The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-11-03
THE BAD BOY PROBLEM
What Will Anaconda Do With
Her Unruly Youngsters?
THEY ARE6ROWINGW WORSE
Not Content With Breaking Windows,
They Ruin the Interiors OF Vacant
Houses h City Council
Will Take 1t Up.

The bad boy problem is one of the
most serious questions that has been
brought up in Anaconda for some time.
The boys are getting worse and worse.
and the trouble OF it is that there
doesn't seem to be any remedy for the
nuisance. On Halloween night a lot
of boys in the eastern part of the city
became so malicious as to break in
doors and windows by throwing large
Expectations. Some of them were ar
rested. but had to be released, as 1t
could not be clearly proved that they
did commit the ffense. =
But even IL IL could be proved. and
there are a great many things that can.
h would have been done with the
boys? Would sending them to jail do
any good? 1t is not probable that II
would. Last week the police arrested
Is young lads for cruelty assaulting a
Chinaman with rocks. The boys were
kept in Jail for a day or so in the hope
that IL would brighten them and be an
object lesson to others. But instead of
accomplishing the desired object. what
was the result? Those boys who were
arrested and LOCKED up in Jail are
greater heroes than Dewey OF Schley.
ENtIy bOy WnO SOtS W StuOoi VII
these 13 boys looks upon them as mar
tyrs. That is the testimony Of the
teachers at the Lincoln school.
Then II incarceration in Jail does no
good, the only other course is the re-
form school. But ii is obviously i'm
possible to send half a hundred boys
to the reform school,. At any rate.
something must be done about 1t. The
bad boy nuisance is becoming intolera-
bta poopla caupof haya THAR Windows
broken. their property destroyed, with
out some redress. The question is be-
fore the city government for solution.
A real estate agent who has many
houses to rent In the eastern part of the
city. in speaking of the boy nuisance
yesterday, said:
The matter has passed hat point
where tolerance is possible. I cannot
have a house vacant one single day but
that every pane of glass is broken. The
other day a family moved out Of n
house. The next day i had a new ten
ant, and when i went to the house with
him we found hat every single, oil
tary pane Of glass had been smashed.
L put in $14 worth of new window glass
in that house and the house rents for
SIG a month.
But. that 10 not the worst of 1t. The
boys have gotten so they don conine
themselves to breaking windows. Yes
terday one Of our houses became va
cant and to-day when I went down to
see 1t / found that not only had the
windows been broken in. but the Coors
as well. The plastering OF the walls
had been broken in half a dozen places
and in one or two spots rocks had been
thrown through the piastering and the
lathing behind 1t.
1T Is a certainty that we can't stand
this sort Of a thing. 1t must be stopped
and IL must be stopped at once. I don't
know who Is to blame for il. but I think
the parents OF the boys are. I know a
number of families who have no more
control over their boys than they have
over the sun or moon. The boys do
not obey them In anything n often
are saucy and impudent to them. II
the parents cannot control their boys
and keep them out of mischief. I do not