Omaha daily bee., 1889-06-30
A BAND s0F BABY BRAVOES.
The BootbiaolS Brotherhood Which
Once Flodrished in Omaha.
RARE YOUNG roueHs WERE THEY
All Carried Reyolvers or Bowie Knives
and Fired Buildings For Fun
Mr.. Cofiin's Ingenious Method
of Reforming Them.
Bad with n Great Big II.

to learn the fate Of son who was con-
sultiDg engineer at the Cambria Iron
works, Johnstown, Pa. Mr.. Coffin has
mad n varied experience, and two years
OF it acquired in Omaha has peculiar
interest to the people of this city, the
great majority of whom have come here
since that time. Ten years ago Omaha
was overrun by horde of boys from all
parts OF the country, many of them
tough and frll Of mischief. Partly out
of benevolence, ana largely for self-pro-
lection, the good people of the city or
ganized the Omaha BootblaclSs' brother
hood. a home was established on Har-
ney street, and superintendent was en-
gagged to gather the young hoodlums to
its sheltering care. The boys were wild
and vicious Within n few weeks four
superintendents were run OUT of the
home, mostly through fear of the young
! roughs. When Mr.. Coffin succeeded to
the superintenency he had recently
come from tho Indian school ut Genoa,
of which he and ms wife had had charge
for many years. Mr.. Coffin tells very
| interesting story of his experiences ut
the head OF the brotherhood. which took
into its home ali street arabs, whether
bootblacks or not.
Instead OF trying to curb them Mt
the outset" said Mr.. Coffin, narrating
some of his experiences, 81 tried, as
much as man could, to be one of them.
pretended to be tough, too, and in that
| way gained their confidence. All were
wild, and some were little devils. Most
| of them carried revolvers or bowie
| knives. or both. One OF their prac-
tices was to set fire to buildings-'just
for fun There is something very at
tractive in fire company to the aver
| aye boy. My youngsters attached them
selves unotficiaNy TO various companies,
| and each one swore by the company to
which he had volunteered his allie
glance. There were 80 many incendi-
ary fires about that time as to create a
mild reign OF terror. and | became sat
! isfed that my boys were responsible.
| a big fire occurred on Earnarn street,
and from their. actions and talk fixed
on Two OF the youngsters as guilty OF
setting it. / called them aside one day
| and said: "A
Boys, why did you want to burn
that building on Farnam street?'
MY assuming that | knew of their
| guilt took them by surprise. They
tried to lie out of it, OF course, but [
wouldn't take their statements. tried
merely curious to know their reasons
for the act. Finally one of them said:
Won't you give us away?
Did you,eyer know me to give any
| any of the Eoys away, / responded.
No. they bad not. and they told me
all about it. didn't scold or threaten,
but reasoned With them and professed
great fear that the police might nab
them if they did not quit. They re-
,l,,1, 4, 1
| vice and in Il short time we had all the
boys converted to the new doctrine.
| After had the confidence Of the boys,
set up IL case Of pigeon holes and asked
| them to leave their knlvcs and revolv-
ers.
8 I know you don't intend to misuse
them | said. but I'm afraid that
when you're fooling with each other,
| some OF you may get hurt accidentally.
| There is IL pigeon hole for each of YOU.
! You can get your things whenever you
| want to, but to please me and prevent
| accidents | wish you would leave them
! here.
"All but one did us I asked. He said
he would be ID if he would.
hsIe was stubborn, but the
boys got at him and finally
he gave in. He would not put his arms
| IN the case himself, but he told another
| boy he would leave them at certain
place the next day. He was strong
| willed fellow, and took that way of let
| ting me know where to go and get his
wenpons in order to avoid the appear
| ance of having surrendered.
1--WE established sort of employ
| meut and messenger bureau, furnishing
| boys to run errands and do chores
| There was Il system Of checks to show
how long they worked and now much
they were paid. The boys we're never
credited with their earnings, and if the
| latter exceeded their board the surplus
was put into II savings account. Among
| other things we sawed wood and usually
sent two boys for companionship. One
| day saw was missing. My wife sus-
pected one OF the boys of stealing it.
| She spoke to him quietly, asking him
to bring back the saw, giving him to
understand by her manner that she
knew he had taken it. He wanted to
know what made her think he did it,
She told him not to mind how she found
out, but to fetch the saw.
| "'Wont yer give me away?' he asked.
"He was assured on that point and re-
turned the saw with the confession that
he intended to sneak it out OF the house
and sell it. The boys were sharp and
generally knew if anything had gone
wrong. They wanted to know who had
given up the saw. My wife answered:
"'Oh, boys are not good at finding
things. found it up stairs. Some
body left it there and forgot it,
you SEQ these boys were proud
spirited. They. prided themselves on
being too clever to be caught at their
wickedness and were more afraid of the
ridiculc and centsmpt Of their comrades
| than OF the police. We respected their
| pride. We talked to them alone, never
before others, and never gave 'em
away. They reSented 'bossism' or any
show Of authSrity. We invited their
confidence, n6t Up betray or threaten or
punish, but t0Shbw in friendly, solic-
itous manner rithheessd danger they were run
| ming. sSsS
II think we made progress with all
boys but tw6 They were un-
manageable until l hit on this
plan. KnowiSg chat they were into all
! sorts OF deviltry and trained with a
tough element, I.arrapged with the po-
lice to use them. / called them detec-
tives, which tickled their pride, and
they really did render the police valu-
able service in several cases. One OF
| them WAS recently killed in n brawl in