CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
 3 1924 096 960 988 
 
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BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE 
 
 FISKE ENDOWMENT FUND 
 
 THE BEQUEST OF 
 
 UlillarCi 3?iske 
 
 LIBRARIAN OF THE UNIVERSITY 1868-1883 
 I905 
 
 8 ,1.&+%.^o., * a4Tn).U 
 
 9306 
 
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 
 
 E.V. 
 
V 
 
 
 |\,3 5H?^o 
 
PREFACE TO WEST SIDE STUDIES 
 
 IN the summer of 19 12 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 Lind- 
 say, director of the School, and 1 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 per- 
 manent 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. 
 
PREFACE TO WE5T SIDE STUDIES 
 
 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, be- 
 tween Thirty-fourth and Fifty-fourth Streets, contrast 
 sharply with almost all other tenement neighbor- 
 hoods of the city. They have as nearly homogene- 
 ous 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 immi- 
 grant groups, but the discouragement and deteriora- 
 tion of an indigenous American community. 
 
 The quarter which we studied is strangely detached 
 from the rest of the city. Only occasionally an out- 
 break of lawlessness brings it to public notice. Its old 
 reputation for violence and crime dates back many gen- 
 erations 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 his- 
 
PREFACE TO WEST SIDE STUDIES 
 
 torical 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 com- 
 munity have failed to understand and provide for the 
 most elementary physical needs of the boys./ 
 
 The same tragic lack of opportunity and care char- 
 acterizes the lives of the girls. Ruth S. True's por- 
 trayal 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 sug- 
 gest 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 modi- 
 fication of the conditions of the child's life and environ- 
 
PREFACE TO WEST SIDE STUDIES 
 
 jiment 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 th^ 
 most significant fact disclosed. To relieve such severe 
 economic pressure there is certainly need of more radi- 
 cal 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 in- 
 quiry are given herewith: Edward M. Barrows, Clin- 
 
PREFACE TO WEST SIDE STUDIES 
 
 ton 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 Doro- 
 thy 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.* 
 
 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 P.eliminary 
 Report, 1912. 
 
 Thanks are due to many persons who gave unstint- 
 edly of their time to the various investigators. Our 
 indebtedness is especially great to the staff of the Clin- 
 ton 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 
 
 * 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 maga- 
 zine articles. 
 
 vii 
 
PREFACE TO WEST SIDE STUDIES 
 
 other agencies, Hartley House was particularly gener- 
 ous 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. 
 
E 
 
 
RUSSELL SAGE 
 FOUNDATION 
 
 BOYHOOD 
 AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 WEST SIDE STUDIES 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 SURVEY ASSOCIATES, INC. 
 
 MCMXIV 
 
Copyright, 1914, by 
 The Russell Sage Foundation 
 
 THE TROW PBE83 
 NEW YOKE 
 
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 prob- 
 lems 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. Becausel 
 of this lawlessness and because of New York's back-' 
 wardness 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 neighbor- 
 hood 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 them- 
 selves 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 environ- 
 ment of the boys. 
 
 1 Since the West Side boy, either through personal con- 
 
 I tact or through association with gang leaders, is 
 
 inseparable from the Children's Court, attention was 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 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 * selected from the 
 district with particular reference to their delinquency 
 and their court records, f 
 
 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 tough- 
 ness, 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. 7 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 pri- 
 vate 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 
 
 * The names of the 294 boys studied were obtained from the fol- 
 lowing 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. 
 
 t See Chapter VI, The Boy and the Court, pp. 79 ff. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 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 prop- 
 erty 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 en- 
 forcing decency and order. And the center of the prob- 
 lem 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 prin- 
 cipal 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 circum- 
 stances for which not he but the entire community is 
 responsible. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PACE 
 
 Introduction ix 
 
 I. His Background I 
 
 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 
 
 xv 
 
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' " 9 8 
 
 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 PACE 
 
 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 Man- 
 hattan 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 em- 
 
 ployed 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 with- 
 out 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.* This means 
 that the boys belonged almost completely to the neigh- 
 borhood. 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 under- 
 stood. 
 
 /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 sud- 
 denness of the change which these blocks present makes 
 the contrast between wealth and poverty more strik- 
 ing and enables you to appreciate the particular form 
 
 * 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. 
 
 I 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 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 neigh- 
 borhood 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" * 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 
 
 * 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. 
 
HIS BACKGROUND 
 
 brick tenements surmount the plate glass of saloons 
 and shops. Here and there immense colored adver- 
 tisements 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 amaz- 
 ing 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 fail- 
 ure 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 disconso- 
 late. In its dingy tenements live some of the pooresti 
 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, ware- 
 houses, piano factories, and coal and lumber yards 
 
 3 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 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 neighbor- 
 hood was cheap and little sought for, and permission 
 to use it was readily given to the Hudson River Rail- 
 road.* 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 
 Treight 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 puolic 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 unin- 
 teresting 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 
 
 *See Cartwright, O. G.: The Middle West Side: A Historical 
 Sketch. (West Side Studies.) Russell Sage Foundation Publica- 
 tion. In Press. 
 
Tenth Avenue 
 
 Eleventh ("Death") Avenue 
 
HIS BACKGROUND 
 
 place. At one side of the pergola, however, lie the y 
 plots of the school farm in which small groups of 
 boys and girls may often be seen at work. Little at- 
 tempt has been made to develop a play center in the 
 park. On a fine Saturday afternoon it is often prac- 
 tically empty.* 
 
 Twelfth Avenue adjoins the Hudson River, los- 
 ing 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 samef 
 crowded and unsanitary tenements; the same untended 
 groups of playing children; the same rough men gath- 
 ered round the stores and saloons on the avenue; the 
 same sluggish women grouped on the steps of the ten- 
 ements 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 char- 
 
 * The People's Institute has undertaken, January, 1914, a neigh- 
 borhood work, which will correlate and broaden the various recre- 
 ation 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 cen- 
 ter there will be focused a neighborhood movement, which will 
 work in DeWitt Clinton playground, on West Fiftieth Street pier, 
 in the public libraries, and on the streets. 
 
 5 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 acteristic 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 Iife- 
 lessness 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, unin- 
 teresting, totally devoid of the color and picturesque- 
 ness 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 un- 
 spanned. 
 
 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 gar- 
 dens.* /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 fac- 
 tories 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 
 
 * See Cartwright, op. cit. In Press. 
 
 6 
 
HIS BACKGROUND 
 
 have long survived in spite of their dilapidated condi- 
 tion 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 deso- 
 lation and neglect, uninteresting to look at, unpleasant 
 to live in, overlooked, unsympathized with, and neg-y 
 lected 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.* Peculiar to 
 the district is the large number of families of the second 
 generation with parents who have been born and j 
 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.f 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; 
 
 * See Anthony, Katharine: Mothers Who Must Earn, p. 7. 
 (West Side Studies.) Russell Sage Foundation Publication. New 
 York, Survey Associates, 1914. 
 
 t 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. 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 21, Irish; 15, American; and 3, English. The paren- 
 tage 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.* 
 
 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 Ger- 
 mans living in a wild no-man's-land which has a crimi- 
 nal 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 esti- 
 mate 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. Usu- 
 ally those who come to live here find at first (like 
 Yorick's starling) that they cannot get out, and pres- 
 ently that they do not want to. It is not that condi- 
 tions throughout the district are economically extreme, 
 although greater misery and worse poverty cannot be 
 found in other parts of New York/ But there is some- 
 thing 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 
 
 * See Appendix, Tables 4 and 5, pp. 168 and 169. 
 
 8 
 
HIS BACKGROUND 
 
 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 visi- 
 tor 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_jiot only the crimes they commit, but their 
 chances for escaping criminality. If heredity and en- 
 vironment 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 in- 
 fancy 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 univer- 
 sally 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 
 
 10 
 
Bounce Ball with Wall as Base 
 Property is safe 
 
 'EBPW 
 
 Bounce Ball with Steps as Base 
 WinHnim in danger 
 
HIS PLAYGROUND 
 
 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. 
 
 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 com- 
 panionship, invite to recklessness, and offer conceal- 
 ment. 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 
 
 n 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 of a vigorous street ball game with the safety of his 
 plate glass windows. Drivers not unreasonably main- 
 tain 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 under- 
 stand 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 ac- 
 cepted 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 antag- 
 onism 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." 
 
 12 
 
HIS PLAYGROUND 
 
 But at this point two facts differentiate the Middle 
 West Side from the rest of the city, and make its situa- 
 tion peculiar. On the one hand, the parents and older 
 people of the district, instead of showing the usual in- 
 difference 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 vari- 
 ous 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 retali- 
 ation. Honest or dishonest, successful or otherwise, 
 
 13 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 the policeman certainly has a hard time of it. Wher- 
 ever 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 circum- 
 stances the guardian of the law is bewildered, and 
 tends to become unreasonably touchy and suspicious. 
 " 1 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 police- 
 man came in and asked me for my license. I told him 
 1 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 repu- 
 tation 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 
 
 14 
 
HIS PLAYGROUND 
 
 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 in- 
 creased 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 com- 
 panies 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 play- 
 
 15 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 ground sees its arrests. In the following table we 
 have classified by causes, from our own intimate knowl- 
 edge of each individual case, the arrests which took 
 place during \gf>Q among the boys of our 241 families. 
 The court's legal system of classification has been dis- 
 carded 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* 
 
 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 1 
 
 12 
 
 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 
 
 * For the classification of these arrests according to the court 
 charges see Chapter VI, The Boy and the Court, p. 82. 
 
 16 
 
HIS PLAYGROUND 
 
 Offenses against persons: 
 
 Assault 5 
 
 Stabbing 4 
 
 Use of firearms 3 
 
 Immorality 
 
 Intoxication 1 
 
 Total 13 
 
 Offenses against property: 
 
 Illegal use of transfers I 
 
 Petty thievery 58 
 
 Serious thievery 18 
 
 Burglary, i. e., breaking into houses and theft. 36 
 
 Forgery o 
 
 Breaking windows 4 
 
 Picking pockets 2 
 
 Total . 
 
 119 
 
 Offenses of mischief and annoyance: 
 
 Upsetting ash cans 7. 
 
 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 ines- 
 timable, 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 propor- 
 
 17 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 tion 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 expres- 
 sion 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 encour- 
 aged 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 no- 
 where 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, how- 
 ever, 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 
 18 
 
HIS PLAYGROUND 
 
 boys are caught for very serious offenses.* Most of 
 the arrests shown here are for causes which are com- 
 paratively 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 thej 
 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' any- 
 thing 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 neigh- 
 borhood'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 dis- 
 charged, 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, 
 
 * See Chapter VI, pp. 95 ff. 
 
 >9 
 
HIS PLAYGROUND 
 
 ways. 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. Neigh- 
 bors 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 occa- 
 sional 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 
 
 21 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 of openly. The sacredness of life itself finds no pro- 
 tecting 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 intoxi- 
 cated. 
 
 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 crimi- 
 nal, 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 incompre- 
 hensible 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 
 
 22 
 
HIS PLAYGROUND 
 
 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 insti- 
 tutions 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." 
 
 23 
 
CHAPTER III 
 HIS GAMES 
 
 IT would be impossible to describe the thousand and 
 one uses to which the West Side boy puts his play- 
 ground. 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 oppor- 
 tunity 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. 
 
 24 
 
HIS GAMES 
 
 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 reassem- 
 bled 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 
 
 25 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 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 bon- 
 fires 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 tene- 
 ment 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 tri- 
 umphantly 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.* 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, 
 
 * For account of one of these raids see Chapter IV, pp. 48-49. 
 
 26 
 
HIS GAMES 
 
 and by 8 o'clock the streets, formerly so picturesque 
 and so dangerous, presented a sad and sober appear- 
 ance. The tenement lights shone out on heaps of 
 blackened embers and on groups of despairing young- 
 sters 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 dis- 
 comfort 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 pos- 
 sible 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 mak- 
 ing 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 neigh- 
 borhood, 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. 
 
 27 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 "Shooting craps," for instance, and pitching or match- 
 ing 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 by- 
 standers 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. Per- 
 fect 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 tene- 
 ments, 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 sum- 
 mer, 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 ven- 
 ture in the days of the pirates. Pigeon owners also 
 train their birds to circle about the neighborhood and 
 
 28 
 
Pigeon Flying. A Roof Game 
 
 Marbles. A Street Game 
 
HIS GAMES 
 
 bring back strangers. These strangers are taken in- 
 side, fed, and accustomed to the place before they are 
 released again. On Sunday mornings and Sunday even- 
 ings the pigeons are to be seen flying around the neigh- 
 borhood, 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 dis- 
 tant roofs. The sticks have a triple use. Pigeon own- 
 ers 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. 
 
 The two chief sports of the Middle West Side — base- 
 ball 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 inter- 
 ference. The diamond is marked out on the roadway, 
 the bases indicated by paving bricks, sticks, or news- 
 papers. 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. Notwithstand- 
 ing these precautions, as the juvenile court records 
 
 29 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 show, they are constantly being caught. In a great 
 majority of these match games too much police vigi- 
 lance 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 side- 
 walk farther down the street. When one sees the 
 words "Arrested for playing with a hard ball in a pub- 
 lic 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 prop- 
 erty, 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 an- 
 other 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 re- 
 sponsible business men, who themselves know the law 
 
 30 
 
HIS GAMES 
 
 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 trans- 
 action. 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 lead- 
 ers of the neighborhood usually have uniforms, and to 
 belong to a uniformed team is one of the great ambi- 
 tions of the West Side boy. 
 
 3> 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 Down on the waterfront the broad, smooth quays 
 offer a tempting place for baseball, especially on Sun- 
 days 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 six- 
 teen-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 
 
 32 
 
HIS GAMES 
 
 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 prop- 
 erty 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 fight- 
 ing 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 dis- 
 trict. 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. 
 
 33 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 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 ath- 
 letic 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 accord- 
 ing to his ability and experience, and is given another 
 chance. If he can continue to make favorable appear- 
 ances 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 accord- 
 ingly becomes a hero in his circle of youthful acquain- 
 tances. 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 pro- 
 fessional boxers of the neighborhood dissociate them 
 in practice as well as in theory; they take their pro- 
 fession for what it is — a game tec be played in a sports- 
 manlike 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 
 
 34 
 
Prize Fighters in Training 
 
 Craps with Money at Stake 
 
HIS GAMES 
 
 because I like the game," he said, "but I've no use for 
 fighting." 
 
 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 sub- 
 mitted 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 combat- 
 ants 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 dis- 
 
 35 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 abling an opponent as much as possible, the sport de- 
 generates 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 profes- 
 sional boxers who, from the very nature of their some- 
 what strenuous employment, must keep in good con- 
 dition, 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 fight- 
 ing, 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 com- 
 mon 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 em- 
 phasize the lesson taught by their effects on boy life 
 as they are practiced in this neighborhood. 
 
 The philosophy of the West Side youngster is prac- 
 tical and not speculative. Otherwise he could not fail 
 to notice very early in his career that the world in gen- 
 eral, from the mother who bundles him out of an over- 
 crowded tenement in the morning, to the grown-ups in 
 the street playground where most of his time is spent, 
 
 36 
 
HIS GAMES 
 
 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 pen- 
 nies he is "obstructing the sidewalk," and craps, quite 
 apart from the fact that it is gambling, constitutes the 
 same offense. Street fighting individually or collec- 
 tively 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. Tene- 
 ments 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 
 
 37 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 accepts — and must accept — illegal and immoral amuse- 
 ments 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 play- 
 grounds 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. 
 
 38 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 HIS GANGS 
 
 IT is frequently necessary in these chapters to con- 
 sider 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 con- 
 stant 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 
 
 39 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 its activities the rough affection, comfort, and amuse- 
 ment 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 spon- 
 taneous, 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 stan- 
 dards are his aims, and its activities his happiness. Un- 
 trammeled by the perversion of special circumstances it 
 might encourage his latent interests, train him to obedi- 
 ence and loyalty, show him the method and the saving 
 of co-operation, and teach him the beauty of self-sacri- 
 fice. 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. Associa- 
 tion 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 condi- 
 tions, it is inevitable that this should be so; but with 
 the first movement toward amelioration such a result 
 becomes less necessary. 
 
 Take the case of a certain gang typical of this neigh- 
 borhood. 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 
 
 40 
 
Hinvg 3hi aajjy 
 
 SM3IQ10S aNV 5XOOD2 Aog 
 
HIS GANGS 
 
 the throng of children in their immediate neighborhood 
 and first made for themselves a cave between two lum- 
 ber 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 head- 
 quarters next in the empty basement of a tenement, but 
 soon moved at the well reinforced request of the land- 
 lord. 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 occu- 
 pied and away from the street influences. But the set- 
 tlement 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 
 
 4i 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 by the deficiencies of their surroundings as a play- 
 ground, 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. 
 •J There are two salient features of gang life in this 
 neighborhood. Both can be easily explained and abun- 
 dantly 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"* 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 play- 
 ground 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 locali- 
 ties. 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 
 
 * This term is commonly applied to all the thugs and loafers of the 
 Middle West Side. 
 
 42 
 
HIS GANGS 
 
 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 demonstra- 
 tions 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 1 5 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 recog- 
 nized 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 
 
 43 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 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 be- 
 come 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 particu- 
 lar 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 coun- 
 try 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 mur- 
 der and robbery as though these were familiar events 
 in their lives. They lay tentative plans for the rob- 
 
 44 
 
HIS GANGS 
 
 bery 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 neigh- 
 borhood are really armed, though most of them would 
 have their companions believe that they are. Occa- 
 sionally some youngster does manage to carry a re- 
 volver, 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 ten- 
 dency 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 
 
 45 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 residence recently remarked, "but they are getting 
 worse in character every year until now it seems that 
 they w : ll stop at nothing. They carry knives, clubs, 
 and even, 1 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, ' 1 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 appar- 
 ently from eight to fifteen years old. One gang pro- 
 ceeded 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 shout- 
 ing 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 fol- 
 
 46 
 
HIS GANGS 
 
 lowed. 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 op- 
 ponents. Most of them contented themselves with 
 hurling missiles indiscriminately into the opposing 
 group. In the midst of the melee 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 
 
 47 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 about ioo 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 indig- 
 nantly 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 re- 
 volver. 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 de- 
 clared by the despoiled, and a regular after-school cam- 
 paign followed. Through an injury to one of their 
 number the gang in an intervening street became in- 
 volved, 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 neighbor- 
 hood. The boys of the defensive gang more than held 
 
 48 
 
Resting. What Next? 
 
 Early Lessons in Craps 
 
HIS GANGS 
 
 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 noti- 
 fied 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. 
 
 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 indefi- 
 nitely, 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 * 
 
 *New York Tribune, December 18,1911. 
 49 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 GIRL SHOT IN GANG FIGHT 
 
 Seriously Wounded While Walking in Elev- 
 enth Avenue — Assailant Escapes* 
 
 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 Hurtj 
 
 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 ven- 
 ture 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 tobein a wholecrowd attack- 
 ing 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 be- 
 tween Fiftieth and Sixtieth Streets, and the situa- 
 tion 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 
 
 * New York Times, June 26, 191 1. 
 f New York World, February 24, 1910. 
 
 50 
 
HIS GANGS 
 
 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 demoraliz- 
 ing 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 dis- 
 cern in the gang's activities a striving after the unat- 
 tainable 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 
 
 5> 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 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 overw helm ing advantages. An 
 attack upon three or four or even one defenseless boy 
 by 30 or 40 merciless youngsters, who even at- 
 tempt 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 rifelrTthe 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 mem- 
 ber 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 un- 
 expected 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 ex- 
 pected, 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 : 
 
 52 
 
HIS GANGS 
 
 "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 neighbor- 
 hood, 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 hor- 
 rors take place for which it is impossible to place re- 
 sponsibility. Rumors of boys being stabbed, shot, 
 clubbed, maimed, and even killed are current every- 
 where, and there is good reason to believe that many 
 of them are true. Such things are, of course, never 
 
 53 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 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 consider- 
 able proportion of them are due to the boy and his 
 gang. 
 
 And so the word "gang" here has grown to be syn- 
 onymous 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 boy- 
 hood 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 tie 
 question in this neighborhood is that of the gangs." 
 
 54 
 
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 char- 
 acteristics 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 appre- , 
 ciable 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 
 
 55 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 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 par- 
 ents 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. Surround- 
 ing 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 
 canon. 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 
 
 56 
 
HIS HOME 
 
 twenty-five years ago (some are forty years old or 
 more), and in the ten years preceding 191 1 only two 
 modern tenements had been erected in the whole dis- 
 trict. Most of the tenements so adjoin that the roofs 
 of one are accessible from those on either side. Fre- 
 quently 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. Simi- 
 larly, 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 stair- 
 way 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,* 
 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 pre- 
 vailing type of tenements ; only doorways ; and whether 
 these are hung with curtains or not, privacy within the 
 home is naturally almost impossible. Family quarrels 
 
 * See Appendix, Table 6, p. 169. 
 
 57 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 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 23 1 
 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 1 1 
 living children.* 
 
 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 mem- 
 bers, 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 
 
 * For further data regarding size of families, see Appendix, Table 
 7, p. 170. 
 
 58 
 
HIS HOME 
 
 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.* 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.f 
 
 As regards ambitions and ideals, the word "home" 
 may stand for anything from the thrifty German house- 
 hold 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 "tough- 
 ness." Here and there a fairly well-to-do family has 
 been held by the ownership of a business or a house, 
 
 * 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. 
 
 t 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. 
 
 59 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 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 accept- 
 ing 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,* 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 
 
 * 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 1 1, pp. 171 and 172. 
 
 60 
 
HIS HOME 
 
 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 chil- 
 dren. 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 re- 
 fuses to accept the shadows of her own overworked 
 and saddened lot. Many of these women came from 
 
 61 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 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," fol- 
 lowed by those terrible first years of bitter disillusion- 
 ment 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 am- 
 bition, 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 
 
 62 
 
HIS HOME 
 
 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 whichjier S 
 own standards impose, the fact that she "does not 
 bother with sucrTTike 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 
 
 63 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 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 thay 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 wrong- 
 doing. 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." 
 
 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 
 
 64 
 
Approaching the "Gopher" Age 
 
 One Diversion of the Older Boys 
 
HIS HOME 
 
 forgiven a stalwart fellow by the woman who is feed- 
 ing 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 any- 
 thing 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. Some- 
 times this shipwreck is accepted with a Spartan quies- 
 cence; 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 de- 
 linquency. 
 
 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 
 
 65 
 
 1/ 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 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 pres- 
 ent 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 knowl- 
 edge 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 '11 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 com- 
 plaints 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 land- 
 
 66 
 
HIS HOME 
 
 lord, the janitress, the comer 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." More- 
 over, 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 I 
 in New York." Truancy and cigarettes are issues onj 
 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 
 
 67 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 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 desir- 
 able 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 ac- 
 complished. 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 out- 
 sider 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 
 
 68 
 
HIS HOME 
 
 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 border- 
 line 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 
 
 69 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 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 pre- 
 tend 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 asser- 
 tive 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 both- 
 ered 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 "wild- 
 ness" 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 
 
 70 
 
, HIS HOME - 
 
 and, if the youngster has had the bad luck to be pres- 
 ent, 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 
 
 7i 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 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 re- 
 ceive 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 sim- 
 ple 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 in- 
 terest 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 aspira- 
 tions. " 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 chil- 
 dren, 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 
 
HIS HOME 
 
 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 up- 
 set 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 com- 
 plaint, 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 alterna- 
 tive. 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 organi- 
 zation or church, which is legitimate prey if there is 
 something to be gained. Beyond the calls upon their 
 
 73 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 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 fur- 
 nish 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 tene- 
 ment 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? 
 
 Home conditions, the tension of constant quarreling, 
 74 
 
Replenishing the Wood Box 
 
 
 A Rich Find 
 
HIS HOME 
 
 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 stimu- 
 lus of tea and coffee from childhood. Sugar comes from 
 the grocery fairly clogged with flour. The coffee con- 
 tains barley and other cheap ingredients. Cheap jellies 
 and condiments poison him with their acids and color- 
 ing 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 store- 
 keeper 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 
 
 75 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 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 
 ,/ii 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 hope- 
 lessness 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 con- 
 ditions 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 
 
 76 
 
HIS HOME 
 
 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 counter- 
 act 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 j 
 of space for storage helps to force uneconomical market-,' 
 ing; its lack of size and equipment drives the boy toj 
 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 tene- 
 ments 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 
 
 77 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS' 
 
 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. 
 
 78 
 
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 Man- 
 hattan. 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 reorgani- 
 zation 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 prac- 
 tically 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 situ- 
 ation 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 in- 
 strument 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, 
 
 79 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 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 com- 
 mit 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, 
 
 80 
 
THE BOY AND THE COURT 
 
 but of juvenile delinquency only."* 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 con- 
 veyance, . . . 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. 13 10 Penal Law 
 
 a. Petty Larceny. 
 
 b. Grand Larceny. 
 Sec. 405 Penal Law 
 
 Burglary and Unlawful Entry. 
 Sec. 242 Penal Law 
 
 Assault. 
 Sec. 161 o Penal Law 
 
 Peddling without License. 
 Sec. 1990 Penal Law 
 
 "Riding on freight trains; boarding cars in motion; ob- 
 structing passage of car." 
 Sec. 2120 
 
 Robbery. 
 
 Besides the violations of the penal law, violations of 
 
 * 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. 
 
 8l 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 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* 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 duplicatest 2 
 
 Total 463 
 
 * 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. 
 t There were two cases in which an arrest was made on more than 
 
 one charge. 
 
 82 
 
' '•■■- ' - 
 
 
 A Ball Game Near the Docks 
 
 "Obstructing Traffic" on Twelfth Avenue 
 
THE BOY AND THE COURT 
 
 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.* 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, f The cases 
 before the court had to be rushed through with great 
 speed. In 1909, over 1 1,000 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.? 
 
 The court building, which was once the headquarters 
 of the Department of Corrections, has long been con- 
 gested, inconvenient, dingy, and unsanitary.§ The 
 
 * 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. 
 
 f 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. 
 
 t 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. 
 
 § A modern court building is now in process of erection in East 
 Twenty-second Street, between Lexington and Third Avenues. 
 
 83 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 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 Preven- 
 tion 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.* The total amount spent by the city for 
 court service in handling over 1 1,000 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 1 90 1, but children under sixteen were excluded 
 through the efforts of the Society for the Prevention of 
 Cruelty to Children. f In 1903, a compromise was made 
 which permitted the appointment of an official proba- 
 tion staff. Until the series of adjustments and improve- 
 ments recommended by the reports of the Page Commis- 
 siont in April, 19 10, was begun, the agents of the Society 
 
 * The New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children 
 (Incorporated). Thirty-fifth Annual Report, Dec. 31, 1909, p. 17. 
 
 t " As prepared by the New York Prison Association, the bill was 
 applicable to both children and adults, but owing to the active op- 
 position 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. 1 1 was claimed by the Society for 
 the Prevention of Cruelty to Children that existing laws made ade- 
 quate provision for the treatment of delinquent children." Report 
 of the Probation Commission of the State of New York, 1906, pp. 8 
 and 9. 
 
 J Commission to Inquire into the Courts of Inferior Criminal 
 Jurisdiction in Cities of the First Class. Final Reports. New York 
 Assembly Documents, 133rd Session, 19 10, Vol. 26, No. 54. 
 
 84 
 
THE BOY AND THE COURT 
 
 for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and the 
 volunteer probation societies did the only work ap- 
 proaching probation in nature.* 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 sig- 
 nifies practically an adjournment of the case. The over- 
 sight of the children on parole is not clearly separated 
 from the work of the agents of the Society for the Pre- 
 vention of Cruelty to Children." t 
 
 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, incor- 
 porated 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' 
 
 * Changes made in 19 13 have been discussed on p. 87. 
 t Folks, Homer: Juvenile Probation in New York. The Survey, 
 xxiii: pp. 671-672. (Feb. 5, 1910). 
 
 85 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 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 establish- 
 ment 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 move- 
 ment 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 
 
 86 
 
THE BOY AND THE COURT 
 
 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,* in contrast to the 
 Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, have 
 not been in any way connected officially with the court.t 
 
 I. 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, 19 10. 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. 
 
 * 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. 
 
 t 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 treat- 
 ment 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. 
 
 87 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 Once arrested, he was led to the nearest police station, 
 followed by a throng of curious onlookers. At the sta- 
 tion 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 morn- 
 ing. 
 
 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 deci- 
 sion is left to the discretion of the officer, and bail 
 was sometimes required for trivial offenses.* 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 
 
 * 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. 
 
 88 
 
THE BOY AND THE COURT 
 
 appealed to him at once, without waiting for her hus- 
 band to tell her. Furthermore, Mrs. Hannon triumph- 
 antly 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.* 
 
 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 
 
 * "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 oblig- 
 ing. 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 effec- 
 tive. 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. 
 
 89 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 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 build- 
 ing, 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.* 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 
 
 * 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. 
 
 90 
 
THE BOY AND THE COURT 
 
 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. Some- 
 times 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 " re- 
 
 9i 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 inanded 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 re- 
 fused 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 impos- 
 sible 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 in- 
 difference was concerned, it was correspondingly in- 
 effective. 
 
 The kinds of disposition which the judge might make 
 of any given case are as follows: 
 
 (i) 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 im- 
 proper 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 
 
 92 
 
THE BOY AND THE COURT 
 
 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 sus- 
 pended, 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 bef 
 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 
 
 93 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 guardianship cases, if the agent's investigation has re- 
 vealed 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 re- 
 formatories. The House of Refuge is in many respects 
 a prison for minors. Boys are committed to it who can- 
 not 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 resume 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 disposi- 
 tion 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 con- 
 cerning 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.* 
 
 * For statistical data see Appendix, Table 12, p. 172. 
 94 
 
THE BOY AND THE COURT 
 
 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 delin- 
 quency. 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 sen- 
 tence, whipped, or fined; (2) the group of 95 paroled 
 cases; (3) the group of 99 cases committed to institu- 
 tions. 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.* 
 We have recorded 260 of these cases, considered trivial 
 by the court and closed officially as soon as the offender 
 
 * 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. 
 
 95 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 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 "dis- 
 charged." 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. Some- 
 times 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 
 
 96 
 
THE BOY AND THE COURT 
 
 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 com- 
 plainant, 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 punish- 
 ment, 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 
 
 97 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 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." I n 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 on- 
 looker 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 
 
 98 
 
"We Ain't Doin' Nothin' 
 
 Ihe Same Gang at Craps 
 
THE BOY AND THE COURT 
 
 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. 
 
 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 viola- 
 tion of a city ordinance; they had "obstructed a side- 
 walk 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 way- 
 wardness 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 
 
 99 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 boys of working age all had steady jobs. The explana- 
 tion 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 partic- 
 ular 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.Sharkeyscrubbed 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 hos- 
 pital 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 in- 
 terference of the right sort; but thanks to the marvelous 
 
 ioo 
 
THE BOY AND THE COURT 
 
 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 pilfer- 
 ing. 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 out- 
 look 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 prosper- 
 ous 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 an- 
 
 101 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 tagonism 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 main- 
 stay 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 steal- 
 ing 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. 
 
 102 
 
THE BOY AND THE COURT 
 
 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 fre- 
 quent, 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 
 
 103 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 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 de- 
 clared 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 re- 
 mained. 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 Iaundryman'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 
 104 
 
THE BOY AND THE COURT 
 
 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 ex- 
 perience 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 direc- 
 tion 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 
 
 105 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 fear looms up that their boy is to be taken away. In 
 the momentary panic, good women who have the wel- 
 fare 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. 
 
 1 06 
 
THE BOY AND THE COURT 
 
 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* in the children's 
 court of Manhattan, the judges had to rely on volun- 
 teer probation and what is known as " paroIe."t Under 
 the so-called parole system as it existed in connection 
 
 * As already indicated official probation has taken the place of the 
 "parole" system since this chapter was written. 
 
 t This use of the term "parole" is not strictly correct. "Parole" 
 more properly applies to the supervision of delinquents after release 
 from institutions. 
 
 107 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 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 dis- 
 regarded. 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 con- 
 sideration 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 de- 
 cided 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 
 
 108 
 
THE BOY AND THE COURT 
 
 •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 hear- 
 ing, 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 ref- 
 ormation 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 im- 
 109 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 portant 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, liv- 
 ing 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 5 1 where she earns |6.oo 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 asso- 
 ciates 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 em- 
 no 
 
THE BOY AND THE COURT 
 
 ployer. 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 insur- 
 ing complete and thorough investigation through the 
 employment of a trained staff of workers cannot be over- 
 emphasized.* 
 
 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 long- 
 shoreman. 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 fol- 
 lowing report was obtained: "Attendance satisfactory, con- 
 duct excellent, work fair to good." 
 
 The two boys, the two homes, the two situations were 
 
 * Since the above was written, a new system of records recom- 
 mended by the state probation commission has been adopted by the 
 court for the use of probation officers. They cover all cases investi- 
 gated or on probation since March, 1912. 
 
 I I I 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 radically different. Yet, although there may be no mis- 
 statement, the cases of the boy JamesandtheboyPatrick 
 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 de- 
 fensive 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 reputa- 
 tion from one end of the block to the other as being Hie 
 "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 
 
 I 12 
 
THE BOY AND THE COURT 
 
 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 contrib- 
 utors 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 in- 
 clude 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 em- 
 ployer'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 employ- 
 ment, 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 
 
 113 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 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 neighbor- 
 hood. Yet the records of the relief societies often con- 
 tained 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 valu- 
 able 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 sup- 
 plemented 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 pref- 
 erence to the parole and suspension of sentence which 
 sent him back to the streets absolutely without super- 
 vision. Thus the social worker who may have been 
 watching a hopeless situation drag on for years with- 
 out 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 informa- 
 
 114 
 
THE BOY AND THE COURT 
 
 tion 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 dif- 
 ficult 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 de- 
 scribed 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 un- 
 doubtedly 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 out- 
 come of parole in our 95 cases.* In 78 cases the boy 
 
 * For three of the 95 paroled cases this information was not avail- 
 able. 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. 
 
 •15 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 was discharged or sentence was suspended when the 
 parole period ended; in 14 cases the boy was com- 
 mitted 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 judg- 
 ment 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 com- 
 mitted 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 his- 
 tories 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. 
 
 1 16 
 
THE BOY AND THE COURT 
 
 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 accom- 
 plish. 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 sen- 
 tence of commitment is, was no better alternative pos- 
 sible? The preceding discussion has shown that the 
 judge has been seriously hampered through lack of pro- 
 vision 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 over- 
 sight 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 direc- 
 tion of discipline and an ordered life, and has the neigh- 
 borhood 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 insti- 
 tutions to which the boys were committed or any sta- 
 tistical inquiry into their results. As in the previous 
 chapters, the angle of vision was exclusively that of the 
 
 117 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 district. A certain group of the neighborhood boys had 
 been committed, and we tried to find out how the neigh- 
 borhood 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 con- 
 cern 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 con- 
 sulted — 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 es- 
 capades 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 handi- 
 cap 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 chil- 
 dren's court. The division of these cases falls largely 
 along religious lines. The Catholic Protectory receives 
 
 118 
 
THE BOY AND THE COURT 
 
 all the children of Catholic parents, excepting the ex- 
 treme cases of delinquent girls, who are sent to the 
 House of the Good Shepherd. The children of Protes- 
 tant 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 sit- 
 uation. 
 
 The absence of investigation was definitely trace- 
 able 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 signifi- 
 cance 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 
 
 1 19 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 what these homes were like.* 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 evi- 
 dence in hand. We may well doubt whether in the 
 cases of some of these boys there was not a better alter- 
 native 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 occa- 
 sionally reverse the decision for a commitment. Cer- 
 tain cases that seem desperate at the hearing do not 
 prove hopeless when conditions are thoroughly under- 
 stood, and are sometimes capable of disentanglement 
 at home. Certainly every intelligent effort should be 
 made by the court before allowing the odium of com- 
 mitment 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 
 
 * This condition was changed with the installation of the official 
 probation staff in March, 1912. 
 
 120 
 
THE BOY AND THE COURT 
 
 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 wait- 
 ing 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 tem- 
 porary lapse should have been condoned. Commit- 
 ment 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 commit- 
 ment 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 apa- 
 thetically, had "got out from under her" and condi- 
 
 121 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 tions had been too much for them. More terrible pic- 
 tures 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 after- 
 ward a third arrest sent him to the Catholic Protec- 
 tory. 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 after- 
 ward a sixth arrest sent him to the Protectory for a 
 second term. 
 
 Michael, his brother, had had three different sen- 
 tences 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 
 
 122 
 
THE BOY AND THE COURT 
 
 some other institution, because "he had been in the 
 College three times already," He was sent to the 
 truant school. 
 
 The following outlines give in graphic form the de- 
 linquency 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 sus- 
 pended. 
 
 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. Dis- 
 charged 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. Dis- 
 charged. (No parole investiga- 
 tion.) 
 
 October 7, 1909 Arrested at 1 1 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 com- 
 mitted to the Catholic Protec- 
 tory. Released September, 1906. 
 
 December 12, 1906 Arrested for stone throwing and 
 
 committed to the Catholic Pro- 
 tectory. Released January, 1908. 
 
 May 1, 1908 Arrested for burglary — stole iron 
 
 fixtures from a vacant house. 
 Paroled. 
 123 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 June 23, 1908 Charged with truancy. Committed 
 
 to the Catholic Protectory. Re- 
 leased December 14, 1909. 
 
 April 23, 19 10 Arrested. Hearing 25th. Fined 
 
 $1.00. 
 
 January, 191 1 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 rare- 
 ly 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 improve- 
 ment. 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 
 
 124 
 
THE BOY AND THE COURT 
 
 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 disci- 
 pline 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 commit- 
 ment 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. 
 
 '25 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 Again, there is a group of families who use commit- 
 ment 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 suffi- 
 ciently 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 resent- 
 ful, 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 his- 
 tories of boys whose lives showed notable improvement 
 after the sentence. There were two such boys, in par- 
 
 126 
 
THE BOY AND THE COURT 
 
 ticular, who had been distinctly "bad" boys before 
 their sojourn in the institution. 
 
 Martin Donnelly was one of the "successful" insti- 
 tution 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 
 
 127 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 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 pro- 
 gressive improvement. In the Doyle gang, for in- 
 stance, we had eleven boys who had all been serious 
 delinquents and who had been committed to institu- 
 tions, 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 commit- 
 ment 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 con- 
 duct 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. Pro- 
 
 128 
 
THE BOY AND THE COURT 
 
 ceeding 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 any- 
 body outside the gang. 
 
 Raymond Doyle, the oldest of the brothers, was six- 
 teen. 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 dis- 
 charged. 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 trans- 
 ferred 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 com- 
 pany with John Larrabie and the two Rafferty boys 
 when Larrabie threw a brick and killed an organ 
 
 129 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 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 per- 
 suaded 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 de- 
 linquency history. It is true that Patrick was not con- 
 sidered 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 un- 
 checked 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 
 
 130 
 
THE BOY AND THE COURT 
 
 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 ac- 
 counts 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 
 
 131 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 and went to a restaurant, where they were subsequently 
 taken in charge by the detective. Th6 judge sen- 
 tenced 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 chil- 
 dren's court as complainant and did all in his power to 
 secure the three convictions. On the other hand, Sam- 
 uel'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." Rea- 
 soning in this way, according to the easy-going stan- 
 dards 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 has 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 
 
 132 
 
THE BOY AND THE COURT 
 
 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 trans- 
 fer 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 Mc- 
 Grattys 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. 
 
 '33 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 John Larrabie, who killed an organ grinder, was no 
 worse than several of his gang. His family was de- 
 graded and desperately poor. The father drank and 
 the mother was given to loud-voiced harangues and to 
 calling maledictions down upon neighbors who dis- 
 pleased 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 Novem- 
 ber, 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 
 
 '34 
 
THE BOY AND THE COURT 
 
 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 recom- 
 mended 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 inform- 
 ing 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 con- 
 ditions 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 sympa- 
 thetic neighbor, leaving the small children to shift for 
 themselves. When she returned home it was to bring 
 
 '35 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 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 Lar- 
 rabie 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 re- 
 committed 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, in- 
 
 .36 
 
THE BOY AND THE COURT 
 
 deed, 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 con- 
 trol 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 immo- 
 rality, had promised to deprive him of his last motive 
 to reform. 
 
 The Rafferty family was one in which vice, drunken- 
 ness, and squalor had combined to misshape the lives 
 of the children. The law should have proved the sal- 
 vation 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 reforma- 
 tion 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 supervi- 
 sion and guidance, seems futile indeed. The histories 
 recorded here indicate clearly that with few exceptions 
 
 »37 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 neither boy nor family nor community had been bene- 
 fited 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 neigh- 
 borhood. 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 en- 
 vironment 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 situa- 
 tions, 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 substi- 
 tute for it. 
 
 V. SUMMARY 
 
 Reviewing our study of the three groups of boys de- 
 scribed 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 im- 
 pression made by the court was rarely a permanent one. 
 
 138 
 
THE BOY AND THE COURT 
 
 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, commit- 
 ment to an institution for a definite short term usually 
 fails to remake the character of a boy who has been sub- 
 jected both before and after his sojourn in the institu- 
 tion 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 pro- 
 bation 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 in- 
 vestigator 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 
 
 •39 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 other hand, the neighborhood agencies which are fa- 
 miliar with his individual and family history, and may 
 be enlisted in reforming him. 
 
 A thorough physical and mental examination is nec- 
 essary in many cases before the court can proceed in- 
 telligently in its treatment.* A fundamental need also 
 in the treatment of juvenile delinquency is the con- 
 ferring 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 appre- 
 hended 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 com- 
 mitted 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 super- 
 vision and control is, except in rare instances, a futile 
 expedient. 
 
 * In 1913 a law was enacted for the appointment of three physi- 
 cians 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. 
 
 I40 
 
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 at- 
 tempt 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 espe- 
 cially 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;* 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 
 
 * See also Anthony, Katharine: Mothers Who Must Earn, p. 9. 
 141 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 line of least resistance is worn smooth in his neighbor- 
 hood, and it is natural and easy to fall in with the par- 
 ental 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 steal- 
 ing 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, in- 
 cluding 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 ques- 
 tion 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 
 
 142 
 

 . i^mm- 
 
 y ' - - 
 
 Carrying Loot From a Vacant Building 
 
THE CENTER OF THE PROBLEM 
 
 sees one's elders acknowledging none, the temptation to 
 adopt the tactics of the thief and the thug becomes 
 almost irresistible. 
 
 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 con- 
 tinue 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. 
 
 143 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 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 apart- 
 ment 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 per- 
 son; 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.* 
 
 Vandals destroyed three truckloads of scenery- 
 stored last night on "The Farm," in Twelfth Avenue 
 between Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixth Streets. . . . 
 
 Shortly after 1 1 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 habitu- 
 ally 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. 
 
 *New York Evening Mail, April 28, 191 1. 
 144 
 
THE CENTER OF THE PROBLEM 
 
 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 in- 
 dulgence 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 re- 
 frain 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 meet- 
 ings. 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 prin- 
 ciple which they themselves had established. A few 
 parents objected on principle to their boys' smoking, 
 but they had not the power or opportunity of prevent- 
 ing it. So the cigarette habit is added to the boy's 
 
 145 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 vices, and the stunted, anemic cigarette fiend is a fre- 
 quent 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 suc- 
 cumbed. Usually one or more boys may be found with 
 the group, overcome with drink. 
 
 Little attention is paid by the neighborhood to drunk- 
 enness, and among the boys themselves it is regarded as 
 rather a joke for one of their number to become intoxi- 
 cated. The worst feature of intemperance here is, in- 
 
 146 
 
ip-j 
 
 I 
 
 De Witt Clinton Park 
 The only city playground on a bright Saturday afternoon 
 
 r^-^tr--- ~±i«.. 
 
 A Favorite Playground 
 The beer pail is frequently refilled during the game 
 
THE CENTER OF THE PROBLEM 
 
 deed, 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 intemper- 
 ance; 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 
 
 •47 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 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 sulki- 
 ness, 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 handi- 
 capped. 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 inexpan- 
 sibility, 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 
 
 148 
 
THE CENTER OF THE PROBLEM 
 
 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 in- 
 fluences — the lure of the street and the instinct of obe- 
 dience 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.* 
 
 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 fol- 
 l ow us i nto a candy store on Eleventh Avenue, and 
 there we tried to sell it. It was a dandy dog, a thorough- 
 bred, 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 
 
 * 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. 
 
 149 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 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 em- 
 ployes' 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 further- 
 ing 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 
 
 150 
 
THE CENTER OF THE PROBLEM 
 
 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 state- 
 ment 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 unobtru- 
 sively 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 re- 
 sources here described. 
 
 Akin to truancy is the "wanderlust." This passion 
 to get out and away, travel, and court adventure, comes 
 
 151 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 to the boy of the Middle West Side as it comes to most 
 boys — and often he obeys its call. The resulting ex- 
 periences 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 
 1 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. 1 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 1 slept that night in the door- 
 way 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 
 
 152 
 
THE CENTER OF THE PROBLEM 
 
 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 sup- 
 posed it was Springfield but it wasn't; it was only Harris- 
 burg. 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 1 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 
 
 •53 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 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 any- 
 where 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 Over- 
 brook, 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 Deten- 
 tion, 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 "fete" 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 sig- 
 
 •54 
 
THE CENTER OF THE PROBLEM 
 
 nificance 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 reproduc- 
 tion, 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 neigh- 
 borhood 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 
 
 '55 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 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 exer- 
 tion; 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 clever- 
 ness 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 undepend- 
 able. 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 
 
 .56 
 
THE CENTER OF THE PROBLEM 
 
 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 consum- 
 mately 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 sus- 
 ceptible at this time to home and outside influence, and 
 if only the opportunity can be taken it will be not un- 
 likely to prove the turning point in his life. But too 
 
 157 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 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 chick- 
 ens, 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 
 
 158 
 
THE CENTER OF THE PROBLEM 
 
 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 irregu- 
 larly 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.* In a fit of temper or idle- 
 ness he surrenders his job; perhaps he loses it unwilling- 
 ly. Whole days of enforced freedom will follow. One 
 day in the streets between weeks of monotonous hard- 
 ship 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 idle- 
 ness 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 hang- 
 er-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 
 
 * For occupations and wages of the boys who were at work see 
 Appendix, Table 15, p. 174. 
 
 '59 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 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 im- 
 
 160 
 
THE CENTER OF THE PROBLEM 
 
 possible 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 capac- 
 ity 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 over- 
 whelmed 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, 191 1, and 
 for its truth to life it cannot be bettered. 
 
 Johnnie Moran, twelve years old, . . . was arraigned to- 
 day ... 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. 
 
 161 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 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 uncon- 
 cernedly 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 watch- 
 man, 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. 1 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 halfway 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 
 
 162 
 
THE CENTER OF THE PROBLEM 
 
 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. 
 
 163 
 
APPENDIX 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 TABLE i.— SOURCES FROM WHICH THE NAMES OF THE 
 294 BOYS STUDIED WERE OBTAINED 
 
 Source 
 
 Names 
 
 Additional children of interest in families visited . 
 
 Known through investigators on other topics . 
 
 Known through other children 
 
 202 
 
 43 
 10 
 8 
 20 
 6 
 2 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 
 Total 
 
 294 
 
 TABLE 2.— AGES OF BOYS a 
 
 Age 
 
 BOYS 
 
 
 Number 
 
 Per cent 
 
 8 years and less than 10 years . 
 10 years and less than 12 years . 
 12 years and less than 14 years . 
 14 years and less than 16 years . 
 16 years and more 
 
 1 
 3 
 
 24 
 71 
 102 
 
 9' 
 
 ■3 
 
 1 .0 
 
 8.2 
 
 24.3 
 
 35-0 
 
 31.2 
 
 Total 
 
 292 
 
 100.0 
 
 a Information is not available as to the ages of two of the 294 boys. 
 167 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 TABLE 3— LENGTH OF RESIDENCE IN THE DISTRICT 
 OF 183 FAMILIES a 
 
 Years in district 
 
 FAMILIES 
 
 
 Number 
 
 Per cent 
 
 Less than 5 years 
 
 5 years and less than 10 years . 
 10 years and less than 15 years . 
 ) 5 years and less than 20 years . 
 20 years and more 
 
 13 
 3> 
 
 25 
 26 
 88 
 
 7-i 
 16.9 
 
 ■3-7 
 14.2 
 48.1 
 
 Total 
 
 .83 
 
 1 00.0 
 
 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* 
 
 Country of birth 
 
 Fathers 
 
 Mothers 
 
 United States 
 
 81 
 
 92 
 
 Ireland 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 64 
 
 72 
 
 Germany 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 27 
 
 18 
 
 Italy . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 '7 
 
 15 
 
 Scotland 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 England 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 Sweden 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 France 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 Austria 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 Russia 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 Dalmatia 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 Roumania 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 Armenia 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 Switzerland 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 West Indies 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 Portugal . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 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. 
 
 168 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 TABLE 5.— NATIONALITY OF AMERICAN-BORN 
 PARENTS a 
 
 Nationality 
 
 Fathers 
 
 Mothers 
 
 American 
 
 English 
 
 28 
 
 21 
 
 15 
 
 3 
 
 28 
 
 25 
 18 
 
 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 AC- 
 CORDING TO NUMBER OF PERSONS IN HOUSEHOLDS 
 AND NUMBER OF ROOMS OCCUPIED* 
 
 
 
 
 FAMILIES 
 
 3CCUPYING 
 
 
 !/) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 household 
 
 S E 
 
 01 
 
 41 C/l 
 
 
 
 ul 
 
 
 
 < E 
 
 
 1- S 
 
 f £ 
 
 3 e 
 
 s; e 
 
 X f= 
 
 v E 
 
 fl ^ 
 
 m— 
 
 
 O £ 
 
 .5 
 r- i- 
 
 *g 
 
 U- 
 
 M § 
 
 ^s 
 
 i2 S 
 
 
 Two .... 
 
 1 
 
 
 I 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 Three 
 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 13 
 
 7 
 
 1 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 26 
 
 Four . 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 7 
 
 11 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 27 
 
 Five . 
 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 1 1 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 2 7 
 
 Six 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 12 
 
 12 
 
 10 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 4> 
 
 Seven 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 11 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 25 
 
 Eight 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 '7 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 28 
 
 Nine . 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 "i 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 
 13 
 
 Ten or eleven . 
 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 Twelve and less than 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 15 ... 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 Total . 
 
 3 
 
 10 
 
 54 
 
 75 
 
 4" 
 
 '4 
 
 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 1 5 households. 
 
 169 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 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 
 
 
 
 
 
 34 
 
 14-7 
 
 Five . 
 
 
 
 
 44 
 
 19.0 
 
 Six 
 
 
 
 
 36 
 
 15.6 
 
 Seven 
 
 
 
 
 24 
 
 10.4 
 
 Eight 
 
 
 
 
 '7 
 
 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* 
 
 Status of mother 
 
 MOTHERS 
 
 
 Number 
 
 Per cent 
 
 Living and earning wages .... 
 
 Living and not earning wages 
 
 Dead ' 
 
 87 
 103 
 
 32 
 
 39.2 
 46.4 
 14.4 
 
 Total 
 
 222 
 
 1 00.0 
 
 a Information not available as to the status of the mother in 19 
 of the 241 families. 
 
 170 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 TABLE 9.— CONJUGAL CONDITIONS OF PARENTS IN 233 
 FAMILIES 8 
 
 Conjugal condition of parents 
 
 FAMILIES 
 
 ' 
 
 Number 
 
 Per cent 
 
 Father dead, mother living b . 
 
 Mother dead, father living ° . 
 
 Both parents living, but separated 
 
 Both parents dead 
 
 '33 
 
 53 
 20 
 
 >5 
 12 
 
 57-1 
 
 22.7 
 8.6 
 6.4 
 5-2 
 
 Total 
 
 233 
 
 100. 
 
 tt 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 
 
 Record 
 
 FAMILIES 
 
 
 Number 
 
 Per cent 
 
 Known to have received aid: 
 
 From relief societies 
 
 In form of institutional care for children . 
 From other sources . . . . 
 
 73 
 17 
 
 15 
 
 30.3 
 7" 
 
 6.2 
 
 Total 
 
 Deducting duplicates* 
 
 105 
 '9 
 
 43.6 
 7-9 
 
 Total 
 
 Known not to have received aid . 
 
 Relief record unknown 
 
 86 
 
 144 
 
 1 1 
 
 35-7 
 59-7 
 4.6 
 
 Grand total 
 
 241 
 
 100. 
 
 a There were 19 cases in which families were known to have re- 
 ceived relief of more than one of the three kinds specified. 
 
 171 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 TABLE ii.— DURATION OF RELIEF RECORDS OF 73 
 FAMILIES KNOWN TO HAVE RECEIVED AID FROM 
 RELIEF SOCIETIES a 
 
 Duration of record 
 
 FAMILIES 
 
 
 Number 
 
 Per cent 
 
 1 year and less than 2 years 
 
 2 years and less than 5 years . 
 5 years and less than 10 years . 
 
 10 years and less than 15 years . 
 1 5 years and less than 20 years . 
 20 years and less than 25 years . 
 
 ■5 
 1 1 
 10 
 '9 
 
 4 
 3 
 
 20.5 
 15. 1 
 
 '3-7 
 
 26.0 
 
 15. 1 
 
 5-5 
 
 4-1 
 
 Total 
 
 73 
 
 1 00.0 
 
 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. 
 
 7 TABLE 12.— COURT DISPOSITION OF CASES INVOLVING 
 454 ARRESTS AFFECTING 259 BOYS AND 221 FAMILIES a 
 
 Disposition of cases 
 
 Arrests 
 
 Boys 
 affected 
 
 Families 
 
 affected 
 
 Boy let go 
 
 Boy paroled .... 
 Boy sent up ... . 
 
 260 
 95 
 99 
 
 197 
 83 
 75 
 
 176 
 76 
 67 
 
 Total 
 
 454 
 
 259" 
 
 22 1 h 
 
 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. 
 
 172 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 TABLE 13.— FINAL DISPOSITION OF 92 WEST SIDE PA. 
 ROLED CASES AND OF 1,492 PAROLED CASES DIS- 
 POSED OF BY THE MANHATTAN COURT IN 1909 tt 
 
 Final disposition of case 
 
 WEST SIDE CASES 
 
 ALL CASES 
 
 
 Number 
 
 Per cent 
 
 Number 
 
 Per cent 
 
 Discharged or sentence sus- 
 pended .... 
 Committed to institutions . 
 
 78 
 14 
 
 84.8 
 15.2 
 
 1,264 
 148 
 
 89.5 
 10.5 
 
 Total 
 
 92 
 
 100. 
 
 1,412 
 
 100. 
 
 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 21 5 BOYS, CLASSIFIED S 
 AS DELINQUENT OR NOT DELINQUENT a 
 
 
 BOYS 
 
 
 Extent of truancy 
 
 De- 
 linquent 
 
 Not 
 delinquent 
 
 Total 
 
 No truancy .... 
 Occasional truancy . 
 Serious truancy 
 
 Boy physically disqualified for 
 school attendance 
 
 41 
 
 ■7 
 109 
 
 4 
 
 43 
 
 84 
 
 '7 
 110 
 
 4 
 
 Total 
 
 171 
 
 44 
 
 215 
 
 a Information is not available as the truancy of 79 of the 294 
 boys included in the study. 
 
 173 
 
BOYHOOD AND LAWLESSNESS 
 
 TABLE 15.— STATUS OF 163 BOYS NOT GAINFULLY 
 EMPLOYED a 
 
 Status 
 
 Boys 
 
 Less than 14 years of age 
 
 14 years of age or more: 
 Attending school 
 
 Out of work and out of school 
 
 99 
 
 3' 
 
 8 
 
 25 
 
 Total 
 
 163 
 
 8 Of the 294 boys, 100 were gainfully employed, 
 not available as to the status of 31 boys. 
 
 Information is 
 
 174 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 TABLE 1 6.— OCCUPATION AND WAGES OF ioo BOYS 
 GAINFULLY EMPLOYED 8 
 
 
 BOYS EARNING 
 
 Boys 
 whose 
 
 
 Occupation 
 
 $2 
 
 and 
 
 less 
 
 than 
 
 $3 
 
 $3 
 and 
 less 
 than 
 
 $4 
 
 $ 4 
 and 
 less 
 than 
 $5 
 
 $5 
 and 
 less 
 than 
 
 $6 
 
 $6 
 and 
 less 
 than 
 
 $7 
 
 $7 
 and 
 less 
 than 
 more 
 
 earn- 
 ings 
 are 
 not 
 avail- 
 able 
 
 AH 
 
 boys 
 
 Errand boy 
 Office boy 
 
 Piano factory worker . 
 Driver or driver's helper 
 Stock boy 
 Printer's apprentice 
 Plumber's apprentice . 
 Worker in factory other 
 
 than piano factory 
 Cash boy 
 Tailor's helper 
 Farm hand 
 Check boy 
 Messenger boy 
 Bakery worker 
 Moving picture show 
 
 worker 
 Freight checker 
 Packer .... 
 Garage helper 
 Plasterer's helper . 
 Water boy. Metropolitan 
 
 Railroad 
 Engineer's helper . 
 Newspaper boy 
 Furnace company worker 
 Water works worker 
 Clerk .... 
 Prisoner in navy prison . 
 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 i 
 
 2 
 [ 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 i 
 
 2 
 I 
 1 
 
 2 
 2 
 
 i 
 
 ! 
 1 
 
 ! 
 
 
 6 
 4 
 3 
 
 1 
 1 
 2 
 
 1 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 22 
 '5 
 14 
 
 7 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 3 I 
 3 
 
 2 
 2 
 2 
 2 
 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 
 Total .... 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 12 
 
 i< 
 
 ) 
 
 24 
 
 99 
 
 a Of the 294 boys, 163 were not gainfully employed, 
 is not available as to the status of 3 1 boys. 
 
 •75 
 
 Information 
 
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, 191 3 
 
 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 Crimi- 
 nal 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 per- 
 manent scientific value because of the fact of the large num- 
 ber 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 
 
 '77 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 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 proba- 
 tionary 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 statis- 
 tical 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 accom- 
 panying them. 
 
 "Special Proceedings and Juvenile Delinquency Dis- 
 tinguished. — It will be noted that throughout the statis- 
 tical 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 be- 
 tween delinquent and dependent children. Special Pro- 
 ceedings, however, include beside improper guardianship 
 cases, so-called, all cases of truancy, ungovernable and dis- 
 orderly 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 guardian- 
 ship, or is in unfavorable environment, he or she may be 
 
 .78 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 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 assist- 
 ance 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 pro- 
 bation 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 Proceed- 
 ings is often found the neglected young girl of the ac- 
 companying 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. 
 
 179 
 
TABLE 
 (Table XVIII.— Residence by Districts of Children 
 
 Districts and territory in districts 
 
 JUVENILE DELINQUENCY 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Female 
 
 Num- Per 
 ber cent 
 
 Total 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 I. Below 14th St., East of 4th Ave., 
 Bowery and Catharine St . 
 
 II. Below 14th St., West of 4th Ave., 
 Bowerv and Catharine St . 
 
 III. East of 6th Ave., from 14th St. to 
 63d St.» 
 
 IV. West of 6th Ave., between 1 4th St. 
 and 62d St 
 
 V. East of 5th Ave., from 63d St. to 
 
 1 109th St.t> 
 
 1 VI. West of Central Park and 8th 
 
 Ave., from 62d St. to 126th St. . 
 
 VII. In Manhattan, East of 8th Ave., 
 North of 109th St." 
 
 VIII. West of 8th Ave., between 126th 
 St. and 155th St 
 
 IX. West of 8th Ave. and Harlem 
 River North of 155th St 
 
 X. All of The Bronx 
 
 Brooklyn d . 
 All others , 
 
 1,002 
 
 604 
 
 332 
 
 •(99 
 
 667 
 
 253 
 
 597 
 
 91 
 
 32 
 
 529 
 
 113 
 
 29 
 
 15 
 
 21 .0 
 
 12.7 
 7.0 
 10.5 
 
 14.0 
 53 
 
 12.5 
 
 ■9 
 
 ■ 7 
 
 11 . 1 
 2.4 
 
 .6 
 • 3 
 
 25.2 
 9 9 
 
 6.6 
 1 1 .0 
 .76 
 
 4-4 
 13.2 
 
 2 .2 
 I . I 
 
 1,025 
 613 
 
 338 
 
 509 
 
 683 
 
 257 
 
 609 
 
 9' 
 
 32 
 
 537 
 
 "3 
 
 31 
 
 16 
 
 21 .1 
 12.6 
 
 70 
 10.5 
 14.1 
 
 53 
 125 
 
 1 9 
 7 
 
 III 
 
 2 3 
 .6 
 ■3 
 
 Total 
 
 4.763 
 
 100.0 
 
 4,854 
 
 100.0 
 
 * East of 6th Ave., from 14th St. to 63d St. to 3d Ave.; and 64th St., from 3d 
 b East of 5th Ave., from 63d St. to 3d Ave., and 64th St., between 3d Ave. and 
 e In Manhattan, East of 8th Ave., North of 1 loth St. to 5th Ave., and 1 12th St., 
 d Children living in Brooklyn, but arrested in Manhattan. 
 
 • Counted by children. 
 
 l80 
 
ONE 
 
 Arraigned during I 
 
 213.* Report, pp. 72-73.) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 SPECIAL PROCEEDINGS 
 
 
 
 ALL 
 
 CASES 
 
 
 
 M 
 
 ale 
 
 Female 
 
 Total 
 
 Male 
 
 Fe 
 
 male 
 
 Total 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 
 cent 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 
 cent 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 473 
 
 17.8 
 
 235 
 
 15-5 
 
 708 
 
 17.0 
 
 '.475 
 
 19.9 
 
 258 
 
 16.0 
 
 ■ ,733 
 
 19.2 
 
 278 
 
 10.4 
 
 123 
 
 8.1 
 
 401 
 
 9.6 
 
 882 
 
 11. 9 
 
 ■32 
 
 8.2 
 
 1,014 
 
 11. 3 
 
 192 
 
 7-2 
 
 '52 
 
 10. 
 
 344 
 
 8.3 
 
 524 
 
 7' 
 
 158 
 
 9.8 
 
 682 
 
 7.6 
 
 330 
 
 12.4 
 
 235 
 
 • 5-5 
 
 565 
 
 13.6 
 
 829 
 
 11 .2 
 
 245 
 
 ■ 5-4 
 
 ■.074 
 
 11.9 
 
 306 
 
 u.6 
 
 186 
 
 12.3 
 
 492 
 
 11. 8 
 
 973 
 
 13. 1 
 
 202 
 
 ■ 2.6 
 
 ■ ■■75 
 
 13.0 
 
 98 
 
 3-7 
 
 70 
 
 4-7 
 
 168 
 
 4.0 
 
 351 
 
 4-7 
 
 74 
 
 4.6 
 
 425 
 
 4-7 
 
 257 
 
 9-7 
 
 161 
 
 10.6 
 
 418 
 
 10.0 
 
 854 
 
 II. 5 
 
 ■73 
 
 10.8 
 
 1,027 
 
 II. 4 
 
 46 
 
 1.8 
 
 20 
 
 '3 
 
 66 
 
 1.6 
 
 137 
 
 '■9 
 
 20 
 
 1 .2 
 
 ■ 57 
 
 1.8 
 
 22 
 
 .8 
 
 ■ 3 
 
 • 9 
 
 35 
 
 .8 
 
 54 
 
 ■ 7 
 
 ■ 3 
 
 .8 
 
 67 
 
 ■7 
 
 308 
 
 II. 7 
 
 191 
 
 12.6 
 
 499 
 
 12.0 
 
 837 
 
 11.3 
 
 199 
 
 12.4 
 
 1,036 
 
 II. 5 
 
 36 
 
 ■ 3 
 
 ■3 
 
 • 9 
 
 49 
 
 1 .2 
 
 ■ 49 
 
 2. 1 
 
 ■ 3 
 
 .8 
 
 162 
 
 1.8 
 
 145 
 
 5-5 
 
 37 
 
 2.4 
 
 182 
 
 4-4 
 
 ■74 
 
 2-3 
 
 39 
 
 2.4 
 
 2>3 
 
 2-3 
 
 ■ 59 
 
 6.1 
 
 79 
 
 5-2 
 
 238 
 
 5-7 
 
 ■ 74 
 
 23 
 
 80 
 
 5.0 
 
 254 
 
 2.8 
 
 2,650 
 
 100. 
 
 1. 515 
 
 100. 
 
 4,165 
 
 100. 
 
 7.4'3 
 
 IOO. 
 
 1 606 
 
 100. 
 
 9,019 
 
 100.0 
 
 Ave. to East River. 
 
 East River, to 1 12th St. to 3d Ave., and 
 
 from 5th Ave. to 3d Ave., and 109th St., 
 
 109th St. from 3d Ave. to the East River. 
 from 3d Ave. to East River. 
 
 181 
 
CHART I 
 
 (Chart XIV. — Residence by Districts of Children Arraigned During 1913. 
 
 Report, p. 74.) 
 
TABLE TWO 
 (Table IV. — Nature of Charges.* Report, p. 52.) 
 
 
 MALE 
 
 FEMALE 
 
 TOTAL 
 
 Charges 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 1. Juvenile delinquency:* 
 
 b. Offenses against property . 
 
 c. Major offenses against the 
 
 d. Minor offenses against the 
 
 236 
 1,212 
 
 584 
 
 5-0 
 253 
 
 12.3 
 
 47-3 
 6.6 
 
 1.1 
 
 2-4 
 
 10 
 25 
 
 12 
 
 ■ 4 
 18 
 
 4 
 8 
 
 1 1 .0 
 
 27.4 
 
 13.2 
 
 ■5-4 
 19.8 
 
 4-4 
 8.8 
 
 246 
 1.237 
 
 596 
 
 2,267 
 330 
 
 58 
 120 
 
 51 
 25.4 
 
 12.3 
 
 46.7 
 6.8 
 
 1 .2 
 2.5 
 
 e. Unlawfully employed 
 
 f. Violation of corporation or- 
 
 dinances not included 
 
 312 
 
 54 
 1 12 
 
 h. Total 
 
 4,703 
 
 100. 
 
 01 
 
 100. 
 
 4,854 
 
 100.0 
 
 2. Special proceedings: 1 * _ 
 
 a. Improper guardianship . 
 
 c. Ungovernable and disorderly 
 
 d. Truancy 
 
 2,190 
 18 
 
 376 
 57 
 
 82.9 
 
 • 7 
 
 142 
 
 2.2 
 
 1,271 
 ■ 35 
 
 104 
 
 5 
 
 839 
 8.9 
 
 6.9 
 
 • 3 
 
 3.470 
 ■53 
 
 480 
 
 62 
 
 833 
 
 37 
 
 11 .5 
 1-5 
 
 e. Total 
 
 2,650 
 
 IO0.0 
 
 ".515 
 
 100. 
 
 4.165 
 
 100.0 
 
 3. Total, all cases- 
 
 a. Juvenile delinquency 
 
 b. Special proceedings . 
 
 4,763 
 2,650 
 
 643 
 
 35-7 
 
 91 
 1,515 
 
 5-7 
 94-3 
 
 4.854 
 4,165 
 
 538 
 46.2 
 
 c. Grand total 
 
 7,413 
 
 100.0 
 
 1,606 
 
 100. 
 
 9,019 
 
 100.0 
 
 «• 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 de- 
 fined 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 guardtansbip 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. 
 
 * 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. 
 
 183 
 
Juvenile Delinquency 
 MINOR OFFENSES AGAINST THE PEACE 
 
 25.1% 
 
 IMPROPER GUARDIANSHIP 
 
 Special Proceedings 
 
 (UNGOVERNABLE £ DISORDERLY CHILDREN 
 I 5-375 
 
 |TRUANCY 
 
 1.7* 
 
 CHART II 
 
 (Chart II. — Nature of Charges. Report, p. 53.) 
 
 (Percentages shown are of the total number (9,019) of all cases arraigned.) 
 
 184 
 
fc 
 
 5 
 
 S3 
 
 l8 5 
 
TABLE 
 (Table IX.— Disposition on First Hearing of all 
 
 
 JUVENILE DELINQUENCY 
 
 Disposition 
 
 Mate 
 
 Female 
 
 Total 
 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 i. Summarily disposed of ... 
 
 2,668 
 
 56.0 
 29.2 
 14.8 
 
 29 
 40 
 22 
 
 31.9 
 44.0 
 24.1 
 
 2,697 
 
 1,429 
 
 728 
 
 55-6 
 29.4 
 15.0 
 
 
 706 
 
 
 4-763 
 
 100.0 
 
 91 
 
 lOO 
 
 4,854 
 
 100.0 
 
 » Remanded means number of children detained temporarily at the rooms of the 
 b These numbers include cases placed on probation without remand. 
 • Counted by cases. 
 
 (Table XII. — Disposition 
 
 TABLE FOUR 
 
 in Cases of Adjudged Juvenile De 
 Report, p. 63.) 
 
 inquents.* 
 
 
 
 TOTAL 
 
 Disposition 
 
 Male 
 
 Female 
 
 Total 
 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Placed on probation 
 
 Committed without probation 
 
 748 
 
 1,440 
 
 508 
 
 575 
 
 22.8 
 44.2 
 15.5 
 
 "7-5 
 
 13 
 
 3i 
 
 4 
 4 
 
 25.0 
 
 59-6 
 
 7-7 
 7-7 
 
 76. 
 
 1,480 
 
 512 
 
 579 
 
 22.8 
 
 44-4 
 ■ 5-4 
 
 
 
 
 3,280 
 
 100.0 
 
 52 
 
 IOO.0 
 
 3.332 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' Counted by cases. 
 
 186 
 
THREE 
 
 Cases Arraigned During the Year.* Report, p. 57.) 
 
 SPECIAL PROCEEDINGS 
 
 ALL CASES 
 
 Male 
 
 Female 
 
 Total 
 
 Male 
 
 Female 
 
 Total 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 
 cent 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 669 
 
 i,55J 
 
 429 
 
 25-2 
 58.6 
 16.2 
 
 325 
 
 896 
 294 
 
 21.5 
 59-1 
 19.4 
 
 994 
 
 2,448 
 
 723 
 
 in 
 
 '7-3 
 
 3,337 
 2,941 
 1,135 
 
 45.0 
 39-7 
 15-3 
 
 3i i 
 936 
 
 316 
 
 22.0 
 58.3 
 19-7 
 
 3,691 
 
 3,877 
 1.451 
 
 40.9 
 43 
 16. 1 
 
 3,650 
 
 100.0 
 
 I.5I5 
 
 100. 
 
 4,i65 
 
 100.0 
 
 7.413 
 
 100. 
 
 1,606 
 
 100.0 
 
 9,019 
 
 100.0 
 
 Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children while case is being investigated, etc. 
 
 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 
 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 
 cent 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Committed to institutions 
 
 Placed in charge of probation officers 
 
 793 
 '.253 
 
 38.8 
 61.2 
 
 539 
 751 
 
 41.8 
 
 58.2 
 
 ■ .332 
 
 2,004 
 
 39-9 
 60.1 
 
 Total 
 
 2,046 
 
 100. 
 
 1,290 
 
 100.0 
 
 3.336 
 
 100.0 
 
 187 
 
TABLE 
 (Table XVI.— Ages of all Children 
 
 Ages 
 
 JUVENILE DELINQUENCY 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 
 cent 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Female 
 
 Per 
 
 cent 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Total 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 7 years and under 
 
 8 and 9 years 
 
 10 and 11 years 
 
 12 and 13 years 
 
 14 and 1 5 years 
 
 16 and over (Transferred to other courts) 
 
 16 
 
 670 
 1.515 
 
 2,322 
 4 
 
 ■ 4 
 
 5-0 
 
 14. 1 
 
 3. .8 
 
 48.7 
 
 31.9 
 
 48.3 
 
 1 . 1 
 
 243 
 
 680 
 
 1.544 
 
 2,366 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 5 
 14 o 
 
 3 £' 8 
 
 48.7 
 
 . I 
 
 Total 
 
 4,763 
 
 4,854 
 
 ' Counted by cases. 
 
SIX 
 
 Arraigned During the Year.* Report, p. 68.) 
 
 SPECIAL PROCEEDINGS 
 
 ALL CASES 
 
 Male 
 
 Female 
 
 Total 
 
 Male 
 
 Female 
 
 Total 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 581 
 
 319 
 
 i 33 
 692 
 
 21.9 
 12.0 
 16.4 
 23.6 
 26. 1 
 
 484 
 161 
 
 265 
 414 
 
 32.0 
 10.6 
 12.6 
 
 17.5 
 27,3 
 
 1,065 
 480 
 624 
 890 
 
 1,106 
 
 25.6 
 11. 5 
 15.0 
 
 21 .4 
 26.5 
 
 597 
 
 555 
 
 1,103 
 
 2,140 
 
 3,014 
 
 4 
 
 8.1 
 7-5 
 U-9 
 28.9 
 40.6 
 .0 
 
 484 
 168 
 201 
 294 
 458 
 1 
 
 30.2 
 
 10.5 
 12.5 
 18.3 
 28.5 
 
 .0 
 
 1,081 
 723 
 1,304 
 2,434 
 3.472 
 5 
 
 12.0 
 
 8.1 
 145 
 26.9 
 38.5 
 .0 
 
 2,650 
 
 100.0 
 
 1,515 
 
 100.0 
 
 4,165 
 
 100. 
 
 7,413 
 
 IOO.O 
 
 1,606 
 
 100.0 
 
 9,019 
 
 100.0 
 
 189 
 
14 AND 15 
 
 12 AND 13 
 
 10 AND II 
 
 7 AND UNDER 6 AND 9 
 
 fl 
 
 8A% i$% m% 2&S% AQ.& 
 
 CHART IV 
 
 (Chart XI. — Showing Ages of Boys Arraigned During the Year. Report, p. 69.) 
 
 Total number of boys, 7,413. 
 
 7ANDUNDER 14 AND 15 
 
 12 AND 13 
 
 AAND9 
 
 10 AND II 
 
 30.2$ 
 
 10.5% 
 
 12.551 
 
 \M% 
 
 n.sfo 
 
 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.* Report, p. 65.) 
 
 
 
 JUVENILE 
 DELINQUENCY 
 
 SPECIAL 
 
 PROCEEDINGS 
 
 TOTAL 
 ALL CASES 
 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Number of cases where children were 
 
 2,169 
 1,138 
 
 ".547 
 
 44-7 
 23.4 
 31.9 
 
 1.937 
 
 850 
 1.378 
 
 46.5 
 20.4 
 33 -i 
 
 4, 106 
 
 1.988 
 2,925 
 
 45-5 
 
 Number of cases arraigned in 
 
 groups 
 
 Number of cases arraigned in 
 of three or more 
 
 groups 
 
 32.4 
 
 Total 
 
 4-854 
 
 100.0 
 
 4,165 
 
 100.0 
 
 9,019 
 
 
 
 
 * Counted by cases. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 45-5% ARRAIGNED SINGLY- 
 
 22.1$ Arraigned in groups of Two. 
 
 32.4$ Arraigned in groups of Three or more, v" - ' 
 
 CHART VI 
 (Chart X. — Single and Croup Delinquency. Report, p. 65.) 
 
 191 
 
TABLE 
 (Table XX. — Parental Condition of 
 
 Parental condition 
 
 JUVENILE DELINQUENCY 
 
 Male 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Female 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Total 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Father dead 
 
 Mother dead 
 
 Both parents dead 
 
 Parents separated 
 
 Deserted by father 
 
 Deserted by mother 
 
 Deserted by both parents .... 
 One or both parents in prison . 
 One or both parents in other institutions 
 Mother not in America .... 
 
 Father not in America 
 
 Neither parent in America 
 
 None of above conditions existing . 
 
 Parental condition not reported 
 
 270 
 
 131 
 
 28 
 
 14 
 
 44 
 
 7 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 15 
 
 6 
 
 ,162 
 
 68.5 
 .6 
 
 70.8 
 
 276 
 133 
 
 29 
 14 
 46 
 7 
 5 
 3 
 15 
 6 
 3 
 
 1,191 
 
 68.7 
 6 
 
 Total 
 
 697 100.0 41 100.0 1,738 100. o 
 
 •Counted by children. 
 
 Note. — In several cases two conditions are reported in one case. 
 
 TABLE 
 (Table XV. — Previous 
 
 
 JUVENILE DELINQUENCY 
 
 
 Male 
 
 Female 
 
 Total 
 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 
 cent 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 
 cent 
 
 Number arraigned first time .... 
 Number arraigned who had previous 
 
 3.528 
 '.235 
 
 74-1 
 
 25.9 
 
 90 
 1 
 
 98.9 
 1 .1 
 
 3,6i8 
 1,236 
 
 74-5 
 25.5 
 
 Total 
 
 4.763 
 
 100. 
 
 9' 
 
 100. 
 
 4.854 
 
 100.0 
 
 •Counted by cases. 
 
 Note. — The number of children before the court who had previous records was 
 
 192 
 
EIGHT 
 
 all Children Investigated.* Report, p. 78.) 
 
 
 SPECIAL PROCEEDINGS 
 
 
 ALL CASES 
 
 Male 
 
 Female 
 
 Total 
 
 M 
 
 ale 
 
 Female 
 
 Total 
 
 Num- 
 
 Per 
 
 Num- 
 
 Per 
 
 Num- 
 
 Per 
 
 Num- 
 
 Per 
 
 Num- 
 
 Per 
 
 Num- 
 
 Per 
 
 ber 
 
 cent 
 
 ber 
 
 cent 
 
 ber 
 
 cent 
 
 ber 
 
 cent 
 
 ber 
 
 cent 
 
 ber 
 
 cent 
 
 149 
 
 17.6 
 
 47 
 
 23.1 
 
 196 
 
 18.7 
 
 419 
 
 ■ 6.5 
 
 53 
 
 21.8 
 
 472 
 
 16.9 
 
 99 
 
 11. 7 
 
 2 8 
 
 14.4 
 
 128 
 
 12.3 
 
 230 
 
 9 2 
 
 3i 
 
 12.8 
 
 261 
 
 9-5 
 
 '9 
 
 2-3 
 
 8 
 
 4.0 
 
 27 
 
 2.5 
 
 47 
 
 1.8 
 
 9 
 
 37 
 
 5b 
 
 2.0 
 
 ■ 7 
 
 2.0 
 
 
 
 "7 
 
 1.6 
 
 3' 
 
 1 .2 
 
 
 
 3" 
 
 1.1 
 
 25 
 
 3.0 
 
 2 
 
 1 .0 
 
 2 8" 
 
 2.5 
 
 69 
 
 2.7 
 
 4 
 
 1.6 
 
 73 
 
 2.6 
 
 5 
 
 .6 
 
 3 
 
 1.5 
 
 ■ 7 
 
 12 
 
 ■ 5 
 
 3 
 
 1 .2 
 
 15 
 
 .5 
 
 ..... 
 
 
 4 
 
 1-9 
 
 4 
 
 ■ 4 
 
 5 
 
 .2 
 
 4 
 
 1.6 
 
 9 
 
 .3 
 
 4 
 
 ■ 5 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 • 4 
 
 6 
 
 .2 
 
 1 
 
 • 4 
 
 7 
 
 • 3 
 
 7 
 
 .8 
 
 1 
 
 ■ 5 
 
 8 
 
 • 7 
 
 22 
 
 •9 
 
 I 
 
 • 4 
 
 23 
 
 .8 
 
 6 
 
 • 7 
 . 1 
 
 
 
 6 
 1 
 
 .6 
 .1 
 
 12 
 
 4 
 
 .5 
 .2 
 
 
 
 12 
 4 
 
 ■ 4 
 .1 
 
 507 
 
 60.0 
 
 104 
 
 51.1 
 
 611 
 
 58.5 
 
 1,669 
 
 65.7 
 
 133 
 
 54-5 
 
 1,802 
 
 64.7 
 
 5 
 
 .6 
 
 5 
 
 2.5 
 
 10 
 
 ■9 
 
 ■ 5 
 
 .6 
 
 5 
 
 2.0 
 
 20 
 
 .8 
 
 845 
 
 100.0 
 
 203 
 
 100. 
 
 1,048 
 
 100.0 
 
 2,542 
 
 100. 
 
 244 
 
 100.0 
 
 2,786 
 
 100.0 
 
 NINE 
 
 Records.* Report, p. 67. ) 
 
 SPECIAL PROCEEDINGS 
 
 ALL CASES 
 
 Male 
 
 Female 
 
 Total 
 
 Male 
 
 Female 
 
 Total 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 2,198 
 452 
 
 82.9 
 17.1 
 
 1,461 
 54 
 
 96.4 
 3.6 
 
 3.659 
 506 
 
 87.9 
 12.1 
 
 5,726 
 1.687 
 
 77.2 
 22.8 
 
 i,55i 
 55 
 
 96.6 
 3-4 
 
 7.277 
 1.742 
 
 80.7 
 ■9-3 
 
 2,650 
 
 100. 
 
 1. 515 
 
 100.0 
 
 4.165 
 
 100. 
 
 7.413 
 
 100. 
 
 1,606 
 
 100.0 
 
 9,019 
 
 100.0 
 
 probably slightly in excess of the number shown by the figures. 
 
 193 
 
TABLE 
 (Table XVII. — School and Employment 
 
 
 JUVENILE DELINQUENCY 
 
 
 Male 
 
 Female 
 
 Total 
 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Children in regular grades .... 
 Children in special classes .... 
 Children in ungraded classes 
 Children having working papers 
 
 1,134 
 
 75 
 ■9 
 
 33 8 
 
 98 
 
 25 
 
 66.9 
 4-5 
 1.1 
 
 20.2 
 5-8 
 1.5 
 
 26 
 
 6 
 9 
 
 63.4 
 
 14.6 
 22.0 
 
 ■ •■50 
 
 75 
 
 ■ 9 
 
 345 
 
 107 
 
 25 
 
 66.8 
 4-4 
 1. 1 
 
 20.0 
 6.2 
 1.5 
 
 Total 
 
 1 680 
 
 100.0 
 
 4" 
 
 100.0 
 
 1,721 
 
 
 
 
 
 •Counted by children. 
 
 Children 1 in regular grades 
 
 1 NOT REPOftTEB 
 
 CHART VII 
 (ChartXIII.— School and Employment Record of Children Investigated. Report, p. 71.) 
 
 194 
 
TEN 
 
 Record of Children Investigated.* 
 
 Report, p. 70.) 
 
 SPECIAL PROCEEDINGS 
 
 ALL CASES 
 
 Male 
 
 Female 
 
 Total 
 
 Male 
 
 Female 
 
 Total 
 
 Num- 
 
 Per 
 
 Num- 
 
 Per 
 
 Num- 
 
 Per 
 
 Num- 
 
 Per 
 
 Num- 
 
 Per 
 
 Num- 
 
 Per 
 
 ber 
 
 cent 
 
 ber 
 
 cent 
 
 ber 
 
 cent 
 
 ber 
 
 cent 
 
 ber 
 
 cent 
 
 ber 
 
 cent 
 
 613 
 
 73-4 
 
 no 
 
 55.0 
 
 72 3 
 
 69.8 
 
 1.737 
 
 69.0 
 
 136 
 
 56.4 
 
 ■ ,873 
 
 67.9 
 
 41 
 
 4-9 
 
 7 
 
 3-5 
 
 48 
 
 46 
 
 116 
 
 4.6 
 
 7 
 
 2 :l 
 
 • 23 
 
 4-5 
 
 n 
 
 ■ •3 
 
 2 
 
 1.0 
 
 n 
 
 1 .3 
 
 30 
 
 1.2 
 
 2 
 
 32 
 
 1.2 
 
 in 
 
 13.2 
 
 53 
 
 2b. S 
 
 164 
 
 »5-g 
 
 450 
 
 ■ 7-9 
 
 59 
 
 24.5 
 
 509 
 
 18., 
 
 40 
 
 5-5 
 
 14 
 
 7.0 
 
 60 
 
 5-8 
 
 144 
 
 5 '7- 
 
 23 
 
 9 E 
 
 lb 7 
 
 6.0 
 
 14 
 
 1-7 
 
 14 
 
 70 
 
 28 
 
 27 
 
 39 
 
 1.6 
 
 14 
 
 58 
 
 53 
 
 1-9 
 
 836 
 
 100.0 
 
 200 
 
 100. 
 
 1,036 
 
 100. 
 
 2,516 
 
 100.0 
 
 241 
 
 100.0 
 
 2,757 
 
 100.0 
 
 TABLE ELEVEN 
 (Table XXVII. — General Summary of Probation.* Report, p. 84.) 
 
 
 JUVENILE 
 DELINQUENCY 
 
 SPECIAL 
 PROCEEDINGS 
 
 ALL CASES 
 
 
 Male 
 
 Fe- 
 male 
 
 Total 
 
 Male 
 
 Fe- 
 male 
 
 Total 
 
 Male 
 
 Fe- 
 male 
 
 Total 
 
 Number pending on pro- 
 bation, Jan. 1, 1913 . 
 
 Number placed on proba- 
 tion during year 
 
 Number whose probation 
 terminated during year 
 
 N umber pending Dec. 3 1 , 
 1913 
 
 39' 
 1,386 
 1,278 
 
 499 
 
 40 
 36 
 55 
 21 
 
 43' 
 1,422 
 '.333 
 
 520 
 
 720 
 
 501 
 219 
 
 184 
 i'7 
 67 
 
 904 
 618 
 286 
 
 39' 
 2,106 
 
 '.779 
 7.8 
 
 40 
 220 
 172 
 88 
 
 43' 
 2,326 
 i,95i 
 
 806 
 
 • Counted by cases. 
 
 195 
 
TABLE 
 (Table XXVIII. — Age of Children Placed on 
 
 Age 
 
 JUVENILE DELINQUENCY 
 
 Male 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Female 
 
 Per 
 
 cent 
 
 Total 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 7 Years and under 
 
 8 and 9 years . 
 10 and 1 1 years 
 12 and 13 years 
 14 and 15 years 
 
 16 years and over . 
 Not stated . . . 
 
 Total . . . 
 
 83* 
 206 
 
 486 
 584 
 
 8.3 
 13 9 
 33-3 
 
 44-5 
 
 21 1 
 
 498 
 600 
 
 el 
 14.8 
 35.0 
 42.2 
 
 1,386 
 
 36 
 
 * Counted by cases. 
 
 TABLE 
 (Table XXX. — Duration of Probation, 
 
 
 JUVENILE DELINQUENCY 
 
 Length of probation 
 
 Male 
 
 Female 
 
 Total 
 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 
 cent 
 
 2 months and under 
 
 312 
 
 220 
 
 288 
 
 190 
 
 97 
 
 43 
 
 34 
 
 '9 
 
 14 
 
 8 
 
 25.4 
 
 18.0 
 
 23.4 
 
 15.4 
 
 7-9 
 
 3-f 
 
 2.8 
 
 1-5 
 
 1 . 1 
 
 • 4 
 
 .6 
 
 
 8 
 5 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 
 )3-3 
 21 .0 
 13-3 
 8.3 
 4-1 
 
 320 
 
 225 
 296 
 
 l9 2 
 
 98 
 
 43 
 34 
 19 
 
 14 
 5 
 
 8 
 
 25-5 
 
 18.0 
 
 23.6 
 
 ■ 5-3 
 
 7-8 
 
 3-4 
 
 2-7 
 
 1-5 
 
 1 . 1 
 
 ■ 4 
 
 ■ 7 
 
 Total 
 
 1,230 
 
 100.0 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 l( 
 
 KJ.O 
 
 1.254 
 
 IOO.O 
 
 196 
 
TWELVE 
 
 Probation During 1913.* Report, p. 85.) 
 
 SPECIAL PROCEEDINGS 
 
 ALL CASES 
 
 Male 
 
 Female 
 
 Total 
 
 Male 
 
 Female - 
 
 Total 
 
 Num- 
 
 Per 
 
 Num- 
 
 Per 
 
 Num- 
 
 Per 
 
 Num- 
 
 Per 
 
 Num- 
 
 Per 
 
 Num- 
 
 Per 
 
 ber 
 
 cent 
 
 ber 
 
 cent 
 
 ber 
 
 cent 
 
 ber 
 
 cent 
 
 ber 
 
 cent 
 
 ber 
 
 cent 
 
 9 
 
 1 .2 
 
 2 
 
 1 .] 
 
 1 1 
 
 1 .2 
 
 13 
 
 .6 
 
 2 
 
 ■ 9 
 
 ■ 5 
 
 .6 
 
 58 
 
 8.1 
 
 b 
 
 3-3 
 
 64 
 
 7' 
 
 141 
 
 6.7 
 
 9 
 
 41 
 
 150 
 
 6.4 
 
 142 
 
 19-7 
 
 9 
 
 4.8 
 
 ■ 51 
 
 16.7 
 
 348 
 
 16.5 
 
 >4 
 
 6.4 
 
 362 
 
 15.6 
 
 234 
 
 32-5 
 
 39 
 
 21 .2 
 
 273 
 
 30.; 
 
 720 
 
 34-2 
 
 51 
 
 331 
 
 77" 
 
 33-3 
 
 269 
 
 37-3 
 
 126 
 
 68.5 
 
 395 
 
 43.8 
 
 853 
 
 40.6 
 
 142 
 
 64.6 
 
 995 
 
 42.7 
 
 1 
 
 .2 
 
 2 
 
 1 .1 
 
 3 
 
 :l 
 
 11 
 
 .5 
 
 2 
 
 • 9 
 
 ■ 3 
 
 .6 
 
 7 
 
 1 .0 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 20 
 
 ■ 9 
 
 
 
 20 
 
 ■ 9 
 
 720 
 
 IOO.O 
 
 184 
 
 100.0 
 
 004 
 
 100.0 
 
 2,106 
 
 100.0 
 
 220 
 
 100.0 
 
 2,326 
 
 100.0 
 
 THIRTEEN 
 
 Cases Ended During 1913. Report, p. 88.) 
 
 SPECIAL PROCEEDINGS 
 
 ALL CASES 
 
 Male 
 
 Female 
 
 Total 
 
 Male 
 
 Female 
 
 Total 
 
 Num- 
 
 Per 
 
 Num- 
 
 Per 
 
 Num- 
 
 Per 
 
 Num- 
 
 Per 
 
 Num- 
 
 Per 
 
 Num- 
 
 Per 
 
 ber 
 
 cent 
 
 ber 
 
 cent 
 
 ber 
 
 cent 
 
 ber 
 
 cent 
 
 ber 
 
 cent 
 
 ber 
 
 cent 
 
 169 
 
 26.2 
 
 38 
 
 25 3 
 
 207 
 
 26.0 
 
 481 
 
 25-7 
 
 46 
 
 26.4 
 
 527 
 
 25-7 
 
 138 
 
 21.4 
 
 28 
 
 18.6 
 
 166 
 
 20.9 
 
 358 
 
 19. 1 
 
 33 
 
 19.0 
 
 391 
 
 19.1 
 
 137 
 
 21 .2 
 
 26 
 
 173 
 
 ■ 63 
 
 20.5 
 
 425 
 
 22.7 
 
 34 
 
 19.4 
 
 459 
 
 22.4 
 
 64 
 
 9.8 
 
 10 
 
 07 
 
 74 
 
 93 
 
 156 
 
 ■ 35 
 
 12 
 
 6.9 
 
 266 
 
 13.0 
 
 59 
 
 9-2 
 
 lb 
 
 10.7 
 
 75 
 
 9-4 
 
 8.3 
 
 17 
 
 9-6 
 
 173 
 
 8.5 
 
 31 
 
 4.8 
 
 11 
 
 7-4 
 
 42 
 
 5-3 
 
 74 
 
 3 ? 
 
 II 
 
 6.4 
 
 85 
 
 * l 
 
 15 
 
 u 
 
 5 
 
 3-3 
 
 20 
 
 2-5 
 
 49 
 
 2.6 
 
 5 
 
 2-9 
 
 54 
 
 2.6 
 
 10 
 
 5 
 
 3-3 
 
 15 
 
 1-9 
 
 29 
 
 1-5 
 
 5 
 
 *•! 
 
 34 
 
 ■•7 
 
 6 
 
 ■ 9 
 
 3 
 
 2.0 
 
 9 
 
 1.2 
 
 20 
 
 1 .1 
 
 3 
 
 1.8 
 
 23 
 
 1.1 
 
 6 
 
 ■9 
 
 6 
 
 4.0 
 
 12 
 
 1.5 
 
 11 
 
 .6 
 
 6 
 
 35 
 
 '7 
 
 .8 
 
 10 
 
 1.6 
 
 2 
 
 1-4 
 
 12 
 
 1-5 
 
 18 
 
 1 .0 
 
 2 
 
 1 .2 
 
 20 
 
 1 .0 
 
 645 
 
 100.0 
 
 150 
 
 100.0 
 
 795 
 
 100.0 
 
 1.875 
 
 100.0 
 
 ■ 74 
 
 100.0 
 
 2.049^ 
 
 100.0 
 
 197 
 
^MONTHS 
 AND UNDER I 
 
 3 MONTHS 
 
 A MONTHS 
 
 9 MONTHS 
 
 6 MONTHS 
 
 7M0NTHS 
 
 A25.7Z 
 
 \2Z4% 
 
 
 8 MONTHS d^^ 
 
 9 MONTH 6 g/TST 
 
 10 MONTHS (//-^ 
 
 11 MONTHS |.^ 
 
 12 MONTHS B/^f 
 AND OVER, ■ 
 
 CHART VIII 
 (Chart XVII. — Duration of Probation. Report, p. 89.) 
 
 I98 
 
TABLE FOURTEEN 
 (Table XXXI. — Volume of Business Before Court During 1913. Report, p. 89.) 
 
 Month 
 
 NEW CASES 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 CASES REARRA1CNED 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 TOTAL CASES 
 
 Num- 
 ber 
 
 Per 
 cent 
 
 January 
 
 February .... 
 
 March 
 
 April 
 
 May 
 
 June 
 
 July 
 
 August 
 
 September .... 
 
 October 
 
 November .... 
 December .... 
 
 Total .... 
 Average number of cases 
 per day 
 
 1,060 
 635 
 766 
 834 
 883 
 786 
 
 644 
 728 
 
 786 
 694 
 589 
 
 11.8 
 
 ?:? 
 9 i 
 1: 
 
 6.8 
 71 
 8.1 
 8.7 
 
 I 7 
 
 6-5 
 
 1.337 
 595 
 ■ ,013 
 1,141 
 1,410 
 1,142 
 1.039 
 1,115 
 990 
 ••343 
 1,166 
 1.335 
 
 3,397 
 1,230 
 ■.779 
 1.975 
 2,293 
 1,928 
 1,654 
 1.759 
 1,718 
 J.'35 
 1,860 
 1,924 
 
 10.6 
 
 i A 
 
 8.7 
 
 10.2 
 
 8.5 
 7 s 
 
 7-6 
 
 SM 
 8.2 
 
 8.5 
 
 9,019 
 
 IO0.O 
 
 13,632 
 
 22,65 1 
 
 75 
 
 199 
 
INDEX 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abattoirs on West Side: loca- 
 tion of, 3 
 
 Acquittal: in children's court, 
 92 
 
 Adenoids: in court cases studied, 
 90 
 
 Aces of Boys Studied, 167 
 
 American-born Parents of 
 Boys: nationality of, 7, 169 
 
 Anthony, Katharine: Mothers 
 Who Must Earn, cited, 7, 
 
 59. Mi 
 
 Arrests of Boys: court disposi- 
 tion of cases involving, 92- 
 95. 97. >7 2 >' f° r trivial of- 
 fenses, 18, 19; for trivial of- 
 fenses, elimination of, pref- 
 erable to cursory treat- 
 ment in court, 107; mis- 
 taken, 97, 98; offenses in 
 463 cases, according to court 
 charges, 82; offenses in 463 
 cases, as classified by Bu- 
 reau of Social Research, 16, 
 17; previous, failure of 
 faulty court records to show, 
 90 
 
 Assault: boys arrested for, ac- 
 cording to court charges, 
 82; boys arrested for, ac- 
 cording 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. 
 
 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: illus- 
 trates 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 in- 
 volving arrests of, 95, 172, 
 173; drinking by, 146, 147; 
 fighting by, 143, 144; gain- 
 fully 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 ar- 
 rested, who were included 
 in study of delinquents, 95; 
 not gainfully employed, 
 status of, 174; not properly 
 delinquent, 95, 99, 100; of- 
 fenses of, largely excusable, 
 18; offenses in 463 cases of 
 
 203 
 
INDEX 
 
 arrest of, 16, 17, 82; play- 
 ground of, 10-23; recreation 
 of, beyond control of family, 
 77; scope of study of de- 
 linquency of, 94, 95; sexual 
 immorality of, 154; smoking 
 by, 145; sources from which 
 names of those studied were 
 obtained, i67;spendings and 
 earnings of, 68, 69; stealing 
 by, 141, 142; successful in- 
 stitution cases among, 127, 
 128; truancy of, 148-15 1; 
 truancy records of, classified 
 as delinquent or not delin- 
 quent, 173; two types of, 
 157, 1 59; wanderlust of, 151- 
 154; who are brought into 
 court, 87-95; wn0 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, 1 12 
 
 Breweries on West Side: loca- 
 tion of, 3 
 
 "Bruisers": rather than real 
 prize fighters furnish ex- 
 ample to West Side boy, 36 
 
 Budget, Family: often inade- 
 quate to cover requisites for 
 healthy growth, 60 
 
 Burckel, James: value of neigh- 
 borhood 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; ar- 
 rest of boys for, 1 7, 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; com- 
 mitment by children's court 
 to, 94 
 
 Central Presbyterian 
 Church: Big Brother move- 
 ment in, 86 
 
 Charitable Institutions : 
 commitment by children's 
 court to, 94 
 
 Charitable Societies. See Re- 
 lief Records; Relief Societies 
 
 CharityOrganization 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: chil- 
 dren's court commits to 
 charitable institutions, 94 
 
 Children's Court, Manhattan: 
 as viewed by West Side boy 
 and his parents, 80; descrip- 
 tion of growth, equipment, 
 and processes of, 80-84; dis- 
 position of cases in, 92, 93, 
 94, 172, 173; hearings in, 
 cursory and hurried, 97, 105, 
 106, 107; investigation in, 
 90, 91, 92, 1 10; judges of, 83; 
 parole system of, 107-116; 
 probation cases and officers 
 of, 87; progress made in, 
 since 1910, 79, 83, 87, 90, 
 
 204 
 
INDEX 
 
 in, 120; records in, con- 
 sulted in study of commit- 
 ment cases, 1 18; records in, 
 faulty, 90; records in, new 
 system of, 90, 1 1 1 ; records 
 in, samples quoted, 1 10, 1 1 1 ; 
 reputed influence of "boss" 
 in, 88, 89; summary of re- 
 sults of action by, in cases 
 studied, 138-140; things 
 needed to increase effective- 
 ness of, 107, 140; trials in, 
 average time given to each, 
 83. See also Juvenile Court; 
 Juvenile Delinquency; Pro- 
 bation 
 
 Children's Courts: where de- 
 fects corrected in Manhat- 
 tan 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: re- 
 fusal 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: lo- 
 cation 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: considera- 
 
 tions that guide judge in de- 
 termining on, 1 19; different 
 attitudes of parents toward, 
 124-126; during parole, in 
 cases studied, 116; effective- 
 ness of, 117, 137, 138, 139; 
 frequently made on insuffi- 
 cient evidence, 1 19, 120; in- 
 stitutions to which made, 
 94, 1 18-1 19; length of, com- 
 pared with length of parole 
 period, 109; theory of, 117 
 
 Committed Cases: absence of 
 investigation in, 119; scope 
 and method of study of, 1 18; 
 where sentence a serious er- 
 ror, 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 "Ger- 
 rys" 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 re- 
 spect for, among boys, 19, 
 20. See Children's Court 
 
 Court List: names of boys ob- 
 tained from, 167 
 
 Court of Special Sessions: 
 children's court part of 
 the, 83. See Children' 's Court 
 
 205 
 
INDEX- 
 
 Cowardice: among West Side 
 gangs, 52, 53, 54 
 
 Craps, Shooting: a year round 
 amusement on West Side, 
 28; leads to arrest for ob- 
 structing 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, 
 
 '57 
 
 Dances: among amusements of- 
 fered to West Side boy, 1 54 
 
 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 De- 
 linquency 
 
 Delinquent Boys; those studied 
 who were not properly so 
 called, 95, 99, 100, 173 
 
 Delinquents: commitment of, 
 by children's court, to re- 
 formatories, 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: de- 
 scribed, 4, 5; the only park 
 on Middle West Side, 10 
 
 Diamond Laundry: Matty Gil- 
 more and the, 104 
 
 "Dinnys," "Cops," and "Ger- 
 rys" on West Side, 13 
 
 Discharge: of boys against 
 whom no evidence found, 
 96. See also Dismissal 
 
 Discharges: following parole, in 
 cases studied, 1 16 
 
 Discipline: meted out to the 
 boy, 70, 71 
 
 206 
 
 Dismissal for Insufficient 
 Evidence: in children's 
 court, 92 
 
 Disorderly Child: boys arrest- 
 ed as, according to court 
 charges, 82; penal law re- 
 garding, 81 
 
 Disorderly Conduct: boys ar- 
 rested 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 "success- 
 ful" institution case, 127 
 
 Dooley, Mrs.: and her Joseph, 
 
 7' 
 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, 
 
 '34 
 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 
 
INDEX 
 
 Eleventh Avenue: character- 
 istics 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, 1 59 
 
 English Parentage: of parents 
 of boys, 8 
 
 Environment: influence of, 1 
 
 Equity Powers: needed by chil- 
 dren's court, 140 
 
 Eyes: bad, in court cases stud- 
 ied, 90; neglect to care for, 
 60 
 
 Families of Boys Studied: con- 
 jugal condition of parents 
 in, 59, 171; country of birth 
 and nationality of parents 
 in, 168, 169; different atti- 
 tudes of, toward commit- 
 ment, 124-126; length of 
 residence in district of, i, 
 168; number involved in 
 delinquency study, 94; num- 
 ber 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, 
 1 18; status of mothers in, 
 170; varying types repre- 
 sented 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: ab- 
 sence of, as a cause of de- 
 linquency, 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 Examina- 
 tion 
 Ferry Rides to Jersey: the 
 
 " sneaking " of, 1 50 
 "Fetes" on West Side, 154 
 Feuds on West Side, 143, 144 
 Fighting: and boxing not neces- 
 sarily associated, 34; be- 
 tween gangs of West Side 
 boys, 45-53; street, and as- 
 sault, 37; with fists on West 
 Side, 143. See also Pri\e 
 Fighting; Boxing 
 Fines: in children's court cases, 
 
 93.96 
 Fire-arms: arrest of boys for use 
 
 of, 1 7. See also Weapons 
 Fire Pots, 25, 26 
 Folks, Homer: quoted on pa- 
 role, 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 
 
 b°y. 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 
 
 207 
 
INDEX 
 
 Gates, Mrs.: and her Jimmy, 
 64, 65 
 
 German Element: on Middle 
 West Side, 7 
 
 German Parentage: of Ameri- 
 can-born parents of boys, 
 7.8 
 
 Germany: parents of boys born 
 in, 7 
 
 "Gerry Men": dreaded more 
 than the court, 90; unpopu- 
 larity of, on West Side, 1 3 
 
 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 ar- 
 rested for, according to 
 court charges, 82; child dis- 
 missed under onecharge 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 
 " H arborers " : mothers who are, 
 
 73 
 Harris, Charlie: stories about, 
 
 "57 
 
 Hawthorne School: Big Broth- 
 er 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 atChildren'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: ex- 
 treme cases of delinquent 
 girls sent to, 119 
 
 House of Mercy: Protestant 
 girls sent to, 1 19 
 
 House of Refuge: and Jewish 
 Big Brother movement, 87; 
 class of cases received by, 
 1 19; commitment by chil- 
 dren's court to, 94 
 
 Housewife of West Side: day 
 of the, 58, 59 
 
 Housing Conditions on West 
 Side, 56, 57, 58 
 
 Hudson River Railroad: fran- 
 chise of, an anomaly, 4 
 
 Husbands, Shiftless: treat- 
 ment of, by their wives, 63, 
 64 
 
 Immorality, Sexual: among 
 West Side boys, 154-156 
 
 Institution Cases: successful, 
 127, 128 
 
 Institutions: no critical exami- 
 nation made of, 117, 118; 
 to which children's court 
 commits, 94, 118, 119. See 
 also Commitment 
 
 Insurance Companies: and win- 
 dow glass on West Side, 1 5 
 
 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 commit- 
 ment of cases studied, ab- 
 sence of, 119; in parole 
 cases, how maat, 1 10-1 14; 
 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 
 
 20S 
 
INDEX 
 
 "Jersey" : "sneaking" ferry rides 
 to, 150 
 
 Jewish Bio Brother Move- 
 ment: 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' con- 
 tempt for judges in, 20; 
 understanding of neighbor- 
 hood conditions essential in 
 estimating work of, 9. See 
 also Children's Court 
 
 Juvenile Delinquency: a prod- 
 uct of conditions in homes 
 and on streets, 140; as de- 
 fined 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: consider- 
 ation of background essen- 
 tial 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 in- 
 volved in proceedings of 
 children's court, 91 
 
 "Lickings": place of, in chil- 
 dren'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 chil- 
 dren 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 fam- 
 ilies of boys, 75 
 
 Mental Concentration: im- 
 possible 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: ar- 
 rest of boys for offenses of, 
 
 17 
 
 Misdemeanors: penal law re- 
 garding, 81 
 
 "Model" Tenement: a social 
 worker's testimony regard- 
 ing family brawls in a, 58 
 
 209 
 
INDEX 
 
 Money: boys' ways of getting, 
 
 >5' 
 
 Moral Stamina: lacking in 
 West Side boy, 1 56 
 
 Morally Depraved: boys ar- 
 rested 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; state- 
 ments of, secured by parole 
 officer, no; 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 regard- 
 ing, 68 
 
 Muller, Charlie: case of, 131, 
 
 '32. 133 
 Murphy, Denny: wanderings 
 of, 152-154 
 
 Names of Boys: those used fic- 
 titious 
 
 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 com- 
 mitment cases, 118; state- 
 ments of, obtained by parole 
 officer, no; value of testi- 
 mony of, 112 
 
 New York Central. Set Hud- 
 son 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 inade- 
 quate, 60 
 
 Nutrition, Infant: ignorance 
 regarding, in West Side fami- 
 lies, 75 
 
 Obstructing the Sidewalks: 
 games which lead to arrest 
 for, 37 
 
 Occupation and Wages: of 
 boys gainfully employed, 175 
 
 Offenses: due to play, enumer- 
 ated, 37 
 
 Offenses in 463 Cases of Ar- 
 rest of Boys: according to 
 court charges, 82; as classi- 
 fied by Bureau of Social Re- 
 search, 16, 17 
 
 Offenses of Boys: serious, few 
 arrests for, 19; to which ar- 
 rests 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 Wel- 
 fare Exhibit, 95 
 
 "Paddy's Market," 2 
 
 Page Commission improvements 
 in children's court recom- 
 mended by, 84 
 
 210 
 
INDEX 
 
 Parents of Boys: conjugal con- 
 dition of, 171; country of 
 birth of, 7, 168; different 
 attitudes of, toward commit- 
 ment 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, n;, 116; 
 period of, 109; system of, in 
 Manhattan Children's Court, 
 93, 107-116 
 
 Parole Card: form of, 108 
 
 Paroled Cases: final disposi- 
 tion of, 173; study of, 107- 
 116 
 
 Parties and Dances: on West 
 Side, 154 
 
 Pay Envelope: boy's duty re- 
 garding, as viewed by com- 
 munity, 68 
 
 Peddling Without License: 
 penal law regarding, 81 
 
 Penal Law: juvenile delin- 
 quency according to the, 80, 
 81 
 
 People's Institute: new work 
 on West Side undertaken 
 by, 5 
 
 Perversion, Sexual: among 
 West Side boys, 1 55 
 
 Physical Examination: needed 
 in many cases brought to 
 children's court, 140 
 
 Physical Stamina: lacking in 
 West Side boy, 1 56 
 
 Piano Factories: on West Side, 
 location of, 3 
 
 Picking Pockets: arrest of 
 boys for, 1 7 
 
 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 ar- 
 rested, 16 
 
 Playground: of West Side boy, 
 10-23 
 
 Plunkett of Tammany Hall: 
 quoted, 89 
 
 Police : attitude of, toward boys' 
 offenses, 18; boys' antago- 
 nism to, explained, 12; fires 
 extinguished by, 25; situa- 
 tion regarding, on West 
 Side, 13, 14, 15, 16, 19 
 
 Police Sergeant: discretion 
 permitted to, regarding bail, 
 88 
 
 Political "Boss": and chil- 
 dren's court, 88, 89 
 
 Poolrooms : on West Side, 1 54 
 
 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 pre- 
 pared by, 84 
 
 Prize Fighting: and the West 
 Side boy, 33, 34, 35, 36 
 
 Probation: and parole, in chil- 
 dren's court, 85, 107; class 
 of boys for whom likely to 
 be most effective, 1 03 
 
 Probation Agencies, Vol- 
 unteer: history and scope 
 
 211 
 
INDEX 
 
 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; pre- 
 liminary 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, 1 7, 
 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: com- 
 mon on West Side, 56 
 
 Rearrests Following Parole: 
 in cases studied, 1 16 
 
 Records in Children's Court: 
 old and new, 90, 1 1 1 
 
 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 re- 
 fused 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, con- 
 sulted in study of commit- 
 ment cases, 118; records of, 
 not consulted in children's 
 court cases, 1 14 
 
 Remand for Investigation: did 
 not necessarily mean further 
 inquiry, 97 
 
 Reproduction: ignorance of 
 West Side boys regarding, 
 
 155 
 
 Residences in District: of fam- 
 ilies 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 Alex- 
 ander: cases of, 134, 135, 136 
 
 Riley, George: case of, 130 
 
 Riley, James: report of investi- 
 gation in case of, 1 1 1 
 
 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 
 
 212 
 
INDEX 
 
 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, 1 58 
 
 St. Vincent de Paul Society: 
 Catholic Probation League 
 organized under auspices of, 
 
 85 
 
 Saloon: children's visits to, 146 
 
 "Scenery Burned by Van- 
 dals," 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 con- 
 sulted in study of commit- 
 ment cases, 1 18; statements 
 from, obtained by parole 
 officer, no; value of evi- 
 dence from, in parole cases, 
 113; West Side boy and the, 
 148, 149 
 
 School Farm: in De Witt Clin- 
 ton 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 ob- 
 tained, 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, 1 14 
 
 Sexual Immorality: among 
 West Side boys, 1 54-1 56 
 
 Sexual Perverts: common on 
 West Side, 155 
 
 21 
 
 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 head- 
 quarters 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 in- 
 vestigator 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 in- 
 vestigation in case of, no 
 
 Stealing: encouragements to, 
 on West Side, 141, 142 
 
 Streets: influence exerted upon 
 boys by the, 21, 22; the nat- 
 ural playground of the West 
 Side boy, 10, 11; uses of, that 
 
 3 
 
INDEX 
 
 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 con- 
 viction, in children's court, 
 93, 96; following parole, 
 in cases studied, 1 16 
 
 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 re- 
 garding 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 re- 
 garding a gang fight quoted 
 from, 49 
 
 Truancy: among offenses lead- 
 ing to arrest of boys, 16; 
 developed into a system, 
 among West Side boys, 148- 
 151; difficulties of mothers 
 with, 67; procedure in pa- 
 roled cases of, 93; records of 
 boys, classified as delinquent 
 or not delinquent, 173 
 
 Truant, A Ten-year-old: con- 
 fession of, 149, 150 
 
 Truant Schools: commitment 
 by children's court to, 94, 1 1 9 
 
 Twelfth Avenue: character- 
 istics of, 5 
 
 Ungovernable Child: boys ar- 
 rested as, according to court 
 charges, 82 
 
 United States: parents of boys 
 born in, 7. See also Ameri- 
 can-born 
 
 Vagrancy and Neglect: 
 
 offenses of, 16 
 Vandalism on West Side: as 
 
 reported by New York 
 
 Evening Mail, 1 44 
 
 Wages and Occupations: of 
 boys gainfully employed, 
 
 '75 
 
 "Wanderlust": among West 
 Side boys, 1 51-154 
 
 Warehouses: on West Side, loca- 
 tion of, 3 
 
 Warrants: use of, in parole 
 cases, 93, 109 
 
 Waters, Stephen: a "success- 
 ful" institution case, 127, 
 128 
 
 Weapons, Concealed: carrying 
 of, among boys, 45 
 
 West Side, Middle: a dual 
 neighborhood, 37; apathy of, 
 8; characteristics of, ex- 
 plained 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, 1 5 
 
 Work Record: importance of, 
 in parole investigations, 1 10, 
 i'3 
 
 214 
 
INDEX 
 
 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 Asso- 
 ciation: Big Brother Move- 
 ment in, 86 
 
 215 
 
RUSSELL SAGE 
 FOUNDATION 
 
 THE 
 NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 BY 
 
 RUTH S. TRUE 
 
 WEST SIDE STUDIES 
 
 NEW YORK 
 SURVEY ASSOCIATES. INC. 
 
 MCMXIV 
 
Copyright, 191 4, by 
 The Russell Sage Foundation 
 
 THE TROW PRE38 
 NEW TOEK 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. Introductory i 
 
 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 col- 
 lected by four persons. The final chapter, 
 which deals with the Italian girl of the West 
 Side, was prepared by one of the group working inde- 
 pendently. 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 with- 
 out 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, in- 
 cluding 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 jour- 
 nal, 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 in- 
 fluence 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 
 
 i 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 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 com- 
 pany 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, zeal- 
 ously 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 chil- 
 dren 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 inten- 
 tion 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 
 
INTRODUCTORY 
 
 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,* 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, " 47 1 ," 
 by which it was designated during the whole time we 
 occupied it. "471" was a red brick structure consist- 
 ing 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 "play- 
 ground" in summer. A supervisor from Christ Pres- 
 byterian Church was placed in charge of the latter, and 
 the children crowded into the little box in such num- 
 bers 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 
 
 * The names of girls given in this book are fictitious. 
 3 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 small boys who haunted cur premises. It was a 
 continual bone of contention. It was always being 
 carried away by bands of enemies and heroically re- 
 stored 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 equip- 
 ment 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 pas- 
 time 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 
 
 4 
 
INTRODUCTORY 
 
 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 hospi- 
 tal. 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 sub- 
 mitted to a thorough fumigation. 
 
 We opened our club once more, but Ellen was still 
 forbidden to come to us. She continued living in the 
 
 5 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 isolation of the second floor, peeping over the banis- 
 ters 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 evi- 
 dence 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 pro- 
 ceeded was the spirit of disorder abroad in the neigh- 
 borhood. This was indeed a lawless spirit and, in its 
 extreme form, a sinister and menacing influence. The 
 "Gopher gang"* 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 in- 
 fluences was through the gangs of small boys who 
 
 * This name is commonly applied to all the loafers and thugs from 
 Thirtieth to Sixtieth Street. 
 
INTRODUCTORY 
 
 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 conciliat- 
 ing 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. 1 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 re- 
 sults. 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 
 
 7 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 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 seri- 
 ous 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. Grad- 
 ually, 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" 
 
 8 
 
INTRODUCTORY 
 
 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 plat- 
 form, 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 part- 
 ing 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 con- 
 ductor 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 
 9 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 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, attrac- 
 tive 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 " Goph- 
 erettes." They had paid dues and even rented a base- 
 ment 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 entertain- 
 
INTRODUCTORY 
 
 ment 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 has- 
 tened 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 unfor- 
 tunate 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. 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 "Fights" among the girls were not infrequent. One 
 unusually peaceful and happy evening, for instance, 
 ended in open warfare because Barbara Egan, appar- 
 ently 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 par- 
 ticularly 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 shoul- 
 der, apparently forgetting that a state of war existed 
 between them. Sadie and her companions had col- 
 lected on their way to the club the most thrilling gossip 
 of the entire year. Father Langan, according to the 
 
 12 
 
INTRODUCTORY 
 
 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 side- 
 walk! 
 
 This story was a nine-days' wonder on the West Side, 
 where, as a usual thing, deeds of violence are prompt- 
 ly 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 for- 
 gotten 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 
 
 ■3 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 had been surmounted. At the end of ten months we 
 thought we had taken the measure of all the unpropi- 
 tious 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 dis- 
 appeared, 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 environ- 
 ment, 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.* But the study was written with much addi- 
 tional 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 
 
 * See Chapter II, p. 19, and Appendix A, p. 121. 
 •4 
 
INTRODUCTORY 
 
 writer puts it: "The alternative lies, not between 
 knowing a few people and knowing all to an equal de- 
 gree, 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." * 
 
 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 essen- 
 tially from the types of girls usually found in settle- 
 ment 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 promis- 
 ing 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, f superinten- 
 dent 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 govern- 
 
 * Reynolds, Stephen, and Wooley, Bob and Tom: Seems So, A 
 Workingman's View of Politics, p. xv. London, Macmillan, 1912. 
 f Now commissioner of corrections, New York City. 
 
 15 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 ment and law, and can see no reason for obedience to 
 anything but their own impulse." * 
 
 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 near- 
 est school and from there to work in the nearest fac- 
 tory. 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 suc- 
 cumbed 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 in- 
 fluence cannot be adequately combated by parental 
 authority alone. The community must assume the 
 responsibility for the environment of its least pro- 
 tected 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 de- 
 graded centers which attract them under that name. 
 
 * Annual Report of the New York State Reformatory for Women 
 at Bedford, 1907, p. 25. 
 
 16 
 
INTRODUCTORY 
 
 The West Side girls need much more, however, than 
 protected dance halls. Some of the girls of this dis- 
 trict are too poor to go to public dances. But the same 
 dangers which threaten the dance-hall girl stalk unre- 
 strained 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 con- 
 gestion, 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 re- 
 formatories, 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 com- 
 
 17 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 munity 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 pre- 
 serve 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 * 
 
 "*\ 7"OU'VE got t' keep your eye on a girl. Now 
 
 | it's different with a boy. He can take care 
 
 A 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 responsi- 
 bility is far more alert in her behalf than on her 
 brother's account. With few exceptions, the girl is as- 
 sured of interest and counsel in her home. This counsel 
 is not always wise. Worse still, it is not always tem- 
 pered 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 
 
 * For more detailed data with regard to conditions in the 55 fam- 
 ilies to which the 65 girls dealt with in this study belonged, see 
 Appendix A, Economic Condition of the Families, p. 121. 
 
 19 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 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 condi- 
 tions 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 cloth- 
 ing is a stark reality to which only the youngest babies 
 in the family can be oblivious. The daughter of four- 
 teen 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 mis- 
 fortune. Forty of the total 55 families, or 73 per cent, 
 had had records with relief societies, some stretching 
 far back into the past.* Forty-three families, from 
 which came 53 of the girls, must be classed with the 
 very poor.f 
 
 Those of us born into better fortune seldom feel the 
 meaning of this primitive struggle. We have no com- 
 mon denominator with it. We cannot estimate the 
 heroism of " the poor." We have heard and read much 
 
 * See Appendix A, p. 121. 
 t Ibid., p. 121. 
 
 20 
 
IN THE GRIP OF POVERTY 
 
 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 disin- 
 tegration of human worth under its influence, the suf- 
 fering 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 knowl- 
 edge. 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 catas- 
 trophe; but steadily it saps the vigor of the young as 
 
 21 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 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 work- 
 ing capacity means hardship. No reserve fund has 
 been possible, or the small amount saved is hopelessly 
 inadequate to meet illness or protracted unemploy- 
 ment. 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 chil- 
 dren.* "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 com- 
 pelled to supplement his earnings by her own. Twenty- 
 nine out of the 46 living mothers were contributing a 
 
 * For the relation which the number of children had to applications 
 for relief among these families, see Appendix A, p. 123. 
 
IN THE GRIP OF POVERTY 
 
 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.* 
 
 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, f 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,:): 
 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 crush- 
 ing poverty they had caused; and would finish with, 
 
 * For further data concerning the broken families in the group, and 
 the extent of wage-earning among the mothers, see Appendix A, 
 p. 124 ft. 
 
 t See Anthony, Katharine: Mothers Who Must Earn, p. 166 ff. 
 (West Side Studies.) Russell Sage Foundation Publication. New 
 York, Survey Associates, 19 14. 
 
 X See Appendix A, pp. 128-129. 
 
 23 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 " 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 commen- 
 surate with the degree of their poverty. Dark, unventi- 
 lated 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.* 
 
 In spite of the mountains of difficulty in the way of 
 these mothers, their success in bringing up their chil- 
 dren 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 success- 
 ful 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 pres- 
 ence 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 
 
 * For discussion of housing and rent in the 55 families, see Appen- 
 dix A, pp. 126-128. 
 
 24 
 
IN THE GRIP OF POVERTY 
 
 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 re- 
 spectability. 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 neigh- 
 borhood. 
 
 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." Rela- 
 tives had helped when the hardest pinches came; but 
 
 25 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 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 else- 
 where 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 re- 
 quired to measure up to. We expect her to counteract 
 
 26 
 
IN THE GRIP OF POVERTY 
 
 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 be- 
 come too great for many a woman. She grows apa- 
 thetic, 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 tolera- 
 tion. 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 
 
 27 
 
THE NEGLECTED 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 house- 
 keeper 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 un- 
 accustomed 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." 
 
 28 
 
IN THE CRIP OF POVERTY 
 
 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 par- 
 ents were heavy and constant drinkers.* 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 concomi- 
 tants — ignorance, immorality, drinking, filth, and deg- 
 radation. Whether as cause or result, these appear as 
 close companions of want. Some of our girls came from 
 
 * Of the 5 5 families, 2 5 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. 
 
 29 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 families which hovered constantly on the verge of dis- 
 ruption. 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 1 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 
 
 30 
 
IN THE GRIP OF POVERTY 
 
 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 in- 
 stability of her age is accentuated by the uncertainties 
 
 3' 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 of her life. Foresight and steadiness of purpose are 
 not easily taught when the essentials of existence de- 
 pend 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, adoles- 
 cence 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 for- 
 gotten in a following period of comfort. When kind- 
 liness and cheer once more prevail in her home, con- 
 sciousness 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. 
 
 32 
 
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 dur- 
 ing 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 paro- 
 chial schools, the Children's Aid Society school, and the 
 American Female Guardian Society school are all wait- 
 ing 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 men- 
 tioned have nothing to do with the decision. Some- 
 times, 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 
 
 33 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 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 privi- 
 leges. 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 at- 
 tended three; 21 had attended two; and only eight 
 had continued throughout in the same school. There 
 
 34 
 
WHERE THE SCHOOL LAW FAILED 
 
 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, how- 
 ever, a safeguard against the rigidity of a single auto- 
 cratic system. It gives some room for experiment with 
 a difficult child, until the regime 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.* Two or 
 three days are dropped repeatedly. Wage-earning sis- 
 ters 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 no- 
 body 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 
 
 * 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. 
 
 35 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 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, be- 
 lieve 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 her- 
 self. 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 
 
 36 
 
WHERE THE SCHOOL LAW FAILED 
 
 regarded as the normal age for graduation,* 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 re- 
 bellion than in the case of the boy, who more commonly 
 slips the leading strings. Or else it marks an un- 
 developed 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. Sur- 
 rounded 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 
 
 * Ayres, Leonard P. : Laggards in Our Schools, p. 38. Russell 
 Sage Foundation Publication. New York, Charities Publication 
 Committee, 1909. 
 
 37 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 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 excep- 
 tional 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 
 
 33 
 
WHERE THE SCHOOL LAW FAILED 
 
 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 hard- 
 ness 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 magis- 
 trate's court or Christina might be committed to a re- 
 formatory. 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 
 
 39 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 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 ob- 
 viated 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 5 B grade* and pass an 
 
 * 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. 
 
 40 
 
WHERE THE SCHOOL LAW FAILED 
 
 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 
 
 4« 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 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. Work- 
 ing 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 x 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 them- 
 selves 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. 
 
 42 
 
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, look- 
 ing 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 " re- 
 finement," 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." 
 
 43 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 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 signifi- 
 cant 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 re- 
 sults: 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 light- 
 
 44 
 
WAGE-EARNING AND NEW RELATIONS 
 
 weight 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 ad- 
 venture, 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 un- 
 reliable 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 
 
 45 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 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 con- 
 tact with the great factory and its processes is so slight. 
 Nellie Sherin, aged fourteen, worked in one of the larg- 
 est and best of the West Side factories. Her childish 
 description of her work is the best indication of her 
 incompetence. " 1 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 weari- 
 ness 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 
 
 46 
 
WAGE-EARNING AND NEW RELATIONS 
 
 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 
 I6.00 ; 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 work- 
 ing 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 be- 
 tween 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 be- 
 tween 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 auto- 
 cratic her parents' rule may have been, they must now 
 turn to her for assistance. There must follow a certain 
 
 47 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 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 con- 
 trol. 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 de- 
 mands the continued subservience of both boy and 
 girl. The precarious state of family wellbeing has in- 
 stituted 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. 
 
 48 
 
WAGE-EARNING AND NEW RELATIONS 
 
 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 assum- 
 ing 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, 1 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 
 
 49 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 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 sur- 
 roundings, 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 pre- 
 mature 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 
 
 5° 
 
WAGE-EARNING AND NEW RELATIONS 
 
 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 concep- 
 tion 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 
 
 5i 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 devoted to her father, now switches away impatiently 
 under his scolding. He, for his part, complains bit- 
 terly 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 keep- 
 ing 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 cold- 
 ness 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 punish- 
 ment 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 
 
 52 
 
WAGE-EARNING AND NEW RELATIONS 
 
 and the ideals which are struggling for a foothold in her ' 
 imagination. 
 
 The greatest strain in such households is that be- 
 tween mother and daughter. The girl is starting her 
 course, undisciplined and eager. The woman has lived 
 through checkered and hazardous years. She has suf- 
 fered 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 appre- 
 ciate. 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 re- 
 ceive. 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 
 53 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 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 neigh- 
 borhood, 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 " Har- 
 lem Four," Louisa has forgotten her outburst, and the 
 dull, sad, cramped existence at home. She is thin, 
 
 54 
 
WAGE-EARNING AND NEW RELATIONS 
 
 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 varie- 
 gated 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. 
 
 55 
 
THE NEGLECTED 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, i 
 
 56 
 
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 de- 
 prived 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 
 
 57 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 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 neigh- 
 borhood 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, — some- 
 
 58 
 
THE WILL TO PLAY 
 
 times 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 com- 
 plains. A carfare saved by walking to work is a car- 
 fare 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 pos- 
 sible. 
 
 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 earn'ngs 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 
 
 59 
 
THE NEGLECTED GJRL 
 
 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 bow 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 vi- 
 tality is sapped for months in the year through sheer 
 exposure to cold. These deficiencies are endured un- 
 complainingly. 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 $1 5 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 com- 
 
 60 
 
THE WILL TO PLAY 
 
 panion. 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 them- 
 selves 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 
 
 6j 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 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 popu- 
 
 62 
 
THE WILL TO PLAY 
 
 lar in spite of nagging from the " cop." Still, the police- 
 man is not a very censorious chaperon. Even the older 
 girl whose parents have opened their door to her com- 
 pany 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 wait- 
 ing 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 naive sug- 
 gestion was that Peter and "Gimp" should call for the 
 
 63 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 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 en- 
 tirely 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 Gold- 
 smith mourned as forever departed from the " Deserted 
 Village" has crossed the ocean with the Irish immi- 
 grants 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 com- 
 panion a fox terrier, the pet of the McCormick family. 
 Then came Mrs. O'HaTa, 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, undevel- 
 oped specimen of humanity in a faded flannellette 
 
 64 
 
THE WILL TO PLAY 
 
 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 de- 
 posited 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 mirth- 
 
 65 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 f ul 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 cen- 
 ter of the floor was a rather handsome chap who 
 played the mandolin well and had a bellowing bari- 
 tone 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 mov- 
 ing 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.* 
 
 "Unkindly critics, blind to the inner meanings of 
 things, call them, I believe, Monkey's Parades — the 
 
 * Wells, Herbert G.: The New Machiavelli. New York, Duffield, 
 1910. 
 
 66 
 
THE WILL TO PLAY 
 
 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 trans- 
 figuring 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 nar- 
 row, 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 unsus- 
 pected. They promenade. Vulgar! — it is as vulgar 
 as the spirit that calls the moth abroad in the even- 
 ing 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 sud- 
 denly to the sound of "Oh! Mr. Dream Man, let me 
 dream some more." The dark-eyed girl at the piano 
 
 67 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 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 sing- 
 ing 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 danc- 
 ing 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 out- 
 side. 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 
 
 68 
 
THE WILL TO PLAV 
 
 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 personali- 
 ties, 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 aip sidetracked 
 as foolish. There is only dancing to bring them to- 
 gether, 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. 
 
 69 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 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 pleas- 
 ure 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 to- 
 gether, 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 run- 
 ning the racket off they go to the cop and say, ' We 
 
THE WILL TO PLAY 
 
 don't want any dancing stopped here. See? ' and he 
 leaves them alone."* Home-going is not thought of 
 until i or 2, often 3 or 4 a. m. The ball is often fol- 
 lowed by a trip to a restaurant and home is finally 
 reached at 6 a. m. 
 
 * 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 inno- 
 cent 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 re- 
 spectable 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 after- 
 noon 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.: Commer- 
 cialized Prostitution in New York City, pp. 68-70. Bureau of Social 
 Hygiene. New York, Century Co., 1913. 
 
 71 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 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 super- 
 ficial 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 tempta- 
 tion. This is the most sinister phase of the recrea- 
 tion problem. 
 
 72 
 
THE WILL TO PLAY 
 
 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 com- 
 panion and is married in the presence of her family and 
 friends. But very often she and her boy-husband in- 
 dulge in a mild elopement. This is not necessarily done 
 to evade the objection of parents. It is partly in obedi- 
 ence to the romantic instinct of youth and partly be- 
 cause 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 inter- 
 est; 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 daugh- 
 ter had given up her job at the cigarette factory and 
 
 73 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 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 prob- 
 lems 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. 
 
 74 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 THE BREAKDOWN OF FAMILY PROTECTION 
 
 OUR West Side girls were members of a sup- 
 posedly 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 neigh- 
 borhood 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 baby- 
 hood, in the midst of lawlessness and rumors of law- 
 lessness. 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. 
 
 75 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 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.* 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 char- 
 acter 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 house- 
 keeper 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 
 
 * See Cartwright, O. G.: The Middle West Side: Historical Notes. 
 (West Side Studies.) Russell Sage Foundation Publication. In 
 preparation. 
 
 76 
 
THE BREAKDOWN OF FAMILY PROTECTION 
 
 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 be- 
 comes familiar, even as a child, with the lowest forms 
 of vice and immorality. Living on the same block with 
 1 5 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. 
 
 77 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 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 rep- 
 utation 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 en- 
 vironment friendly to youth and its needs. The daughter 
 of fourteen in the tenements must share the experience 
 of the motherof 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 
 
 73 
 
THE BREAKDOWN OF FAMILY PROTECTION 
 
 in families whose moral standards meet the usual re- 
 quirements, 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 naive 
 morality of primitive social groups. The result is 
 that many of the girls are simply reared in a differ- 
 ent morality from that of the community at large. 
 Illegitimate births are common. Marriage 1 — 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 unex- 
 pected 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 ap- 
 pointments with him. He came to the club one even- 
 ing expecting to find her there according to her promise. 
 
 79 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 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 com- 
 ment, 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 par- 
 donable in her parents. Open and excessive in- 
 fidelity on the part of the father and drink or infidelity 
 on the part of the mother may make the family out- 
 casts 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. 
 
 80 
 
THE BREAKDOWN OF FAMILY PROTECTION 
 
 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 hall- 
 ways of these tenements are perennially dark by day, 
 although they are lit by flickering gas jets in the even- 
 ing. 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 accus- 
 tomed 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 re- 
 membered, a part of some tenement house. It im- 
 
 81 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 pinges on the homes of 1 2 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 child- 
 hood 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 gen- 
 eration Irish-Americans. They came of vigorous 
 peasant stock, and from a country which is, by com- 
 parison 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 regime 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. 
 
 82 
 
THE BREAKDOWN OF FAMILY PROTECTION 
 
 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 excite- 
 ment 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 morn- 
 ings, 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 con- 
 junctivitis. 
 
 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 con- 
 cerned about herself or her appearance. When she 
 
 83 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 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 con- 
 tracted 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. Un- 
 doubtedly 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 cigar- 
 
 84 
 
THE BREAKDOWN OF FAMILY PROTECTION 
 
 ette 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 vital- 
 ity, 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 scatter- 
 ing 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 psy- 
 chological 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 stand- 
 ards, 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 demoral- 
 ized 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 estab- 
 lished 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 
 85 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 day to our consternation that she was going to be mar- 
 ried. 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 situa- 
 tion 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." 
 
THE BREAKDOWN OF FAMILY PROTECTION 
 
 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 mar- 
 riage 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 chil- 
 dren. 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 atti- 
 tude 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 men- 
 tal, in which they have been reared. There was, how- 
 ever, one important distinction which we learned to 
 make between the forms of immorality. There was 
 
 87 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 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. Be- 
 neath 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 irre- 
 sistible 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 
 
THE BREAKDOWN OF FAMILY PROTECTION 
 
 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 6f 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 ap- 
 pease 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 un- 
 successful. " 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 
 
 89 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 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 headquar- 
 ters, of prison officials, of probation officers. We en- 
 listed the aid of a strong society, but the agent, though 
 he promised to help, gave us very little encourage- 
 ment, 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 
 
 90 
 
THE BREAKDOWN OF FAMILY PROTECTION 
 
 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 harbor- 
 ing 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 
 
 9i 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 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 
 92 
 
THE BREAKDOWN OF FAMILY PROTECTION 
 
 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 diffi- 
 cult. 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 trust- 
 worthy 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 con- 
 ceptions 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 help- 
 lessness 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 
 
 93 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 in the adult but which ought never to play a part in 
 childhood. 
 
 Yet, granting all the untoward conditions and in- 
 fluences 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 sordid- 
 ness 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 school- 
 ing; 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. 
 
 94 
 
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 dark- 
 ness. 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 sud- 
 denly. 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 raptur- 
 ously 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 hap- 
 pily on. After the first excitement of the news had 
 abated a little, they turned to other matters. "Per- 
 haps your friend will be at your house, Lucy," said 
 one of the girls. 
 
 Lucy's happy look faded. 
 95 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 "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. 
 1 wisht 1 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 
 
 96 
 
THE ITALIAN GIRL 
 
 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 em- 
 ployment. 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 ban- 
 isters at the new arrivals. The little knots of neigh- 
 bors gathered about the doorways hailed Lucy with 
 words of rejoicing. A continuous sound of voices 
 
 97 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 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 in- 
 timacy 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 creme 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 pros- 
 perous; 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 "par- 
 lor 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 mar- 
 
 98 
 
THE ITALIAN GIRL 
 
 ried. 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 Sun- 
 day 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 sub- 
 siding 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 some- 
 thing 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 
 
 99 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 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 work- 
 ing 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 pas- 
 sionately. 
 
 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 chil- 
 dren 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 
 
THE ITALIAN GIRL 
 
 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, un- 
 used. 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 pas- 
 sionate 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 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 her American life, at school, in industry, and in recrea- 
 tion. 
 
 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 disad- 
 vantage 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 " Bel- 
 sito, 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 
 
 102 
 
THE ITALIAN GIRL 
 
 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 
 
 103 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 her deeply lined face looks all of fifty. Just home from 
 work, she snatches up the baby and kisses it passion- 
 ately, 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. 1 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 responsibili- 
 ties. 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 tene- 
 ment, uncertain as to their floor. A group of dark-eyed 
 children around an ash can nearby watched me curi- 
 ously. 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 
 
 104 
 
THE ITALIAN GIRL 
 
 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 dis- 
 couragement and reporting dreary failure. Zappira, 
 
 105 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 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 re- 
 paid 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 
 1 06 
 
THE ITALIAN GIRL 
 
 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. When- 
 ever 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 every- 
 body 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. 
 
 107 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 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 J4.00 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.* 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 per- 
 sonal 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 
 
 * 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 per- 
 centage of the population. 
 
 108 
 
THE ITALIAN GIRL 
 
 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,* 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 
 
 * Among a group of 86 families visited, the length of residence in 
 the district was obtained for 79. Of these, 5 1 families had lived in 
 the district more than ten years. Eighteen of the 5 i had come di- 
 rect from Italy and 33 had moved here from other parts of the city. 
 
 109 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 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 busi- 
 ness. Owning a fruit stand, a coal cellar, or a trucking 
 business is in itself evidence of long residence and some 
 Americanization.* " 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"; "Giovan- 
 nina," "Jennie"; "Fortunata," "Nettie"; "Francesca," 
 "Fannie" and so on, but even the family names some- 
 times 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, how- 
 ever, 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 under- 
 stand what a stride toward independence the Italian 
 
 * 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. 
 
THE ITALIAN GIRL 
 
 girl has made by simply working in a factory instead 
 of at home. 
 
 A trade-union organizer and a home-work investi- 
 gator were recently discussing the Italian girl of six- 
 teen. The former had found Italian girls slow to re- 
 spond 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 earn- 
 ing 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* 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 watch- 
 fulness over her. Parental surveillance may be relaxed 
 during her hours of work, but it is promptly revived 
 
 * A law prohibiting employment of women in factories after 10 p. m 
 became effective July I, 1913. 
 
 1 1 1 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 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 ac- 
 quired 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 dis- 
 approval, though they shared all of Jennie's bitter re- 
 sentment 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 in- 
 formed 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 
 
THE ITALIAN GIRL 
 
 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 prepar- 
 ing 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 Cafe" had been 
 engaged for the night's celebration. Surely a place 
 with so high-sounding a name must lay claim to con- 
 siderable pretension! It was with some disillusion- 
 ment 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. 
 
 1 13 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 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 
 
 114 
 
THE ITALIAN GIRL 
 
 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 atten- 
 tion, 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 
 
 1 1 5 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 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 thorough- 
 ly sincere. Every guest participated; no one was neg- 
 lected. 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 tene- 
 ment 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 neigh- 
 bors 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 hither- 
 
 116 
 
THE ITALIAN GIRL 
 
 to 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 enjoy- 
 ments 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 ex- 
 pected 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 in- 
 distinct. 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 crav- 
 ing for amusement will continue to be satisfied in the 
 
 117 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 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. 
 
 118 
 
APPENDIX 
 
APPENDIX A 
 ECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE FAMILIES 
 
 OUR 65 girls came from 55 different families. 
 Forty-one of these families had at some pe- 
 riod 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 Improv- 
 ing 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 So- 
 ciety 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. 
 
 121 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 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* at intervals ever since. One record extended 
 from 1892 to 1908, one from 1895 to 191 1. 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 
 
 * 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." 
 
ECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE FAMILIES 
 
 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 sig- 
 nificant, 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,* 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. \ 
 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. 
 
 * See Chapter II, In the Grip of Poverty, p. 19. 
 f For statement regarding births and deaths of children in 3 1 
 families, not all of whom had relief records, see Chapter II, p. 23. 
 
 123 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 It is true that need is rarely due to any one circum- 
 stance. Usually where one kind of misery exists, other 
 kinds are found also.* 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 
 
 * See Devine, Edward T. : Misery and Its Causes. New York, 
 The Macraillan Co., 1909. 
 
 124 
 
ECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE FAMILIES 
 
 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.* In nine of these, the father was dead; in 
 six, he was incapacitated; in 14, the mother worked be- 
 cause 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 hus- 
 band'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 scrub-* 
 bing 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 be- 
 sides, 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 averag- 
 
 * See Chapter II, p. 22. 
 
 125 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 ing 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 . 
 
 Proprietor of trucking business .... 
 
 Street cleaner 
 
 Peddler 
 
 Janitor 
 
 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 tene- 
 ments 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. 
 
 126 
 
ECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE FAMILIES 
 
 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 ad- 
 joining 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 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 AH 
 
 
 Two 
 
 Three 
 
 Four 
 
 Five 
 
 Six 
 
 families 
 
 
 rooms 
 
 rooms 
 
 rooms 
 
 rooms 
 
 rooms 
 
 
 Two .... 
 
 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 
 
 1? 
 
 2. 
 
 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 apart- 
 
 127 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 ments, 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 dis- 
 tribution of rentals according to number is shown by 
 the following table: 
 
 FIFTY FAMILIES CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO NUMBER 
 OF ROOMS OCCUPIED AND MONTHLY RENTAL PAID* 
 
 
 FAMILIES 
 
 PAYING MONTHLY 
 
 
 
 
 RENTAL OF 
 
 
 
 Rooms occupied 
 
 
 $8 
 
 $12 
 
 $16 
 
 
 All 
 families 
 
 
 Less 
 
 and 
 
 and 
 
 and 
 
 $20 
 
 
 than 
 
 less 
 
 less 
 
 less 
 
 and 
 
 
 
 $8 
 
 than 
 $12 
 
 than 
 |i6 
 
 than 
 $20 
 
 over 
 
 
 Two .... 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 Three .... 
 
 2 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 14 
 
 Four .... 
 
 1 
 
 7 
 
 10 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 22 
 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 Six and bath 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 Total . 
 
 3 
 
 '7 
 
 20 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 5° 
 
 "This item was not secured for three of the 55 families; one 
 family owned the house in which they lived, and one lived in fur- 
 nished rooms, paying $3.50 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 pos- 
 
 128 
 
ECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE FAMILIES 
 
 sible 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 under- 
 taker's bill is likely to be $40 or $50. One wife received 
 $141 at her husband's death, and the funeral expenses 
 were $133, 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 investiga- 
 tion, 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 al- 
 coholism, but concerning others we were unable to 
 get any definite information. To summarize: In 25 
 families either the father or mother, or both, were sub- 
 ject 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 ha- 
 bitual 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 
 
 129 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 makes the mother unable to keep her home together 
 without interference from the Society for the Preven- 
 tion 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.* 
 
 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, con- 
 taining 25 of our 65 girls, belonged. 
 
 Class 1 1 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 1 1 of our families, with 1 1 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. I n this class there was one family, 
 
 * Breckinridge, Sophonisba P., and Abbott, Edith: The Delin- 
 quent Child and the Home. Russell Sage Foundation Publication. 
 New York, Charities Publication Committee, 1912. 
 
 130 
 
ECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE FAMILIES 
 
 containing one of our girls. This child's grandfather 
 was an early district settler, an Irish builder and con- 
 tractor. 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 1 2 of the 5 5 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. 
 
 ■3i 
 
APPENDIX B 
 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE DATA 
 
 TO obtain facts regarding school attendance in 
 the West Side district studied, a special tabu- 
 lation 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. Pub- 
 lic 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, 191 1, to June 30, 
 191 1, 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 approxi- 
 mately 2.6 per cent of the term in question. 
 
 Attendance is better in the city as a whole than in 
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 less than eleven days, as compared with 67.3 per cent 
 of those in the city as a whole. The proportion of chil- 
 dren 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 
 
 132 
 
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 133 
 
THE NEGLECTED GIRL 
 
 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 percent- 
 ages 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. 
 
 •34 
 
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 
 
 Acnes: 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 Ital- 
 ians: signs of, no, 117 
 
 Angelina and Nick, 96, 97, 1 13- 
 
 "5 
 
 Anthony, Katharine: Mothers 
 Who Must Earn, cited, 23 
 
 Association for Improving the 
 Condition of the Poor: 
 families of girls having rec- 
 ords 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-Pro- 
 motions, etc., cited, 133 
 
 Basket-weaving: as a club oc- 
 cupation, 4 
 
 Bedford Reformatory: super- 
 intendent of, quoted, 15; 
 treatment of girls at, 18 
 
 Belsito, Adelina: and her ab- 
 sence from school, 102, 103 
 
 Birth Rate and Death Rate 
 of West Side, 23 
 
 Blondi, Zappira: and her moth- 
 er, 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 occupa- 
 tion, 4 
 
 Breckinridge, S. P.: The De- 
 linquent 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: con- 
 ducted by Italian families, 
 106, 107 
 
 Carney, May: case of, 85, 86, 87 
 
 Carney, Mrs.: on May's mar- 
 riage, 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 So- 
 ciety: families of girls hav- 
 ing records with, 121 
 
 Childhood: influence of tene- 
 ment life on, 81, 82 
 
 137 
 
INDEX 
 
 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 be- 
 tween, 79, 80 
 
 Cleaver and Doran, 9, 10 
 
 Clinic, Psychological: exami- 
 nation of girls in a, 85 
 
 Clinic, Weekly: at club, 84 
 
 Cliques among Girls, 60, 61 
 
 Clothes, Pretty: the girls' long- 
 ing for, 59, 60 
 
 Clothing, Protective: the 
 girls' lack of, 60 
 
 Club House at 471 Tenth 
 Avenue: aim and origin of, 
 1, 2; equipment and activi- 
 ties of, 3, 4; only outbreak 
 against a leader at, 10, 11; 
 razed to give place to a fac- 
 tory, 14; relations with fel- 
 low 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 repre- 
 sented 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, dis- 
 covered in physical exami- 
 nation of girls, 83 
 
 Cooking: as a club occupation, 4 
 
 Cook Stove: essential to equip- 
 ment of girls' club, 4 
 
 Costa, Angelina: and her in- 
 terpretation of Lincoln's 
 birthday, 112 
 Craven, Mamie: case of, 60 
 Cull, Christina: truancy of, 
 38, 39. 4° 
 
 Daley's Marriage to May 
 Carney, 86, 87 
 
 Dance Halls: and the occa- 
 sional 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 fac- 
 tion, 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, distin- 
 guished from "excessive 
 
 drinking," 129 
 
 Earnings of Girls, 47 
 
 East Side: West Side compared 
 with, as to stability of popu- 
 lation, 75 
 
 138 
 
INDEX 
 
 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 prome- 
 nade, 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, 1 10, in 
 Families: large, on West Side, 22 
 Families of Girls: classified on 
 basis of prosperity or pov- 
 erty, 130, 131; economic con- 
 ditions of, 121-131; housing 
 of, 126, 127, 128; how consti- 
 tuted, 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, 
 in, 112 
 Fathers: occupations of, 126 
 Festivals, Italian, i 12 
 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, 
 
 '3 
 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, Anni e : truancy of, 37, 38 
 Girls, West Side: aim and 
 methods of study, 1; atti- 
 tude 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 
 
 139 
 
INDEX 
 
 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, 1 12 
 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, 1 10 
 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, no, in; 
 pleasures prohibited and 
 permitted to, 1 1 1, 1 12; semi- 
 Americanization of, 116, 
 117; separate study made 
 of, 1, 95 
 
 Italians of West Side: Amer- 
 icanization of names among, 
 1 10; characteristics of fam- 
 ily life among, 106, 107, 108, 
 111, 112; eagerness of par- 
 ents 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; oc- 
 cupations of, 106, 107, 110; 
 sympathy the keynote of the 
 community, 101; wedding 
 parties among, 11 3-1 16 
 
 Jennie. See Polini, Jennie 
 Josie: and the dance halls, 72 
 
 Kersey, Mrs., and "Baby," 35 
 Kneeland, George J.: Com- 
 mercialized 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, en- 
 listed 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 inter- 
 preted by Angelina Costa, 
 112 
 
 London Slums: compared with 
 Middle West Side District, 
 82 
 
 Louisa: the case of, 54, 55 
 
 McClusky Family: as co-ten- 
 ants of the club, 4, 5, 6 
 
 McKeevers: Thanksgiving par- 
 ty at home of, 64-66 
 
 140 
 
INDEX 
 
 Maggie: the case of, 62 
 
 Martha and Sarah: trachoma 
 cases, 83, 84 
 
 Mattie and Cleary: affair be- 
 tween, 79, 80 
 
 Marriage: as an adventure, 73; 
 following irregular relation- 
 ship, how regarded, 79; 
 found to be a sobering 
 event, 74; of May Carney, 
 85-87. See also Weddings 
 
 Marro, Angelina: her wedding 
 party, 11 3- 11 6. See also 
 Angelina and Nick 
 
 Mayhew, Fanny: and the "Go- 
 pherettes," 10 
 
 Meehan, Jennie: marriage of,8o 
 
 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 IVest 
 Side 
 
 Misery and its Causes: in fam- 
 ilies 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, 1 12 
 
 Morelli, Rose: and her family, 
 99, 100, 101, III 
 
 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-earn- 
 ing, 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 rea- 
 son for leaving the Excelsior 
 Laundry, 46 
 
 Murphy, Mrs.: and her daugh- 
 ter Katie, 2 
 
 Music: appeal of, to girl, 67. 
 See also Songs, Popular 
 
 Names: changes in, among Ital- 
 ians of West Side, 1 10 
 
 New Machiavelli, The: quo- 
 tation from, 66 
 
 Nick and Angelina, 96, 97, 1 14 
 
 "Nickel Dump," 72. See also 
 Moving Picture Shows 
 
 O'Brien, Julia: and the young 
 
 woman from the ranks, 1 1 
 O'Brien, "Tootsie": and her 
 
 first job, 44 
 O'Callahan, Mrs.: her tale of 
 
 the Gophers, 1 3 
 Occupations: of girls studied, 
 
 44, 45; of fathers of girls, 
 
 126; of mothers of girls, 125; 
 
 of West Side Italians, 106, 
 
 107, no 
 
 Parental Surveillance over 
 Italian Girls, iii. See 
 also Italian Girl 
 
 Parents: hostility of, toward 
 men friends of girls, 62; ex- 
 cessive 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: fam- 
 ilies 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 
 
 141 
 
INDEX 
 
 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: exami- 
 nation of girls in, 85 
 
 Pupils. See Children 
 
 Quarrels between Club Mem- 
 bers, 12 
 
 Reformatory: as a cure for 
 truancy, 38, 39 
 
 Reilly, Mamie: and her respon- 
 sibilities, 50, 5 1 
 
 Reilly, Mrs.: on births and 
 deaths, 23 
 
 Relief Records: of families of 
 girls, 20, 121, 122, 123, 124 
 
 Retardation among Girls 
 Studied, 36, 37 
 
 Rentals Paid by Families of 
 Girls, 24, 128 
 
 Reynolds, Stephen: quoted, 15 
 
 Roche, Josephine: author of 
 chapter on the I talian 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 rec- 
 ords with, 121 
 
 Saloon, Corner: and its in- 
 fluence, 81, 82 
 
 Sarah and Maggie: trachoma 
 cases, 83, 84 
 
 School Attendance on the 
 Middle West Side, 132- 
 
 ■34 
 
 School Enquiry, Committee 
 on: of Board of Estimate 
 and Apportionment, 132, 
 
 "33 
 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; retar- 
 dation 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 rec- 
 ords with, 121; interference 
 of, where mother drinks, 130 
 
 Songs, Popular: fondness of 
 girls for, 4. See also Music 
 
 142 
 
INDEX 
 
 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 Mee- 
 
 han's marriage, 80 
 Stores : wages of girls starting in, 
 
 47. See also Department 
 
 Stores 
 Storm, Louisa, and Barbara 
 
 Eg an: quarrel between, 12 
 Street Corners: as places of 
 
 rendezvous, 62, 63 
 Strumpf, Anna, and Mamie 
 
 Tagcart: quarrel between. 
 
 Taggart, Mamie, and Anna 
 Strumpf: quarrel between, 
 12 
 Teeth of Girls: neglect of, 83 
 Tenth Avenue: gang spirit of, 
 
 >3 
 
 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 restau- 
 rant 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, 1 1 1 
 
 Transfer Privileges in the 
 Schools: use of, 34 
 
 Truancy among Girls, 37, 38, 
 39 
 
 Truant Officer: and the trans- 
 fer 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 resi- 
 dence 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 Re- 
 lations at Home, 43-56 
 
 Wages: small on Middle West 
 Side, 22 
 
 Wages of Girls: in Italian fam- 
 ilies, 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, 1 13— 
 116 
 
 Wells, H. G.: The New Machia- 
 velli, 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 de- 
 pendence in families of girls, 
 124. See also Occupations 
 
 Working Papers: requirements 
 for, 40, 41 
 
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