY: among West Side boys, 154-156 - - SEXUAL PERVERTS: common on West Side, 155 - - SHARKEY, SAM: and his mother, 100 - - SMOKING: among West Side boys, 145; - by boys, difficulties of mothers with, 67 - - SNOWBALLING: on West Side, 27 - - SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO CHILDREN: bail seldom demanded - at headquarters of, 89; - boy arrested in evening detained by, 88; - boy taken to court by way of, 80; - cases remanded to, pending investigation, 91, 97; - children under sixteen excluded from operation of first probation - law through efforts of, 84; - detention quarters of, 84; - joining of forces with school due to, 113; - official connection with children’s court, 85, 87; - period of parole of cases under care of, 109; - probation work of, 85; - reports of investigator consulted in study of commitment cases, 118; - uses of detention rooms of, 97, 108; - visitation by agents of, in parole cases, 93 - - SONS WHO DO NOT WORK: and their mothers, 64 - - SOURCES: from which names of boys studied were obtained, 167 - - SPECIAL SESSIONS, COURT OF: children’s court part of, 83 - - SPINNER, JACK: bail required in case of, 88 - - STABBING: arrest of boys for, 17 - - STALEY, PATRICK: report of investigation in case of, 110 - - STEALING: encouragements to, on West Side, 141, 142 - - STREETS: influence exerted upon boys by the, 21, 22; - the natural playground of the West Side boy, 10, 11; - uses of, that conflict with boys’ use as a playground, 12 - - SUMMERS, MISS: and George Ruhl, 158 - - _Survey, The_: article by Homer Folks on Juvenile Probation, cited, 85 - - SUSPENDED SENTENCE: after conviction, in children’s court, 93, 96; - following parole, in cases studied, 116 - - - TAMMANY OUTING: drunkenness among boys at a, 147 - - TEETH: neglect of, 60 - - TENEMENT CONDITIONS: on West Side, 56, 57, 58 - - TENTH AVENUE: characteristics of, 2, 3 - - THEFT: encouragements to, on West Side, 18, 141, 142 - - THIEF, JARGON OF: common in boys’ gangs, 44 - - THIEVERY: arrest of boys for, 17. - See also _Burglary_; _Robbery_ - - _Times_, New York: headlines regarding a gang fight quoted from, 50 - - TRACY, MRS.: and her Michael’s trial, 105 - - TRIALS AT CHILDREN’S COURT: brevity of, 83, 105. - See also _Hearings_ - - _Tribune_, New York: headlines regarding a gang fight quoted from, 49 - - TRUANCY: among offenses leading to arrest of boys, 16; - developed into a system, among West Side boys, 148-151; - difficulties of mothers with, 67; - procedure in paroled cases of, 93; - records of boys, classified as delinquent or not delinquent, 173 - - TRUANT, A TEN-YEAR-OLD: confession of, 149, 150 - - TRUANT SCHOOLS: commitment by children’s court to, 94, 119 - - TWELFTH AVENUE: characteristics of, 5 - - - UNGOVERNABLE CHILD: boys arrested as, according to court charges, 82 - - UNITED STATES: parents of boys born in, 7. - See also _American-born_ - - - VAGRANCY AND NEGLECT: offenses of, 16 - - VANDALISM ON WEST SIDE: as reported by New York _Evening Mail_, 144 - - - WAGES AND OCCUPATIONS: of boys gainfully employed, 175 - - “WANDERLUST”: among West Side boys, 151-154 - - WAREHOUSES: on West Side, location of, 3 - - WARRANTS: use of, in parole cases, 93, 109 - - WATERS, STEPHEN: a “successful” institution case, 127, 128 - - WEAPONS, CONCEALED: carrying of, among boys, 45 - - WEST SIDE, MIDDLE: a dual neighborhood, 37; - apathy of, 8; - characteristics of, explained by history, 6, 7; - comedy on, 161; - criminal record of, 8, 13, 19; - lack of striking features on, 5; - nationalities predominating on, 7; - new correlation of recreation activities on, 5 - - WINDOW BREAKING: arrest of boys for, 17 - - WINDOW GLASS: insurance of, on West Side, 15 - - WORK RECORD: importance of, in parole investigations, 110, 113 - - _World_, New York: account of gang fighting quoted from, 50 - - _World, Evening_, New York: story of Johnnie Moran quoted from the, 161 - - - YEGGMAN, JARGON OF: common in boys’ gangs, 44 - - YOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION: Big Brother Movement in, 86 - - - - - RUSSELL SAGE - FOUNDATION - - THE - NEGLECTED GIRL - - BY - RUTH S. TRUE - - WEST SIDE STUDIES - - NEW YORK - SURVEY ASSOCIATES, INC. - MCMXIV - - - - - Copyright, 1914, by - THE RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION - - - [Illustration] - - THE TROW PRESS - NEW YORK - - - - -TABLE OF CONTENTS - - - CHAPTER PAGE - - I. Introductory 1 - - II. In the Grip of Poverty 19 - - III. Where the School Law Failed 33 - - IV. Wage-earning and New Relations at Home 43 - - V. The Will to Play 57 - - VI. The Breakdown of Family Protection 75 - - VII. The Italian Girl. By Josephine Roche 95 - - -APPENDICES - - A. Economic Condition of the Families 121 - - B. School Attendance Data 132 - - - INDEX 135 - - - - -CHAPTER I - -INTRODUCTORY - - -The material for the following studies was collected by four persons. -The final chapter, which deals with the Italian girl of the West Side, -was prepared by one of the group working independently. This course -was necessary, as the Italian girl’s life is inseparable from that of -her family and the only approach to her is by way of her own home. -One could not know the Italian girl of the West Side without knowing -also her father, her mother, and her numerous brothers and sisters, if -not, indeed, a great many of her relatives. The other three workers, -including the writer, joined in the management of a small house which -was used as a recreation center and club house. They also collaborated -in keeping a daily journal, to which reference is made in the following -pages. - -It was our wish especially to gain some knowledge of the type of girl -who is seen so frequently at the street corners and who refuses to be -attracted to agencies which frankly declare a desire to improve her. -The club, therefore, adopted an open-door policy and the leaders tried -to refrain from obvious attempts to influence or control the girls who -came. The aim was to encourage sincerity among them, and to prevent -their “playing up” to superimposed standards “for what there was in -it.” Not that we thought that these girls were especially inclined to -practice fraud; but we knew from experience that work with too obvious -a purpose “to do good” often encourages hypocrisy. - -One of our reasons for opening the Tenth Avenue club for girls was -that we had found it impossible to be on an intimate footing with -them in their homes. The atmosphere of family life was far too often -one of mutual reproach and recrimination, and the visitor was likely -to find herself in the embarrassing position of a court of appeals. -Picture an evening spent in the company of the two Katie Murphys, -mother and daughter, thus: Mrs. Murphy, sitting with folded arms in the -rocking-chair, rehearses the story of Katie’s sins. Katie leans against -the back of the sofa with dropped eyelids and a face as expressionless -as putty. All the efforts of the involuntary court of appeals to induce -the girl to say a word in her own behalf are met by stony silence. -Meanwhile, the mother runs on, zealously driving nails in her own -coffin as far as the girl’s affection and confidence are concerned. -Harassed by the problem of feeding, clothing, and housing six children -on $8.00 a week, Mrs. Murphy has little strength or imagination left -for the subtler problem of how to handle an adolescent daughter. - -It was such experiences that taught us the necessity of providing some -neutral ground on which to meet Katie Murphy, if we were to secure her -confidence. This neutral ground took the form of club rooms where we -established ourselves with the definite intention of giving Katie the -just due of her youth,--a good time. - -We continued, however, to visit the families of girls in the course of -the investigation, collecting thereby material for the observations -on home life contained in the following chapters. The girls themselves -welcomed our visits even though they must have realized in a vague way -that we were keeping “tab” on conditions in the homes from which our -club members came. One day May Sipp,[63] a new girl, came to one of the -club leaders and said, “Miss ----, will you come to my house tomorrow?” -The leader thought that perhaps a party was being planned and asked for -further details. “Why, no one has been to my house yet and I’d like -to have you come,” the girl explained. It was evident that she felt a -little put out because her home had not as yet been visited. - -It was the middle of December when we first opened for the girls in the -neighborhood the house which we had taken for the purpose. The place -received no more colorful name than the number on the door, “471,” by -which it was designated during the whole time we occupied it. “471” was -a red brick structure consisting of three stories and a basement. It -was rather a friendly looking house with a “stoop” and the remnants of -front and back yards; that is, there was a small area in front guarded -by a low iron fence with a gate, and a square box in the rear which -became a “playground” in summer. A supervisor from Christ Presbyterian -Church was placed in charge of the latter, and the children crowded -into the little box in such numbers that we soon had complaints from -the neighbors against the shrill chorus rising from the back yard. - -The front yard was of no particular use except that the iron gate -served to stimulate the imagination of the small boys who haunted our -premises. It was a continual bone of contention. It was always being -carried away by bands of enemies and heroically restored by bands of -friends--who were sometimes one and the same--until at last we decided -to remove it entirely from the sidewalk, where it was of no earthly use -as a gate, and store it in an inner closet. - -We occupied two floors of the house, the ground floor and the basement. -In the basement was a large, well lighted kitchen and a living room. On -the first floor were two large connecting rooms which were furnished -with folding chairs and a piano. Though our equipment was meager, we -had a cook stove and a piano. These two pieces of furniture we came to -regard as the necessary minimum of equipment for a girls’ club under -all circumstances. - -The occupations of the clubs--cooking, sewing, basket-weaving, brass -work--were carried on as pastime rather than as work. It was necessary -to vary the program repeatedly, for the shifting attention of the girls -refused to consider any occupation as pleasurable for long at a time. -The one thing of which they never seemed to tire was dancing, and in -spite of the ugly forms which this recreation took, it had always the -beauty of spontaneity. Their fondness for popular songs was almost -as spontaneous. “The Garden of Love,” “The Hypnotizing Man,” “When -Broadway was a Pasture,” “The Girl that Married Dad,” and others of -the same lurid and sentimental strain were sung over and over to an -unvarying appreciation. - -Our relations with our co-tenants at “471” threw much additional light -on conditions of life on the West Side. Above us on the second floor -lived the McClusky family. Ellen McClusky was fourteen, and since -her mother’s death two years before had been housekeeper for her -father and three brothers. Lately one of the brothers had sickened of -tuberculosis, thus adding to Ellen’s housekeeping duties those of a -sick nurse. Her school attendance had suffered. The truant officer was -paying visits to the house and the health officer was also knocking at -the door. Thus the clouds had already begun to gather on the McClusky -horizon even before our entrance on the scene. Ellen’s joy at the news -that a club for girls had moved in on the ground floor of the house was -unbounded. She was allowed at first to come down to us every evening. - -But Mr. McClusky soon turned against us. He was a choleric individual, -and was, moreover, constantly agitated over the condition of his son, -who was dying by inches. It is not surprising that he turned violently -against the social coercion which demanded that Ellen should go to -school and his son be put away in a hospital. He mishandled the truant -officer and forbade Ellen to have anything to do with the “teachers,” -whom he regarded as being in league with the forces that harassed him. - -Ellen would hang over the banisters in the evenings watching the hall -below. But her father had forbidden her even to speak to us. In March -the invalid brother died, and the club rooms were closed for a week -during which the house was given over to the solemn splendors of a -funeral. After the undertaker had retired, the health officer took -possession and the rooms were submitted to a thorough fumigation. - -We opened our club once more, but Ellen was still forbidden to come -to us. She continued living in the isolation of the second floor, -peeping over the banisters in the evening. It was finally a great -relief to our overstrained sympathies when an officer of the Society -for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, upon evidence furnished by -Ellen’s aunt, arrived and removed her from her home. This ended the -vicissitudes of the McClusky family so far as we had any share in them. - -On the top floor lived Mr. Distel, a German mechanic about fifty years -old. He was an odd little bitten-off man, unkempt and kindly, who had -lived alone in his three little rooms many years. He liked to hear the -boys and girls downstairs, he said, and occasionally he made clumsy -efforts to join in, but he had been too long a hermit. He could not. -Needless to say, Mr. Distel was our most sympathetic neighbor, and the -presence of the little man finishing off an industrious and worthy life -in his lonely top floor rooms made us but the more determined in our -task of supplying wholesome good times to our friends. - -The source from which most of our difficulties proceeded was the spirit -of disorder abroad in the neighborhood. This was indeed a lawless -spirit and, in its extreme form, a sinister and menacing influence. -The “Gopher gang”[64] figured largely in the neighborhood gossip, and -whatever may have been the actual extent of Gopher operations in our -vicinity, the current stories about them, however inaccurate as to -facts, were in themselves a sufficiently evil influence in the lives of -the boys and girls of the district. - -Our most direct contact with local disorderly influences was through -the gangs of small boys who haunted our premises, demanding to be -admitted. As we were not prepared to open the house to them, our -apparent inhospitality drew upon us a series of attacks. Not that all -the attacks were acts of deliberate revenge; they were sometimes merely -outbursts of habitual rowdyism. Nevertheless, they were a serious -element in our situation. We found that we could not run a club for -girls on Tenth Avenue without getting the small boys’ consent. Time had -to be spent in conciliating them. At first our method was to station -an out-post on the sidewalk. To one of the “teachers,” who proved an -adept in gang psychology, this difficult task was usually delegated. An -entry in her diary under the date of December 20--a date on which the -usual Tenth Avenue spirit was enhanced by the approach of the Christmas -holidays--reads as follows: “As it was not my night on duty I had no -intention of spending the evening at the Tenth Avenue house. I stopped -in to speak to Miss Barclay and see how things were going, but the -disorder on the outside was so bad that I was forced to spend most of -the evening on the sidewalk outside with the boys.” - -An adventure which befell us on the second evening after our “opening” -might have had very serious results. One of the club leaders was -engaged in the front basement room with a group of the older girls. -Early in the evening a gang of small boys gathered at the window -outside to upbraid their sisters for not letting them come into the -club. But they withdrew at a word from the “teacher,” who might have -suspected such unusual docility, but did not. An hour later when the -girls were engaged in their club occupations, there came crashing -through the window a weapon seven feet in length, which proved to -be a gun with a bayonet attachment. It struck the chair in which the -teacher was sitting with such force as to chip the oaken back. As the -gun was slowly drawn into the room there was much wringing of hands and -a general desire to get a “cop.” The gang had promptly made off, of -course, leaving the sidewalk deserted. - -It became apparent that the small boy could do serious damage unless -conciliated. Treating with him in the darkness of the sidewalk proved -not to be successful. It was evident that we must bring him inside and -examine him in the light. One evening just after the front shutters -had been pried open by depredators who had then promptly run away, one -of the club leaders went out to the sidewalk, closing the door behind -her. Nobody was in sight. But she had only to continue long enough in -a motionless attitude to coax these young animals from their holes. -Presently a head came out from behind a stoop, and another from an area -opposite. Soon several boys were edging along the pavement toward the -solitary figure in the dark, and in a few minutes the whole gang had -closed in a circle around the trapper. She led them up the stoop, into -the brightly lighted sitting room, and called for a clear statement of -grievances. It was all ready. “Say, ain’t no boys gona be let in never?” - -The end of this council and of others which followed was that we gave -Saturday night to the boys. Gradually, by this concession and others, -we were able to conciliate the gangs. The worst of our troubles were -over when they had been somewhat enlisted on our side, but there were -occasions when the alliance proved embarrassing. For instance, one -of the “teachers” leaving the club late in the evening encountered -a group of the older boys who gallantly offered to escort her to the -car. As they neared the corner she remarked hastily that she must catch -a car which had just stopped there. Before she could get her breath, -four of the boys rushed ahead, jumped on the front platform, and began -putting on the brakes so that the motorman could not start his car. The -astonished club leader found herself seized by the other three youths -and hoisted upon the rear platform with a parting shove which sent her -hurtling into the car. The hooting and confusion were intense, and the -passengers stood up in alarm. The boys, however, stood genially waving -their caps as the car started. When the conductor came to collect the -fare, he said suspiciously to the new passenger, “Did you know them -boys?” The young woman was compelled to say that they were friends -of hers, to which he replied, “Gee, but you got tough nuts for your -friends!” - -Stories of the disorder in the neighborhood came into the house in many -ways. For instance, it was vividly reproduced in the conversation of -the “gentleman friends” of the girls, who were often our guests. This -was full of wild Gopher gossip and stories of arrests. There was one -evening in particular when Doran thrilled us all with a long story of -how he had gone home early one night and was sitting reading his paper, -feeling rather queer--the trouble was in the air--when a terrific noise -broke out in the hall. A whole gang of fellows had come into the house -through the door on the roof and gone plunging down the stairs pursued -by a trail of officers. - -At this point in the story, Cleaver suggested that Doran must have -kept the door shut pretty tight, to which he agreed. Cleaver then -accused him of being afraid, and recalled an instance when, as he -claimed, Doran had shut the door against him when the “cops” were -after him. Doran hotly denied this. The two ruffled spirits had to be -smoothed and then the talk ran on, all about arrests and flights and -pursuits. The whole conversation indicated how precariously near the -edge of trouble these young men felt themselves to be all the time. -It showed also the kind of lawlessness and rowdyism on which they -built their youthful ideals, which lead in turn to further acts of -lawlessness and rowdyism. - -Echoes of the Gophers occurred in the talk of the girls. At one of -the first club meetings, a tall, attractive girl arose and proposed -as a name for the club, the “Gopherettes.” As a motto, she suggested, -“Hit one, hit all.” This was Fanny Mayhew, who turned out on nearer -acquaintance to be a wonderfully cheerful girl with a happy disposition -and very popular with her family and school teachers. Though perfectly -able to hold her own, she proved not so belligerent as the episode had -suggested. She told a club leader that she had once belonged to a club -of girls called the “Gopherettes.” They had paid dues and even rented a -basement room for a short time. Later the club had moved to the dock, -and she had not been allowed by her mother to go to its meetings. - -It was unavoidable that the girls’ conduct should reflect the character -of their environment. However, only once was there an outbreak against -a club leader. Among the friends of the house who kindly volunteered -from time to time to help with an evening’s entertainment was a young -woman from another city who had, thanks to her own efforts and the -interest of a wealthy friend, raised herself from the ranks of the -girls who composed our clubs. On the occasion of this young woman’s -visit with us, there arose from the room where she was engaged with -a group of girls the sounds of a violent quarrel. One of the regular -leaders hastened to the room, arriving just in time to prevent blows. -Julia O’Brien had lifted her arm to strike the young woman who had come -up from the ranks and who was, moreover, for the moment the center of a -hostile, excited group. - -The leader of the riot, led downstairs to the kitchen, became instantly -repentant, and the story of the quarrel came out. One of the girls had -stepped on Julia’s foot and she had exclaimed, “Oh, hell!” It was an -unfortunate slip. Julia knew that swearing was not allowed in the club -rooms and she was making strenuous efforts, as the leaders knew, to -break a lifelong habit. But the young woman from the ranks did not know -this and she had rebuked the guilty Julia in a tone of such cold and -stinging contempt that it had not only provoked her victim to the point -of striking blows but had drawn upon the tactless leader the wrath of -every girl present. - -A subsequent talk with this young woman revealed the attitude of -offensive superiority which the girls had so hotly resented--an -unfortunate by-product of her rapid rise into responsibility. A -thoroughly self-respecting and deserving person, she had the peculiarly -hard and unsympathetic attitude toward those who had failed to surmount -their disabilities so often held by persons who have themselves -struggled up from the ranks. - -“Fights” among the girls were not infrequent. One unusually peaceful -and happy evening, for instance, ended in open warfare because Barbara -Egan, apparently with no evil intent, had asked Louisa Storm why her -fingers were so crooked. No less painful was the quarrel between Mamie -Taggart and Anna Strumpf, which was recorded in the following entry in -the diary: “Tonight it was raining heavily but about eight or ten girls -of the Wednesday night club turned up. Anna Strumpf sent word that she -is not coming any more as she is afraid that Mamie Taggart will do her -up outside.” - -Not all the “fights” were duels; some of them were petty wars of -faction with faction. There was one particularly unfortunate evening -when fatal “remarks were passed” and the deadly insult “tough” was -used. The waves of bitterness were long in subsiding. The next evening -a group of the girls, headed by Maggie Tracy and Clara Denley, appeared -at the club wearing large stiff hair bows, some red and some black, -which stuck out defiantly on either side. They announced that they had -been called tough, so what could one expect? The club leaders began to -muster their diplomacy and act as peacemakers, but the air was still -belligerent when the opposite faction came in. - -Expecting a repetition of the clash between the two sets, we were -greatly surprised to see Sadie Fleming, the leader of the newcomers, -go up to Maggie Tracy and put her hand affectionately on her enemy’s -shoulder, apparently forgetting that a state of war existed between -them. Sadie and her companions had collected on their way to the club -the most thrilling gossip of the entire year. Father Langan, according -to the story, on his way to give holy communion to a woman who was -sick, had been attacked by a gang of Gophers. He had thrown open his -coat to show the vestment of the priest, but they had robbed him of -some money he was carrying and had left him stretched on the sidewalk! - -This story was a nine-days’ wonder on the West Side, where, as a usual -thing, deeds of violence are promptly forgotten. Father Langan flatly -contradicted the report, but this had no effect upon the currency of -so picturesque a story. Very likely there were other quarrels besides -Sadie’s and Maggie’s which were forgotten and effaced in the mutual -thrill over this piece of modernized Irish folklore. Mrs. O’Callahan -was graphic, bringing together details heard from various other sources -as well. - -“The father was just afther going t’ give a dyin’ woman th’ Holy -Communion. He was stheppin’ down the street when these fellows set in -upon him. ‘B’ys,’ he sez, throwin’ back his coat and takin’ an’ showin’ -thim th’ Sacrament which he had in his pocket, ‘d’ye see what I’m -carryin’ here? For yer own good,’ he sez, ‘Oi warn ye,’ he sez, ‘not t’ -lay hand on a priest,’ he sez, ‘an’ him goin’ t’ a sick old woman,’ he -sez. An’ with that they hit him an’ took what money he had--twenty-six -dollars he was carryin’, so they say. Oi can’t understand why the -fire from above didn’t sthrike thim down dead. In Ireland, a priest -there has only t’ stamp with his foot and they’d ha’ been sthruck down -where they stood. But America is a bad place, it ain’t like th’ owld -counthrey.” - -When the youthful gang spirit of Tenth Avenue had been conquered it -seemed as though the last difficulty had been surmounted. At the -end of ten months we thought we had taken the measure of all the -unpropitious influences that threatened our enterprise. But not so. -We were yet to capitulate to the last and most powerful enemy of -all--industry. First came a “dispossess” notice, and before we could -get our breath from the surprise the house-wrecking crew were upon us. -It was a simple matter to raze “471” and the adjoining buildings. In a -few days they had all disappeared, along with the tiny back yard, where -the children had played on hot summer days. On the site was erected -a lofty factory building. Tomorrow the machines will be chugging -away in the new shops, tended perhaps by some of the same girls who -yesterday came knocking at the door of “471” asking for room to play. -A neighboring school received the remnants of our clubs. With new -conditions, a new environment, and new groups of girls, an entirely new -start had to be made. - - * * * * * - -The observations given in this study of girl life on the West Side do -not pretend to be extensive. No attempt was made to gather in numbers. -We had 65 girls in our clubs whose home conditions were very well -known.[65] But the study was written with much additional information -in mind. Other girls came to the house and we were in touch in one way -or another with a great many families of the neighborhood besides those -of club members. The chief purpose, however, was to know intimately and -sympathetically a small group of girls who were typical in many ways -of the girls in any poor and neglected city population. As one writer -puts it: “The alternative lies, not between knowing a few people and -knowing all to an equal degree, but between scratching the surface of -the whole field and digging a portion of it spade deep in order to gain -some idea of the under-soil throughout.”[66] - -How far did our groups represent the girl life of the West Side? It was -a comparatively small number whom we knew, and the majority of them -came from the “under-soil.” The well cared for did not come to us. Our -girls were for the most part the daughters of the poorest poor. As a -group they differed essentially from the types of girls usually found -in settlement clubs and classes. Some of them were not of the best -local repute. They were known as “tough,” and had been practically -outlawed by certain settlements and recreation centers for the sake of -the more promising element. - -The settlement workers in the district repeatedly assured us that -it was hard to hold the girls who came from our particular area -and impossible to work with them in numbers. This testimony as to -the unsocial character of these girls was sadly borne out by our -experience in trying to organize them into clubs. There were many -who corresponded to the description given by Dr. Katherine Bement -Davis,[67] superintendent of Bedford Reformatory: “Our girls as a class -are anti-social. It is very hard for them to see their conduct in its -relation to the lives of those around them. They are individualistic in -the extreme. They have never thought of the necessity for government -and law, and can see no reason for obedience to anything but their own -impulse.”[68] - -But after making all due allowances for the limited number of girls -studied and the “tough” reputations of some of them, the fact remains -that these 65 girls and their friends were representative of many -others who are subjected to the same environment. They had been brought -up from babyhood in these blocks. Born in the crowded, dark tenement -house they had had for a nursery the crowded sidewalk, and for a -playground, the street. They had gone to the nearest school and from -there to work in the nearest factory. They had seen the West Side, -breathed the West Side, fed on the West Side for fourteen years or -more, and had built up their adolescent ideals of the same forlorn -material. That they had succumbed to unwholesome influences does not -prove them to have been peculiarly weak or susceptible. Nor does it -prove that their parents had been culpably delinquent in their duties. -Conditions of living in the crowded city have tended to loosen the -family bond, and the powerful force of neighborhood influence cannot -be adequately combated by parental authority alone. The community must -assume the responsibility for the environment of its least protected -members. - -A campaign for the control of conditions in the public dance halls has -been begun. We are told that our young working girls must be given -decent dance halls and not publicly and deliberately consigned to the -degraded centers which attract them under that name. The West Side -girls need much more, however, than protected dance halls. Some of the -girls of this district are too poor to go to public dances. But the -same dangers which threaten the dance-hall girl stalk unrestrained -through the neglected streets and tenements of the West Side, and the -girl of fourteen may fall a victim even under her own roof tree. - -Demoralizing neighborhood conditions, such as congestion, filth, street -temptations, and neighborhood gangs, all of which are practically -synonymous with West Side life, influence the girls for evil only to a -less degree than they influence the boys. One needs only to talk with -any good mother of the district and hear how steadily she is engaged -in fending her children against the life of the street to learn how -constant and how potent are its influences. Testimony is borne to their -power by the iterated complaint of West Side mothers,--of those who do -not work away from home as well as of those who do,--that “Mamie is -beginning to get out from under me,” or, “Katie was the best girl you -ever saw until we came to live on this block.” - -The problem of waywardness among West Side girls cannot be solved -by long distance methods. Their environment must be made safe and -their pleasures recognized and made decent. Some of the things which -enlightened criminologists recommend for women in reformatories, after -they have completely succumbed to the sort of conditions which abound -on the West Side, are regular school attendance with manual training -and flexible courses of study; regular hours for sleep, for food, for -work, and for play; plenty of nourishing food; fresh air and outdoor -life; the social discipline of community life. These are the things -which are given to the girls in the reformatory at Bedford as a cure. -The same things would help to prevent; they would preserve the West -Side girl to society as a daughter and as a mother, as a worker and as -a citizen. - - - - -CHAPTER II - -IN THE GRIP OF POVERTY[69] - - -“You’ve got t’ keep your eye on a girl. Now it’s different with a boy. -He can take care of himself. But you never can tell, if you don’t keep -a watch, when a girl’s goin’ to come back an’ bring disgrace on you.” - -Such, in a nutshell, is the attitude of our community toward the -adolescent girl. The chances are that she will “never give you worry -an’ trouble like a boy.” But if she does, she will give vastly more. -The sting of her shame is felt to be keener than any the boy can -inflict. And with very few girls in our neighborhood is “trouble” of -this sort beyond the range of the possible. Therefore the sense of -family responsibility is far more alert in her behalf than on her -brother’s account. With few exceptions, the girl is assured of interest -and counsel in her home. This counsel is not always wise. Worse still, -it is not always tempered with the affection she needs. Here all family -life struggles against handicaps. But through all the sorry failures, -the ignorance, and the thwarted ambitions, much love and much concern -for the girl are to be found in the homes of her people. Almost as a -baby she has duties at home. The boy, as a rule, assumes them with -his first pay envelope. Or, if he is earlier drafted into service, his -chores are outside, probably the gathering of coal or wood while his -sister stays at home to mind the babies. He has more freedom. She grows -up in a more intimate relation to the family, far more under the eye -of her mother. Therefore, family influence, nine times out of ten, is -the great factor in her development. To understand her, home conditions -must be known. - -The most common of family skeletons among this West Side group is -one which can scarcely be locked in its closet. It stalks forth, -apparent to the casual glance. It is the grim elemental question of -primitive needs. The daily struggle for food, shelter, and clothing is -a stark reality to which only the youngest babies in the family can be -oblivious. The daughter of fourteen knows it to the last sordid detail. -In the group of families we knew, poverty was almost universal. Of our -65 girls only eight came from households which had known continuous -comfort during these children’s lives. All the others had at some time -faced staggering misfortune. Forty of the total 55 families, or 73 per -cent, had had records with relief societies, some stretching far back -into the past.[70] Forty-three families, from which came 53 of the -girls, must be classed with the very poor.[71] - -Those of us born into better fortune seldom feel the meaning of this -primitive struggle. We have no common denominator with it. We cannot -estimate the heroism of “the poor.” We have heard and read much -of hunger and exposure. These things play a large part in juvenile -literature, whether sensational or classic. There is no little daughter -of a comfortable home but is told the sad legend of the match girl who -froze in the snow under the lighted windows from which floated sounds -of merriment and music. The same little daughter, grown older, goes -to school and learns that “man’s three primal necessities are food, -shelter, and clothing.” But neither the faraway and sentimental pathos -of the match girl’s fate nor the cold scholastic statement of the text -book is sufficient to teach one the real meaning of poverty. Only those -who follow its trail, step by step, seeing the gradual and tragic -disintegration of human worth under its influence, the suffering and -waste left in its path, can realize its full power and significance. - -To these girls who come forth to their recreation in a skirt worn -thin and a gaping, ill-made waist, poverty is neither distant nor -sentimentally touching. Possibly no child does starve in these streets. -But there are many children who do not need to learn out of books about -hunger. At any moment, one may open a door and find it, in all its -gaunt, staring reality. We once found a tiny crippled baby who had sat -for days in a fireless, barren room, stiffened with cold. She was as -helpless and defenseless a little creature as could well be met. But -this was the treatment that an indifferent community tolerated for her. -And she was only one. - -To our girls these were harsh facts of everyday knowledge. Familiarity -with poverty makes it seem both more and less terrible. It does not -kill, perhaps, but it stunts. It does not come as an overwhelming -catastrophe; but steadily it saps the vigor of the young as well -as of the old. With the more fortunate of families such as these, -extreme poverty is only episodic. A fairly decent standard is kept -until something goes amiss. But one break in the machinery of their -working capacity means hardship. No reserve fund has been possible, -or the small amount saved is hopelessly inadequate to meet illness or -protracted unemployment. It melts away in a few weeks or months. The -family is very soon over the borderline of self-support. With the less -fortunate, poverty takes the form of a slow, chronic contest against -everlasting odds. This demands every atom of physical and nervous -strength, every fraction of intelligence and effort. And the exaction -is made from those whose only training has been hard, devastating -experience. - -In this neighborhood, families are large and wages are small. The size -of the family is a definite element in its standard of comfort. Poverty -begins not merely at a certain wage but also with a certain number of -children.[72] “We’ve got eight,” said Mrs. Meehan, “and by rights we’d -only have two if we was to bring ’em up proper. But,” she added, “it’s -the littlest one that I love the best.” - -Sometimes where the father is living and at work, he earns enough to -keep in cleanliness and health, and with at least the necessary medical -care, a family of three or four. But with six to support, an income -sufficient for four means the lack of essentials for all, loss of -health, and sometimes loss of life. Often the mother is compelled to -supplement his earnings by her own. Twenty-nine out of the 46 living -mothers were contributing a part or the whole of the family income. In -24 of the 55 families the father was dead or incapacitated, and there -was no stepfather to take his place as breadwinner.[73] - -The mortality among children on the West Side is shockingly high. A -family which had not lost at least one child was indeed rare. Fairly -accurate records of the births and deaths of children in 31 out of -the 55 families show that the number of births averaged nearly eight, -and the deaths about three.[74] This average death rate for so small -a group is not surprising when one considers the birth rate. The more -children that are born into such poverty, the greater the likelihood -that many of them will die. On our list were families who had two -living children and six dead, five living and five dead, five living -and six dead, six living and nine dead, seven living and seven dead, -one living and six dead. Though practically all these families carried -insurance,[75] the amount for which a baby’s life is insured would not -as a rule be sufficient to pay the expense of burial. - -The attitude of our community toward birth or death is disheartening -in its helplessness. Either event is accepted as the will of God. The -idea of voluntarily limiting the size of the family is almost unknown. -Mrs. Reilly, bent, deformed, old at fifty, with five children living -and eight dead, would ramble on with her dull and listless story of -the sickness and suffering those deaths and births had meant, and the -constant crushing poverty they had caused; and would finish with, -“It’s the poor as can’t take care of them, to whom they’re sent.” - -The housing of these families was of a grade commensurate with the -degree of their poverty. Dark, unventilated rooms were found in the -apartments of 30 families, and about half of the group of 55 had less -space than was required for health or comfort. As is generally true -with families of their class, the amount of rent paid for poor and -inadequate accommodations was relatively high.[76] - -In spite of the mountains of difficulty in the way of these mothers, -their success in bringing up their children is sometimes great beyond -our realization. There was, for instance, one household on a certain -block on Eleventh Avenue where the father brought in $12 in return for -a full week of unskilled labor. There were four children under working -age. Twelve dollars, six persons, city prices--this was the mother’s -problem, by no means so discouraging as that of some of her neighbors, -but still a difficult one. The answer is not to be written on paper. -It is on children’s faces, in the events and outcome of human lives. -However successful the present answer, each day sets the old quandary -forth anew. Never solved, it stretches on into the years ahead. - -With this family, part of the answer was their presence on Eleventh -Avenue. It was in the clangor of the freight trains that passed on the -street surface by their door and blackened their windows with smoke. -It was in the stench of the slaughter house which the breeze brought -into their rooms. It was in the soot of the factories and the dangers -to child life around the docks. There were outward evidences of family -life in the block where they dwelt--dilapidated tenements, with a -sordid little grocery store in the middle of the block. A garish little -saloon stood on the corner. The houses did not present the solid red -brick front of the usual tenement street, with its delusive appearance -of respectability. The buildings were irregular; some were low and -shack-like. Their windows faced Jersey and the nightly glory of the -sunset, but even this could not redeem the sordidness and squalor of -the neighborhood. - -From these surroundings came two trim little figures. They were school -girls, still with all the ways and traits of little girls. Their hair -was drawn smoothly into straight black braids. Their eyes were round -and wide awake. The neatness of their dress spoke of continual care. -They were alert and well-mannered, brimming with interest and comment. -In short, they were bright, normal, ordinary children. What this meant -as an achievement can only be measured by the obstacles which this one -mother had overcome. - -She had had the help neither of good fortune nor of training. She -had fashioned her product with her own pitiful, clumsy tools. A -large-boned, uncouth Irish woman, she still bore the stamp of the soil. -Her education had been that of life, a life of hard knocks and rough -going. Plain, coarse, with the burr in her speech, bent and weakened -physically, she did not present an attractive appearance. But it was -her boast that she “never got anything from no society--never knew much -about them places--never had to, thank God.” Relatives had helped when -the hardest pinches came; but for the most part the family had plodded -on alone. But even such parents cannot master poverty. In turn they -must pay toll to its resistless strength. For the smallest girl of five -was a wan, great-eyed baby whose puckered lips were drawn with pain and -on whom the shadow of death already lay. The terms of life cannot be -utterly remade. - -In one of the sordid tenements wedged into a narrow space as yet -unclaimed by business this mother had found a shelter for her brood. -Four rooms “through” with a cupboard were rented to her for $9.00 a -month and her services as janitress, which were reckoned as worth -$3.00. Thus, while her flat would otherwise have cost $12 a month and -have absorbed exactly one week of her husband’s wages, she saved $3.00 -out of the rent to spend on food for her family of six. This was the -important fact which had kept them on Eleventh Avenue from year to -year, though the mother always hoped that each winter would be her last -in the house. - -But not all families have the fortitude, the endurance, the power of -ceaseless, undiminished effort which this particular group possessed. -Even with those who accept the challenge and make the continual effort -to keep their heads above water, strength and courage sometimes -break. The loss of two days’ work for a daughter whose full week’s -wage amounts to only $4.00 or $5.00 may mean a family tragedy. What -elsewhere are incidents, are hazards here. - -We have fallen into the habit of looking to the mother as the mainstay -of the family. She is held to a rigorous standard which neither -husband nor children are required to measure up to. We expect her to -counteract the difficulties and evil influences of her environment by -possessing all the known virtues of character. As a matter of fact, -the worry and strain of insecurity become too great for many a woman. -She grows apathetic, careless, and stolid, or she becomes querulous -and neurotic. Perhaps she takes to drink. Drinking is rife on the West -Side; it is the easy and familiar escape from worry and discouragement. -For the woman who drinks there is scant sympathy or toleration. The -decent, hardworking mother has no patience with her. If the victim is -putting up any fight at all it is a desperate and a solitary one, for -she can expect no help from others. With every lapse, every slipping -back from the precarious foothold gained so painfully, she is met by -scorn and reproach from her judges with whom the long weeks of effort -do not count when once she has failed. To rise many times from the -utmost depths of despair and bitterness is not given to human nature, -and she ends as an outcast. - -I am thinking of one black, terrible half hour with a woman of my -acquaintance. A thunder storm darkened all the outer world and almost -no light entered the kitchen where we sat. It was one of the two small -rear-house rooms that she rented for $8.50 a month. This day it was -stifling and unswept, cluttered with little piles of her rubbish. She -was going to move; she had been dispossessed. She had lost her job, a -position held for three months after a winter when she had hunted work -for weeks. For seven years she had kept up a home for her girl and boy, -one year during the illness of her husband who drank and beat her, and -six years after his death. She had looked forward to the time when -Sadie should get her working papers; but the girl was incompetent and -irresponsible and failed to keep any job for long. - -This year had brought the mother her first out-of-work experience. -In the course of it she had slipped far behind. But with every seven -dollars’ pay during the past three months she had climbed slowly back. -The rent was even. The insurance agent lacked a single dollar. Every -night on coming home she had figured slowly and clumsily with the aid -of her boy “Petie.” She had “built castles, which no one had ought to -do.” Castles! Dreams of a new suit for herself and Sadie, of whole -shoes for Petie which should not be begged from his school; dreams in -the future of an “all-through” apartment, even with rugs, and curtains -of cheap lace. But again thrown out of work, hope was gone. - -She was a woman slow and clumsy of movement, who went through her -plodding days quietly and dumbly, with a certain trembling hesitance. -But her rusty black clothes were always neat. The housekeeper said, -“You c’d tell she was respectable.” It was a cherished respectability. -She suffered bitter pangs when she saw it fall away. Today her tongue -was loosened by drink. She talked quickly, with an unaccustomed rise -and fall of speech, and with fluency of gesture. She clung to Petie, -possessed with the idea that some one was trying to take him away. -“They shall not take me boy. The girl is wild; she has me heart broke. -I’ve worked and I’ve tried an’ it’s all come to this. But I won’t be -parted fr’m me boy.” And again and again, the voice rising to a cry, -“I’ve been turned down--turned down I am. I’m not a young woman now an’ -you know I can’t stand it--turned down hard I’ve been.” - -Without doubt some women of the dependent classes are strongly braced -in their morals by the rigorous standard to which we hold them. The -consciousness that nothing but the best of conduct will be excused in -them must serve as a constant stimulus to heroic living. But on the -other hand, there are doubtless many who have drifted to the bottom as -the result of a first lapse which might have been excused and survived -under a less rigorous standard. There are too many who share the decent -working woman’s point of view. “When a woman takes to the can, she -ain’t got no good left.” - -Many of our girls came from homes where the parents were heavy and -constant drinkers.[77] They were familiar with the appearance of -drunkenness. It does not revolt such girls when it breaks out in a -place of amusement. They do not resent it in their boy companions but -view it on the whole with unconcern. But they come to be wary of its -manifestations in others and even unconsciously expert in inebriate -psychology. There was one family where the alcoholic father was always -turned over to the fourteen-year-old daughter during his “sprees” -to be managed. When he was in this condition she was “the only one -who could do anything with him.” Surely an ominous ability for a -fourteen-year-old daughter! - -In a neighborhood like the Middle West Side, poverty is seldom found -isolated from its menacing concomitants--ignorance, immorality, -drinking, filth, and degradation. Whether as cause or result, these -appear as close companions of want. Some of our girls came from -families which hovered constantly on the verge of disruption. The -arrogant, decisive power of the law always hung over them like the -sword of Damocles, threatening dismemberment. - -Here was Annie Brink, who came to her club with Hyde and Jekyll moods. -Sometimes she was gentle and tractable. Sometimes she looked out -sullenly from a cloud of morbid depression and gloom impossible to -pierce. She had grown up in a world of sudden disasters. Almost from -babyhood she had been a household drudge. There were seven children -in the family and Annie, the eldest daughter, was early pressed into -service as general houseworker and nurse for the younger ones. To take -proper care of seven young children is too big a job for one woman, -and Annie’s mother was certainly much too gay and irresponsible by -disposition to attempt it. “There was seven of us kids,” said Annie, -“so I had to help. I wasn’t let out on the street much when I was -little. One house where we were had a back yard and we’d play there. -But then we moved. When we went on to Tenth Avenue there was a fire -escape. We’d take pillows out there and sit. It was just grand. Then I -always could play on the organ. It was mamma’s since she married, but -she don’t use it any more. It’s the same as mine now. It stays locked, -because if all seven of us used it there wouldn’t be any organ soon.” - -At nine, Annie was a shy and backward child. Then she lost the sight -of one eye by infecting it from an abscessed finger. The new physical -defect kept her out of school and the housekeeping was transferred more -and more to her young shoulders. She had never had a friend of her own -age until at thirteen she attached herself to a girl of a vigorous -personality. Agnes was rough and quick to strike, like a boy, strong -and generous. She protected her new friend and took her out to see the -world. They went to a school recreation center several blocks north and -Agnes saw that Annie was not molested on their way. “We wasn’t afraid -of anything with Agnes.” Then abruptly the strong protector was removed -by a yet stronger power. Agnes was “put away.” Annie reported, “They -won’t let her out till she is twenty-one. They’re awful strict. It -makes us all feel bad.” - -Such things are accepted happenings in Annie’s world. They are the -acts of a power quite beyond its influence. Annie took the loss of her -champion with philosophy and stayed at home once more. She did not dare -go to the recreation center alone. Then came another thunderbolt. Her -mother, who had entered upon the familiar way of middle-aged West Side -women who lack the stamina that the grim struggle demands, was brought -into court, charged with drunkenness, and sentenced to the workhouse. -The smaller brothers and sisters were also taken away. Since then life -had been one succession of strange women brought in as housekeepers. -There were interludes between trials of the various incompetents when -the full care fell on the young girl. She was in school only a few -hours a day, because her single eye had been weakened. She had grown up -on the edge of a volcano. At fourteen she was, by her school record, -“peevish and extremely stubborn and difficult to handle.” - -Such precarious conditions of living are especially unfavorable for the -adolescent daughter. The instability of her age is accentuated by the -uncertainties of her life. Foresight and steadiness of purpose are not -easily taught when the essentials of existence depend upon chance. The -girl sees around her all sorts of makeshifts and haphazard expedients. -One of our girls tried to avert a family disaster. Dispossession -threatened at the end of the week. Mrs. Derks was in despair, and -helplessly she resigned the situation to Emma. With their last $3.00 -the girl bought a lamp and some hundreds of printed tickets. The lamp -was put in a saloon window. The tickets were to be sold in a raffle -which was to pay the rent. They did not sell and the rent went unpaid. -“I told her it wouldn’t do no good,” a neighbor said. “She should a’ -got a watch.” - -But as poverty is the enemy of adolescence, adolescence is the -adversary of poverty. The vivifying forces of youth are a protection -against the depleting effects of want and insecurity. The girl does not -take to drink as her mother does. Weeks of want are quickly forgotten -in a following period of comfort. When kindliness and cheer once more -prevail in her home, consciousness of the lack of ease and loveliness -is shaken from her. With the buoyancy of youth she rebounds at the -slightest release. But all too often her respite is brief, and when -periods of want follow too closely upon each other, her powers of -recovery must fail. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -WHERE THE SCHOOL LAW FAILED - - -At five or six years of age, the girl starts to school; between -fourteen and sixteen, she leaves school for good and goes to work. The -eight or nine years which lie between make up the full period of her -formal education. She must acquire during these years of compulsory -school attendance all the “learning” which the law of the state fixes -as a minimum for its workers. - -She has a wide choice of schools. Between Thirty-eighth and Forty-third -Streets are the buildings of four different systems. The public -schools, the parochial schools, the Children’s Aid Society school, and -the American Female Guardian Society school are all waiting with open -arms to receive her. Often she is simply sent to the nearest school -building. To cross the crowded avenues is more or less hazardous for a -six-year-old. Or, she is taken by an older child to the school attended -by her protector. In this case, it is “Mary’s school” that is chosen, -and the various systems mentioned have nothing to do with the decision. -Sometimes, however, one of them is chosen by the parents because of its -particular specialty. The church school teaches “prayers,” the “soup” -school, as the Children’s Aid Society is called in the neighborhood, -gives a free lunch and shoes and warm red petticoats. The children -of the poorest poor are likely to go there. The public schools are in -general considered best for “learning.” - -After the original choice has been made, neither parents nor child feel -bound to stick to it. A great deal of shifting about takes place, only -a small part of which is necessary. Some of the local schools carry -their pupils only through the primary classes and must then transfer -their small graduates to another building and another street to enter -the grammar grades. For many reasons, this single change may be wise, -but very often it is only the beginning of a succession of transfers. -The break is an occasion to try out two or three new places before -settling down. In the meantime, the little wanderer goes through a -period of unsettled plans, and incidentally loses considerable time -from her lessons. - -A free choice of schools and a free use of the transfer are the chief -concessions made by the compulsory school law to parental authority. As -a matter of fact, it is not always parental authority which transfers -little Mamie from school to school, but the child’s own flitting, -aimless spirit. In the middle of a term, for almost any cause, she is -likely to drop out of her class and claim the right to transfer. A -quarrel with a schoolmate, a friend in another school, a dispute with -the teacher,--these are the sort of trivial reasons which result in -sudden transfers. - -Our girls had made the most of their transfer privileges. One of them -had attended nine different schools on the West Side; another had -attended eight; two had attended seven; one had attended six; two had -attended five; and four had attended four; 16 had attended three; 21 -had attended two; and only eight had continued throughout in the same -school. There were five girls who had come from institutions, and four -whose school careers were unknown. - -These interruptions mean a serious waste from the girl’s meager -allowance of time for schooling. She passes at each shift to a new set -of teachers who know nothing of her record and tendencies. Frequently -she is put back a grade. She resents this, grows discouraged, and -perhaps loses interest. Besides, so much ease in changing weakens the -school’s authority. It is, however, a safeguard against the rigidity -of a single autocratic system. It gives some room for experiment with -a difficult child, until the régime and the teacher with whom she will -fit may be found. A restriction of the transfer would certainly be a -blow to the truant officer’s method of dealing with girls. At present -it constitutes his one suggestion, his only “golden cure.” - -The girl’s schooling begins to suffer as soon as there is any especial -need for assistance at home.[78] Two or three days are dropped -repeatedly. Wage-earning sisters cannot stop at home to nurse an -invalid or care for younger children while the mother works. When a new -baby comes, it is the oldest school girl who carries the extra burden -of work. Even the most devoted mothers make these encroachments on the -time which belongs to the school. They are driven to it by necessity. -“What can I do? There ain’t nobody else and I’ve got to keep Mamie t’ -help.” - -When Mrs. Kersey went to the hospital, it was “Baby,” the -eleven-year-old daughter, who was kept out of school to do the work, -and not her older sister employed in a factory. “You ought t’ ’a’ -seen how Baby run our house,”--her wage-earning sister was giving -the account. “Gee, but she was that strict, _believe me_. I couldn’t -have a cent o’ my money. No shows them days fer mine. She cried if me -father didn’t give ’er his pay an’ she made him, too. She’d give him -his quarter fer shavin’ money, but not a cent more. An’ she bought -everythin’ an’ run things herself. Me mother was away sick fer nine -months. Baby, she’s an awful good girl.” - -Emma Larkey, having at last struggled up to Class 5B, had just dropped -out of school for good. She was normal in body and mind. She should -have been in the graduating class. Why wasn’t she? In the first -place, she had changed schools eight times since her start, wandering -indifferently from public to parochial school and then back again. -In the second place, there were five younger children and she was -constantly being kept at home. The mother patched grain sacks in order -to pay rent for a well lighted apartment of five rooms. “There are -nine of us, and if I don’t work, we’d have to crowd up an’ sleep in -those black stuffy bedrooms. I can’t bear for the children to do that.” -Decent living quarters and fresh air for the whole family seemed more -important than Emma’s schooling. Something must give way under such -pressure and so it was Emma who went down. She had braced her young -shoulders to tasks more difficult than school lessons and had lost all -desire to finish the grammar grades by the time the second girl was old -enough to relieve her at home. - -The result of so much absence was seen in the great retardation among -our girls. Thirteen to fifteen is regarded as the normal age for -graduation,[79] and by this standard only 10 of our 65 girls were -in the normal grade. All the rest were “laggards.” There were, for -instance, 35 girls who were fourteen years old, the normal age for -graduation. Some of them had gone to work, while others were still in -school. The grades they had left or were still attending are shown in -the following distribution: Two had reached the 3B grade; four, 4A; -three, 4B; one, 5A; four, 5B; four, 6A; four, 6B; five, 7A; three, 7B; -and four, 8A. One girl had been in an institution. The girls are thus -seen to have been distributed almost impartially from the third to the -eighth grade. There was for them practically no relation between age -and grade. - -An occasional girl is defiantly truant. Her refusal to fit into the -school system marks a deeper vein of rebellion than in the case of the -boy, who more commonly slips the leading strings. Or else it marks an -undeveloped body and spirit in dealing with which the usual forcible -methods of combating truancy are often ineffectual. - -Annie Gibson was a slim, undersized girl of fifteen. Her light, almost -colorless hair hung down around small, undeveloped features, strikingly -vacant and weak. Her teeth, very small and deeply set, might have -been the milk teeth of a well-developed baby. Surrounded by a cover -of reticence and a surface of embarrassment, her real thoughts were -impossible to discover. She would agree to anything but would seldom -volunteer an opinion of her own. - -In school she was a passive pupil, never “giving trouble” but -learning little, and her attendance record was very low. In time she -furnished-one of the most stubborn cases of truancy in the school and -the truant officer was sent after her. He found her at home alone, the -girl’s mother being away at her regular work as chambermaid in a hotel. -As the officer laid his hand on her arm to take her back to school, the -child’s passivity suddenly broke and she flung herself on the floor, -screaming. The man retreated in consternation, fearful that he might -be accused of having physically mishandled the child, while Annie was -left to recover from her hysterical outbreak as well as she could. -This is only one instance of the futility of applying our present -method of dealing with truancy to these exceptional cases. This child -was primarily in need of careful mental and physical examination and -probably of special training which could only be defined after such an -examination had been made. - -When the difficulty rests with the girl there is no course between -threats and a sentence of great severity. The parent may be fined, but -then the punishment does not fall on the child. If she is sent away -it must be to a reformatory, not to a school. Let us see how these -methods would work applied to Christina Cull, another of our girls who -was a stubborn truant. At fourteen, she had reached Class 4A. She had -not “made her days”; that is, attended school for 130 days during the -year prior to her fourteenth birthday. Nor had she gone far enough in -her classes to get her working papers. But Christina refused to pass -the doorway of a school. She had gone far beyond the influence of the -ordinary school. - -Five years before, one of the Catholic fathers had found her loitering -in the rear of his church. It was soon after Christmas and he stopped -to ask about her holiday. She answered shortly that she had had neither -presents nor a good time. His interest in the pathetic, sullen child -took him later to her home. The family was squalidly poor. They lived -in three dark basement rooms, without comfort or decency. The father, -after four years of desertion, had returned home in the final stage of -tuberculosis to be cared for until his death. - -Christina had grown into a forbidding girl. Her face was so lined and -so hard that she looked years older than she was. The childlike effect -of her flowing hair and long bangs contrasted oddly with the age and -hardness of her features. She might almost have been a middle-aged -woman masquerading as a little girl. The truant officer went after her -time and again, only to listen to the mother’s repeated complaint. -Christina was “out from under” her; she went where she listed. Threats -were long since outworn and useless. She had heard them from babyhood. -“Aw--they talk but they won’t do nothin’.” Occasionally she would grow -frightened and penitent for the moment. But re-enter the ordinary -school and sit in the classes with the younger children, she would not. - -No course was left but to take the culprit before the superintendent -and enter a formal complaint against her. There would then be two plans -of action which might be followed: Christina’s mother--her father had -died in the meantime--might be fined in the magistrate’s court or -Christina might be committed to a reformatory. To fine the mother of -a family already on the verge of dependency was manifestly futile. On -the other hand, a reformatory sentence for a girl whose only offense -was that she refused to go to school seemed much too severe. In the -face of this dilemma no action at all was taken. Christina, without -working papers, without work, was left to employ her illegal holidays -in her own way. Her only chance for positive discipline was that she -might soon become a serious offender for whom a reformatory sentence -might not be too severe. For girls like Christina the only remedy seems -to be that they shall grow worse before they can grow better. Such a -roundabout and wasteful course might be obviated if we had a truant -school for girls, as we already have for boys, especially planned for -their needs. - -It is a common occurrence for a girl to escape from school at thirteen -or fourteen without open defiance of the labor law. Of our 65 girls, -at least nine had left school illegally. Their escape was accomplished -by petty frauds of various kinds. One girl gave the school a false -address; another altered the date on her birth certificate. Two had -been absent for illness and had never returned. Others simply “dropped -out” and their defection was not followed up by the school, which with -its limited number of attendance officers is bound to neglect many such -cases. These are some of the usual loopholes by which the girl evades -the school law. - -The young refugee does not always find it easy to get her working -papers at once. The required record of 130 days’ attendance during the -previous year is a serious stumbling block, although it allows for -70 absences out of a possible 200 attendances. In the public schools -she has to reach a 5B grade[80] and pass an educational test before -the school papers which she must present at the board of health are -signed. There the mental test is simpler--a mere proof of ability to -read and write. She is tested on two or three primer sentences, such -as, “Is my mother in this room?” She is then weighed and measured; and -occasionally a child much under average is rejected. Failing in any of -the requirements, the girl must wait until she is sixteen, when she may -legally go to work without papers. In the meantime she helps at home, -or “lives out,” or finds an employer who is willing to connive at her -lack of working papers. - -These are the girls who evade the law. Those who are obedient to -its requirements are scarcely less eager to escape. Almost without -exception, the girls of our district step eagerly forth from the school -at the earliest possible moment. Not a girl of our clubs had stayed in -school longer than the law required or long enough to “graduate” from -the eighth grade. To continue in school after you can get your working -papers is a sign of over-education and is not popular. - -In thus leaving school as soon as the law allows, family need very -often plays a part. Sometimes the younger girl has begun to lend a hand -during vacations. The Donovans tell how “Sissy” got a job at eleven. It -was the summer when both parents were ill and out of work. They still -chuckle with appreciation of Sissy’s enterprise. “You’d ought to ha’ -seen her. She let down her skirts and done up her hair. She was just -a bit o’ a thing--not twelve then. She come out one mornin’ an’ said, -‘Ma, I’m goin’ to go to work’s well as Mame.’ We laughed at ’er but she -set out. So that day she come back an’ sure enough she’d got a job in -a chewin’ gum fact’ry, wrappin’ packages. There was a graphophone an’ -at lunch time all the girls danced. Oh, she had a grand time, be-_lieve -me_. There was a lot o’ little girls whose mothers were poor. When -the inspector come, they’d hide Sissy under the table. We most died -laughin’ when she brought her first week’s pay--85 cents! Now, what -d’ye think about that? She come in here an’ give it t’ me as proud ’s -if it had been dollars instead.” - -It is not surprising that after a vacation adventure like this Sissy -began to lose interest in school. Working in a factory is not all fun, -but it brings a measure of independence which the young personality -craves beyond all else. It is not always stern need alone which sends -the girl out to work at such an early age. Parents may call on her -in times of special stress and insist on her returning to school as -soon as the pressure is removed. But public opinion among the girls -themselves is strong and decided on this point. “I don’t mind studyin’, -but all my friends are goin’ t’ work, an’ I don’t want t’ stay. My -mother an’ brothers all holler at me, but I’m kickin’ to leave. -Graduate? Gee, stay two years? Not for me--it’s too slow.” - -The girl’s restlessness demands at this age something very new and -vivid. This the school has so far failed to supply. She thinks she may -find it in work. And by the time she has discovered that work too grows -tedious and monotonous, her greater independence has enabled her to -make free use of her evenings for the changes and new experiences she -craves. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -WAGE-EARNING AND NEW RELATIONS AT HOME - - -Our West Side girl sets out some morning, short-skirted, hair in -braids, absurdly childish, to find her minute place in the great -industrial world. Probably she strolls through the streets, looking for -“Girl Wanted” signs. She will try at one of the big factories nearby. -Or, if she is fortunate, some friend who is already working there -speaks for her. The more enterprising buy the _World_ and consult its -long columns of advertisements. - -The West Side factories take in the majority of the work seekers. -A few with especial pretensions to “refinement,” or whose families -sincerely dread the physical strain and supposedly lower social and -moral standards of the factory, go into department stores or become -errand girls to milliners or dressmakers. But most of the girls prefer -the higher wages of the factory. Lizzie Wade, herself a laundry worker, -was perfectly clear in her sixteen-year-old mind as to the advantages -of factory work over department store work. “In the first place,” she -pointed out, “the factory girl gets better pay, and if she hasn’t any -home, she can always get a family to live with. The girl that works in -a store lives in the cheapest boarding houses, and gets soaked for her -board just the same.” - -Few sixteen-year-old workers are as wise as Lizzie. Many of them, -no doubt, are vaguely influenced by reasons just as practical in -preferring the factory to the store, though they are less able to -express them. But if they are asked to justify their preferences, they -are likely to return very childish answers. “Tootsie” O’Brien had -achieved her working papers at fourteen and a half and was looking -for a place. It was significant that Tootsie, who had qualified as -a wage-earner, had not yet outgrown her baby name at home. She was -willing to take any kind of work, she said, but liked housework best. -She wanted to “live out” because her brother was always fighting with -her. However, she soon changed her mind, as her sister, who had been a -servant before her marriage, told her that she wouldn’t be allowed out -when at service. She finally went to work in a factory. - -Girls of this type do the most unskilled work in the entire scale of -factory occupations. They are not equal to the high grade, skilled work -of the garment trades and textile industries. An inquiry concerning -the occupations of 26 girls showed the following results: One was a -trimmer in a necktie factory; three were folding or slip-sheeting -in bookbinderies; one was rolling wall paper; one was working in a -tin can factory, operating a machine which fixed the bails in lard -cans; nine were packers or wrappers in factories producing biscuits, -candy, cigarettes, or drugs; three were markers and shakers in steam -laundries; eight were errand girls and messengers for milliners or -dressmakers. - -These occupations are patently without educational value. The factory -processes are the sort of lightweight machine work usually assigned -to young girls after the last drop of individual responsibility has -been squeezed out. Their chief characteristic is a degree of monotony -in which no discipline for the young worker is possible because their -effect is stupefaction. The work soon palls on the girl’s restless -spirit. Martie Sheridan, after five months of this grinding monotony, -secretly cut the belt of her machine just to get a day off. Another -girl probably, long before the end of five months, would have thrown up -her job and tried another, if not several others. - -Finding a new place is always something of an adventure, and in the -process of shifting she enjoys a few days of freedom. Pauline Stark, -throughout her four years of wage-earning, had been a “rover.” She had -had no trouble in finding new places and had tried so many that she -had lost count of the number. “I see a sign up an’ I go an’ try. Then -sometimes I meet some one I know. I stop an’ get to talking an’ mebbe I -won’t look any more that day. But it don’t take long. Sometimes I throw -up a job the first day. I can tell. I take a look around an’ see that -it ain’t for me. Then I work out the day an’ don’t go back.” - -It is difficult for the girls to give an accurate account as to where -they have worked and the changes they have made. They are hazy as -to places and quite unreliable as to the length of stay. With great -effort we pieced together the industrial histories of girls who had -been employed for some time. Although most of them had been at work -less than a year, they had tried a great number of occupations. The 30 -wage-earners in our club mustered among them 120 different jobs, an -average of four apiece. Two girls of sixteen had held 12 positions -each; one girl of sixteen, 10 positions; and one fifteen-year-old had -had nine. One-third of the 30 had had five or more positions. These -instances give some idea of the way in which the girl of fourteen and -fifteen flits from job to job. It is no wonder that she is inaccurate -concerning the details of her industrial experience when each -connection is so brief and episodic. A further reason for her haziness -is that her point of contact with the great factory and its processes -is so slight. Nellie Sherin, aged fourteen, worked in one of the -largest and best of the West Side factories. Her childish description -of her work is the best indication of her incompetence. “I have to run -a machine that pastes the labels. If you don’t get the boxes in right -the knife breaks and a man comes and hollers at you.” - -The girl of this class accepts in a matter-of-fact way conditions of -work that impress the outsider as very hard. Sometimes she tells of -having cried with weariness when she started. But complaints of the -long day, the meager reward, and the monotony are few. She has not -thought out the general aspects of the factory. Comparisons between -individual places are constant, as also are personal grievances, -usually against a “cranky forelady.” She rebels against the tediousness -of her job. “You can hear talkin’ all over our room when the forelady -goes out. Then we’ll hear her comin’ in an’ it stops short. Soon’s she -goes, we all start again.” As often as not she throws up her job for -a personal grievance--a quarrel with another worker, a grudge against -a “boss.” Fanny Mullens left the Excelsior Laundry because her friend -quarreled with the foreman and Fanny’s loyalty would not permit her to -remain. The human factor is the strongest with these young workers. - -The girl starts in a store at $3.00 or $3.50 a week; in a factory, at -$4.00 or $5.00. The 26 wage-earning girls concerning whom information -was obtained were receiving sums which varied from $3.00 to $7.50. -Of this group, three were earning $3.00 or $3.50; eight were earning -$4.00, and eight were earning $5.00. Thus 19 out of 26 were earning -$5.00 or less. The remaining seven girls were receiving $6.00 or over; -three received $6.00; two, $6.50; and two, $7.50. - -One of the girls earning $6.00 had been working five years; another -earning the same amount had been working but a few months. Of the -two girls earning $7.50, one had been working four years in the same -position and the other five months. As far as our little group of girls -was concerned, there was no connection between age or experience and -wages. Practically all the girls were doing such unskilled work that -additional years and additional experience were idle commodities. There -was, on the other hand, some divergence between what the different -factories of the district were accustomed to pay for the same grade of -labor. - -Along with her first humble job and her first meager wage, there comes -to the young girl her first taste of power. Her first pay envelope is -the outward and visible sign of many changes. Her position at home -is altered. She has more prestige, the first beginning of authority. -Her family may be actually dependent for comfort on what she brings -in. This gives to her desires and wishes a new importance. However -autocratic her parents’ rule may have been, they must now turn to her -for assistance. There must follow a certain loosening of the reins. -Every now and again there is a girl who in these early, headstrong -years will press her advantage to the full. - -To these girls has come the age of self-assertion. The experience is -common to adolescence of becoming intensely aware of oneself. With the -new intensity of self-consciousness comes the desire to assume control. -At this age the girl resents being “bossed.” It is the time when many -families feel the increased friction between brothers and sisters. -Interference and guidance need to be gentle. Because the girl is young -she is apt to be extreme and her assertion will often be crass and -ill-balanced. These are traits of the adolescent girl of all classes, -but this phase among our girls is accentuated sharply by a very -definite set of circumstances. - -Tradition still upholds her parents’ authority. What they ask from -her is their right. They are backed by the practical code of morals -which, in any community, counts more than many sermons. Public opinion -demands the continued subservience of both boy and girl. The precarious -state of family wellbeing has instituted a rigid system of household -economics; this is needed for mere preservation. It is zealously -guarded by the mother, ever the most wary of anything which threatens -the group. According to custom she is the spender. All wages come -to her untouched; the broken envelope violates the social standard. -Husband, sons, and daughters alike are supposed to come under this -rule. There should be no exception until the children reach the age of -eighteen or nineteen. The mother doles out spending money according to -the needs and the earnings of each. - -There is no pity felt by her world for the girl who must turn over -her meager pay. This is a duty taken for granted. It is the least -return for the years during which her parents have made sacrifice and -effort for her. The feeling has reason for holding good while economic -conditions remain as they are. Each item in the family income is far -too important for the girl to escape her toll. She is born to a contest -in which she, too, must take part. Only a lucky accident can free her -from this inheritance,--accident or rebellion. The pay envelope passes -through her hands, and this means the possibility of some independence. -At least the choice is hers to give grudgingly or freely. With the -responsibilities which come to her so much earlier than to those more -sheltered, comes also this earlier power. - -Every degree of willingness or resentment in assuming her share of the -burden is met with in the various girls. Little wisps and snatches of -talk are straws that point to the set of the wind. “Oh, sure, there’s -a lot o’ girls that ‘knock down.’ You take this week in our place,--we -all made good overtime. I know I got two forty-nine. Well, I guess -there wasn’t a single girl but me that didn’t change her envelope, on -our floor. Whatever you make is written outside in pencil, you know. -That’s easy to fix--you have only to rub it out, put on whatever -it usually is, and pocket the change. They think I’m a fool. But I -wouldn’t lie to my mother. She has to work an’ she ain’t had things -none too easy. Some girls are like that. They’re only too proud to make -so much t’ take home.” - -A common trick is to pretend to the mother that wages are smaller than -they actually are. Katie at seventeen was getting $7.50 a week; in six -months she had risen from $5.00. This was unusually good for her set -of girls. But her mother believed that she earned only $6.00. - -On the other hand, there is the “worrisome” type of girl who surrenders -all. Her unselfishness is as extreme as the wilfulness of others. -She accepts her hard surroundings, as the others rebel against them, -without counting the cost, and sacrifices unsparingly her youthful -right to gaiety and pleasure. Mamie Reilly’s mother watched with -anxious regret the effect of premature care and responsibility on -her daughter. Mamie had been working five years since, as a child of -thirteen, she first insisted on getting a job. “She’s a good girl, -Mame is, but y’ never seen anything like her. Every pay night reg’lar -she’ll come in an’ sit down at that table. ‘Now, Ma,’ she’ll say like -that, ‘what _are_ you goin’ to do? How ever are y’ goin’ t’ make out -in th’ rent?’ ‘Land sakes,’ I’ll say, ‘one w’d think this whole house -was right there on your shoulders. I’ll get along somehow.’ But y’ -can’t make her see into that. ‘Now, what’ll we do, how’ll you manage, -Ma?’ she’ll keep askin’. She’s too worrisome--that’s what I tell her. -An’ she don’t care to go out. Mebbe she’ll take a walk, but like’s not -she’ll say, ‘What’s th’ use?’ Night after night she jest comes home, -eats ’er supper, sits down, mebbe reads a bit, an’ then goes t’ bed.” - -Through everything Mamie had done more than her share. At eighteen she -was tall and awkward, quiet and shy. Almost alone among these girls, -she had never learned to dance. She had none of the frills--bangs, -powder, and gewgaws--the cheap frivolities which were the joy of the -rest. But she had a dignity and reliability which the other girls -respected. In the whirl of excitement beckoning to the girl in New -York, she had led a staid, colorless life. She had never “gone out” -anywhere because she had never had any clothes. The price she had -given had been the very sap of her youth. Her mother said, “She is too -quiet-like an’ gettin’ humdrum at her age. It ain’t right as I know.” - -There is less revolt against these early exactions among the girls than -among the boys. In the midst of working hours groups of young fellows -may be seen any day of the week idling on the street corners. They are -significant of something badly awry in the social machinery here. But -the girl who refuses to work is less usual by far. Often the loafer’s -sister is going each day to her job, turning her money in to the common -fund, while he is a parasite who drains the meager supply. Although -she probably protests, it is amazing to find how often she tolerates -a scheme so unfair. One reason, perhaps, is that a stay-at-home life -is too dull to tempt her into idleness there, and to spend time on the -streets speedily brands her as “tough.” But the chief reason is that -she is ruled by the popular conception of duty. Inheritance and custom -force her to a conformity which is not required of her brother. Her -protest is fainter than his. - -But within the home circle she makes her revolt felt. Rarely is a girl -“worrisome,” like Mamie Reilly; few girls surrender so much. The trail -of her way, a way glittering with “good times and fun,” carries her -often to the other extreme. She follows the lure of her desires with an -imperious insistence which does not scruple to shirk the irksome claims -of her home. The result is an atmosphere surcharged with wrangling -and spite. The girl who as a little child may have been devoted to -her father, now switches away impatiently under his scolding. He, for -his part, complains bitterly that she thinks only of dancing and new -clothes. - -One German father whom we knew, at home with his broken ankle bound -in a cast, used his crutch on his fourteen-year-old daughter. “Don’t -tell me about talkin’ to girls--I know how to take care o’ them.” He -brandished his weapon with ire. The home was the scene of quarrels and -threats. Amelia was given the worst of reputations by her parents. She -“had been a disgrace to them.” She stayed out till two in the morning, -hung around halls with boys, and had been brought home by a policeman. -They had tried keeping her in and putting her under the surveillance -of her nine-year-old brother, but no amount of punishment would change -her fundamentally. Rancor and hatred had bitten into her soul. She -was a strong, tall girl, loud, unkempt, and disorderly. She was more -frank than most girls, partly from recklessness. But the bitterness -with which she spoke of her parents, the coldness with which she said, -“They can have my money if that’s what they want,” was that of hardened -maturity. - -The parents often get a settled distrust of a girl with which they do -not hesitate to confront her. Distrust is too often justified, for -there are few girls who scruple about telling a lie. But constant -accusation and doubt serve only to deepen suspicion and drive the -girl on to more crafty concealment. The crassness of the punishment -administered is especially bad for her years. To this can be traced -so much of the “wildness” of the children here. But familiar as she -is with brutality of one kind or another, a special resentment comes -to the girl at this age. Violence outrages her self-respect and the -ideals which are struggling for a foothold in her imagination. - -The greatest strain in such households is that between mother and -daughter. The girl is starting her course, undisciplined and eager. The -woman has lived through checkered and hazardous years. She has suffered -the bearing of many children; she has watched the death of some. What -she has attained has been hardly won. Through it all, constant labor -has drained her physical strength. She is spent, dragged, and worn, in -pitiful need of the younger, more vigorous life at her side. As she -turns to it there creeps into her attitude the note of appeal which the -girl is too young to appreciate. If she deals a rebuff with the half -conscious brutality of youth, her mother may draw back into a shell -of hardness. Out of the scant wisdom of her years the child has been -forced to a decision pregnant with results for her future; for often -upon her response to the older woman’s first appeal trembles her entire -relationship with her mother and her home. - -There is no getting away from the girl’s economic value to her family. -It seems ugly and crass that a child’s contribution to the common purse -should have any bearing on the affection or guidance she will receive. -Yet it has, and her manner of contributing has even more. Out of the -conditions of this engulfing, material struggle, rise the spiritual -forces at work in each narrow tenement home. Whatever breeds there of -loyalty or bitter estrangement works out its certain effect. And the -spirit of the household is of no greater import to any member than to -the young, venturesome girl. - -Here is a household where the girl’s wages have been the mainstay for -the whole winter. Louisa’s father, a German, has always been frugal -and hardworking and was even penurious in better days. He is now -seventy-four. His eyes were weakened in the days of his strength by -the strain of his trade as a tailor. Later he came to porter’s work, -but now he is too feeble for this. The mother, like so many women in -the neighborhood, earns the rent as a janitress. Louisa’s brother, a -young man of twenty-one, is a glass cutter by trade. His work might be -steady and his wages good, but the common blight of the West Side has -struck him; he chooses to loaf with the gang and take things easy. The -old father, inveighing against him, has wished to turn him out. But -his mother, although she too takes her turn at upbraiding, shields him -against the others and clings to a desperate belief in his transparent -excuses. - -In this crisis, they have looked to the $5.00 which Louisa brings home -every week from the candy factory. She is a wilful little person, -frail, underdeveloped, weak of build in character as in physique. The -reins have been put into her hands. She has used her new-found power -to add to her long day at the factory several nights every week at -dance halls where she stays until 1 or 2 o’clock. The reproaches of her -parents have no effect. “You say that you like me,” she wails, “but you -make me miserable here. I’ll go out if I want to, and I’ll not tell -where I am going. Anyhow I don’t come home drunk like Bill and make a -fuss in the hall. And I work while he hangs around doing nothing.” - -Leading the Grand March at the racket of the “Harlem Four,” Louisa has -forgotten her outburst, and the dull, sad, cramped existence at home. -She is thin, pale, sharp-featured, yet with a certain daintiness. Her -attire is “flossy” tonight. She cannot boast a ball dress, to be sure. -But her scant suit of brown serge with its sateen collar is trim and -new. It was bought at an Eighth Avenue store on the instalment plan. -Four out of the twelve dollars have been paid down. A great encircling -hat of cheap black straw reaches to the middle of her back and bends -under the weight of an enormous “willow.” It sets off her hair, which -has been bleached with peroxide. A long bang hangs to her eyes. Her -moment of elation comes as she receives the favor for the ladies who -lead, a huge bunch of variegated flowers--roses, carnations, and -daffodils. But the costume in which she steps out so triumphantly has -cost many bitter moments at home. She has gotten it by force, with the -threat of throwing up her job. - -The breach is widening between her and the parents to whom she clung -as a child. There comes the time when she gets a steady “gentleman -friend.” She is out now almost nightly. At last the mother appears -with her tale, tearful and anxious. “I don’t know whatever I’m goin’ -to do with that girl. I’ve just beat her, I have--I guess I ruined -three dollars’ worth o’ clothes. But I lost my temper. She stands up -and answers me back. An’ she’s comin’ in at 2 o’clock, me not knowin’ -where she has been. Folks will talk, you know, an’ it ain’t right fer -a girl.” So Louisa is losing her only safeguards. Foolish, childish, -easily flattered, she is drifting into a maelstrom of gaiety and -pleasure from which only chance will bring her out unscathed. - -The great issue between the home and the girl is the question as to -whether her affections will center there. Only an emotional hold will -take effect on this girl. Her mind is undeveloped. She is not going -to reason far. Habit has not yet fastened her in a rut of eternal work -and decency. Possibilities that menace health and strength and, in the -long run, happiness, hedge her round. If she becomes estranged from -those who are naturally near to her, she is set adrift. She is bound -to express in some way the chaotic emotional forces within her. She is -dangerous then to herself and others, in surroundings like these of the -far West Side. - - - - -CHAPTER V - -THE WILL TO PLAY - - -A girl from fourteen to eighteen is about as unstable and kaleidoscopic -as any quantity in nature. She is changing, almost from day to day. It -may be that poverty in her home has deprived her of her full share of -youth’s vigor and supreme physical wellbeing. Even so, she keeps its -impatient desire for action and experience. She feels its disdain of -restraint and hindrance; its zest for swallowing life in hot, hasty -gulps. The desire to play is strong in her. Lack-luster resignation -and pessimism are rare among the young even where poverty weighs most -heavily. The girl’s buoyant spirit breaks loose at the instant of -release from factory walls or from the momentary depression of family -want. It bubbles forth in girls’ laughter and girls’ play, and in -girls’ capricious, whimsical, egoistic moods. - -The West Side girl is an independent young person. She has seen a good -deal of the world. She has the early sophistication bred of a crowded, -close-pressed life. As yet, she has not been battered to the wall in -the stress. She has not the pitiful appreciation of the middle-aged -woman for slight and passing kindliness. She is self-assertive, -arrogant, “able to take care of herself.” She comes, asking nothing, at -ease and alert, but ready to give a trial to anything thrown in her -way. If it does not suit, she will not be slow to reject it. So she -stands, looking bright and curious eyed, straight into the face of her -world. She can be defiant at a hint of challenge. And yet one finds -that she is suddenly and sharply sensitive. Ridicule and harshness -touch her to the quick. Her new-born self-consciousness is easily -wounded. A trifling hurt may become a lifelong grievance. - -This is a signal of a restlessness beneath the surface which she does -not herself understand. It is propelling her onward in an unconscious -search. In all her pleasure-loving, drifting adventures she is hunting -steadily for the deeper and stronger forces of life. Into her nature -are surging for the first time the insistent needs and desires of her -womanhood. But this she does not know. She is the daughter of the -people, the child of the masses. Athletics, sports, diversions, the -higher education, will not be hers to divert this deep craving. She -is not close enough to her church for religion to control it. It will -stay with her, sweeping her inevitably out of the simplicity of little -girlhood into the thousand temptations of her environment, if not, -perhaps, into one of the commonest of neighborhood tragedies. - -Just now her search is translated very lightly and gaily into the -demand for “a good time” and a keen interest in the other sex. -She prosecutes it with the imperious heedlessness of her age. Her -haphazard and inconsistent training has given her little of the art of -self-control. The city bristles with the chances she longs for--“to -have fun and see the fellows.” What is to come of this depends on -the unformed character of the individual girl, the oversight of her -family,--sometimes effective and sometimes not,--and, most of all, on -chance. - -The control of a little money is far more essential to these girls in -their search for enjoyment than to girls in another class. There are -many doors which a very small coin will open to her. After she goes -to work she usually has a little spending money of her own. As a rule -she is given, besides lunch money and carfare, a quarter or 50 cents a -week. This may go for candy, carfare to dances and parks, or entrance -fees to dance halls and moving picture shows. Sometimes she spends -the money given her for carfare on other and more pleasurable things, -and walks to work, “wearing out shoe leather, which ain’t right,” as -her mother complains. A carfare saved by walking to work is a carfare -earned for a trip to a dance hall “away out in the Bronx.” Usually a -single fare is enough for the whole trip. The “fellow” who “sees you -home” will pay for the return. Thus the little West Sider makes her 25 -cents carry her as far along the primrose path as possible. - -She has no keener longing than her longing for pretty and becoming -clothes. Usually she helps in selection, though now and then the mother -buys her clothing from the girl’s own earnings as autocratically as she -buys the rest of the home necessities. Sometimes the girl is allowed -to keep a dollar or two out of her pay every week with which she buys -her own clothes. Often there comes a period of distress which swallows -up her whole wages week after week. She sees her earnings go for rent, -for fuel, and for food. Hers is not the time of life to be content -with shelter, warmth, and nourishment. She would rather starve for -these things than miss her worshipped pleasures. Mamie Craven, working -steadily in the laundry, turning in her money every Saturday night, -once broke out one night in a bitter wail, “Oh, Miss Wright, you don’t -know _how_ I want a chinchilla coat.” - -There are bound to be many lacks in her wardrobe. Usually the greatest -one is that of protective clothing. She has no overshoes and no -umbrella. When it rains she comes drenched to her club, but will not -think of foregoing the evening’s pleasure on that account. She goes -to work in the same unprotected fashion. Winter clothes are thin -and inadequate. Many a girl’s vitality is sapped for months in the -year through sheer exposure to cold. These deficiencies are endured -uncomplainingly. It is much harder if finery or the coveted Easter suit -must be foregone. The poorer girl will buy her suit on the instalment -plan--$4.00 down and $2.00 each following week. She pays $15 for a suit -of the value of $10. She is often guilty, like girls of every class, of -some wild bit of extravagance. But in her case extravagance may become -heartlessness. A girl whose income was the only regular support of her -family spent $5.00--a week’s wages--on a willow plume. “We starved fer -that hat,” her mother said, “just plain starved fer it, so we did.” - -Social relations between girls of their age and class are very unlike -those of boys. A single friend or a little clique takes the place of -the gang. They will follow a leader for a moment but not consistently; -they are jealous of leadership and slow to acknowledge it. There is -almost no natural loyalty to a group. Probably the girl by the time -she reaches fourteen has already some special companion. This may be -a playmate from her school days, or, very likely, a “pick up” on the -street or at work, who soon has the title of “me lady friend.” The -relationship may extend over years. It is very constant and means that -the two share most of their pleasures together. There are distinct -requirements; one must “call up” and “wait in” and not “go round” too -much with anyone else. But the girl is rare who has a strong feeling of -obligation toward appointments or promises. Therefore the friendship -is sure to be checkered by quarrels and reunions. There are besides -a thousand and one reasons for dispute. The quarrel is taken very -seriously, but the chances are that the breach will heal before long. -However, this is not always so; no prediction formed on girl nature -is sure. The relationship assumes at times some of the formality and -ceremony of the gang. In one case, a definite proposal to be “friends” -was made by a girl who had quarreled with her former lady friend. The -second girl declined, not from any dislike, but because she was already -“going with somebody else.” When a girl begins to have a “gentleman -friend” even the slight ceremony of calling up and waiting in for the -girl friend is omitted. - -The cliques consist of three or four girls, seldom of more. They are -likely to exist among the younger girls who have played together as -children. They are seldom formed later on, but incline to resolve -themselves into the standard couples. - -The girls’ homes are not very advantageous places for entertainment and -fun. They are too cramped and often too forlorn. Yet everyone here is -used to these conditions, and they are not the only difficulties which -stand in the way of visits and hospitality. Visits from gentlemen -friends are frowned upon and not desired. The parents, especially of -the younger girls, look askance on the boys who come to see them. - -“My father was always too strict with us girls,” said an older sister, -married and established in her own home. “It was always work and keep -quiet at home the minute we came in from the factory. He believed that -girls must be kept down. He’d have beaten us good if we’d brought a -fellow home. So I used to meet my friend at a corner a few blocks off, -just the same as my sister Maggie has been doing. It’s only a wonder I -didn’t get into trouble the same as she has done and get put away like -her. I’m not the one to turn against her now. When she comes out of the -Home, she and her baby can come and live with me.” - -The sequel of Maggie’s story only served to prove the unwisdom of the -parental policy which had tried to “keep her down.” One day Maggie -returned to her sister’s home with her six-months-old baby. A week -later her sister announced with the utmost gratification and relief -that Maggie was married. “If she’d only told us at the start, there’d -never been any need for all this trouble. Hannick is a decent fellow -and has steady work. He was looking for Maggie all the time she was -in the hospital and he was afraid to ask her folks what had become of -her. As soon as she came back here, he sent word to me and asked if he -could see her. That was the first time I knew who her fellow was. When -he came around I told them they ought to go straight off to the priest, -and they did.” - -The street corner has become, with its free and easy etiquette, a -substitute for the home. It is very popular in spite of nagging from -the “cop.” Still, the policeman is not a very censorious chaperon. Even -the older girl whose parents have opened their door to her company -has often learned to prefer its lack of supervision. As a place of -rendezvous it is greatly preferred to a parlor of one’s own where -one must be “real lady-like.” “You see,” one of the girls explained, -“my friend comes to my home; then if he wants me to go somewhere to -a dance, my mother’ll likely hear and won’t let me. My brother knows -all the places and he’ll tell my mother there’s likely to be shooting -there. He makes it bad for me that way.” - -The boys’ preference for the street corner is quite as strong as the -girls’. Their habit is to send a small boy as intermediary to the -girl’s door to tell her who is waiting in the hall below. An incident -at “471” gave the smaller boys a chance to express their sentiment. -Their gang, known in the neighborhood as “tough young nuts,” were -giving a return party to their girl friends. It was to be a “swell” -affair, and had involved much consultation and collecting of money -beforehand. The instructions had been, “Buy three times as much ice -cream as the girls had at their party. Get a cake as big as the cover -of this table (a centerpiece 22 inches round). Get three pounds of good -candy. Get all the milk and cocoa you want for them girls, but none -of that for us. We want soda and ginger ale and celery tonic.” These -concoctions, not as harmless as their names suggest, had been purchased -by the boys. Everything was elaborately ready and the party had begun. -All the guests had arrived except the special friends of two of the -boys. A club leader’s naïve suggestion was that Peter and “Gimp” should -call for the girls at their homes. Gimp leaned forward, astonished, -as if uncertain of what he had heard. “Homes,” he gasped, in a tone -surcharged with dismay. “Gee,” the other boy added, “that sure w’d be -some place to go, a’right.” - -Still, the home is by no means to be discounted entirely as a place -for recreation. There is too much Irish jollity and good-fellowship in -our neighborhood to make it altogether a tame and stupid place. The -“house party,” as any home gathering is known, is not unusual. Music, -dancing, and drinking are the chief features of the entertainment on -such occasions. A Thanksgiving party at the McKeevers’, for instance, -to which the family invited one of the club leaders, showed that the -happy good-fellowship which Goldsmith mourned as forever departed from -the “Deserted Village” has crossed the ocean with the Irish immigrants -and is still preserved to some extent in their newer stronghold on the -Middle West Side. - -The homelike spirit of the gathering was noticeable. Mrs. McKeever, -gray-haired, fifty-two years of age, presided over the festivities. She -sat in the only rocking chair, holding in her arms the small son of a -neighbor, aged three, extremely dirty and ragged, and as a companion a -fox terrier, the pet of the McCormick family. Then came Mrs. O’Hara, -the neighbor from the next tenement, large and fat and slovenly, but -perfectly good-natured and kindly. She was nursing a small child who -was boarded with her by some organization. The child was sleepy and -tired and whenever he dozed off was wakened by the music and dancing. -In the corner of the sofa next to Mrs. O’Hara was a small, undeveloped -specimen of humanity in a faded flannellette dress and very much -broken shoes whose appearance classed her as degenerate. She was also a -neighbor and had come in to take part in the Thanksgiving festivities. -On the same sofa with her at the other end sat a well made-up Negro -minstrel, with feet crossed and a large guitar in his arms, who played -and sang as well as many a man in a minstrel show on the stage. Next -to him, on a kitchen chair, sat a chap of probably thirty-five years. -A crutch stood beside his chair, and upon a closer look one could see -that one of his legs had been amputated. He was very dreamily playing -an accordion, and had had just enough drink to make him very solemn and -uninterested in people and things in general. Mrs. McKeever several -times deposited the small child and the fox terrier in the middle of -the floor and went over to remonstrate with him for not being willing -to take part in the ceremonies. He, however, could not be persuaded -and sat perfectly still, only occasionally extracting a glass of beer -from under his chair and offering it to the others. Over in the corner -next to the man with the accordion was a short, stout boy, probably of -seventeen years, in his shirt sleeves, whose chief desire was to dance, -but who found it difficult to procure partners. - -These were the guests on one side of the room. In front of the large -pier glass at the end the chair was occupied by an immense Teddy bear, -who occasionally was forced into taking part in the dances and general -merrymaking. The next seat was occupied by Delia McKeever. Delia was a -remarkably good-looking girl, and on most occasions was neat and tidy, -but this evening she was conspicuous because of her untidiness. She -had had enough beer to make her unusually mirthful and to make her -dance much better than usual. Next to Delia sat Annie, also in most -untidy condition. Lizzie, the youngest daughter, was sent for to come -in from the street. She was dressed in boy’s clothes and had been out -masquerading. Holding the center of the floor was a rather handsome -chap who played the mandolin well and had a bellowing baritone voice. - -The McKeever family were very solicitous that their guests should have -a good time, and went around whispering to the musicians, telling them -to play or sing whatever the visitors suggested. Everyone sang “The -Suwanee River,” and the players of the mandolin and accordion sang -several of the latest popular songs. Delia and Annie did a fancy dance -known as the “Novelty.” Delia also danced with the chap in the corner, -who was ever busy trying to procure a partner. He was so much shorter -than Delia that she could conveniently rest her forehead on his head, -which she did during the entire dance, making him act very much as a -prop to her wilful, antic steps. - - * * * * * - -There are two places in which the unoccupied of all ages and types may -be seen--the streets and the moving picture shows. Eighth Avenue, the -residence street of our aristocracy, is the promenade of the district. -No one has better expressed the essential spirit of these promenades -than Mr. Wells has done in The New Machiavelli.[81] - -“Unkindly critics, blind to the inner meanings of things, call them, -I believe, Monkey’s Parades--the shop apprentices, the young work -girls, the boy clerks, and so forth, stirred by mysterious intimations, -spend their first-earned money upon collars and ties, chiffon hats, -smart lace collars, walking-sticks, sunshades, or cigarettes, and -come valiantly into the vague transfiguring mingling of gas light -and evening, to walk up and down, to eye meaningly, even to accost -and make friends. It is a queer instinctive revolt from the narrow, -limited, friendless homes in which so many find themselves, a going -out toward something, romance, if you will, beauty, that has suddenly -become a need--a need that hitherto has lain dormant and unsuspected. -They promenade. Vulgar!--it is as vulgar as the spirit that calls the -moth abroad in the evening and lights the body of the glow-worm in the -night.” - -Here also are the flashing, gaudy, poster-lined entrances of Hickman’s -and of the Galaxy. These supply the girls with a “craze,” the same -that sends those with a more liberal allowance to the matinees. Their -pictures spread out adventure and melodrama which are soul-satisfying. -The vaudeville is even more popular and not so clean. - -Sooner or later almost every girl drifts into some club or settlement. -She is a wandering spirit, difficult to hold, still more difficult to -tie down to any definite program. She wants activity but soon tires of -any one form of it. She cannot concentrate, especially on any finely -co-ordinated work requiring time and patience. Dancing and music -make the strongest appeal to her. A boisterous club room will quiet -suddenly to the sound of “Oh! Mr. Dream Man, let me dream some more.” -The dark-eyed girl at the piano drawls in shrill nasal mimicry of the -vaudeville “artist,” copying her air and mannerisms. - -Cheap and shoddy--but the scene typifies that groping for the ideal -which is universal. Look along the line of faces, stilled and -attentive. Something is there neither cheap nor small. Here the -face of a youngster is caught an instant from its impish drollery. -The hardening lines are soft as with a child’s wonder at something -beautiful and new. Next to her an older girl is leaning forward. -Her features are haggard and drawn, a ghastly white. But she sits -with opened lips and a look in her eyes as if she heard beyond the -singing something half articulate and far-away. The song has brought -a quickening of the imagination, a stirring of childish, unformed -aspirations, half gropings for a world finer than the one she knows. - -In these girls the longing for the unreal is overlaid by much that is -commonplace and sordid. To come upon this sudden, vivid glimpse of it -takes away one’s breath. At the same instant some of the faces are -prophetic of its final dying out. The girls’ instinctive idealism, -a wild thing here, unnurtured, is as elusive and fleeting as it is -beautiful. It is foredoomed to fade swiftly in the midst of unfriendly -reality. - -Only a fleeting glimpse of the ideal, and soon the club room is again -a clamorous, gay, turbulent place. There is much energy that must be -let off; nothing but dancing will satisfy the demand. This means that -the doors must be opened to “the fellows” too. They, meantime, have -been besieging the club from the outside. If the older girl is to be -held, some concession must be made to her chief desire. Once it is -made, many difficulties arise. The interest between the girls and boys -here is almost wholly one of sex. They are farther apart than in other -circles. As children, there has been very little playing in common. -The boys’ interests are more energetic; group athletics have seldom -been opened to the girls of the elementary schools. Both boys and girls -have a narrow range of knowledge and impersonal interests. Conversation -is a mere exchange of personalities, gossip, and bickering, and there -is little even of that. The girls line up on one side of the room; -the boys group together on the other side. Games are sidetracked as -foolish. There is only dancing to bring them together, and so the club -dances. This is doubtless the reason why the dance hall holds the -first place in the girl’s estimation of a good time. In these places -she learns the “tough” dances in their worst forms and with all their -suggestive details. If she attends these dubious resorts freely, she is -marked socially by it. - -Most of the girls under sixteen and the most strictly guarded of the -older girls go to dances only occasionally. Then they attend some -“racket” given by their special friends, their fathers’ association, -or their church. They may go with their families or be taken by a boy -friend with their parents’ knowledge and consent. Perhaps a younger -sister is allowed to go along, much below the age when the first -daughter started, because “she’s company for May.” This occasional -ball, with its more or less formal invitation, its sanction by the -parents, and its semi-chaperonage, is considered a very different thing -from the promiscuous attendance of dance halls. - -Many of the older girls, as we have seen, go much as they choose, in -a free and easy fashion. They are not restricted, or if they are they -“sneak” away. Two girls go together as a rule. They must have a little -money--carfare and a quarter for entrance. But that is all that is -needed; no chaperon and no escort. Bonds are off; freedom is absolute; -the range of possibilities is almost limitless. From Fourteenth Street -to 162nd Street, East Side and West, from Coney to Jersey, these -eager feet in the path of pleasure find their way. They are not even -dependent on the initiative of an escort for their good time. The girls -decide on their dance hall, and once on the floor, a “pick-up” is -easy to acquire. If they dance together, two men are sure to “break” -provided the girls are good looking and dance well. Etiquette demands -that they remain through the dance with this random partner. To desert -him on the floor is an insult which he may avenge with violence. To -sneak between the halves is somewhat risky and is considered mean. It -is better, as one of our girls pointed out, to tell him frankly that -“you can’t seem to keep step and you’d rather not dance it out.” - -The dance hall, with its air of license, its dark corners and -balconies, its tough dancing, and its heavy drinking, is becoming -familiar to every reader of the newspapers. To the girls who attend -them they are not all of one kind by any means. The best places are -perhaps too “classy” for the West Side girl, and she has not the -proper clothes. The character of the dances at any hall depends, our -informants said, entirely upon the club that manages the affair. “If -they don’t want nothing but society dancing, why the cop’ll keep the -floor clear for them. But if some of these tough fellows are running -the racket off they go to the cop and say, ‘We don’t want any dancing -stopped here. See?’ and he leaves them alone.”[82] Home-going is not -thought of until 1 or 2, often 3 or 4 a. m. The ball is often followed -by a trip to a restaurant and home is finally reached at 6 a. m. - -A party of this kind is not the single carnival of the year. Once a -week, if not twice or thrice, the girl who goes to the dance hall -goes through its round of excesses. The most startling fact in this -connection is that it is the little girls who are doing the dancing -in the public places of amusement in New York. The young girl usually -settles down to keeping steady company some time before her early -marriage, and goes less to the dance halls. Sixteen-year-old Josie, -spending three out of every seven nights of the week at public dances, -said, “When I’m eighteen or nineteen I won’t care about it any more. -I’ll have a ‘friend’ then and won’t want to go anywheres.” - -There is another group of girls who do not go to the dance halls. They -have not even the small amount of money that would take them there, nor -the one suit of good clothes that would make them presentable among -the others. Lacking the tawdry finery and the superficial good manners -of the other set, they are shabby and dirty and are known throughout -the block as tough. Between them and the upper set, those who hover -on the edge of toughness and fight for the poor distinction of just -escaping it, there is a chasm of dislike, suspicion, and jealousy. -The tough girls have the two universal amusement places--the street -and the nickel “dump” (moving picture show). Besides these, they can -make meeting places of the alleys, the docks, and vacant rooms in the -tenements. These neglected, unlit cracks and crannies serve as traps -for childhood of both sexes. Here children are snared in the darkness -long before they are old enough to know the meaning of temptation. This -is the most sinister phase of the recreation problem. - -Marriage is for all these girls the final and greatest adventure -of adolescence. They do not look past the adventure at the -responsibilities which lie beyond. The question of children is waved -aside as scarcely worth a hearing. Here, where the management of a -household is so hazardous and stern an affair, it is most lightly -assumed. The girl steps carelessly and boldly ahead. Sixteen is a bit -early, but eighteen or nineteen is a good age and further delay is -considered needless. - -Sometimes the girl goes to church with her companion and is married -in the presence of her family and friends. But very often she and her -boy-husband indulge in a mild elopement. This is not necessarily done -to evade the objection of parents. It is partly in obedience to the -romantic instinct of youth and partly because the girl and her family -cannot afford the parade of a real wedding. After one of these secret -marriages, it is not uncommon for the girl to go on living at home and -working, while her husband does the same. In a short time the fact -of their marriage becomes known; the young pair become the center of -neighborhood interest; and then, as a decidedly secondary matter, the -question of their “taking up rooms” is considered. Probably the new -wife goes on working in order to buy furniture for her home. - -“What do you think!” exclaimed Mrs. Attinger to a visitor from the -club who dropped in on a Saturday morning. “Our Lizzie’s married. -She’s been married two months and they never told me till last week.” -Mrs. Attinger seemed not at all displeased with the event, viewing it -as a successful joke on herself and Lizzie’s friends. She went on to -relate how her daughter had given up her job at the cigarette factory -and had gone over to live in New Jersey with her husband, who was a -day laborer. It also appeared, from her mother’s story, that the young -couple had not started out under the most favorable auspices. Lizzie -had visited Mrs. Attinger the day before with the news that her husband -expected to be laid off soon and she was looking for work, as she -needed money to furnish her house. Mrs. Attinger related these details -without seeming to be particularly disturbed by them. - -It was, after all, the familiar story of beginning wives and husbands -on the West Side. It indicated that Lizzie had quickly found marriage -to be an extremely sobering event. Henceforth she would have new -problems to face, problems in which the adolescent hunger for good -times would cease to be the dominant element. The will to play was to -give place to the incessant struggle for existence which makes up the -career of the wife of a casual laborer. - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -THE BREAKDOWN OF FAMILY PROTECTION - - -Our West Side girls were members of a supposedly protected part of -the community. Each of them belonged to a family group; if they were -not living with their own parents, near relatives had taken them in. -Their homes were in a section which possesses a neighborhood life and -neighborhood opinions. The population is far more stable than that of -the East Side; recent comers are rare. Some of our girls told of how -their mothers had gone to school together. One had started in the same -school through which her mother had passed. Many families had shifted -around within a range of 10 blocks for a generation. The parents of -most of them had been here from ten to thirty or forty years. It is, -then, not in the absence but in the breakdown of neighborhood and -family protection that we must seek the reasons for social, moral, and -physical deterioration in these girls. - -The character of the community goes far to counter-balance any -advantage the girl may gain from living in an environment familiar to -herself and to her parents. If she grows up in one of these blocks, -she is, from babyhood, in the midst of lawlessness and rumors of -lawlessness. They are afloat in the air she breathes, as certain to be -inhaled as are the heavy odors from the gas plants and slaughter pens. - -Two girls came excitedly into their club with news of an assault -which had just taken place down the block. They had loitered to join -the curious crowd and to have a look at the victim. They related the -details of the event and commented upon them as upon a familiar story. - -There was a ripple of excitement, but no surprise. One girl exclaimed, -“Things like that are happening on our block all the time.” - -The block where this girl lived bears the distinction of having -sheltered, some forty years ago, the original “Hell’s Kitchen” -gang.[83] A junk-covered lot is pointed out as the site of the -tumble-down shack where the gang met. The shack has disappeared, while -in the rear, facing the street to the north, a mission is now in full -swing. Still, tradition upholds the desperate character of the locality -and gives it a bad reputation. The police declare, however, that it -is no worse than many other parts of the neighborhood. Fifteen of our -club girls came from this block. All the toughs who gather there are, -of course, identified with the “Gopher Gang.” The Gophers were said to -have assaulted the housekeeper in 562. She had reported to the police -their use of her vacant rooms, and in revenge they had “beaten her -up.” It was to this same house, which bears a bad reputation, that a -physician had been recently called, late in the evening, to attend a -baby. The child was in convulsions, the effect of the whiskey with -which she had been “doped.” After a search through the house, he found -only one family sober enough to be trusted with the child. - -Authentic stories of violence came to us from time to time. Many -other tales were the product of gossip largely mingled with falsehood. -But the brutality of the neighborhood speaks for itself; it is -everywhere, in the streets, in the talk, in the minds of old and young. -Recklessness and daring are apt to be painted with heightened colors, -exaggerated beyond the fact. The child does not discriminate between -garbled truth and falsity. In any case, these stories take effect -on her. They are poured into her mind and muddy the stream of her -imagination. She believes a large amount of what comes to her ears, -some of which she sees and knows to be true. The girls who lived in -this block, though they were coming and going by night and day, had -yet a lively apprehension of its dangers. “When I go home after ten,” -said Mamie Stertle, “I always get the cop on the corner to see me to my -door.” Mamie had lived uptown for a few months. Up there, far to the -north, she had acquired a friend of a superior type, a chauffeur, who -worked steadily and always had money in his pocket. When she came back -to live on the West Side, she took it for granted that he could not -come to her home, lest he be assaulted and robbed. - -The young girl shares in all the gossip of her elders. She takes in -greedily the idle talk of the kitchen, the stoop, and the street. In -this prurient school she becomes familiar, even as a child, with the -lowest forms of vice and immorality. Living on the same block with 15 -of our girls were two young women who were the “talk of the parish.” -“They begun in the dance halls back o’ the saloons,” said Mrs. Ryan, -“and look what they are now!” Not one of our 15 girls but was familiar -with the talk and with all the details of the two irregular lives about -which it centered. - -A restaurant was opened on the corner. It was soon noised about that -the woman proprietor was identical with a notorious criminal who had -served a sentence of twenty years for infanticide. Before long the -girls were repeating with gusto horrible stories of her crimes. Sadie -Toohey, standing on the corner with a group of schoolmates, informed -them concerning the restaurant keeper, “She was a midwife and used to -burn babies.” Then, with a toss of her blonde head with its little-girl -bows, she added, “She burned one of mine.” The sally was greeted with -shouts of appreciation and Sadie’s reputation as a wit rose among her -comrades. - -A mother, even one of the wisest, finds it no easy task to defend her -young against these influences. Life is far too congested in such -quarters for the girl to escape any of its aspects. When a family of -from six to eight members lives in three or four rooms it is impossible -to segregate the young from their elders. Only well-to-do parents can -afford to provide a separate life tempered to the needs of young and -growing personalities. The poor man’s house has no nursery for its -young, no annex like the boarding school, which enlarges the dimensions -of the rich man’s house and provides a special environment friendly -to youth and its needs. The daughter of fourteen in the tenements -must share the experience of the mother of fifty, who, even with the -best intentions, cannot shield her girl from her own fifty-year-old -materialistic morals. What is true of the individual family is also -true of mass life on the block. There is no segregation of youth. The -result is precocious hardness or youthful rebellion. - -If the practice of pooling the moral standards of old and young is -not considered ideal training for children in families whose moral -standards meet the usual requirements, it is even less desirable -in families which are either degraded or undeveloped. There are -here on the West Side many families who have the naïve morality of -primitive social groups. The result is that many of the girls are -simply reared in a different morality from that of the community at -large. Illegitimate births are common. Marriage--even a common law -marriage--is accepted as removing any stigma that might attach to an -irregular relationship. “Oh, it is all right,” said the parents of one -girl-mother, “because she’s been goin’ with Bill now for years. They’ll -marry as soon as they can.” - -One of our club girls drifted into a temporary union and then drifted -out again in the most matter-of-fact way. After a period of absence -from the club, she was reported upon inquiry to be married. “She done -well for herself,” rumor ran. One day she turned up at the club and -brought her boy-husband, apparently a decent, steady sort of chap. Soon -we learned that they had not really been married but had started the -report in a spirit of fun. However, they now decided to go through the -ceremony in earnest and together they went to the priest. Here they -met an unexpected obstacle, for their visit had been forestalled by -Mattie’s mother, who did not approve of Cleary for a son-in-law and -had charged the priest not to marry them. The girl returned home, but -continued to meet Cleary on the street and to go around with him. Then -gradually she began to shake off the connection, breaking promises to -the boy and failing to keep appointments with him. He came to the club -one evening expecting to find her there according to her promise. But -Mattie did not come to the club that night, and Cleary, after waiting a -while in vain, departed saying darkly, “That’s the third time this week -she’s give me the hang-up.” There was evidence that Mattie’s mother was -more concerned about the loss of her daughter’s earnings than about -making her an “honest” girl. - -The toleration of moral irregularities is mingled with much harshness -of censure. “D’ ye know Jennie Meehan that lives in th’ house next to -ours?” Kitty Stevens asks the cooking class. “Well, she’s just had -a baby. Father McGratty went there today an’ he married her an’ the -feller. Her sister was just th’ same way, only she went and had her -baby in Jersey. Me mother says if she had that kind of girl she’d -burn her, she w’d. Burnin’ w’d be good enough for the likes o’ her.” -But in spite of this severity of comment, the occurrence is accepted -philosophically by the elders of the neighborhood, and soon forgotten. - -Some families fall below all moral codes, even the simple ethics of the -far West Side. The fault which may be forgiven in the girl is not so -pardonable in her parents. Open and excessive infidelity on the part of -the father and drink or infidelity on the part of the mother may make -the family outcasts from among the merely poor. The daughter shares the -degradation of the others and can scarcely escape the consequences. -Even where the habits of her elders are not the subject of gossip, -she herself cannot escape the knowledge and the influence. There was -fifteen-year-old Addie Mercer, bright, vivacious, with sparkling dark -eyes, who was getting a “bad name.” The unsavory example came from -her father. He, as Addie and her mother and all the children knew, -maintained a second household with a colored woman in charge. The -effects of this constant example, as well as of other demoralizing -influences, were already evident in Addie, and the final result -threatened to be total moral collapse. - -Often the mere physical conditions of life seem enough to account for -the moral tragedies. The hallways of these tenements are perennially -dark by day, although they are lit by flickering gas jets in the -evening. The legal requirements for illumination of dark halls and -stairs are too often evaded throughout the tenements. There was -one house in our neighborhood where no lights burned in any of the -halls day or night, for months. It is not uncommon to find a hall so -pitch-dark that one must feel one’s way down the stairs. - -A white flower was sent to the sick mother of one of our girls. When a -visitor called, it was literally the only thing that could be seen in -the woman’s room. All other details--walls, bed clothing, the features -of the sick woman--were lost in blackness until the eyes of the visitor -became sufficiently accustomed to the darkness to distinguish between -them. Men boarders shared from time to time the three rooms of this -home. In this flat and others like it a daughter had lived her fourteen -years. Then, still a child, she became a mother. - -Childhood in the tenements cannot escape the smirch of its brutal and -ugly surroundings. The open toilet where little children play has given -occasion to the bitterest of tragedies. The corner saloon, without -which no block is complete, is always, it must be remembered, a part of -some tenement house. It impinges on the homes of 12 or 15 families. -The halls reek with the odor of bad whiskey. Snatches of saloon talk -and saloon laughter leak through the walls, even by day. Out of homes -like this come girls and boys to go to schools from whose neighborhood -all liquor selling is legally banished to a distance of at least 200 -yards! Truly, our legal protection of childhood is in some respects a -farce. - -Allowing for great deficiencies, we have still much natural vigor and -strength among the young in the district. This is not yet a spot such -as some that exist in the London slums, pervaded with the taint of -innate mental and physical degeneration. The parents of our girls were -mainly Irish immigrants or first generation Irish-Americans. They came -of vigorous peasant stock, and from a country which is, by comparison -with the rest of Europe, almost free from venereal disease. We found -that most of our club girls had a fair physical inheritance. Of a -group of 20 who were given physical examinations, 18 were shown to -have well-developed muscles and organs. Notwithstanding many signs of -weariness and disease, they were not lacking in stamina. All the more -for this reason should the girl in her adolescent years live under a -régime which will conserve her natural energy. The chance for health -and strength should not be thrown away. These are the years of nervous -instability in which especially she needs rest, change, exercise, and -the healthful freedom of outdoor play and occupation. Her chances for -all these things are very limited. Bodies intended to be vigorous -are hard used from the start, and during adolescence they are often -strained and harried far beyond their recuperative power. - -Almost every night some girl came dragging in with heavy eyes and -cheeks dead white under the powder. There were complaints galore of -weariness and headache. One great reason was the immoderate pace at -which the lives of such girls are hurried on. Long hours of work -are thrust upon them. Long hours of play are seized with petulant -insistence. To wrap packages from 7 a. m. until 5:30 p. m. within the -walls of a factory; then several times a week to dance until 2 or 3 -a. m. in the stifling closeness, the noise and excitement of a public -hall, is a not unusual program. The immature body is bound to fail. -With the girl who keeps up her train of pleasures, only a rebellious -season now and then, when she loafs and sleeps long mornings, saves her -from exhaustion. - -Another cause of discomfort and pain, often with serious results, is -the prevalence of minor defects of body. They have gone without care -for months and years. Practically no girl has had teeth, eyes, and -throat kept in good condition. The group of 20 girls were examined for -defect in scalp, nose, ears, throat, teeth, eyes, heart, and lungs. Not -one examined was without defect. Of the 20, 15 had enlarged tonsils and -five had adenoids; 12 had defective teeth; four defective vision; two -were cross-eyed; three had spinal curvature; one had trachoma; and one -conjunctivitis. - -Two sisters brought trachoma to the house from an institution where -they had been reared. Sarah had been cured by a delicate and skilful -operation. Martha had been discharged without any treatment. She was -one of the toughest girls in the club and least concerned about herself -or her appearance. When she came to us she was “bumming,” without a -job. In her torn and filthy clothing, with reddened eyes half closed -with the disease, she looked the most forlorn and neglected of the -underworld. For weeks we worked to induce her mother to give her -care. “Thank God, there’s nothing much the matter with her eyes,” was -the mother’s final answer after she had been warned that blindness -was a certain consequence. And from her sister, Sarah’s eyes were -re-infected. A case recorded in the group of 20 was also contracted -from her. - -These examinations were little guide to the most serious physical -defects among the girls. Those most in need of care were most difficult -and wayward about examination. The mention of a doctor dismayed -them. Some who promised to go never reached his office. But a weekly -clinic was continued through the winter. Gradually the girls gained -confidence and a number of serious troubles came to light. Three cases -of tuberculosis--two incipient--were found. The third, which was taking -a headlong course, was checked and ultimately cured by sending the girl -daily to a hospital boat. Two girls were finally examined and treated -for venereal disease. It was noticeable that girls whose histories and -habits left little doubt of sexual abuse were under par in general -health. Undoubtedly this operated both as cause and as result. - -Carrie Fuller drifted into the club irregularly for months. Her voice, -her frown, her dragging slouch across the room all told of the absence -of any stamina. She never consented to any suggestion of a doctor or -of care. It is inevitable that such a condition should make continuous -work impossible. She was in a cigarette factory till she “chucked -her job.” When we saw her after several weeks of absence, we learned -without surprise that she had left home to live with a married sister -and “lead a sporting life.” She laughed a bit recklessly and shambled -out, leaving only the wonder that she cared to come at all. Without -bodily vitality, how shall any of these children live through the long -working days of their youth? And, still more, how shall they resist the -continual pressure of the viciousness around them? Yet many a girl is -scattering to the wind the strength of her youth. - -A group composed of 19 of our girls, ranging in age from thirteen to -seventeen, were examined in a psychological clinic. Four girls stood -above the normal in mental ability, 10 were normal, and two were barely -normal. One was below normal, as the result of immoral habits, and two -were feeble-minded. - -In the full story, broken schooling, low moral standards, the brutal -life of the streets, low housing, and physical inferiority all play -their part in the coarsened moral outlook of the girls. There is a -group demoralized even in childhood by the abuse of their sexual -functions. There are some who fall into immorality during the first -years of adolescence. For the most part, however, the girls finally -slip into the established ways of marriage and family building. From -such groups the children of the next generation will be born in the -largest proportion. To society, as well as themselves, it matters -a great deal whether they have been crippled in mind and body by a -wretched and brutal environment. - -Such a girl was May Carney, who announced one day to our consternation -that she was going to be married. May was only sixteen and a victim of -gonorrhea. She had been, however, perfectly “straight” for a couple -of years. At the age of sixteen she looked upon herself as a reformed -character. “I used to be pretty tough with the boys,” she said. “That’s -a pretty bad thing for any girl to say of herself, but I’m over it -now.” The physician had said that it would require three years to cure -her thoroughly of her disease and had recommended a slight operation -immediately. In view of these facts, we could only feel great concern -at the news of her immediate marriage. One of the club leaders sought -out her mother to remonstrate against the marriage and also to propose -that May should go to the hospital for two weeks. - -Mrs. Carney was found at home one evening about 8 o’clock, and -adjourned with her visitor to the hall outside for a confidential talk. -The public passage, lighted by a flaring gas jet, was surrounded by -four closed doors shutting off as many different flats and the crowded -domestic life within. In the evening, when Mrs. Carney’s family was at -home, it was the only spot where she could have a private word with a -caller. Her final summing up of her daughter’s situation was this: “You -see, if May was to go away to the hospital for two weeks, they’d all -say she went away to have a baby. You see them two doors,” pointing to -the forward end of the hall. “The girls in there--both of them--have -just been away havin’ babies. They didn’t have nobody to take care of -them, so they had to bring their babies home. Now, if May was to be -gone two weeks, ye couldn’t make nobody believe she wasn’t doin’ just -the same as them two.” - -In view of this difficulty it was suggested that the operation might -be performed at home. This seemed feasible, and the more serious -question of May’s marriage was then broached. “Yes, May will be married -in September,” said Mrs. Carney. “I know, she’s not seventeen yet, -but it’s this way, y’ see. She’s sickly, she won’t never be no good -to me,--the two or three dollars she brings home won’t hardly keep -her,--and she’s always wantin’ money to spend on herself. What I say -is, she’d better get married now. Daley is a good fellow and he’s -workin’ steady. She mightn’t have so good a chance again.” - -It would not be fair to blame Mrs. Carney very harshly for the -materialism of this speech and her total lack of consideration for the -“steady fellow” whom May was about to marry, and for their possible -children. Mrs. Carney’s moral outlook was the result of the hard school -in which she had been educated. As for her willingness to saddle a -hardworking young man with her sickly daughter, this was, after all, -only her duty as a “good mother.” It would have been hard to make -Mrs. Carney see anything wrong in her attitude toward her daughter’s -marriage. One has to admit that what we expected of her as a matter of -course was from her point of view heroic conduct. - -In view of the circumstances surrounding these young lives, it is -useless to talk of the “fall” of these girls. Many of them have -never lived on a sufficiently high moral level to “fall.” With them -immorality is of a piece with the uncleanliness, physical and mental, -in which they have been reared. There was, however, one important -distinction which we learned to make between the forms of immorality. -There was the girl who “solicited” and the girl who did not. One may -have courage to grapple with mere immorality, but the girl who has been -swept into the currents of commercialized vice is at once allied with -secret and powerful forces which enable this trade to hold its own. -Once during the year we were compelled to stand by helplessly and see a -girl of sixteen slip over the brink of prostitution. - -Carrie Drake, who drifted into the club one evening with Winnie Hyland, -was a tall, white-faced girl, rather gawky and poorly dressed. She wore -a shabby suit, a very dirty white waist of cheap embroidery, and a -rackety hat which showed the effects of having been repeatedly rained -upon. Carrie’s devotion to this hat was all the more noticeable because -the other girls seldom wore any. We soon discovered the reason; an -attack of typhoid fever had left her almost bald. Beneath the hat she -wore a reddish-brown wig which was so thin that it scarcely covered her -new growth of stubby hair of altogether a different shade of brown. -She said she had made the wig of “some puffs,” and that it had been -very good until some girl had tried to improve it by cutting it. She -possessed a low voice and a courteous manner which she had kept as -salvage from the wreck of her mother’s training. - -Winnie Hyland, who brought her to us, was an irresistible little -crippled girl whose faith in the powers of a social worker was the -result of having been gently cared for all her life by representatives -of one social agency or another. The tubercular hip-bone which she -had developed in early childhood had saved her from the worst of the -harshness and want which prevailed in her own home. Discovering her -friend in search of a job she brought her over to the club to one of -the “teachers.” - -Carrie was not a hopeful candidate for work. She was only fifteen, -still gaunt from the ravages of typhoid, grotesque in appearance. -Her mother had died when she was eleven, and she had been promptly -taken from school, which she hated, to do the housework. To appease -the truant officer, she was sent to another school for a month. Then -quietly she dropped out altogether. An attempt at work in a factory at -this age was unsuccessful. “My aunt told the forelady how I was poor -and hadn’t any mother. So she took pity on me and let me try.” But she -was soon discharged and was kept at home to take care of her younger -brother and sister, until all three were sent to an institution. -Two months later the father died,--as Carrie declared and certainly -believed, “of a broken heart.” - -After leaving the institution at fourteen, she had lived with her aunts -by spells, quarreling and breaking away from time to time. For a while -she had stayed with the mother of a friend who found her sitting on -the steps in the rain. She tried places at service, but she was not a -trained houseworker and did not stay long at any place. Finally she -had got a job in a steam laundry, but while working there she sickened -with typhoid and was sent to the hospital. When she came to us she was -living with an aunt in a furnished room house, a forlorn, three-story -shack on one of the river blocks. The halls reeked with odors from the -corner saloon. The aunt, her husband, and two children were occupying a -single room when they took the girl in. There was only one bed. “I told -Carrie she could squeeze in,” she explained. “I couldn’t ask her to -sleep on the floor.” - -It was slow business finding work for Carrie. She had to have better -clothes. She had to be examined by a physician, for there were -signs of a venereal disease which would have made her dangerous to -fellow-workers in a factory. These things had been arranged for and -consented to. But before they could be put into effect and work could -be found, Carrie had taken the plunge. She disappeared without leaving -a trace, but soon after one of the girls reported seeing her on Eighth -Avenue, “in a real wig and a swell new suit.” Immorality was not new -to Carrie, but she had found a way to make it pay. She was “on the -streets.” There followed an unsuccessful search, inquiries at police -headquarters, of prison officials, of probation officers. We enlisted -the aid of a strong society, but the agent, though he promised to help, -gave us very little encouragement, saying that such a search was pretty -hopeless, as there were hundreds of girls in similar circumstances at -large in New York. - -Carrie slipped out of sight all the more easily because she had no -one “who rightly belonged to her.” When a girl disappears from a home -presided over by a determined mother, the search which follows is -likely to be a desperate one. Mrs. Mullarkey’s search for her Fannie -was a mixture of folly, shrewdness, and heroism. Fannie, according -to her mother, was “the best girl you ever saw” till she came to -live on the “Gopher block.” There she “got in” with an older girl at -the factory and began to be tough. She threw up her job, as did her -friend, and the two spent their time in secret ways. At first the -mother knew nothing of Fannie’s being out of work because the girl -left home regularly mornings and came home promptly to her dinner. But -at last the fraud was discovered; there was a scene, with “hollerin’ -and smashin’,” and upon the heels of it Fannie disappeared. Mrs. -Mullarkey’s fears pointed to a certain house on Eleventh Avenue where a -woman lived who had the reputation of harboring girls. Not daring to go -there alone, she enlisted the aid of Father Langan, “a rough hollerin’ -sort of a man that the children was all afraid of.” But the woman would -not open even to the Father’s authoritative knock. Eventually they -returned with an officer who broke down the door. But Fannie was not -there after all. - -Mrs. Mullarkey’s two aids, the officer and the priest, could give her -no further counsel. But she herself knew of another resource in the -person of a young man, about twenty-two years old, a gangster and -political scullion, whom she had known from early boyhood. To him she -made her appeal for old acquaintance’ sake. “For God’s sake, Petey,” -she said, “you are the only one that can get Fannie. Find out where she -is.” Moved by the appeal and nothing loath to show his power, Petey -promised that he would find the girl; only he stipulated that Mrs. -Mullarkey must “leave Fannie be” when once she had her. Mrs. Mullarkey -agreed and Petey went forth on his quest. In a couple of hours he -returned with the culprit and commanded her to tell her mother where -she had been. At first she refused; but Petey, once enlisted on the -mother’s side, was a stern and unyielding ally. He brought out a knife -and threatened her, so that the poor girl was terrified and stammered -forth a confession of how she and her friend had been staying together -in a furnished room. Mrs. Mullarkey was so outraged by what she heard -that she altogether forgot her promise to Petey. After he had gone she -summoned an officer and had the girl taken to court. Fannie was locked -up in a cell for twenty-four hours “to cool off.” When she came up -before the judge the following day she was “as brazen as could be, not -a tear in her eye.” At last, however, she said she wanted to go home, -and the judge placed her on probation. - -We knew a sorry scrap of a child, five years old, who was already -getting her instruction. She was a thin, sharp-featured little -creature, uncommunicative, but very watchful out of her clear, bright -blue eyes. Her clothing, hands, and face were always unclean. She -gave an uncomfortable sense of possessing a great deal of unnatural -knowledge for her age. Her home was a kitchen with two windows, and two -tiny dark bedrooms, as hopelessly unkempt and dirty as herself. It was -the abode of six people and nine cats. Her father was the last of three -husbands, all of doubtful legal status. Her mother, who drank heavily -on occasion, was unreliable. “Patsy” was the frequent companion of her -sister of fifteen. This girl, who had an unusual, vivid, and forceful -personality, was alternately sought out by the fellows of the block -and censured with their disapproval. She ruled Patsy as an autocrat, -petting and punishing her, allowing her to “tag around” and constantly -using her as a go-between. There will be no question of a “fall” for -Patsy. As she was being taught, so in time she will naturally develop. - -With girls from such homes, childhood is the crucial time. It is not -temptation, circumstance, or delusion that gets them into “trouble.” -It is the faulty moral and mental training which simply expresses -itself later in the almost inevitable, natural fashion. A smattering -of conventional morality given by the church or by school is of little -practical force against the tenor of their lives. “Reform” for such -girls does not mean a return to abandoned ideals and desires. This is -hard to achieve, but what is required here is still more difficult. -It is the graft of new habits and a new outlook. It is the patient -training away from the easy ways into the strict new law. Even fourteen -or fifteen may be too late an age at which to begin this. - -But actual immorality is not the only fruit of the dingy, sordid -happenings which compose so large a part of the life of this community. -There are girls who grow up in the midst of vicious surroundings with -an inward security against harm. They are as trustworthy as the most -carefully trained and guarded child--and hardier. For with them there -is truth in the familiar boast, “I’m able to take care of myself.” -But they pay a price for this fortitude. They are not taught, cleanly -and rightly, straight from the shoulder. The taint and grime around -them reach to their thoughts and feeling, and they suffer in their -conceptions of life and of human experience. - -We hear a great deal of the precocious development of New York -children. It is most noticeable in girls from homes like these. In -spite of the essential helplessness of their age, they acquire a -surface hardihood which marks them out from normal children. They -have grown up to have a settled distrust of life. They have a lurking -bitterness which may be unavoidable in the adult but which ought never -to play a part in childhood. - -Yet, granting all the untoward conditions and influences which she -must face, the problem of our West Side girl is by no means a hopeless -one. Watch her as she swings through the streets, lovely through -all her tawdriness, fine through all her vulgarity, gentle through -all her “toughness.” Seeing her thus we cannot but see also her -hopeful possibilities, in spite of the sordidness and evil which have -encompassed her. - -To strengthen the best elements of the home--this is the surest and -most fundamental way to help this girl. The dangers for her family -are the most deeply rooted menace to her. And here they are manifold. -We may safeguard her recreation; we may improve her schooling; we -may regulate her working conditions. But we must remember that she -is seldom to be regarded entirely as an individual; she is one of a -family group, a unit of a community. Unless she drifts to the streets -she will probably remain so. And whatever can lighten and beautify the -grimy life of the district, or relieve the intense pressure on family -comfort, will give her a better chance. - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -THE ITALIAN GIRL - -BY JOSEPHINE ROCHE - - -From out the big candy factories of the Middle West Side throngs of -workers, one Saturday night, came hurrying into the December darkness. -Eagerly they turned their steps toward their tenement homes. Many of -them were Italian girls, and very young. - -Across the street from Kohlberger’s candy factory a child waited, -peering anxiously at every group of girls that left the building. -“Lucy!” she called out suddenly. Three girls stopped and the child ran -up to them crying, “Oh, Lucy, your sister Mary’s got twins!” Lucy’s -shriek of delight was echoed rapturously by her companions; they caught -hold of the child and besieged her with questions. Several friends -stopped to hear the glad tidings. Then the little group set out up -Ninth Avenue for Lucy Colletti’s home to see Mary and the new arrivals. - -The noise of the elevated trains drowned their voices and the crowds -held them back, but they talked happily on. After the first excitement -of the news had abated a little, they turned to other matters. “Perhaps -your friend will be at your house, Lucy,” said one of the girls. - -Lucy’s happy look faded. - -“No, he won’t.” - -“But he’s there at the door every night, and he goes up the stairs with -you.” - -“My father’s got no use for him, so I told him .... Well, what’s the -use, we ain’t allowed to do anything,” she ended sullenly. - -“Why don’t you do like Jennie does, and not let them know?” asked the -other. - -“They’d know. They don’t ever let me out at night, not even to go to -the club. It’s just sit around the house all evening. If you’ve got -a husband, he’ll take you out somewhere. Mary got married when she -was fifteen and after that she went out all the time. I wisht I was -married!” - -As they turned from Ninth Avenue west into one of the Forties a girl -and a young man approached them. “There’s Angelina!” exclaimed Jennie, -calling to the girl. Angelina greeted them warmly. She was thin and -looked delicate, as though she had just recovered from a severe -illness. In answer to the girls’ eager questions she said that she was -better; that she and Nick were to be married at Christmas and go to -live in the Bronx; that she’d get well fast then. She asked in turn -about the girls at the factory and said that she missed them. - -Angelina was sixteen. Two years before, she had gone into the candy -factory. She started at $3.50 a week and after a year got $4.00, -packing chocolates in the basement. It was cold there and damp, and -in spite of her heavy sweater and two pairs of stockings she had -contracted a severe cold which lingered on her lungs. She failed -steadily until one day after a bad fit of “coughing blood” she fainted -and had to be taken home. She could not go back, although her mother -missed the $4.00 sadly, as her father too was out of work. But when -she was able to be up and care for the baby and do her mother’s work -as janitress, the latter managed to get cleaning jobs and things were -easier. This last week her father had got employment. He was washing -dishes in a saloon for $9.00 a week. Now it would be possible for -Angelina to marry. Her friends shared in her happiness with quick -responsiveness, and continued to talk of her marriage to Nick until the -nearness of Lucy’s house brought them back to the first interesting -topic of the evening. - -“My, I’m glad I don’t have to work tonight!” Lucy exclaimed. - -“Yes, but we must work tomorrow!” exclaimed Jennie. “I just hate going -on Sunday. Gee! I don’t want no candy for a Christmas present!” - -Through cold, ill-smelling hallways, the girls trooped up the four -flights of narrow stairs to Lucy’s home. The gas flame which flickered -feebly on each landing revealed the dirty, crumbling walls. It was the -social hour of the tenements. Fathers were returning from the day’s -toil and the children were welcoming them. Mothers were cooking the -evening meal, whose various odors mingled in the passage-way with those -of bad plumbing, the common toilets, escaping gas, wet plaster, and -garbage. Half-dressed babies crept out to the open doors or rolled on -the bare, grimy hall floors, peering with curious eyes through the -banisters at the new arrivals. The little knots of neighbors gathered -about the doorways hailed Lucy with words of rejoicing. A continuous -sound of voices arose, sometimes low and laughing, again, high and -excited, but tinged with the varying cadences and the finely shaded -meanings with which the Italian language abounds. Accustomed to a life -of the greatest intimacy with relatives and neighbors, the Italians -will sacrifice any comfort to preserve this condition. - -In the Collettis’ flat a stream of smiling friends passed in and out -congratulating Mary and touching with warm brown fingers the babies’ -cheeks. Each drank two tiny glasses of crème de menthe to the health of -mother and children. Four generations lived in that flat--a family of -eleven. Mrs. Colletti was seated near her daughter’s bed, nursing her -own year-old baby. Mrs. Colletti’s mother, who had been a midwife in -Italy, tended her daughter and the newborn babies after the manner in -which she had cared years ago for the peasant women of Calabria. The -Collettis were prosperous; their fruit stand did a good business. All -the family helped. Mrs. Colletti spent every morning at the stand, and -the children were there after school and at night. They were able to -afford a five-room flat and some pretentious furniture. The front room -was particularly splendid with its brilliant green-flowered rug, stiff -Nottingham curtains, and equally stiff “parlor set.” Mary’s wedding -presents, bright painted vases, imitation cut glass, enormous feather -roses, and pink celluloid album, were arranged around the room. Staring -likenesses in heavy oil paint of the bride and groom were the crowning -glory of the parlor. - -Lucy dropped her pay envelope into her mother’s lap. Then she and her -friends surrounded the sixteen-year-old mother and told her of the -day’s happenings, of meeting Angelina, and how she was soon to be -married. Mary was as eager as the others over the idea of a wedding -and a dance. Indeed she would be able to go! And she would wear her -blue dress, the one she bought when she “stood up” with Flora at her -wedding. - -Lucy’s friends promised as they said goodnight, to explain to the -“boss” why she could not come on Sunday morning for extra work. They -ran downstairs out into the street, and as they passed the steam -laundry on the block, from which came the dull thump of subsiding -machinery, a girl came through the iron gateway. She was a short, -stocky peasant type, but her shoulders were stooped, her flesh flabby, -and she looked far from strong. She shivered as she came out of the -hot, steaming workroom into the chill December air. The girls greeted -her. - -“You wasn’t at the club last night, Rose, so we came up to see you,” -said Jennie. - -“No, I never get home till most 9 o’clock on Fridays and on Mondays. -It’s awful busy at the laundry these days,” Rose explained. “I wisht I -was back at the factory packing peanut brittle. It’s no joke standin’ -foldin’ all day long. My side hurts something fierce; it wakes me up at -night.” The group walked along arm in arm toward the tenement in which -Rose Morelli lived. - -“Have you heard from Tony?” Jennie asked as they entered the Morelli -flat. - -Rose shook her head and glanced at her mother who sat monotonously -jigging a dull-looking baby on her lap. At the mention of her son’s -name she raised her great, heavy eyes and spoke to Rose in Italian. -Then she dropped them again and the tears ran quietly down her face. -Tony was the oldest of the family, the only boy, and he had run away -to Florida six weeks before. He had been led to do so by another boy--a -bad boy. The Morellis always explained that it was not Tony’s fault; -he was a good boy but he had got tired of working for the butcher. He -had written them a postal from Jacksonville saying that he was having -a grand time and was stable boy on the race track. But no further word -had come. They did not know where he was. But the mother had not given -up hope that he would come back, though each day she grew thinner and -the heavy marks under her eyes grew darker. She watched on the fire -escape each night, peering down the street for Tony’s familiar figure. -Now, as she wept for him, she drew the baby to her and kissed it -passionately. - -The baby was not her own. It was a little Jewish foundling she had -taken from the “Home” to nurse when her last baby died seven months -ago. Four children had died before that when “so leetle.” Over the -mantelpiece hung a large, shiny photograph of the last baby lying -in its casket. The, casket had been very expensive, but it had been -a great comfort to the mother to put so much money into it, quite -unconscious that the living children were paying its heavy price in -lowered health and vitality. - -The Morellis’ three rooms had none of the air of prosperity that -characterized the Colletti home. They were bare, and would have -been dingy except for the bright bedspread, the gayly colored wall -decorations, and advertising calendars, pictures of the royal family, -the pope, the saints, and the Holy Virgin. Under this last a candle -burned, an offering for Tony’s return. In the tiny dark box of a room -back of the kitchen a cot and two chairs served Rose and the two -younger girls as sleeping accommodations. A shakedown in the kitchen -had been Tony’s bed. It was still there, unused. No one else would have -thought of sleeping in it. It would have been an acknowledgment that he -might not need it again. - -As Rose went on talking of their “trouble” to her friends, they -responded with quick sympathy. They lamented with the Morellis as -sincerely as they had rejoiced with the Colletti family. They felt with -Rose as keenly and genuinely as with Mary and Lucy. Sympathy is the -keynote of the Italian community. It binds together not only members of -the same family but relatives of all degrees, friends, fellow-tenants, -speakers of the same dialect, those from the same Latin town. It -extends to the little foundling, the tiny boarder, whose frequent -presence in the home is such sad evidence of the high infant mortality -in the Italian families. The $10 which the foster mother receives from -the institution as board money does not prevent her from loving her -little nursling with the same passionate abandon with which she loves -her own. - -Whether a girl comes from the higher income group like the Collettis, -whose home runs the whole depth of the house and has circulation of -fresh air, or from the group that feels the pressure of bare living in -three choking, dark rooms as do the Morellis, she is touched by the -same deep influence of family bonds and customs. A tying-up of the -individual with the group, an identity of interests with those of one’s -kin--these are the factors which dominate the lives of the family into -which the Italian girl is born and which present a valiant front to the -forces of personal independence that meet her in her American life, at -school, in industry, and in recreation. - -The claims of the school weigh little against the claims of the family. -While she is a little girl in the grades, having difficulty perhaps -with her lessons, the disadvantage to her of being “kept out” a few -days does not weigh an instant against some temporary family need in -which she may be of help. Illness, financial loss, trouble of any kind, -not merely in her own home but in that of an aunt or uncle, keep many a -young girl out of school if only to lament with the afflicted. - -Let us glance into the Belsito kitchen on a winter evening after -Adelina Belsito has been absent from school for a week. Over at the -school the teacher’s register shows that this last week’s defection is -only the latest of a long series of absences on the part of “Belsito, -Adelina.” On this particular evening a number of friends are collected -in the kitchen; their sympathetic and concerned expressions show that -they are discussing some grave and anxious matter. Presently there -enters upon the scene the school visitor. Will she not be seated and -have a glass of wine and Adelina will tell the long story of the -family’s misfortunes. - -Illness, accident, death, and loss of savings have followed each other -in rapid succession, topped now by the burning of a stable and the loss -of Mr. Belsito’s two draft horses, the sole capital of the family. -Angelina tells the story eagerly in great detail, Mrs. Belsito nodding -mournfully at times and adding to her daughter’s account. The father -is absent because he is out looking for more horses. He has borrowed -money from a friend who is “rich” and the family is anxiously waiting -to know his luck. Presently he comes, the children running to him and -clinging to his legs. No, he has not been able to find horses; all cost -too much; there is nothing, nothing to be had. He clasps his head with -his hands and sits with it tragically bowed. Fresh commiseration arises -from the gathering, and animated suggestions are offered. - -Adelina must go to work. That is the consensus of opinion. But upon -inquiry, the school visitor learns that Adelina is not yet entitled -to working papers, being only in the fourth grade, although nearly -fifteen. No, she does not like to go to school; she did like it until -a year ago, but lately there has been “so much trouble” that she has -been often absent. Of course she has not gone this week! After her -father’s horses had burned! Adelina lifts surprised, hurt eyes at the -question, though she is not able to explain just what aid she has been -able to give by staying at home. And they have been sending her cards -from the school, the last one demanding that her father come before the -principal and explain her absence. Adelina and her family find this -very hard and unjust “when there is so much trouble.” Besides, the -father could not go; he had to look for horses. The father lifts his -head and speaks to the girl in Italian. Presently she explains, “My -father say he have it in his head what he do for you if you speak to -the principal for me.” - -And through the slight service which the “school lady” later rendered, -the Belsitos became her fast friends. - -In the Ruletti home down the block there is trouble of another kind. -This time it is the mother’s grief which the daughter shares. Mrs. -Ruletti is a slender, bent little woman in black. She is not over -thirty-three but her deeply lined face looks all of fifty. Just -home from work, she snatches up the baby and kisses it passionately, -murmuring to it in Italian. She weeps as she talks. Lucrezia Ruletti -explains, “They’re going to take it back; they wouldn’t let her keep it -any longer and she feels just like she did when our baby died.” - -“Take it back?” - -“Oh, yes, to the ‘Home.’ Bennie isn’t our real brother; he’s a -foundling. You see, when the last baby died in the winter my mother -took Bennie from the Home and now we all love him and they want to take -him back.” - -Mrs. Ruletti breaks in. “They say to me, ‘You have no milk now, bring -Bennie back.’ But I feed him bread, meat, oh! he can eat soon. I no -want him to go; like loosa my own baby.” - -In the Italian household the daughter of fourteen is expected to bear -a full share of the mother’s responsibilities. She keeps the house, -cooks, washes, dresses and disciplines the children. Laura Tuzzoli, -with her old little face and her maternal air, is a not unusual -type. Going to call for the first time I paused before the tenement, -uncertain as to their floor. A group of dark-eyed children around an -ash can nearby watched me curiously. One tiny four-year-old flashed a -quick smile of friendliness and a brilliant glance from her black eyes, -then edged a little away from her companions. Asked where Laura Tuzzoli -lived, she straightened her slight, ragged shoulders and informed me -that she was also a “Tuzzoli.” She slipped her mite of a hand into mine -and led me up the dirty, unsteady stairs to “our house.” - -There the fourteen-year-old sister was presiding in the mother’s -absence. She had just begun to bathe the one-year-old baby, having -finished cleaning their three rooms. The windows had been washed as -had the gilt-framed, cracked mirror which hung proudly in the space -between them. On a shelf beneath a picture of the Virgin stood a clean -jelly-glass filled with water on which floated a cork bearing a freshly -lighted candle. - -Presently little Lizzie Tuzzoli came in from school carrying her books -and papers for “home work.” Fourteen-year-old Laura put her through a -rapid fire of questions about her behavior and whether she had “made -up” with a certain Mamie. Lizzie suddenly dived into her bag and -produced from it a wonderful pink pencil of the screw variety. Pride of -possession shone in her eyes as she displayed it. - -“I got it off Lena Perella,” she announced. Laura seized the pencil, -touched it carefully, then gave Lizzie a sharp look. “Did she _give_ it -to you?” she demanded. - -Lizzie squirmed a little. “Yes. She--I found it and didn’t know it -belonged to her, and Carrie Bussi said Lena didn’t want it anyway, -so----” - -Laura handed the pencil back with a scorching glance and a dictum whose -tone permitted no rejoinder, “You take that back to school tomorrow and -give it to Lena, _d’ye hear_?” Then she became the gracious hostess -again. - -The bond between Zappira Blondi and her mother was of another sort. -When Zappira was twelve years old her father had sailed away to -America leaving his family in the little village near Naples to wait -until he could earn a home for them in the new country. But work was -harder to find than he expected. After a year’s absence he wrote a -letter home filled with discouragement and reporting dreary failure. -Zappira, who was the oldest of the children, shared in her mother’s -keen disappointment. The two put their heads together and laid a plan -whereby they could earn their passage. The mother borrowed a sum of -money sufficient to stock a small store in their village. This she and -Zappira proceeded to conduct so successfully that at the end of the -year the small debt had been repaid and the passage money laid aside. -Their venture had been kept a secret from the father, and when they -were all ready to make the journey they wrote him the good news and -named the date when he should meet them at Ellis Island. Great was the -joy of the family at being together, but hard work still lay ahead of -these brave women. They took two small rooms in Mott Street, and for a -year mother and daughter worked in a factory, eking out a bare living. -The girl was now sixteen, old enough to be married, and though the -family could ill afford to lose her wages her father did not fail in -what he considered his duty. He soon found a husband for her. Although -so young, Zappira had, through years of close partnership with her -mother, already acquired many of the sober qualities of middle age. - -The unity of the Italian family has an economic as well as an emotional -basis. Father, mother, and children often form a single industrial -unit. “I works for me fader,” says the urchin whom you meet on the -stairs carrying a pail of coal to a customer. Visit the Sabbio family -and you find Mrs. Sabbio presiding at the bar in a small saloon. In -response to your question whether her husband owns the saloon, she -answers, “Both of us, we work together.” - -In the dark, damp little coal and ice cellars, the cluttered tailor -and cobbler shops, the grocery and candy stores, at the fruit stands, -and in the saloons, all members of the family take a hand and help -to bring in the common income. Stroll along Ninth Avenue and you -may see sometimes one member of the family “on the job,” sometimes -another; at busy times, all are there. The mother is almost always -on duty, delegating the housekeeping and tending of babies to the -daughter at home. But very often the baby is also in evidence, and -is unceremoniously dumped from his mother’s or sister’s arms into a -perambulator when attention must be given to a customer. - -Similarly, the Italian of this West Side community makes common -financial cause with his relatives and friends in business enterprises. -He is likely to be in partnership with his father-in-law or one of -his numerous brothers or cousins in the ownership of dray-horses, of -a candy or notion store, or a stand. Whenever an Italian begins to -thrive in any kind of joint business one may at once be assured that -his relatives are “in on it.” And one may be equally sure that in times -of hard luck or slack work the temporary deficit of the family will be -met by relatives and friends. This is taken as a matter of course. “In -Italy everybody helps everybody else” is the answer you receive if you -express surprise. If the head of the household falls ill, the neighbors -drop in daily to see how he is, and rarely does one leave without -first slipping into the sick man’s hand a nickel, a dime, or perhaps -a quarter. Not the slightest thought of charity is entailed by the -act, either in the giver’s mind or the receiver’s. It is understood, -however, that the act of kindness will be reciprocated when occasion -arises. - -When the social worker visits such a home and notes that the signs of -real want are lacking, in spite of the fact that the sole income is the -$4.00 or $5.00 a week which the daughter earns, the suspicion arises -that these people must have profited in business before the father’s -illness and put by more than they will admit. Then the next-door -neighbor enters, a coin is dropped quite openly on the bedcover, and -the social worker departs with a deeper insight into the ways and -character of the Italian. Small wonder that charitable societies -of this district have comparatively few Italian families in their -charge.[84] So common is the feeling of loyalty and responsibility -among them that it is like the old tribal sense of oneness, an entire -merging of the personal in the group interest, and the group’s bearing -as its own the burden of the individual. - -The protection and watchfulness of the family are constantly about -the girl. And the family circle from which surveillance proceeds is -usually intact unless death has entered it. Only in rare cases is a -“broken home” the result of desertion. The Italian does not abandon -his wife and family, nor is his relation to his children that of -breadwinner only. He shares with the mother the intimate care and -close watchfulness over them. It is always “I ask my father” with -these young Italian girls, and in spite of the over-strictness which -so many of them resent and from which they take refuge in deception, -there is between the Italian father and his daughter a close degree of -companionship seldom found in Americans of their position. Perhaps this -is due to the fact that he is more in touch with American life than -the shut-in Italian mother, whose life is almost wholly occupied with -child-bearing and child-burying. - -The eagerness of most Italian parents for the arrival of a daughter’s -fourteenth birthday strikes one with no little pathos when one bears -in mind how pitifully small is the equipment of the child at that -age grown up in so restricted an environment. The girl herself is as -eager to go to work as her parents are to have her. She takes it for -granted that she should help in the family income. Carlotta gets a job -not because she feels the need of self-support as an expression of -individuality, of self-dependence, but because she feels so strongly -the sense of family obligation. Lucy Colletti turned her weekly wages -into the more generous family income as readily and unquestioningly as -Rose Morelli gave hers to meet the needs of bare subsistence. - -The West Side Carlotta is not a recent immigrant. Her family came -through Ellis Island probably as much as ten years ago,[85] settling -first in one of the lower and more congested districts of New York. -Later they moved up to this district, attracted by reports of cheaper -rents or simply following, as is the Italian way, relatives already -there. Her father is probably a naturalized citizen. - -Notwithstanding the exotic community in which the Italian lives and -his loyalty to Latin traditions, ten years of New York are bound to -leave their mark. This is particularly true of the West Side Italians, -so many of whom carry on a petty but independent business. Owning -a fruit stand, a coal cellar, or a trucking business is in itself -evidence of long residence and some Americanization.[86] “The Italian -with the stand--eh, he is well off--long time here,” is a common remark -among his compatriots. - -Other signs of long residence on the West Side are the changes in -names. Not only does “Lucrezia” become “Lucy”; “Dominica,” “Minnie”; -“Giovannina,” “Jennie”; “Fortunata,” “Nettie”; “Francesca,” “Fannie” -and so on, but even the family names sometimes suffer a change. The -“Aquinas” become the “Quinns,” the “D’Adamos” become the “Adamses.” The -old names to which still cling some of the grandeur that was Rome are -often gladly exchanged for a genuine West Side cognomen. - -Perhaps the chief evidence of Americanization, however, appears when -the daughter of the family begins wage-earning. For this she goes -directly to the factory. She does not join the ranks of the Italian -women who form so large a proportion of the out-workers or home workers -of New York City. Only those who are familiar with the submissive way -in which the Old World Italian women endure industrial exploitation can -understand what a stride toward independence the Italian girl has made -by simply working in a factory instead of at home. - -A trade-union organizer and a home-work investigator were recently -discussing the Italian girl of sixteen. The former had found Italian -girls slow to respond to trade organization and was pessimistic about -their economic future. “They will not progress, nor can you blame them -when you think of the history of their women in Italy.” “You forget how -far these Italian girls in the factory have already progressed,” said -the home-work investigator. “The Italian women I know best are doing -tenement house work and earning pitifully low wages because they will -not leave their homes to work in a factory.” - -The Italian girl works in the factories nearest home. These on the West -Side happen to be principally candy factories and laundries--such as -Kohlberger’s, where Lucy Colletti worked, and the laundry where Rose -Morelli was employed as a folder. Should the factory move she looks for -another nearby. Evil lies in strange parts. If the neighboring candy -factory overworks its employes, as it usually does during the weeks -before Christmas, requiring night work[87] and Sunday work, the girls -and their families regretfully submit to these weeks of exploitation. - -But although economic necessity may force Carlotta into the factory, -it does not make her otherwise more independent of her family. Her -father and mother cling persistently to the old-country custom of close -watchfulness over her. Parental surveillance may be relaxed during -her hours of work, but it is promptly revived when the day’s work is -over. The streets, the dance hall, even the well chaperoned amusement -club are prohibited; nor may she spend her money on dress or choose a -“fellow” for herself. Italian girls have acquired to a less degree than -American girls the habit of spending. - -But of course this system breeds an occasional rebel. There was -Filamina Moresco, for instance, whose calm investment of $25 in a -pink party dress, a beaver hat, and a willow plume, was reported as -little less than the act of a brigand. If she had withheld 20 cents -out of her pay envelope from her mother she would probably have been -beaten. As it was, she appropriated $25 and her high-handedness was her -protection. Jennie Polini’s form of rebellion--choosing a “fellow” for -herself and “seeing him on the sly”--was not as successful. The other -girls regarded her conduct with doubt and disapproval, though they -shared all of Jennie’s bitter resentment against the stern discipline -of her parents from whom she was separated by the old abyss between -the generations, widened and deepened by the disparities of the old -world and the new. The pleasures which the Italian parents permit their -daughter are those which she may enjoy in their company. She shares -in the celebration of family events which the church recognizes and -dignifies with a ritual; such as a birth, a death, or a wedding, the -seasons of Christmas and Easter, the saints’ days, and the American -holidays. These latter she interprets in her own way. Angelina Costa -informed her parents on Lincoln’s birthday that the schools were closed -because it was an “American saint’s day.” - -The patriarchal festivals of the Italian _contadini_ are reproduced, -however sordidly, in the christening parties, the wedding dances, and -the burial ceremonies of the West Side. To the daughter of fourteen -a wedding party is the summit of bliss. She lives from wedding to -wedding, treasuring memories of the last one or preparing for the next, -until her own turn comes to be the central figure. One cannot fancy -her stealing away to a secret marriage as so many of the West Side -daughters are inclined to do. That would be to miss the most glorious -day of her life. - -The “school lady’s” invitation to Angelina Marro’s marriage announced -that the wedding dance would begin at 5 in the afternoon, immediately -after the marriage ceremony. The “West Side Café” had been engaged -for the night’s celebration. Surely a place with so high-sounding -a name must lay claim to considerable pretension! It was with some -disillusionment that the “school lady” entered a small doorway and -groped her way through a narrow, dingy, and perfectly dark passage -toward a tiny slit of light which promised another door in the far -distance. Repeated knocks on the panels below this ray finally caused a -slipping of bolts. A huge black Italian appeared at the opening. Near -him stood a countryman. They were both engaged in getting ready the -refreshments, but they welcomed the intruder. On a big, round table -stood a large tin washtub filled with water for rewashing the beer -mugs after use. Large wooden trays were piled high with a quantity of -sandwiches that one could not believe any crowd, however large, could -consume. An enormous Italian cheese, plates of Italian cakes, and a -number of crates of beer completed the preparation for the feast. - -The room may have been 30 by 50 feet; the ceiling was low and the only -means of ventilation were two small windows at one end which opened on -a court. These were tightly closed, with shades and curtains drawn. -Around the walls were benches and chairs. At the end opposite the -windows were the piano and chairs for the musicians. The walls were -decorated with cheap prints, a large color print of George and Martha -Washington being most conspicuous among them. Stretching from the four -corners of the ceiling to the gas chandelier in the middle of the room -were strings of flags, representing all nations, but most of them were -American and Italian. - -The bride and groom had not yet arrived, but one of the bridesmaids, -Lucy Colletti, came forward and greeted the visitor cordially. The -bride was having her picture taken, she explained, but would arrive -very soon. The room began to fill up with relatives and friends of the -married pair. There was no dressing room. All the wraps were piled -together on the top of a high narrow wardrobe. One of the men stood on -a chair and threw on top of the fast growing pile the additional coats, -hats, and furs. - -Guests of all ages, from grandparents to toddling children, continued -to arrive in parties. Suddenly the outer door opened and the young -bride and groom entered. There were cries of welcome, a burst of -hand-clapping, and a general rush for the pair. The dark, frail little -bride in her elaborate costume looked like a child playing at “dressing -up.” The fine net gown and veil, the white slippers and gloves, must -have meant months of saving and stern denials of necessities. She was -only sixteen, and Nick, who walked beside her bearing his head like -a young prince instead of the young butcher’s helper that he was, had -barely turned nineteen. One could not but reflect that if he had been -living in Gramercy Park instead of on the West Side he might now be -receiving his high school diploma instead of assuming the burden and -responsibility of a family. And the little bride might be heading the -freshman basketball team with years of care-free development ahead of -her, instead of facing the imminent trials of child-bearing with the -probable addition of factory labor. - -The wedded pair made their way down the hall to the chairs placed -for them at the end. The fact most striking to the outsider was the -total lack of self-consciousness or awkward embarrassment on the part -of either, young as they were, at being the center of attention, the -object of laughing comments and affectionate raillery from all present. - -The bride took her seat behind a table at the end of the room, removed -her flowers and put them in a pitcher of water, and having carefully -arranged her veil was ready to receive her friends. “Come,” said Lucy -Colletti, “we must go up to the bride.” This ceremony over, we stood -back and watched the children scramble wildly for the pennies the men -tossed up. Although the musicians were nearly an hour late, no one -seemed to mind. The children raced and played and rolled on the freshly -waxed floor with fearful results to their clothes. - -By the time the music began, the room had grown so crowded that -the dancers were confined to a small circle in the center. As the -evening passed the air became blue with dust and tobacco smoke, and -the physical discomforts of the place increased to the point of -general exhaustion. Yet one could not but take delight in a scene -where enjoyment was so evident and so thoroughly sincere. Every guest -participated; no one was neglected. Grandmothers were led out for a -gay turn by grandsons who cavaliered their little sisters in the next -dance. Fathers and daughters, sons and mothers, made light-hearted -couples. It was a sight never to be seen at an American gathering, -but common enough wherever Italians are assembled for any kind of -celebration or enjoyment. In pleasure, as in work, the family rules. - -But weddings and family dances do not come very often, and other -evenings must be spent in the tenement home under strict guardianship -and oversight. Against this strictness of another land are constantly -beating all the new, free customs of America. The conflict begins -as soon as Carlotta gets her working papers and takes her place in -the factory. Inevitably the influences of the new life in which she -spends nine hours of the day begin to tell on her. Each morning and -each evening, as she covers her head with an old crocheted shawl and -walks to and from her factory, she passes the daughters of her Irish -and American neighbors in their smart hats, their cheap waists in -the latest and smartest style, their tinsel ornaments, and their gay -hair-bows. A part of the contents of their pay envelopes goes into the -personal expenses of those girls. Nor do they hurry through the streets -to their homes after working hours, but linger with a boy companion -making “dates” for a “movie” or an “affair.” - -Slowly but surely their example is beginning to have its effect on the -docile little Italian whose life has hitherto swung like a pendulum -back and forth between her labors at the factory and the duties and -restraints of home. She begins to long for the same freedom that the -other girls enjoy. But freedom does not mean for her what it means for -the American girl, trained in a different school from the beginning. -She has not the same hard little powers of resistance, nor can she make -the same truculent boast of being able to “take care of herself.” She -is not able to present the same rough and ready front to rowdy good -times. - -Free and easy as are the manners of her American sisters, they -usually draw a line, distinct enough from their own point of view, at -“tough” and “fresh.” The Italian girl has no idea of where the line -is, or whether these bold-appearing girls really have any standards -of conduct. _Her_ line, the line her people have drawn for her, is -placed well in front of the commonest enjoyments of the West Side -girl. Once it is broken over by a “lark” with a crowd of boys and -girls, then she is, by her own and her people’s standards, condemned. -Very often, however, she fails to feel the weight of her old friends’ -disapprobation as heavily as might be expected because she is still -accepted by the standards of the new country, _her_ country. As long as -she does not overstep its particular line, she is safe. But to her the -American line of conduct is blurred and indistinct. It is determined -by conditions which she does not recognize or understand. The little -tragedies and conflicts of this semi-Americanization are familiar -enough to those who know the Italian girl of some years’ residence. - -It is useless to expect that her young, wholesome craving for amusement -will continue to be satisfied in the ways approved by her people. The -irresistible lure of America which has already drawn her parents from -the ancestral plains of Italy continues still to draw her. She must -enter upon her kingdom. But unaccustomed as she is to the newer ways, -the Italian daughter must be taught intelligently to meet American -conditions and trained in the forms of self-protection which they -necessitate. Her parents cannot do this. They have themselves still too -much to learn. But the community to which she has come, bringing her -all--her health, her strength, her industry, and her children--owes it -at least to her to safeguard the innocent joys of her youth. - - - - -APPENDIX - - - - -APPENDIX A - -ECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE FAMILIES - - -Our 65 girls came from 55 different families. Forty-one of these -families had at some period in their lives been aided, or investigated, -or disciplined by some sort of private philanthropic or protective -agency. Of these, all but one had records with some relief agency. In -a very few cases the Association for Improving the Condition of the -Poor and the Charity Organization Society records show that the family -received no relief, but only visitation and advice. Usually, however, -actual relief was given. Thirty-nine had records in the registration -bureau of the Charity Organization Society. Eleven had Charity -Organization Society records only; 15 had records with the Association -for Improving the Condition of the Poor only; one had been helped only -by the church. Thirteen had records of relief from or intervention by -more than one society; as, the Association for Improving the Condition -of the Poor and the St. Vincent de Paul Society, or the Charity -Organization Society and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to -Children, or again and again both the Charity Organization Society and -the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor. One had been -under the care of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children -and the Board of Health. - -Often, of course, families such as these must turn to an agency for -help only in time of crisis; and when the crisis is past and the aid -they have received has put them on their feet again, they no longer -need support. Such, at least, is the ideal of “family rehabilitation.” -Of a different sort are the cases of chronic, wasting poverty and -misfortune, which no charitable aid can ever render self-supporting. -These are the poor who are always with us; and it was to this group, -we found, that most of our families belonged. In analyzing the relief -cases, it seemed to us that where a family had been under the care of -an agency for less than two years it could be put in the former group, -where relief was given because of emergencies. Of the 40 cases, 10 -were in this class. The other 30 had records for two years or more; -and of these 30 cases, 17 had records for two years and less than six -years, and 13 for six years or more. The average period of intermittent -care for the 30 families whose relief records extended over more -than two years was nine and a half years. The average is startling -enough, but a few cases stand out as more startling than the rest. One -family had applied for aid in 1899 and the case had been “closed” and -re-opened[88] at intervals ever since. One record extended from 1892 to -1908, one from 1895 to 1911. One case had been opened and closed eight -separate times since 1899. - -It must be borne in mind that no figures can be given to show the help -these families had received from private sources; clothing from women -for whom the mothers had done day’s work or washing, money for rent or -doctor’s bills from relatives, food from neighbors,--all these things -help stave off the dreaded appeal to “charity.” - -We have tried to analyze the immediate causes of need at the time the -family was first referred to the relief society. The first application -is the most significant, for after help has been obtained once, it is -likely to be sought again. Of our 40 relief cases, one family had been -deserted by the chief wage-earner, in five he was dead, and in 34 the -wage-earner was living. Very few of the first applications, therefore, -were due to the death of the father. - -The number of children born to the family, whether living or dead, -often determines the extent of its poverty,[89] and contributes to the -necessity for relief. We have estimated, roughly, that three or four -living children was the average for these 40 families at the time of -the first application. In some cases there was only one child, but in -many cases there were six or seven. The records do not tell us how many -had been born, nor how many had died, thus adding their quota to the -family’s share of illness, expense, and sorrow.[90] In the cases that -were opened and closed again and again we find that child after child -was born after the family was far below the line of self-support,--six -or eight or 10 children born into homes that could support in decency -only one or two at most. But “too many children” never appears as the -cause of an application for relief in the records of a charitable -society. - -It is true that need is rarely due to any one circumstance. Usually -where one kind of misery exists, other kinds are found also.[91] The -most common causes that the records for this group of 40 show were lack -of work, casual work, illness, or drink; and these were combined and -coupled together in story after story. Taking in each case what seems -to have been the chief immediate cause, though we cannot claim that our -division is strictly accurate, we found that in five cases the need -was due primarily to illness; in three primarily to drink; in 10 the -causes were scattering or could not be ascertained; in 22 the distress -was due most of all to lack of work. Time and again the entry appears: -“The father has been out of work for ten weeks”; or “It is the slack -season in the man’s trade and he has been unable to get a steady job -for three months”; or “The mother has recently been confined and the -father has been out of a job for several weeks and there is no food in -the house.” It is repeated over and over--out of work, out of work, out -of work--till we can only wonder that drink and despair do not more -inevitably accompany the loss of a job. These were the conditions that -brought 40 of our families to the point of seeking relief at various -times in their lives. - -It would not be fair to judge the usual standing of our group entirely -by these records of the families which had sought relief. We have -therefore taken a kind of cross section of all the families of our 65 -girls to show their earning capacity and general economic status at -the date when our acquaintance with them began. Of these 55 families, -only 21 were normal groups. By this we mean that the father and mother -were both living, that they were together, and that the father was -physically able to be the wage-earner and the mother the housewife. The -other 34 were “broken” families. In 15 the father was dead, in six the -mother was dead, and in three both father and mother were dead. In one -the father had deserted, and in one the mother was in prison. In four -of them there was a stepmother or stepfather. In eight families the -father was incapacitated, either by old age or illness, so that he was -not able to be the chief wage-earner. - -In 29 of our 55 families, the mothers were wage-earners.[92] In nine of -these, the father was dead; in six, he was incapacitated; in 14, the -mother worked because the father’s income was not enough to support -the family without her aid. Where the father was dead or disabled the -mother’s work was more constant and regular than where she worked to -supplement the husband’s earnings. Of these 29 mothers, 10 went out for -“day’s work” sometimes only one or two days a week. Ten worked more -regularly, washing or scrubbing several days a week, sewing at home, -and so on. Thirteen were janitresses of the tenements in which they -lived. Payment for this service varies from $3.00 off on a month’s rent -to the whole rent and $1.00 besides, depending on the size of the house -or houses cared for. Four of the janitresses also took in washing or -did other work. - -It must be remembered that the very presence of these women on our list -means that they were mothers of adolescent girls and of families of -children averaging about five in number. Considering this we realize -more clearly the truth of their saying, “It’s hard bringin’ children up -in New York.” More than half the mothers of our girls were forced to do -other work than that of caring for a good-sized family. - -The explanation of this situation is found in the low-paid unskilled -work done by the girls’ fathers. Of the 40 living fathers and -stepfathers, we can give the occupations of 34. - - Teamster 14 - Machinist 4 - Laborer 3 - Dock worker 2 - Hotel worker 2 - Slaughter-house man 2 - Railroad flagman 2 - Laundry worker 1 - Proprietor of trucking business 1 - Street cleaner 1 - Peddler 1 - Janitor 1 - -- - Total 34 - -Very few of these occupations are what can properly be called skilled -work, many of them are extremely irregular and casual, and many of them -pay less than a living wage. - -The housing of these families is such as would be anticipated by -those who know them and the facilities the district offers. There are -very few new-law tenements in this part of New York, and little good -can be said of the best of the old-law houses. Really good housing -is practically unknown. For example, but two of our 55 families had -bathrooms in their apartments. Many apartments contained small toilet -rooms, and other families used toilets in the hall on the same floor. -Some still had only an old-fashioned yard toilet. One house furnished -for its tenants a cellar toilet used also by the men who patronized the -ground floor saloon adjoining it, and this horrible situation made the -children of the house afraid to go to the cellar alone or after dark. - -We have housing records for 53 of our 55 families. Thirty of these -lived in apartments containing one or more dark rooms, with no windows -to the outer air, or to anything more than a tiny air-shaft. Of these -30 families, 10 had one dark room, 18 had two dark rooms, one had -three dark rooms, and one had four dark rooms. The number of persons -in household and the number of rooms occupied were as shown in the -following table: - - -FIFTY-THREE FAMILIES CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO NUMBER OF PERSONS IN -HOUSEHOLD AND NUMBER OF ROOMS OCCUPIED[a] - - =====================+=======================================+========= - | FAMILIES OCCUPYING | - Persons in household +-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+ All - | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | families - | rooms | rooms | rooms | rooms | rooms | - ---------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+--------- - Two | 1 | 1 | | | | 2 - Three | 1 | | 3 | | | 4 - Four | | 2 | 2 | | | 4 - Five | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1 | | 8 - Six | | 2 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 11 - Seven | | 5 | 4 | 2 | | 11 - Eight or nine | | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 9 - Ten or eleven | | | 1 | 1 | | 2 - Twelve and less than | | | | | | - seventeen | | | | 1 | 1 | 2 - ---------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+--------- - Total | 3 | 15 | 21 | 9 | 5 | 53 - ---------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+--------- - -[a] Information is not available as to the number of persons in or -number of rooms occupied by two of the 55 households. - -In spite of the lack of space, light, and air, and the poor sanitary -conveniences, six of the families in apartments, as shown in the -following table, paid rentals of $20 or over per month, four paid from -$16 to $20, 20 paid from $12 to $16, 17 paid from $8.00 to $12, and -only three paid less than $8.00. One family lived in furnished rooms -for which they paid $3.50 a week; one family owned the house they -lived in; for three we had no records of the amount of rent paid. The -distribution of rentals according to number is shown by the following -table: - - -FIFTY FAMILIES CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO NUMBER OF ROOMS OCCUPIED AND -MONTHLY RENTAL PAID[a] - - ===============+==================================+========== - | FAMILIES PAYING MONTHLY | - | RENTAL OF | - +------+------+------+------+------+ All - Rooms occupied | | $8 | $12 | $16 | | families - | Less | and | and | and | $20 | - | than | less | less | less | and | - | $8 | than | than | than | over | - | | $12 | $16 | $20 | | - ---------------+------+------+------+------+------+--------- - Two | | 2 | | | | 2 - Three | 2 | 8 | 4 | | | 14 - Four | 1 | 7 | 10 | 3 | 1 | 22 - Five | | | 5 | 1 | 2 | 8 - Six | | | 1 | | 2 | 3 - Six and bath | | | | | 1 | 1 - ---------------+------+------+------+------+------+--------- - Total | 3 | 17 | 20 | 4 | 6 | 50 - ---------------+------+------+------+------+------+--------- - - [a] This item was not secured for three of the 55 families; one family -owned the house in which they lived, and one lived in furnished rooms, -paying ..50 a week. - -Life insurance is almost universal in our district except for families -in the most abject poverty. Often every member is insured, the rate -varying from 5 cents a week for children to 25 cents or more for -adults. One family spent $52 a year for insurance out of a possible -maximum income of $806 for seven persons. Another family of seven spent -$2.40 a week out of an income which probably did not average more than -$20 a week at the most. The benefit seldom does more than cover the -cost of the funeral, and often barely that. The baby may have been -insured for $30 and the undertaker’s bill is likely to be $40 or $50. -One wife received $141 at her husband’s death, and the funeral expenses -were $155, leaving a debt of $14, the cost of an illness, and a family -of children to support. Such a funeral, of course, indicates lack of -judgment on the part of the family, but it must be remembered that from -time out of mind and in all ranks of society, a fine funeral has meant -respect for the dead; and burial in the Potter’s Field is still a sign -of the lowest economic stage to which a man can fall. - -Twenty-five of the 55 families, or nearly half, had been in the past, -or were at the time of our investigation, affected by excessive -drinking on the part of one or both parents. Of this we were -sure, either from records of philanthropic agencies or from our -own knowledge. Some of the remaining 30 families had no cases of -alcoholism, but concerning others we were unable to get any definite -information. To summarize: In 25 families either the father or mother, -or both, were subject to excessive drinking; in 13 of these the fathers -drank to excess; in four the mothers drank; in eight of the 25 families -both the father and the mother drank. “Excessive drinking” does not -necessarily mean habitual drunkenness. Such cases are not frequent. On -the other hand, it never means merely taking either an occasional or -a regular drink, unless this is done to excess. It means at the least -drinking of the sort which makes the mother unable to keep her home -together without interference from the Society for the Prevention of -Cruelty to Children or makes it impossible for the father to “hold -down” a job. In all 25 of these cases, the families had relief records. - -To sum up, we have divided our families on a basis of prosperity and -poverty as Miss Breckinridge and Miss Abbott have done in their book on -The Delinquent Child and the Home.[93] - -Class I represents the very poor, the “submerged tenth,”--the broken -family, ill fed, ill clad, ill supported, aided by charity month after -month and year after year, sick, wretched, truly poverty stricken. To -this class we have judged that 20 of our 55 families, containing 25 of -our 65 girls, belonged. - -Class II are the poor, those with whom it is a constant struggle to -make ends meet, who seldom have comfort but who seldom are on the -verge of starvation. In this class we have placed 23 of our families, -containing 28 of our girls. - -Class III represents the fairly comfortable, those whose chief -wage-earner has steady work or in which the children are contributing a -fair share of the income; where food is sufficient and overcrowding is -not very great. In this class were 11 of our families, with 11 of our -girls. - -Class IV is the very comfortable group, those who can afford a little -more than the minimum of education and of care for their children, and -who are never likely to know pressing want. In this class there was one -family, containing one of our girls. This child’s grandfather was an -early district settler, an Irish builder and contractor. When he died -he left to the mother three or four tenement houses, in one of which -the family were living, while the rents from the others rendered them, -according to local standards, positively affluent. - -Thus, to separate poverty from prosperity, roughly though it must be, -only 12 of the 55 families could be called comfortable. The remaining -43 families were poor, some of them wretchedly poor. This condition, -whatever may have been its cause, was the dominating factor in the -lives of all but 12 of our 65 girls. - - - - -APPENDIX B - -SCHOOL ATTENDANCE DATA - - -To obtain facts regarding school attendance in the West Side district -studied, a special tabulation for four public schools was made in the -Bureau of Social Research from schedules obtained for the Committee on -School Inquiry of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment of New York -City. Public Schools Nos. 17, 32, 51, and 127 were the schools included -in the study. The records covered a period of five months, from -February 1, 1911, to June 30, 1911, or practically 100 school days. -In the following table is shown the relation between the absences of -boys and the absences of girls in the four schools mentioned, and the -relation between absences in these schools and absences in the entire -city. - -It will be noted that attendance is poorer for the girls than for the -boys. The difference in the average number of days of absence is about -2.6 days, or approximately 2.6 per cent of the term in question. - -Attendance is better in the city as a whole than in the four schools -in the district. But 63.5 per cent of the children in the schools in -the district were absent less than eleven days, as compared with 67.3 -per cent of those in the city as a whole. The proportion of children in -each of the successive groups representing longer periods of absence is -smaller for the city as a whole than for the four schools. A comparison -of the - - -ABSENCES OF PUPILS IN REGULAR CLASSES, IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS NOS. 17, 32, -51 AND 127, AND IN ALL PUBLIC SCHOOLS. NEW YORK CITY, FEBRUARY 1, 1911, -TO JUNE 30, 1911 - - =======================+===========================================================+==================== - | PUPILS IN SCHOOLS NOS. 17, 32, 51 | PUPILS IN ALL - | AND 127[a] | PUBLIC SCHOOLS[b] - +-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+---------+---------- - Days of absence | Boys | Girls | Total | | - +--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+ Number | Per cent - | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent | | - -----------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+---------+---------- - | | | | | | | | - Less than 11 | 1,829 | 67.4 | 1,173 | 58.3 | 3,002 | 63.5 | 382,406 | 67.3 - 11 and less than 21 | 447 | 16.4 | 408 | 20.3 | 855 | 18.1 | 97,512 | 17.1 - 21 and less than 31 | 182 | 6.7 | 182 | 9.0 | 364 | 7.7 | 39,391 | 6.9 - 31 and less than 41 | 92 | 3.4 | 99 | 4.9 | 191 | 4.0 | 19,297 | 3.4 - 41 and over | 166 | 6.1 | 151 | 7.5 | 317 | 6.7 | 30,006 | 5.3 - -----------------------+--------+----------+--------+----------+--------+----------+---------+---------- - Total | 2,716 | 100.0 | 2,013 | 100.0 | 4,729 | 100.0 | 568,612 | 100.0 - =======================+========+==========+========+==========+========+==========+=========+========== - Average number of days | | | | | - absence | 11.4 | 14.0 | 12.5 | | - -----------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+---------+---------- - - [a] Tabulated from schedules obtained for the Committee on School -Inquiry of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment of New York City. - - [b] From a report to the Committee on School Inquiry of the Board -of Estimate and Apportionment of New York City, on Promotions and -Non-promotions, and Part Time, by Frank P. Bachman, Ph.D., p. 64. - -column for boys with that for girls shows that the low attendance in -the schools studied is due to the relatively low attendance among -the girls. While the percentages relating to the boys correspond -almost exactly to those relating to all the children of the city, the -percentages for the girls indicate a materially lower proportion of -attendance. - - - - -INDEX - - - - -INDEX - - - ABBOTT, EDITH: The Delinquent Child and the Home, cited, 130 - - ADENOIDS: found on examination of girls, 83 - - ADOLESCENCE: and poverty, 32; - and self-assertion, 48 - - AGNES: the friend of Annie Brink, 31 - - ALCOHOLISM: in families of girls, 129. See also _Drinking_ - - AMELIA: the case of, 52 - - AMERICAN FEMALE GUARDIAN SOCIETY SCHOOL ON WEST SIDE, 33 - - AMERICANIZATION AMONG ITALIANS: signs of, 110, 117 - - ANGELINA AND NICK, 96, 97, 113-115 - - ANTHONY, KATHARINE: Mothers Who Must Earn, cited, 23 - - ASSOCIATION FOR IMPROVING THE CONDITION OF THE POOR: families of - girls having records with, 121 - - ATTINGER, MRS.: on her Lizzie’s marriage, 73, 74 - - AYRES, LEONARD P.: Laggards in Our Schools, cited, 37 - - - “BABY’S” HOUSEKEEPING, 35, 36 - - BACHMAN, FRANK P.: Report on Promotions and Non-Promotions, etc., cited, 133 - - BASKET-WEAVING: as a club occupation, 4 - - BEDFORD REFORMATORY: superintendent of, quoted, 15; - treatment of girls at, 18 - - BELSITO, ADELINA: and her absence from school, 102, 103 - - BIRTH RATE AND DEATH RATE OF WEST SIDE, 23 - - BLONDI, ZAPPIRA: and her mother, 105, 106 - - BOYS: and the girls’ club, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9; - idleness among, more common than among girls, 51; - school attendance of, compared with that of girls, 132-134 - - BRASS WORK: as a club occupation, 4 - - BRECKINRIDGE, S. P.: The Delinquent Child and the Home, cited, 130 - - BRINK, ANNIE: story of, 30, 31 - - BUREAU OF SOCIAL RESEARCH: study of school attendance by, 132 - - BURIAL EXPENSES, 23, 129 - - BUSINESS ENTERPRISES: conducted by Italian families, 106, 107 - - - CARNEY, MAY: case of, 85, 86, 87 - - CARNEY, MRS.: on May’s marriage, 86 - - CARTWRIGHT, O. G.: Historical Survey of the West Side, cited, 76 - - CHARITABLE AID: received by families of girls, 122, 123, 124. See - also _Relief Records_ - - CHARITABLE SOCIETIES: Italians and the, 108 - - CHARITY AMONG ITALIANS, 107, 108 - - CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY: families of girls having records with, 121 - - CHILDHOOD: influence of tenement life on, 81, 82 - - CHILDREN: school attendance of, 132-134 - - CHILDREN’S AID SOCIETY SCHOOL on West Side, 33 - - CHRIST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH: supervisor from, in charge of playground - at club, 3 - - CHURCH: aid to family given by, 121 - - CLEARY AND MAGGIE: affair between, 79, 80 - - CLEAVER AND DORAN, 9, 10 - - CLINIC, PSYCHOLOGICAL: examination of girls in a, 85 - - CLINIC, WEEKLY: at club, 84 - - CLIQUES AMONG GIRLS, 60, 61 - - CLOTHES, PRETTY: the girls’ longing for, 59, 60 - - CLOTHING, PROTECTIVE: the girls’ lack of, 60 - - CLUB HOUSE AT 471 TENTH AVENUE: aim and origin of, 1, 2; - equipment and activities of, 3, 4; - only outbreak against a leader at, 10, 11; - razed to give place to a factory, 14; - relations with fellow tenants at, 5, 6; - relations with neighborhood boys at, 6, 7, 8, 9; - total number of girls studied at, 14; - West Side girls, how far represented at, 15, 16 - - CLUBS AND SETTLEMENTS: use of, by West Side girls, 67 - - COLLETTI FAMILY: and their home, 98 - - COLLETTI, LUCY: references to, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 109, 111, 114 - - COLLETTI, MARY: references to, 95, 96, 98, 99 - - CONJUNCTIVITIS: case of, discovered in physical examination of girls, 83 - - COOKING: as a club occupation, 4 - - COOK STOVE: essential to equipment of girls’ club, 4 - - COSTA, ANGELINA: and her interpretation of Lincoln’s birthday, 112 - - CRAVEN, MAMIE: case of, 60 - - CULL, CHRISTINA: truancy of, 38, 39, 40 - - - DALEY’S MARRIAGE TO MAY CARNEY, 86, 87 - - DANCE HALLS: and the occasional ball, 69; - campaign for control of, 16, 17; - etiquette of, 69, 70; - grades of, 70 - - DANCES, PUBLIC: conduct of, 71 - - DANCING: enthusiasm of girls for, 4, 67 - - DARK ROOMS IN HOMES OF GIRLS, 24, 127 - - DAVIS, DR. KATHERINE B.: quoted, 15 - - DEATH RATES. See _Mortality_ - - DEFECTS, PHYSICAL: found in club girls, 83 - - DENLEY, CLARA: and her faction, 12 - - DEPARTMENT STORES: preference of some girls for, 43. See also _Stores_ - - DERKS, EMMA: and her raffle, 32 - - DEVINE, EDWARD T.: Misery and Its Causes, cited, 124 - - DISTEL, MR.: as a neighbor, 6 - - DONOVAN, SISSY: first job of, 41, 42 - - DORAN’S TALE OF A GANG, 9 - - DRAKE, CARRIE: case of, 88-90 - - DRINK: girl does not take to, 32; - mothers who take to, 27, 29 - - DRINKING: excessive, on the part of parents of girls, 29, 129, 130 - - DRUNKENNESS: habitual, distinguished from “excessive drinking,” 129 - - - EARNINGS OF GIRLS, 47 - - EAST SIDE: West Side compared with, as to stability of population, 75 - - ECONOMIC CONDITION: of the families of girls, 121-131 - - EDUCATION, COMPULSORY: period of, 33 - - EGAN, BARBARA, AND LOUISA STORM: quarrel between, 12 - - EIGHTH AVENUE: as a promenade, 66 - - ELEVENTH AVENUE: case of one family on, 24-26 - - EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATE. See _Working Papers_ - - ESTIMATE AND APPORTIONMENT BOARD’S Committee of School Inquiry, 132, 133 - - EXAMINATION, PHYSICAL: of club girls, 82, 83, 84 - - EYES OF GIRLS: not cared for, 83 - - - FACTORIES: and the West Side girl, 43, 44; - wages of the girl in, 47; - work of Italian girls in, 110, 111 - - FAMILIES: large, on West Side, 22 - - FAMILIES OF GIRLS: classified on basis of prosperity or poverty, 130, 131; - economic conditions of, 121-131; - housing of, 126, 127, 128; - how constituted, 125; - which received charitable aid, study of, 122, 123, 124 - - FAMILY, LIMITATION OF SIZE OF: almost unknown on West Side, 23 - - FAMILY PROTECTION: general breakdown of, on West Side, 75-94; - maintained in the case of the Italian girl, 108, 111, 112 - - FATHERS: occupations of, 126 - - FESTIVALS, ITALIAN, 112 - - FLEMING, SADIE, AND MAGGIE TRACY, 12, 13 - - FULLER, CARRIE: case of, 84, 85 - - FUNERAL EXPENSES: in families of girls, 129 - - - GALAXY MOVING PICTURE SHOW, 67 - - GANG SPIRIT OF TENTH AVENUE, 13 - - GANGS. See _Boys_; _Gopher Gang_; _“Hell’s Kitchen” Gang_ - - GAS PLANTS: odors of, on West Side, 75 - - GATE: as a bone of contention, 3, 4 - - “GENTLEMAN FRIENDS” AND “LADY FRIENDS,” 61 - - GIBSON, ANNIE: truancy of, 37, 38 - - GIRLS, WEST SIDE: aim and methods of study, 1; - attitude of, toward assumption of family burdens, 49, 50, 51; - demand for “good times” by, 51; - difficulty of knowing, in their own homes, 2; - education, in neighborhood immorality, 75-81, 87-93; - familiarity with poverty and its effect, 21, 29, 32; - fondness for dancing and music, 4, 67, 68, 69; - homes and street corners as places of meeting with boy friends, 61-63; - how far represented in clubs, 15, 16; - idealism of, 68; - immoderate pace of living among, 83; - marriage, how regarded by, 73, 74; - occupations of, 43, 44, 45, 46; - physical inheritance and health of, 82, 83, 84, 85; - relations with their families compared with those of boys, 19; - relations with their mothers often strained, 53, 54, 55; - school attendance of, compared with that of boys, 132-134; - schooling of, 33-42; - social relations among, contrasted with those among boys, 60, 61; - surest way to help, 94; - wages earned by, amount and disposition of, 47, 48. See also _Italian Girl_ - - GOPHER GANG: gossip about, 6, 9, 10, 13, 76 - - “GOPHERETTES”: proposed as name of club, 10 - - - HANNICK AND MAGGIE, 62 - - HEALTH, BOARD OF: family under care of, 121 - - HEALTH OF CLUB GIRLS, 82, 83, 84, 85 - - “HELL’S KITCHEN” GANG: and its influence, 76 - - HICKMAN’S MOVING PICTURE SHOW, 67 - - HOLIDAYS, AMERICAN: among the Italians, 112 - - HOME: men friends of girls not welcomed in the, 61, 62; - need of strengthening of best elements in the, 94; - wage-earning and new relations at, 43-56 - - HOME WORK: Italian girls not engaged in, 110 - - HOME-WORK INVESTIGATOR: quoted, on Italian girls, 111 - - HOUSING OF FAMILIES OF GIRLS, 24, 126, 127, 128 - - HYLAND, WINNIE, AND CARRIE DRAKE, 88 - - - IDEALISM AMONG GIRLS, 67 - - ILLEGITIMATE BIRTHS: common on West Side, 79 - - IMMORALITY AMONG GIRLS, 79, 80, 85-93 - - INDUSTRIAL HISTORIES OF GIRLS, 45, 46, 47 - - INSURANCE, LIFE: in families of girls, 23, 128, 129 - - ITALIAN GIRL: claims of school upon, 102, 103; - eagerness of, to go to work, 109; - family’s protection of, 108; - kinds of work done by, 110, 111; - pleasures prohibited and permitted to, 111, 112; - semi-Americanization of, 116, 117; - separate study made of, 1, 95 - - ITALIANS OF WEST SIDE: Americanization of names among, 110; - characteristics of family life among, 106, 107, 108, 111, 112; - eagerness of parents for arrival of fourteenth birthday of daughter, 109; - festivals among, 112; - length of residence in United States, 109; - mutual helpfulness and charity among, 107, 108; - occupations of, 106, 107, 110; - sympathy the keynote of the community, 101; - wedding parties among, 113-116 - - - JENNIE. See _Polini, Jennie_ - - JOSIE: and the dance halls, 72 - - - KERSEY, MRS., AND “BABY,” 35 - - KNEELAND, GEORGE J.: Commercialized Prostitution in New York City, - quoted, 71 - - KOHLBERGER’S CANDY FACTORY, 95 - - - “LADY FRIEND”: significance of title, 61 - - “LAGGARDS” AMONG GIRLS, 37 - - LANGAN, FATHER: aid of, enlisted by Mrs. Mullarkey, 91; - and the “Gophers,” 12, 13 - - LARKEY, EMMA: schooling of, 36 - - LAWLESSNESS OF WEST SIDE, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 75, 76 - - LINCOLN’S BIRTHDAY: as interpreted by Angelina Costa, 112 - - LONDON SLUMS: compared with Middle West Side District, 82 - - LOUISA: the case of, 54, 55 - - - MCCLUSKY FAMILY: as co-tenants of the club, 4, 5, 6 - - MCKEEVERS: Thanksgiving party at home of, 64-66 - - MAGGIE: the case of, 62 - - MARTHA AND SARAH: trachoma cases, 83, 84 - - MATTIE AND CLEARY: affair between, 79, 80 - - MARRIAGE: as an adventure, 73; - following irregular relationship, how regarded, 79; - found to be a sobering event, 74; - of May Carney, 85-87. See also _Weddings_ - - MARRO, ANGELINA: her wedding party, 113-116. See also _Angelina and Nick_ - - MAYHEW, FANNY: and the “Gopherettes,” 10 - - MEEHAN, JENNIE: marriage of, 80 - - MEEHAN, MRS.: on the size of her family, 22 - - MENTAL ABILITY: of girls tested in a psychological clinic, 85 - - MERCER, ADDIE: and her father, 80, 81 - - MIDDLE WEST SIDE. See _West Side_ - - MISERY AND ITS CAUSES: in families of girls, 124 - - MONEY: importance of control of, to working girls, 59 - - MORAL CONDITIONS ON MIDDLE WEST SIDE, 77-81 - - MORESCO, FILAMINA: an Italian rebel, 112 - - MORELLI, ROSE: and her family, 99, 100, 101, 111 - - MORTALITY AMONG CHILDREN ON MIDDLE WEST SIDE, 23 - - MOTHER: and daughter, strained relations between, 53; - as the mainstay of the family, 26 - - MOTHERS OF GIRLS: wage-earning, 125; - who take to drink, 27, 29 - - MOVING PICTURE SHOWS, 66, 67 - - MULLARKEY, MRS.: and her search for Fannie, 90-92 - - MULLENS, FANNY: and her reason for leaving the Excelsior Laundry, 46 - - MURPHY, MRS.: and her daughter Katie, 2 - - MUSIC: appeal of, to girl, 67. See also _Songs, Popular_ - - - NAMES: changes in, among Italians of West Side, 110 - - NEW MACHIAVELLI, THE: quotation from, 66 - - NICK AND ANGELINA, 96, 97, 114 - - “NICKEL DUMP,” 72. See also _Moving Picture Shows_ - - - O’BRIEN, JULIA: and the young woman from the ranks, 11 - - O’BRIEN, “TOOTSIE”: and her first job, 44 - - O’CALLAHAN, MRS.: her tale of the Gophers, 13 - - OCCUPATIONS: of girls studied, 44, 45; - of fathers of girls, 126; - of mothers of girls, 125; - Of West Side Italians, 106, 107, 110 - - - PARENTAL SURVEILLANCE OVER ITALIAN GIRLS, 111. See also _Italian Girl_ - - PARENTS: hostility of, toward men friends of girls, 62; - excessive drinking on the part of, 29, 129, 130 - - PATSY: the case of, 92 - - PAY ENVELOPE: family customs regarding, 47, 48, 49 - - PETIE’S MOTHER DISPOSSESSED, 27, 28 - - PHILANTHROPIC AGENCY: families of girls having records with some, 121. - See also _Relief Records; Charitable Aid_ - - PHYSICAL INHERITANCE: and condition of girls, 82, 83, 84, 85 - - PIANO: essential to equipment of girls’ club, 4 - - PLAY: the will to, 57-74 - - PLAYGROUND IN BACK YARD OF CLUB HOUSE, 3 - - POLINI, JENNIE: and her choice of a fellow, 96, 97, 99, 112 - - POPULATION OF MIDDLE WEST SIDE: more stable than that of East Side, 75 - - POTTER’S FIELD: burial in, how regarded, 129 - - POVERTY: in families of girls, 20-32, 130, 131 - - PRECOCIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF GIRLS, 93 - - PROSPERITY: families of girls classified by degree of, 130, 131 - - PROSTITUTION: case of, among girls known at club, 88 - - PSYCHOLOGICAL CLINIC: examination of girls in, 85 - - PUPILS. See _Children_ - - - QUARRELS BETWEEN CLUB MEMBERS, 12 - - - REFORMATORY: as a cure for truancy, 38, 39 - - REILLY, MAMIE: and her responsibilities, 50, 51 - - REILLY, MRS.: on births and deaths, 23 - - RELIEF RECORDS: of families of girls, 20, 121, 122, 123, 124 - - RENTALS PAID BY FAMILIES OF GIRLS, 24, 128 - - RETARDATION AMONG GIRLS STUDIED, 36, 37 - - REYNOLDS, STEPHEN: quoted, 15 - - ROCHE, JOSEPHINE: author of chapter on the Italian girl, 95 - - RULETTI, MRS.: and her foster-child, 103, 104 - - RYAN, MRS.: quoted, 77 - - - SABBIO, MRS.: and the family saloon, 106 - - SADIE AND PETIE’S MOTHER DISPOSSESSED, 27, 28 - - ST. VINCENT DE PAUL SOCIETY: families of girls having records with, 121 - - SALOON, CORNER: and its influence, 81, 82 - - SARAH AND MAGGIE: trachoma cases, 83, 84 - - SCHOOL ATTENDANCE ON THE MIDDLE WEST SIDE, 132-134 - - SCHOOL ENQUIRY, COMMITTEE ON: of Board of Estimate and Apportionment, - 132, 133 - - SCHOOLING, COMPULSORY: period of, 33 - - SCHOOLS: absence from, among Italians, 102, 103; - choice of, open to West Side girl, 33; - evasions of law by early leaving of, 40, 41, 42; - retardation of girls in, 36, 37; - truancy of girls in, 38, 39, 40; - use of transfers in the, 34, 35, 36 - - SETTLEMENTS AND CLUBS: use of, by girls, 67 - - SEWING: as a club occupation, 4 - - SEXUAL ABUSE: among girls, 84, 85 - - SHERIDAN, MARTIE: and her machine, 45 - - SHERIN, NELLIE: and her work, 46 - - SIPP, MAY: desire for home visit expressed by, 3 - - SLAUGHTER PENS: odors from, on West Side, 75 - - SOCIAL RELATIONS: among girls contrasted with those among boys, 60, 61 - - SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO CHILDREN: families of girls - having records with, 121; - interference of, where mother drinks, 130 - - SONGS, POPULAR: fondness of girls for, 4. See also _Music_ - - SPINAL CURVATURE: cases of, discovered on examination of girls, 83 - - STARK, PAULINE: a “rover,” 45 - - STERTLE, MAMIE: on going home at night, 77 - - STEVENS, KITTY: on Jennie Meehan’s marriage, 80 - - STORES: wages of girls starting in, 47. See also _Department Stores_ - - STORM, LOUISA, AND BARBARA EGAN: quarrel between, 12 - - STREET CORNERS: as places of rendezvous, 62, 63 - - STRUMPF, ANNA, AND MAMIE TAGGART: quarrel between, 12 - - - TAGGART, MAMIE, AND ANNA STRUMPF: quarrel between, 12 - - TEETH OF GIRLS: neglect of, 83 - - TENTH AVENUE: gang spirit of, 13 - - THANKSGIVING PARTY AT THE MCKEEVERS’, 64-66 - - THROATS OF GIRLS: not cared for, 83 - - TOILET, OPEN: dangers of, 81 - - TONSILS, ENLARGED: found on examination of girls, 83 - - TOOHEY, SADIE: on the restaurant keeper’s past, 78 - - TRACHOMA: cases of, among the girls, 83, 84 - - TRACY, MAGGIE: faction headed by, called “tough,” 12, 13 - - TRADE-UNION ORGANIZER: quoted, on Italian girls, 111 - - TRANSFER PRIVILEGES IN THE SCHOOLS: use of, 34 - - TRUANCY AMONG GIRLS, 37, 38, 39 - - TRUANT OFFICER: and the transfer privilege, 35 - - TRUANT SCHOOL NEEDED FOR GIRLS, 40 - - TUBERCULOSIS: cases of, among girls, 84 - - TUZOLLI, LAURA: as a mother’s helper, 104, 105 - - - UNDERTAKERS’ BILLS, 129 - - UNITED STATES: length of residence of Italian families in, 109 - - - VAUDEVILLE: popularity of, 67 - - VENEREAL DISEASE: cases of, among girls, 84; - in Europe, 82 - - VIOLENCE: tales of, 76. See also _Lawlessness_ - - VISION, DEFECTIVE: cases of, found on examination of girls, 83 - - - WADE, LIZZIE: on factory work, 43 - - WAGE-EARNING AND NEW RELATIONS AT HOME, 43-56 - - WAGES: small on Middle West Side, 22 - - WAGES OF GIRLS: in Italian families, customs regarding, 109; - who attended club, 47. - See also _Pay Envelopes_ - - WAYWARDNESS: among West Side girls, problem of, 17. See also _Immorality_ - - WEDDINGS: among Italians, 113-116 - - WELLS, H. G.: The New Machiavelli, quoted, 66, 67 - - WEST SIDE, MIDDLE: compared with East Side as to stability of population, 75; - influences upon the girl, 16, 17, 75, 77; - population compared with that of London slums, 82 - - WORK: girls’ ways of finding, 43; - lack of, as a cause of dependence in families of girls, 124. - See also _Occupations_ - - WORKING PAPERS: requirements for, 40, 41 - - - - -RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION PUBLICATIONS - - -THE DELINQUENT CHILD AND THE HOME - -By Sophonisba P. 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(In press.) - - - SURVEY ASSOCIATES, Inc. - PUBLISHERS FOR THE RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION - 105 EAST 22d STREET, NEW YORK - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] Mention should also be made of other fellows of the Bureau whose -work in connection with the West Side Survey is not included in these -publications. They were Elizabeth B. Butler, senior fellow; Lawrence -K. Frank, Robert C. Sanger, Garret P. Wyckoff, Howard Nudd, Marie S. -Orenstein, and Frances Perkins, all junior fellows. The last three -published the results of their investigations in magazine articles. - -[2] The names of the 294 boys studied were obtained from the following -sources: 1909 court list, 202; Big Brother Movement, 43; special club -studied, 10; Charity Organization Society, 8; additional children in -families studied, 20; known through investigators on other topics, 6; -known through other children, 2; through church, school, settlement, 1 -each. - -[3] See Chapter VI, The Boy and the Court, pp. 79 ff. - -[4] Thirteen families had lived in the district less than five years, -and the length of residence of 58 families was not ascertained. See -Appendix, Table 3, p. 168. - -[5] Pushcart vendors gather here and line the sidewalks, and the -neighborhood shops and markets display their wares on outdoor stands to -attract the Saturday night trade. - -[6] See Cartwright, O. G.: The Middle West Side: A Historical Sketch. -(West Side Studies.) Russell Sage Foundation Publication. In Press. - -[7] The People’s Institute has undertaken, January, 1914, a -neighborhood work, which will correlate and broaden the various -recreation activities now going on in the Middle West Side. A social -center has been opened in Public School 17, on West Forty-seventh -Street, on the initiative of the local school board. The People’s -Institute has taken executive charge of the work. About this center -there will be focused a neighborhood movement, which will work in De -Witt Clinton playground, on West Fiftieth Street pier, in the public -libraries, and on the streets. - -[8] See Cartwright, op. cit. In Press. - -[9] See Anthony, Katharine: Mothers Who Must Earn, p. 7. (West Side -Studies.) Russell Sage Foundation Publication. New York, Survey -Associates, 1914. - -[10] Of 222 fathers whose country of birth was known, 81 were born in -the United States, 64 in Ireland, 27 in Germany, and 17 in Italy. Other -countries were represented by numbers ranging from seven to one. Among -227 mothers, the United States was given as the place of birth of 92; -Ireland, of 72; Germany, of 18; Italy, of 15. The numbers from other -countries ranged from eight to one. The country of birth of 19 fathers -and of 14 mothers in the 241 families could not be ascertained. - -[11] See Appendix, Tables 4 and 5, pp. 168 and 169. - -[12] See Chapter VI, pp. 95 ff. - -[13] For account of one of these raids see Chapter IV, pp. 48-49. - -[14] This term is commonly applied to all the thugs and loafers of the -Middle West Side. - -[15] New York _Tribune_, December 18, 1911. - -[16] New York _Times_, June 26, 1911. - -[17] New York _World_, February 24, 1910. - -[18] See Appendix, Table 6, p. 169. - -[19] For further data regarding size of families, see Appendix, Table -7, p. 170. - -[20] For economic status of the mothers in 222 of the 241 families of -delinquent boys, see Appendix, Table 8, p. 170. See also Anthony, op. -cit., p. 59. - -[21] The conjugal condition of the parents in 233 families is shown in -the Appendix, Table 9, p. 171. For eight of the group of 241 families -this information was not available. - -[22] The relief records of 86 families who were known to have received -aid, and the duration of the relief records in 73 of these cases, are -given in the Appendix, Tables 10 and 11, pp. 171 and 172. - -[23] For the full text of the law referred to, see Consolidated Laws of -New York; the Penal Law; Laws of 1909, section 2186, chapter 88. - -[24] Compare with classification of arrests according to analysis of -offenses made in the Bureau of Social Research, as given in Chapter II, -pp. 16-17. - -[25] There were two cases in which an arrest was made on more than one -charge. - -[26] Separate courts were established in Brooklyn in September, 1903; -in the boroughs of Queens and Richmond in September, 1910; and in the -county of the Bronx in January, 1914. - -[27] Until recently the judges of Special Sessions sat in rotation in -the children’s court. The disadvantages of this system, under which it -was seldom possible for the judge who had first passed upon a case to -follow it to its conclusion, led in 1912 to some modifications in the -direction of more permanent assignments of children’s court judges. -Further improvements were made in 1913. Four judges of the Court of -Special Sessions were designated as children’s court judges, and they -constitute a committee on children’s courts. For the greater part of -the year one judge sits in the children’s court in Manhattan, another -in the court of Brooklyn, and since January, 1914, a third sits on -different days of the week in the courts in Queens, Richmond, and the -Bronx. The fourth is chairman of the committee and sits about three -months in the year in each court. This new arrangement minimizes -rotation in office and permits specialization. - -[28] This has been completely changed since a special judge was -assigned to the court. When he is sitting, frequently one and a half -hours will be given to one case alone and there is rarely a day when -there are not two sessions, morning and afternoon. Sometimes the -Manhattan court does not adjourn until 7 p. m. - -[29] A modern court building is now in process of erection in East -Twenty-second Street, between Lexington and Third Avenues. - -[30] The New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children -(Incorporated). Thirty-fifth Annual Report, Dec. 31, 1909, p. 17. - -[31] “As prepared by the New York Prison Association, the bill was -applicable to both children and adults, but owing to the active -opposition of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to -Children, it was amended in the legislature so as to apply only to -persons over sixteen years of age. It was claimed by the Society for -the Prevention of Cruelty to Children that existing laws made adequate -provision for the treatment of delinquent children.” Report of the -Probation Commission of the State of New York, 1906, pp. 8 and 9. - -[32] Commission to Inquire into the Courts of Inferior Criminal -Jurisdiction in Cities of the First Class. Final Reports. New York -Assembly Documents, 133rd Session, 1910, Vol. 26, No. 54. - -[33] Changes made in 1913 have been discussed on p. 87. - -[34] Folks, Homer: Juvenile Probation in New York. _The Survey_, xxiii: -pp. 671-672. (Feb. 5, 1910). - -[35] The public is indebted to these volunteers for providing some -probationary care for charges of the court before official probation -was established. As soon as this was done, they were relieved of the -undue pressure under which they had worked without proper equipment -and aid. With the direction and supervision of the trained official -representatives of the court, volunteer co-operation may now be -developed and made highly useful. - -[36] In March, 1912, as the result of an active campaign, 12 probation -officers who had passed the civil service examination were assigned to -the Manhattan children’s court and made officers of the court, drawing -their salary from the city. In 1913, the number of probation officers -was raised to 20. The effectiveness with which the new probation work -operates is, of course, a subject on which we have no data. The court -still faces the difficulty of having too small a staff for the number -of cases. The Manhattan court has over 10,000 cases under treatment in -the course of a year. In Chicago, the average number of cases is only -about 5,000 and there are 30 regular probation officers and 30 police -probation officers, making a total of 60 persons to handle this smaller -number of cases. - -[37] Jack Spinner’s mother was required to secure $1,000 bail--and -fortunately she was able to secure it from the members of her -church--for a “$500 burglary,” the articles in question being two small -bundles of kindling wood which, as it was afterward proved, the boy had -not taken. - -[38] “Everybody in the district knows him. Everybody knows where to -find him, and nearly everybody goes to him for assistance of one -sort or another, especially the poor of the tenements. He is always -obliging. He will go to the police courts to put in a good word for the -‘drunks and disorderlies,’ or pay their fines if a good word is not -effective. He will attend christenings, weddings, and funerals. He will -feed the hungry and help bury the dead. - -“A philanthropist? Not at all. He is playing politics all the time. -Brought up in Tammany Hall, he has learned how to read the hearts of -the great mass of voters. He does not bother about reaching their -heads. It is his belief that arguments and campaign literature have -never gained votes. He seeks direct contact with the people, does them -good turns when he can, and relies on their not forgetting him on -election day.” Riordan, W. L.: Plunkett of Tammany Hall. A Series of -Very Plain Talks on Very Practical Politics, pp. 168-169. New York, -McClure, 1905. - -[39] The installation of official probation officers and the adoption -of the new system of records have removed this obstacle to the judge’s -obtaining a comprehensive view of cases and reaching wise decisions. -At the present time a careful preliminary investigation is made by the -probation officer and presented in written form to the judge, prior to -disposition of the case. - -[40] For statistical data see Appendix, Table 12, p. 172. - -[41] Two-thirds of all the cases handled in 1909 involved minor or -trivial offenses, according to the Handbook of the New York Child -Welfare Exhibit, 1911. Section on Laws and Administration, p. 162. - -[42] As already indicated official probation has taken the place of the -“parole” system since this chapter was written. - -[43] This use of the term “parole” is not strictly correct. “Parole” -more properly applies to the supervision of delinquents after release -from institutions. - -[44] Since the above was written, a new system of records recommended -by the state probation commission has been adopted by the court for -the use of probation officers. They cover all cases investigated or on -probation since March, 1912. - -[45] For three of the 95 paroled cases this information was not -available. Data concerning the remaining 92 cases and the 1,492 paroled -cases disposed of by the Manhattan court in 1909 may be found in the -Appendix, Table 13, p. 173. - -[46] This condition was changed with the installation of the official -probation staff in March, 1912. - -[47] In 1913 a law was enacted for the appointment of three physicians -to examine children for mental defectiveness. As the Civil Service -Commission refused to declare the positions exempt, however, no -appointments were made; but an examination will undoubtedly be held -to make up a list of physicians from which these offices may be -filled. In the meantime the children’s court judge sends many children -to the clinic conducted by Dr. Max Schlapp in connection with the -Post-Graduate Hospital. - -[48] See also Anthony, Katharine: Mothers Who Must Earn, p. 9. - -[49] New York _Evening Mail_, April 28, 1911. - -[50] For truancy records see Appendix, Table 14, p. 173. In -classifying the boys studied according to the extent of their truancy, -a distinction was made between those who were, according to our -standards, really delinquent, and those who were included in the -inquiry for some other reason. Data are available for 215 of the 294 -boys included in our study. - -[51] For occupations and wages of the boys who were at work see -Appendix, Table 15, p. 174. - -[52] Counted by children. - -[53] Counted by cases, and classified by terms in popular use, because -statutory classifications which are clear to the lawyer are likely to -confuse the layman. - -[54] Counted by cases. - -[55] Counted by cases. - -[56] Counted by cases. - -[57] Counted by cases. - -[58] Counted by children. - -[59] Counted by cases. - -[60] Counted by children. - -[61] Counted by cases. - -[62] Counted by cases. - -[63] The names of girls given in this book are fictitious. - -[64] This name is commonly applied to all the loafers and thugs from -Thirtieth to Sixtieth Street. - -[65] See Chapter II, p. 19, and Appendix A, p. 121. - -[66] Reynolds, Stephen, and Wooley, Bob and Tom: Seems So, A -Workingman’s View of Politics, p. xv. London, Macmillan, 1912. - -[67] Now commissioner of corrections, New York City. - -[68] Annual Report of the New York State Reformatory for Women at -Bedford, 1907, p. 25. - -[69] For more detailed data with regard to conditions in the 55 -families to which the 65 girls dealt with in this study belonged, see -Appendix A, Economic Condition of the Families, p. 121. - -[70] See Appendix A, p. 121. - -[71] Ibid., p. 121. - -[72] For the relation which the number of children had to applications -for relief among these families, see Appendix A, p. 123. - -[73] For further data concerning the broken families in the group, and -the extent of wage-earning among the mothers, see Appendix A, p. 124 ff. - -[74] See Anthony, Katharine: Mothers Who Must Earn, p. 166 ff. (West -Side Studies.) Russell Sage Foundation Publication. New York, Survey -Associates, 1914. - -[75] See Appendix A, pp. 128-129. - -[76] For discussion of housing and rent in the 55 families, see -Appendix A, pp. 126-128. - -[77] Of the 55 families, 25 were affected by excessive drinking on the -part of one or both parents. Twelve of the mothers were known to drink -to excess. For further discussion, see Appendix A, p. 129. - -[78] For data concerning attendance in four schools in the West Side -district, and a comparison with attendance in all the public schools, -see Appendix B, p. 132. - -[79] Ayres, Leonard P.: Laggards in Our Schools, p. 38. Russell Sage -Foundation Publication. New York, Charities Publication Committee, 1909. - -[80] In 1913 the requirements were raised so that a child under sixteen -must reach a 7A grade before she can take the school examinations. The -board of health requirements also have been strengthened. - -[81] Wells, Herbert G.: The New Machiavelli. New York, Duffield, 1910. - -[82] These statements of the girls are corroborated by the following -paragraphs from a recent study: - -“During the past few years aggressive measures have been taken by -different reform organizations aiming to bring about a more wholesome -atmosphere in connection with public dances, especially those attended -by the poorer boys and girls. Proprietors have been induced to employ -special officers to attend the dances and keep order, prevent ‘tough’ -and ‘half-time’ dancing, and protect innocent girls from the advances -of undesirable persons. The duties of the special officer are difficult -to perform. If he interferes too much, the dancers go to some other -place where they enjoy more freedom. As a result, the honest proprietor -who endeavors to conduct a respectable hall loses patronage, while -the disreputable owner makes all the profit. Again, the young people -who attend these balls know immediately when a person different from -themselves appears in the hall. At once the dance becomes modest and -sedate, and the visitor goes away to report that ‘while conditions are -not what they should be, yet on the whole there is great improvement.’ - -“A social club gave a ball on the evening of March 23, 1912, at a -hall in East 2nd Street. The dancing was very suggestive. The special -officer was entertaining a police sergeant, but neither made any effort -to regulate the actions of the dancers. The next afternoon another club -occupied the hall at the same address, with the same special officer in -attendance. Suddenly, when the dancing was in full swing, the officer -hurriedly rushed among the dancers and told them to ‘cut it out’ as -three detectives had just come in and he did not want to see the place -closed up. A girl, apparently thirteen years of age, was dancing at -the time and the officer put her off the floor, loudly declaring -that the proprietor did not allow young girls to dance in the hall. -Things resumed their former aspect, however, as soon as the detectives -retired.”--Kneeland, George J.: Commercialized Prostitution in New York -City, pp. 68-70. Bureau of Social Hygiene. New York, Century Co., 1913. - -[83] See Cartwright, O. G.: The Middle West Side: Historical Notes. -(West Side Studies.) Russell Sage Foundation Publication. In -preparation. - -[84] The solidarity of this colony of Italians is not necessarily -typical of other colonies in the city, some of which are known to be -well represented in the charity organization records of their district. -One charitable agency reports, for instance, that in a certain upper -East Side district, nearly 90 per cent of the families applying for -relief in 1912-13 were Italian; but Italians undoubtedly formed a large -percentage of the population. - -[85] Among a group of 86 families visited, the length of residence in -the district was obtained for 79. Of these, 51 families had lived in -the district more than ten years. Eighteen of the 51 had come direct -from Italy and 33 had moved here from other parts of the city. - -[86] While the men in the group visited were found to be engaged in an -unusual variety of occupations--laborer, barber, waiter, and 40 others -were recorded during a general investigation among Italians in the -district--most noticeable was the group of well represented occupations -in which the whole family can share. - -[87] A law prohibiting employment of women in factories after 10 p. m. -became effective July 1, 1913. - -[88] When a family is found to be no longer in need of relief, the -case is technically referred to in the offices of the relief society -as “closed.” If further relief is needed at a later date, it is -“re-opened.” - -[89] See Chapter II, In the Grip of Poverty, p. 19. - -[90] For statement regarding births and deaths of children in 31 -families, not all of whom had relief records, see Chapter II, p. 23. - -[91] See Devine, Edward T.: Misery and Its Causes. New York, The -Macmillan Co., 1909. - -[92] See Chapter II, p. 22. - -[93] Breckinridge, Sophonisba P., and Abbott, Edith: The Delinquent -Child and the Home. Russell Sage Foundation Publication. New York, -Charities Publication Committee, 1912. - - -[Transcriber’s Note: - -Obvious printer errors corrected silently. - -Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation are as in the original.] - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of West Side Studies: Boyhood and -Lawlessness; The Neglected Gir, by Ruth Smiley True - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WEST SIDE STUDIES: BOYHOOD *** - -***** This file should be named 60116-0.txt or 60116-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/0/1/1/60116/ - -Produced by ellinora, Wayne Hammond and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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