The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-01-12
THE CHILDREN OF THE ROAD.
Boys and Girls Who Beg and Steal
for a Living.

Josiah Flynt in Atlantic Monthly
Concerning the children who are forced
upon the road, there is a great deal to be
said, but 1 am not sure that much talk
should not be directed against the popular
belief that their number is legion. Social
lists particularly think that hundreds upon
hundreds of boys and girls are compelled
by hunger to beg and steal for a living. In
England, once heard a labor agitator de-
clare that there are a million of these ju-
yenile victims of CAPITAL" in the United
states alone. l do not know where the
man got his information, but if my finding
counts for anything, it is deporably IN
sound. cannot claim to have studied the
subject as carefully as is necessary to
know It absolutely, but in most of our
large cities l have given it close attention
and never have l found anything like the
state of affairs which even the general pub
lie believes to exist. For every child forced
by starvation to resort to the road 1 have
met 10 who were born there, and nearly
the same number who were enticed there.
In saying this, however, do not want to
draw emphasis or sympathy away from
that certainly existing class of children
who really have been driven into outlaw
~. But it is an injustice to our sober poor
to say that they exist in those large num-
bers that are so often quoted. Not long
ago made it my especial business for a
while to look into the condition of some
of these compulsory little Vagabonds in
New York city. picked out those children
whom one sees so often pilfering slyly
from the groceryman's sidewalk display.
1t is an old, old trick. The youngsters
divide themselves into watchers and
"Snatchers;" the former keeping an eye on
the police as well as the owners of the
things coveted, and the latter grabbing
when the wink is given.
The crime itself is not heavy one, ac-
cording to the calendar, but it is only a
only half-step farther to highway rob-
berry. / chose this particular class be-
cause / had often noticed the mem bers of
it in my walks through the city, and it had
seemed to met the least necessary of all.
Then, too, there was something in the
pinched faces that made me anxious to
know the children personally on grounds
OF charity. The great majority of youth
full travellers on the road are compare
lively well fed, to say the least, and, much
as one pities their fate, he will seldom
have cause to weep over their starved con-
dition. But here was something different
and fancied that l was getting a glimpse
into the life of those people to whom the
socialist point when~asked for living ex-
amples of human woe caused by inhuman
capitalists.
1t was not hard to "get in" with the chill
dren. Finding that l was willing to play
with them at their games in the alleys and
on the tops of their rickety tenement
houses, they nudged up to me and we were
soon pals. There was nothing particu-
larly new in their life, but / was struck
with the great interest they took in their
petty thefts; In the midst of the most
some one suggested a clever plan by
which even a can of preserves could be
''swiped, as they called it, and the next
instant they were trying to carry it. to
a finish.
They were not what 1 could call in
stinctive criminals--far from it; but a
long intimacy with the practices of out
lawry, though small in their way, had so
deadened their moral sense that sneak
thieving came to them almost as natu-
rally as it does to the kleptomaniac Even
their thew cheated XVhpnnUar
was possible, and it seemed to me that
the main fun was seeing how cleverly and
vet boldly they could do so without be-
ing detected. 1 recall distinctly one af-
ternoon when we were playing Hi spy"
A little fellow called jamie took me
aside and in the most friendly way ad-
vised me not to be so "goodygoody" 1
had been very unlucky in getting caught
and he said that it was because L gave in
too quickly
"When We hear yer name.' he contin-
ued jus lie low. cause like as not the
catcher amt seen We, n if he has he
can't prove it; so yer all right anyhow.
Yen always be Tt if We don't do some
thing like that; n there amt no fun in
that, is there@' he added, winking his
eye in a truly professional manner.
So much for their native endowment.
Their accomplishment in thieving, L have
no doubt, kept them often from going
hungry Notwithstanding the fact that
there was honest industry at home, gener-
ally that of the mother, while the fathers
earnings went almost bodily into the pub
leans till.
I found it much more difficult to make
friends with the parents, but succeeded
in several cases-that is, with the mother;
the father 1 usually found drunk at the
saloon 1 shall not endeavor to give an
account of the squalor and sorrow that
I encountered; that has been done in other
nlaces by far more able pens than mine;
but | canot forbear making a note of one
little woman whom 1 saw sewing her
very life away, and thinking all the while
that she was really supporting her hungry
children 1 shall never forget the pic
ture she made as she sat there by the all
lev window, driving the needle with light
Ming like rapidity through the cloth
a veritable Madonna of the Needle. Her
GOOD cheer was something stupendous.
Sot once did she murmur, and when her
br1'+e of a husband returned, insanely in
tnVicated. she took care of him as If he
vss fine best man in the world. l was
csrefnl that she did not hear from me
obo1it the tricks of her hayward children.
Soma dav however, 1 fear that one of
tben will be missing, and when she goes
" the police station to make inquiries,
~ sbould rather not confront her. The
main reason why hungry girls and boys
orc FOUND upon the road is drunken IA
TIERS
A Mystery of Figures.
From the Boston Transcript.