New-York tribune., 1902-10-19

knee high to grasshopper. TIL get postal from
certain school saying Savario Neopoliani or Jacob
Isaac Goldsten Ivan Svatchksy hasn't been IN
class three days I 70 10 the address given and
ask what floor he lives Five flights back
comes the answer and light my candle and be
gin 10 climb.
Garry candle? or course. 7 do. I'd have
broken my neck long ago but for my pockets
flled with candle ends and matches. Why most
OF the stairs and Railways pitch dark. and I
stumble over sleeping babies and drunken men and
women from morning till night
We'll. when my candle cd I reach the fifth
story knock at the r,7r doors and ask for the
truant boy. And often not tho answer comes
He. oh. ne live back and thumb over a shouI-
der indicates the rear tenements across the blind
alley. So down those five flights go again. and
up another hve across the court. It's when catch
them the top floor and they get on 10 the scut-
tleward OF me that the games generally up for
the day. They get wind OF my coming and UP
they go through the sklight out on the roof. Ten
or twelve years ago you could have seen me chas-
Ing them around the chimneys and dropping after
them from one coping to another. But I can't do
that now. just wait till night and take them out
OF bed
NO. its not badness. viciousness in a boy that
makes him play hockey. It's in the blood. Ten
10 one the father and grandfather were wanderers
before him, and they'd rather go hungry and cold.
eat out OF garbage cans and sIeen over furnace
gratinss on the street than do anything so
home-with regularity.
My district seems to cover almost every
tlonality. but find human natures about the same
In them all I've picked up sentences in nearly
every language-enough to make nv eTrand under
stood when l enter a house But I'm 50 well
known by this time-Tve been at this thing more
than fifteen years-that they know my face well
as they do my badge. Why. my wife and were
coming out of uptown theatre one night not
long ago. and the first thing that greeted us as
we stepped 10 the sidewalk whoop from three
HTty little gamins Perchcd a rail Of the scat,
hoes fnpT
six bare heels disappeared in the darkness.
most Is a. nGGn hour that my large aequaintance Is
thing like ten thousand children and most OF
of course as we'll as patrol the streets; and il |
don't go into hiding somewhere about five minutes
mobbed by children, who want To assure me that
they've been to school 10 shake hands at least.
,ihey an like me well enough when they re behaV-
A daily record is kept of every case and of Its
GisposaI ana the twenty or more school days eac5
month usually average something over a hundred
Nicted of voluntary trCancy. When they are not
al sch2ol II Is usually because they have oeeS
seen and eight years are stoutly asserted TO be be
cross legged on the floor from morning till night
sewing on buttons or basting seams. As rule
dren away for the six school hours and some
times even implore the aid of the Board OF Edu-
unique document was addressed TO "EdCato Beard,
femeTsss "a 'st @ !ey would send one OF OIL Ih
school presumably the truant school for one
often the father is away all day at work. and the
noiher drinks or vice versa and the truant scnooi
Is the best place Tor the Wild boy. This
unfortunately. however. can accommodate only
sixty children. and some are often parOled TO make
way for others. One youngster 10 whom such
Ienlency had been shown played hockey immedi-
ateIy, and when threatened again with the truant
quarters (where they remain day and night under E
ssuIyeillancel said: That's what did It for; Inc
Around the arches OF the BrooKiyH sSs Bridge used
10 be a favorite haunt of these youngsters. con-
unued tue truant officer: they'd station picketS
around the piers at William and Vendewater sts
ana they d gather there and smoke and play CARDS
ana throw dice to their hearts content BY the
,b TINE was within Two blocks OF them thsyd , get
know the alleys and short cuts like do the
thoroushfares. Why. I've got lost myself some