The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-04-27

attention of recent years, and there
seems to have been some mystifca-
tion as to their origin. I have never
been able to see just where the mys-
terry comes in. From my point of
view, there is no more cause for won
derment about the "gang" than there
is about the excessive mortality from
measles and scarlet fever in the
homes of the poor. 1t is the tene-
ment-house setting that accounts for
them both. The gang, like these, is
distemper; in its earliest develop
ment physical rather than moral. 1t
is symptom of lack of care, of bad
environment, and to this environment
the real remedy is to be applied.
Repression is all we'll enough, indeed
is necessary, once the disease is de-
veloped, but like too much of our
charity, it is applied at the wrong
end of the line, when it is too late.
The proverbial ounce of prevention,
administered at the home that sent
forth the tough, would have done
more execution than any amount of
clubbing once he is on the warpath.
Clubbing never reformed tough. 1t
is what his kind thrives on.
The Story of Prison Statistics.
One need go no farther than to the
statistics of almost any prison to get
at the truth of this matter. Take
those of the New York State Refor-
matory as a case in point; of more
than 5000 prisoners reported in a
specimen year 1888, SOB per cent.
were shown to have come from homes
reported as positively bad," while
only 81 per cent. came from good
homes. The rest are put down as
"fair only" And it is worthy of note,
that of the entire lot, 57.5 per cent.
were at home up to the time they
committed the crime that sent them
to the Reformatory, while the great
mass of the remainder did not leave
home until after they were fourteen.
When it comes to the question of
association, 54.8 per cent are shown
to have kept company that was posi-
lively bad, 42.7 per cent. mot good"
while only 1.2-a fraction over one in
a hundreds know to have been in
really good company! "Show me
the company man (or boy) keeps"
etc. Was there ever an illustration
of the old saying as apt as this of the
Reformatorya
The Parent of Gangs,
The tenement is and always will
be the parent of gangs as long as
conditions survive in it which, as the
late Tenement House Commission
has shown, produce condition of
nervous tension, interfere with the
separateness and sacredness of home
life, and conduce to the corruption of
the young" Of these conditions the
tough" is the natural crop. The
condition of nervous tension" is re-
produced in his ready brutality. and
accounts in measure for the differ
ence in temper between the American
ruffian and his English brother. The
corruption of the home they have
both in common, and the result is the
same. But an additional element
enters into the manufacture of the
American tough that throws much
light upon this alien descent.
Once one comes to understand
what this means, many things that
seem mysterious become clear. The
members of our city gangs are the
children of foreigners, as a rule.
They were not themselves born
abroad, and their children in turn do
not become toughs, except where the
stock has become permanently cor
rupted by the slum before the i'm
pulse toward betterment that sent
the grandparents over the sea has
succeeded in throwing off the fetters
of the tenement and started the fami-
ly upward on the social ladder. tits
the second generation on the soil, the
first born here, that develops the
tough. The boy expands with the
sense of freedom. He learns to smoke
cigarettes, to read perhaps. He learns
lots of other things, among others to
despise his father, who had no such
advantages, and who cannot even
speak "United States" without a
brogue. The old man is "slow;" he
loses his authority over the boy.
There is nothing else to take it's
place. The boy stays out late. The
father loses his temper. Likely he
gets licked for his pains, and the boy
takes to the street, where he goes to
the bad in short order. The 81 per
cent. of bad company are there, ready
and waiting to receive him.