The evening times., 1899-09-04
The Origin of the "Gang."

One of the most interesting of a series
of articles on the tenement house by Jacob
a. Riis. was that which dealt with the
gang" This institution is familiar TO
every dweller in large city-some of the
citizens know it to their sorrow. 1t is
composed of crowd OF boys who run to-
gether whenever they are on the street,
ard that is nearly all the time in some
cases. They are bound together, not by
any specific oaths. but by a sort of general
understanding. They are hoodlums. mis-
chievous or brutal, as the case may be, and
their union makes them dangerous.
The gang is only perverted form Of
the club, and in some cities the college
settlements, or some other philanthropic
agency, have turned it into club. 1t is
an outgrowth of the perfectly natural boy
instinct for organization and union The
same impulses which make the gang a
nuisance make the Junior Republic a great
reformatory agency. In this institution is
TO be seen the working of the greatest
moral force known to mankind-the force
of public opinion. What man viii do
when commended by his superior he will
do &c win the applause or to avoid the con-
demnation of his equals. This is the DEM
ocratic law of nature, and it is one of the
things which guard the world from despot-
ism. Where it exists there is fair play,
though il may be in a most rudimentary
form. Where it does not exist there will
be found tyranny in all stages, coupled
with the thief, the tell-taIe, the traitor, and
the sycophant.
Some Of those who are puzzling over
methods of reforming criminals would do
well to study the gang" Bad as it some
times is, the chances are that it is lot so
! bad as the disconnected members would
| be without it. True there are weaker
! ones who would be we'll behaved if rot
led on by bolder young scamps; but, on
the other hand, the responsibility laid cn
the shoulders of the head of the gang
sometimes develops in him resourcefulness,
pluck, and occasionally a sort Of 1ude
chivalry which leads him to protect the
weak if they happen to belong to him. AT
any rate, it is an organization; and If a
| company of persons is held together by
some kind of bond of unity, and one can
| get hold of the leader, one has the COM
| pany. The political chess players know
this-none better.
The lesson of it all is that the strength
of the Angio-SaXon is in union, just as
the weakness of the Oriental is in disunion
! The unit of the Asiatic community is the
family, in which practical equality is i'm
possible, since each individual is subject
| to the one next above him in age and i'm
portance. The unit of the Western State
! is the individual; and hence we have the
association of equals, none of whom can
| claim precedence over the others. The
mightiest forces of the English and Ameri-
! can nations have come from such associa-
tion. democratic in spirit if not in name
! The Magma Charta, the Declaration o
| Independence, sprung from the same spirit
True democracy is the gathering of free
! persons, with equal rights and privileges
under a leader chosen by themselves fol
some special fitness. The boy, blindly feel
ing his way toward this, organizes hi:
gang" the great statesman, seeing thai
only by free and open conference can the
ills of the world be righted. calls coun
| ell: the same spirit is in both.