Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-02-18
| than a million dollars. What 1 am you

than a million dollars. What / am you
may become
.'Is the boy impressed? Not OF. your life!
Only the other day there were couple or
youngsters In my Office listening TO ser
mon of this kind from the man who had
hired them. l overheard one whisper to the
other: Say. pipe de old guy! Won't he be
the limit?'
"From all that the employers tell me, the
good office boy is a rare bird nowadays.
put lad in job the other day, and within
the week the head of the firm caught MIN
teaching the other office boys to shoot
craps. At least, that's what the boss said
but I don't suppose they needed much
teaching. When the boss started In to re-
prove him. the cheeky kid invited him 10
join the game. That's the sort of thing you
They're the Exceptions.
"Of course there are exceptions. Some
lads have placed have worked hard, learn
ed stenography and typewriting In their
spare time, and speedily risen to good posi-
tons. But the good office boy, so far as
my experience goes. Is as rare as the pious
choir boy
Another employment agent who was ask
ed for his opinion described an office boy
of his acquaintance and protested that ne
was typical of his class.
THE young reprobate called at my office
about three months ago, and l got him
good job he said. He is only thirteen
He held the job for couple of weeks, ana
then got fired because the manager caught
him holding up a smaller office boy for
dime He actually had big revolver in his
pocket and inquiry showed that he had
acquired quite reputation among the other
boys as desperate. He made them shell
out nickeS and dimes regularly, and he
was saving up the money, so he said, with
the idea of going out west and becoming
bad man
Il was rather interested in the story
when l heard it, so l cross-quesuoned the
boy when he came back to my office to
get another job. 1t appeared that he had
been brought up very piously by his
mother, a widow. She had tried to make
him regular mammals boy'-never let
him play with other youngsters or read
anything but Sunday school boo $. AT
last with much fear and trembling, she
let him loose from her apron strings to get
q job.
A Holy Terror.
"He soon became a holy terror. He had
been working for couple of months when
he first sought me out. and he confessed
that he ran away from home after he got
his third weeks wages, and had been liv-
ing ever since at newsboys' lodging houses.
He told me. quite proudly, that he 'swiped
things whenever he got chance, played
the races. shot craps, carried a, gun, and
was sport generally. You may think his
was an extreme case. but from my ex-
perience, | am not at all sure of that.
The superintendent of a bankers and
brokers' messenger company, which oper-
ates only in New York's Wall street dis
trict, has control over some hundreds of
boys Some of them are regularly employed
on a weekly salary; others are given odd
jobs when there are things doing on the
street. Naturally, the superintendent has
a wide experience in the hiring of lads of
the office boy class.
Il don't believe work in a modern bust
ness office in a large city is good for a
boys morals anyway" he declared, but l
am perfectly certain that working in and
around a financial district turns most boys
into little crooks. That fact is abundantly
proved by our experience. OF course, our
boys are exposed to unusual temptation.
for they run messages mainly for brokers,
and it is amazing how recklessly those men