The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1875-02-25
THE BOYS OF TO-DAY.
Their Romantic Love Of Crime and How II Is
Engepdcred---A Wus ming to Parents.

elIdnu Doy III pruning ONCE opened
letter addressed to his employer, took
out check for sixtyfour dollars, forged
the name of the payee, got the money
and absconded to part unknown. Not
long before that, two lads of tender
years, living in large city, possessed
themselves of a sum of money belonging
to the parents of one of them, and made
their way to Philadelphia by rail. With
vague idea that they were to fight their
way through the world, they bought
pistol for offensive and defensive pur-
poses, and they laid in a considerable
stock of peanuts to sustain nature, this
favorite esculent being regarded as eco
nomical, as well as melodramatic in its
associations. Being unfamiliar with the
details of mature debauchery, these
youthful experimenters betrayed them
selves to the police and were brought
home in somewhat dilapidated and for
lorn condition. Two or three years ago,
the San Francisco police, searching for
the perpetrators of a series of petty and
vexatious thefts, discovered under the
wooden sidewalks of a street near the
wharves q cave burrowed out from an
adjoining vacant lot. In this excavation
were found playing cards, odds and ends
of provisions, rude tools for burglary,
few weapons, and various other evi-
dences of occupation as den of thieves.
The cave was q rendezvous of q gang of
bad boys, who called themselves "Hood-
lums, and whose leader was known to
them as King of the Hoodlums. !"
These young rascals had considerable
organization with q thieves slang, or
argot, of their own. Their promiscuous
plunder was usually sold to the junk
deal lers, and they subsisted almost en-
tirely on the proceeds of their depreda-
tions. Some of them lived secretly in
lonely houses, otherwise unoccupied, and
consorted with wretched little girls pick
cd up about the docks. The "Hood
lums " were aged from fifteen to nine
teen years, and their grotesque name,
invented by themselves, and meaning
nothing, has come into use as describing
a dangerous class of young ruffians in
Testing the city where they originated
1t will not do to credit all these ex-
amples of juvenile depravity to the
force of a mere spontaneous outcome of
wickedness. There is about all such
1nstances-and these are only few
ready samples of large class-a certain
flavor Of mock romance which is peculiar.
The grown criminal necessarily practices
concealment in the furtherance of his
wicked designs; but, if there IS any
" romance of crime" attached to his
performances, it is accidental. These
youngsters seem to go into crime for the
sake of the audacious novelty of the
thing, rather than from any irresistible
impulse toward badness for It's own sake.
or course, the conspicuousness of crime
in society has something to do with the
education of these prococious criminals.
Crime forms so large part of the news
of the day that it seems impossible to
prevent some of its details from appear.
ing in the columns of the most carefully
conducted newspapers. We regret to
say that some thoughtless people make
these features of daily intelligence SC
prominent that graphic scenes of burg.
larry, robbery, and piracy appear in print
garnished with many insidious allure
ments to youthful minds But, as il
the faithful record of passing events were
not enough, nor the sensational enlarge.
ment of actual details sufficiently en-,
ticing, the youth of this generation are
fed with the worst sort of criminal litera.
ture. The cheap novels are bad enough
and it is sign that the new supply is
not equal to the demand when we see
that ancient criminal classic "Jacl
Sheppard republished here. But what
we must consider one of the very worst
forms of printed poison is the trash
purporting to be newspapers and mag
azines for young people. Some of these
are printed by grown people who proba-
bly, know better; and not few are con
Quoted by ambitious lads, who naturally
send out the miserable stuff on which
they have fed. In collection of ANA
teur papers and periodicals gather ed
from several American cities may be
found "blood-curdling and thrilling .
stories of adventure. Tales of runaway
boys, narratives of piratical life, encoun
ters with burglars, and all the phases OF
romantic crime that an imagination stim-
ulated by course of such reading car
picture forth form the staple of this sort
of reading. In single page of little
weekly published in New England city
were five contributions from boy readers
in each of these crime of some sort was
the chief figure in the slender plot WHO
is responsible for the encouragement O.
such an education for our boysl
OF course in all these dangerous pub
lications, whether craftily or thoughtless
ly conducted, there is due parade of re
warded virtue and defeated vice. Blu
whether the mock hero be bold ant
wicked bandit or q brave champion O.
the wronged, the sympathies of the
young reader are usually enlisted on th'
side of the wickedest man in the book
And, in any event, he is made familiar
with the details of crime, Its mystery
slbtlety, and concealment infame hi
imagination; he has boys natural love
deeds of some hero sinks deep into hi
mind; and before he is old enough t.
realize what he is about, he has take1
one of the first steps in a career o
crime; fortified with plunder, he hasimi
tated the example of all his favoritt
heroes, and has run away from home
The rest is easy. Unless speedily re
claimed and punished, as boy should
be punished, he is already promising
recruit for the dangerous classes who
prey upon society. A noted bandit, hung
by mob in far Western Territory, ac
knowledged under the gallows that h,
owed his crimes to the early inspiration
of the lives of Dick Turpin, Jack Shep
pard, Murrell, the land pirate, and Othe
worthless famed in story. Yet this young
man had not imbibed his vicious ideas
in the slums of great city. He was
graduate of leading New England co.
lege, had been county official, and Wen
into the world, where he persisted 81
miserably, from the bosom of q refined