The morning times., 1896-11-12

To the wickedness of Washingt on's
alleys The Times has called attention in
Il manner that has aroused the reform
element 10 the presence OF a more crying
evil than any that has yet demanded thcir
labor.
The denizens of these places, male and
female, are criminals in ninety-mne out
of every hundred cases. These VINO are
not viii be. The thugs, jailbirds, and ini-
moral W omen are the active evils oil these
places.
a problem OF these dark holes that is
more pitirui and mere alarming than all
else Is the children.
a novel is the birthplace OF the alley
child. lie will sneak in late at night and
lie down i'll the place of his birth. There
is no one TO speak TO him and none TO
caress He would take such things as
hoilow moCkeries and consider that 1t
foreshadowed "a beating. When daylight
comes he again gets out in the wide place
he can best call home.
CRIMINALS BY IMITATION
OF course th ere is little wonder that boys
bred in III ese awful courts become criminals.
II is the onl y occupation that opens It's doors
TO them and il is the CDly trade they are
ever taught. They must initiate and they
COPY the closest models. They are alway
the worst.
Instances OF cruelty have already been
cited. A trip through one of these alleys
ut almost any time Will reveal une Or
more examples. On one OF the excursions
OF The Times reporter through Pleasant
alley, or Bears Gap, TWO boys We're seen
who had caught two cats and had thrown
them over a clothes line after tying their
tails together.
Probably other cruel boys, reared amid
better surroundings, have done the same
thing. But they surely never stood u short
distance away and threw stones at the
poor animals, as these two lads did down in
Pleasant alley.
HAVE NO NAMES.
1t was impossible to lind the names of
the boys. The police know the children
generally by sight only. The urchins them
selves Will answer the seeker after in
formation with n grinace or a casting of
small pellets OF mud. The first sentence
they learn is, Its none or your business "
Sull another thing is that they could
probably not tell their real names il they
Were asked, though, OF course, they are
known by some appellation. Usually they
take the'naInc OF their mother. As often
this is an alias. In this way family after
family is started. The name clings to
them until they grow up. or until they, too,
take on an assumed name
tot of possibly four or five years uf
age was playing in front of the row OF
houses occupied by the Washington and
Williams families and others. A young
woman, presumably the mother. called to
it. 1t evidently did not hear. The sum
mons was not repeated The woman ran
out into the alley and grabbed it by the
arm. She lifted il from the ground and
let il down in "A manner that must have
been extremely painful to the youngsters
feet.
AN ALLEY MOTHER.
All the way 10 the front door of the
house the exercise was repeated. 1t was
not until she picked the child up and
threw il hccily through the door that 1t
gave an ou,cry.
The manner In which many of these
children live has been pointed out before.
II is too good a word to say that they
live. The ouly proper term is that they
exist. Perhaps that they do this is of
little consequence To their seniors in the
alleys. ItIey think the gathering of a
dozen pennies i'll the course of u day is
the accumulation of a fortune.
Ii is possible that many "a youngstcr who
goes out from the allie y and who afterwards
goes back To become criminal might have
done differently If he had been able to
pick up q few more pennies honestly during
the day. and II he could have done So
n few more days in the week. Willow
Tree and Pleasant alley are 10th cheap
places to stay and when the earnings are
Small the Youngsters are compelled to re-
Sort to them If they are once familiar
with them. Com mingling with the rest of
the denizens of the places speedily does the
rest of the moding.
In these two allie VS. one silhouette will fit
almost every moral character in theIn-it
is profile of depravity