The San Francisco call., 1905-08-06

This is the youth who the police sus-
nsct batched the scheme of that bru-
tai hold-up. And these are the boys hs
led. not only into folly. but into shock
ing crime.
Boy standards are peculiar.
Boy impulses are strange and unac-
countable.
These boy bandits of Oakland would
not be so curiously interesting in
themselves If their case were the only
one OF boyish crime.
But there has been almost an cpl
demic of youthful lawlessness.
There is a boy fugitive from San Jose.
exiIed not only from home and friends.
but from sympathy. who is only IS years
old. vet who is guilty Of the greatest sin
against society and innocence. He is Carl
Wolfe. the boy who brought ruin and
death to the young high school girl-his
schoolnate and playmate; and who. hav-
ing caused her downfall through her soft
affections. abandoned her with heart
Iessness and calIousness repulsively at
variance with our conceptions OF youth
There is in one OF our State penitentia-
ries, wearing the prison stripes. a boy
convict OF 10. the son OF a State Senator,
the first born Of a loving, gentle mother
kid" Goucher-serving his term for
crime OF bold and cold-blooded character.
There is in the County Jail at Auburn
another boy, only IS. fghting with the deS-
peraticn born OF the last chance to save
his neck from the gallows-a boy con-
yicted OF wholesale murder. Tho terrible
and fiendish cruelty Of this boys crime
left nothing for the law to do but I'M
pose the death penalty on young Adolph
Weber.
The papers every day give instances OF
boyish perversity. expressed In crimes
that are usually strikingly heartleSs.
What is the cause?
Where does the fault lie?
Are we to look on all these youthful
criminals as being OF criminal nature?
or is the strange. puzzling boy na-
ture carried 70 an extreme?
Where in boy nature does savageFy end
and the moral sense begin?
am not asking with any hope OF get
ting a satisfying answer.
Since Eve wept out her grief on Adams
shoulder over the tragedy in the nrSt
family this has been an open question
Poor fond mothers with wayward
boys, with mischievous boys. with merely
normal. irrepressible boys seek light
upon their knees.
Bafled, helpless fathers grind their
teeth and throw up their hands in de-
spair over It,
Philosophers. humanitarians. reformers.
mere analysts. put the twos and twos
of experience together and construct the
cries until the startling events in boy life
belle them. and then they guess and guess
again. and shake their heads.
And the boy goes on perpetrating the
iniquiJies of boyhood. usually TO the in
dulgent amusement but sometimes to
the horror OF the rest OF the world. and
the constant wonder grows that any boy
ever reaches the fairly decent. fairly
Iaw-abiding and God-fsaring state OF
average manhood.
For the dangers of this transition state
from savagery to moral responsibility
there are many remedies offered.
A Bishop tells me: Give the boy Chris
tian training.
A Judge tells me: Give him a good
home.
a sociologist tells me: Direct his ener-
gies into useful channels. Keep him
busy.
The master OF great boys school tells
me: Do not see all that he does. See
only what you cannot help seeing what
he knows you see Leave him to himself
He'll pull through all right IL he is
worth anything. and if he isn't you can't
pull him through.
And a mother says. mother who IS
also teacher Of many years experience:
Only love will help him. You must love