Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1863-08-03

The part acted by boys from eight to four
teen years of age in the late riots has given
this class of our population an evil notOriety.
They constituted large wing of every divis-
ion of the mob, and in many instances were
pushed forward to make the first attack on
building, with the presumption that its de-
tenders would not shoot children-a presump-
ton that proved true in every instance. The
gun factory on Second avenue was assailed IN
this manner. The adult villains stood back
under the opposite awnings and in the door
ways, not raising hand until all the sashes
were broken in, but joining in the shouts and
yells OF the little tigers as they sent their sue
cessiVe showers of stones through the win
dows. In this way the rage of the mob was
worked up. Older boys and men then took
the lead and rushed in to pilage for arms.
But a retributive accident which they
did not contemplate ended the career
of some of them sooner than they
expected. They were particularly inter-
ested in spreading the fire, and the floors be-
ing saturated with oil, the whole building was
enveloped in flames before the pillage was
over. In less than half an hour from the
application of the torch the beams began to
give way, and there was a general rush of
the crowd within for the doors and windows.
The walls trembled at the same instant, aud
in few seconds more the whole fell into
ruins, burying several-it is not known how
many-in the wreck of hot bricks and burn
ing timbers. A number of persons were seen
to jump from the upper stories, and were
helped, or went limping and crawling away.
One boy Of sixteen was carried off dead
Several days after, an insuferable stencil told
the fate of others.
In the western part of the city, in the vi
init Of l,,IF
boy committed the first assault on a tottering
old black man, laying the side Of his head
open with club; and Il crowd of young ruff
fans, hooted on by women, and helped by a
few men, gave chase to every negro who
dared show himself. One little scamp not
over seven years of age, armed with Il piece
OF iron hoop OF the size and shape of a carv-
ing knife blade, was seen marshalling others
younger and older than himself to "hunt the
nagurs. In all parts of the city similar &C .
tivity was observed among this class. At the
hanging of the negro in Clarkson street was
witnessed perhaps the most atrocious scene
that was enacted during the riots. The body
Of the victim was stripped of all clothing ex-
cept flannel jacket, which did not reach as
low as his hips, and the boys made sport for
the surrounding crowd by lighting matches
against 1t, and by shouting the most obscene
WINS II hOulu uOI De USliGNeu buG IOr the
testimony of numerous witnesses, that twenty
Or more witnesses were among the spectators,
and gloated on the savage spectacle.
Our next duty is to draw the attention of
the public authorities to the habits of this ruff
fan class of bows. They tlo pupil of
our city streets-the ''whart rats who pilfer
all day from coffee bags and sugar hogsheads !;
the juvenile vagabonds who, under the APP
pearance of scavengering or begging, steal
little here and little there from every store
they pass; who plumber front courtyards of
their shrubbery at early daylight in the morn
ing, and watch their chances at evening dusk
to seize whatever they can lay their hands on
They may be seen many times stripping shade
trees of their foliage in broad day, and not un :
frequently we find them destroyed by GRID
ling in the night, for no other reason, appa-
rently, but because they stand before decent
house. A favorite and common amusement
of these boys is to build fire in the street
with stolen pickets and barrels, and to hold a
small riot around it. These are the infant
monsters that have just given us foretaste of
what they will be able to do some years hence,
when their gristle becomes bone, and when
their numbers are swelled by another and
larger generation of the same material. Where
shallwe be ten years henceif we suffer this evil
to increase upon us as it has done for the
last ten?