Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-12-23
A PLEA FOR THE BOYS.
Coal Buyers as Guilty of Wrong as Coal
StealerS.
Some Practical Suggestions to Those Who
Carelessly or Willfully Encourage Wrong
Doing in Fatherless Boys.

To the Gazette.
l have understood that the police Off
GERS were trying to arrest the boys who
have been stealing coal. Now would
ike to ask the question, are not the coal
buyers fully as much to blame, if not
more, than the boys, from the fact that
the boys are nearly all poor and father
less, their mothers work hard for living
and the boys, anxious to assist their
mothers, and seeing no other chance to
make money, and knowing, too, that this
coal is ready sale, steal coal and sell it &.
While the buyer of this coal buys it for al
most nothing, what they know TO be sto-
len coal from the fact that they know
these boys have no coal yard of their own =,
and ii is impossible for them to pick so
much up off the yards without stealing
it. I say they buy it for mere nothing,
encouraging the boys to steal, with the
avsrcious desire TO feather their own
pockets. l tell you, Mr.. Editor,
il there were no coal buy
ers and everyone bought their coal
honestly, there would be no coal thieves
selling coal. Now, are not the buyers
the most 10 blame? There are men in
your town, men who are thought to be
honest ana upright, men who pretend to
obey and suppoFt the laws of their coun-
ty, who sit in their houses and see (for
they cannot help il boys throw the coal
of the ears, carry it to their houses, and
sell il to them at cents or 10 cents per
sack, and yet those trustworthy men buy
this coal . Men who are setting the ex-
al h,
know WI t the law is in regard to it
while the boys, who are scarcely old
enough TO be aware of the enormity of
their crime, seamper Off, their hearts
gladdened with the fruits of their theft
and the promise that this good honest
man viii buy all they bring to him.
Is it any wonder that our jails, our
houses of correction and penitentiaries
are filled to Overlooking? Whose fault is
it? Here we find men standing high in
the eyes of the people generally as law
abiding citizens, encouraging the boys to
steal. Can we blame the boys? No; it
has become such common thing that
the boys have almost begun to think
it is right to steal coal. l tell you, Mr.
Editor, if there were no coal buyers the
coal thieves would be scarce, and when
we did hear of coal thief we would have
the satisfaction of knowing that he was
stealing it for the purpose of keeping his
poor old mother and his half clad broth
ers and sisters warm, and not to sell for
a mere pittance to some miser who would
rather buy stolen coal than to pay for it
honestly.
Not long since passed along the Mis-
souri, Pacific yard, andp:I was consider
ably astonished TO see about seven or
eight little boys ranging from FIVE to, ten
years old up in the coal car just throwing
the coal out rs fast as they could, and as
many more boys ranging from eight to
twelve on the ground picking the coal up
and putting 1t in small wagons and sacks
to carry off. l tried to talk to the boys
but they laughed at me. went TO some
of the neighbors and told them, expect
ing of course that they would be Mortified
but they merely laughed, and said the
company would never miss it.
/ felt shocked. What is our
country coming to? What if the
company did not miss it? Is it
not stealing? The coal was not theirs,
and those children were not only break
ing the laws of our country but they were