The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-10-10
PLAYGROUND
SOUGHT BY
SHERIFF
Makes a Plea Rscitin;
Personal Experiences to
Mems League.

Sheriff Frank ID. SOml0er appeared De-
fore the Mems League of the Paramount
Baptist Church last night and delivered
an address on Just a Boy" He told of
incidents IN his own life and OF boys
whom he had known who suffered from
unjust laws, and who had Joined evil as
sociates. being led into criminal ways
through lack of opportunity and OF means
to properly develop themselves socially.
On such a ground he made a strong plea
for Fairgrounds, which he said were a
crying need in the life of the present day
youth.
Sheriff Somner's speech was as follows:
He was a sturdy little chap, with a
face Of serious type out of which two
bright eyes shone. surmounted by IA shock
of hair as dark as the wings of the crow
barefooted, clothed poorly but neatly. l
met him first some twenty years ago. in a
congested tenement-house district OF our
city. He dwelt-I had almost said lived
there in a single room with a widowed
mother, a brother and two sisters, a
mother, who toiled from break of dawn
till far into the night, making, ceaselessly
making, buttonhoies, to earn the pittance
needed to keep the spark of life burning
in these four bodies, and to keep the fam
lily together in this single room in the only
place they might call by that sweet name,
home.
Though serious-faced the spirit of play
was active in the lad. The Single room
afforded no opportunity for that spirit to
work itself out. The narrow tenement hall
and stairway was forbidden ground. There
was no vacant lot in the neighborhood.
From every available space the grim and
barren tenement structure lowered. The
crowded. ever-husy, street must be this
lads playground, ii play was to have any
place in his life. The mother kept him
ever by her side, for to her the street
with him in it was a constant source OF
terror. He grew FESTIVE under confinement
and restraint. The bright light faded
from his eyes, and his face grew drawn
and more serious. Its pallor made a start
| lpq naptracf With 6ta hair pf 1arlpGf hUp
One day the call of the street, the call
Of the play spirit. proved ~overpowerlng.
UnobserVed, ne crept out down the lark
and narrow hallway and stairs, into the
sunlight of the street. Before night the
word came to me that the light of his life
bad gone out. Stamped out by the iron
heels of a horse. Crushed by the wheels
OF a passing wagon. He WAS only a lad, a
poor lad. HI. life was as precious to his
mother. about whose neck his little arms
were wont to entWlne IN loving embrace
as the life of your lad is to you.
His life was as valuable an asset of
the State as that of any lad living under
happier conditions. An asset that the state
had neglected. Though it had permitted
the teeming tenements to cover every open
space that theretofore, by sufferanee OF It's
owners, might be the scene of children S
play, it had provided no neighborhood
playground where this lad and others like
him might, in comparative safety, disport
themselves, and freely give way to the nat
ural instinct of the child TO frolic, romp
and play-an instinct that must not be
stifed and borne down, if the lad is 10
have a fair chance TO develop into the
man, able and ready to answer the call
of the State.
In those same days. when l travelled
other lad of bright, sunny face and dis
position, keen of mind who dressed IN
clothes the worse for wear and that had
evidently been handed down from another
generation; with cap set jauntily and care
lessly on his head sought to add to the
income of his home by selling daily papers
on the streets.
same face peering at me through prison
bars. 1t was no longer a sunny face. The
sunshine had passed from 1t, and in It's
place had come a deep and settled suffer
shadow. What, in the passing years, nau
brought the change?
with his days work done; with thu
long night before him; with the tenement
insufferably hot and filled with nauseatlne
odors. this lad sought the streets. Then
came the call of the gang. 1t was the
call to the instinct OF cooperation. Its call
waa answered. 49,.
the gang idling about the streets plot
ting mischief. most of it, in the beginning,
innocent enough with occasional visits 10
a low-priced theatre. BY and by, as time
added years to age, the gang migrated
from the street corner to the billiard par
lor' of a ~neighboring saloon.
illegal to admit them you say YES;
But the law will not execute itself. And
here. as sometimes is the case. with OIL
Gals designated TO enforce the law tue
fear of the ili-favor of the political us
trict leader was more potent than thetear-
full plea of a sorrowing mother, over whom
heart-broken the sad last words commit
ting the departed soul to the comforting
care and healing powes OF an Anhlsn'y
Coo were soon to be said.
In that saloon one night a dispute
arose. Blows were struck. rms iad was
apprehended. Ashamed to make ms plightI
Known to those who might have aided
him. he spent the night in a prison cell,
only to be discharged the following morn
ing. True. he had been discharged, but
the iron had entered mis- soul. tie had
been Imprisoned, and unjustly; His heart
was filled with resentment. There was no
one to lay a kindly hand upon ms shout
der: to speak the needed word OF en-
enlargement. He SUNK away COON I" fc
Join the gang. -,
he was again in the tolls rms tune lust,
ly. He served his sentence. As the Jali
gates closed behind him he determlneu
10 make a fight to rehabilitate .hlmseli'
There was no one to whom he might ap-
peal for aid. No one whose duty ~ WSs
10 aid him. and he learned; aye, IN SUI
ferine and anguish. he learned the lesson
MANY another had learned before nm
that a sentence 10 imprisonment, laoQsh
bur for a short time, is often IN erect a
sentence to Imprisonment for Inc. he
made a brave fight. but he failed. Tor no
hciring hand was held out TO him eX~
cent the hand Of the remalntef %
HIFEA Mn WIZ
which he had sought to set his face.
'.He was only a boy. An asset thai the
State through its neglect had converted
into n menace to its people. An asset thlat
might have been saved to the STATE ina
might have been developed into one OF
ever-increasing value by the opening OF Il
neighboring school as an evening Feerea-
ton centre, or the creation of such a cell-
tire as an independent Institutions place
of retreat in the hours when the call oil
the gang proves most a~lluring-and later
when evil days fall, by the establishment
OF nm agency temporarily to care for ana
to find employment for the discharged prls-
oner. But mo- The State had been con-
tent to abide a time when general pubic
sentiment, ever slow, oh. how slow. 10
should grow ZIP and then 10 leaNe
to private initiative the establishment OF
the institutions and agencies needed TO
the call Of The gGng.' and to
meet the OWLS Incident to the penal sys-
tenn which Is its guide.
at was in later years that ] made the
acuuaintance OF a lad. practically the sole
support Of his home. who had made a
hard fight through one of our grammar
schools. worked thereafter IN o manufac-
tory. spending his nights in an evening
school i'm an effort TO increase his useful
ness and earning power.
zone sad day sad for his household;
sad for the lad. sad for those who believe
he operated worked d~efectiyely. He called
this fact 10 the attention of the head Of
his department. but was ordered 10 COZ
tinue TO operate the machine. Confronted
b. the necessity of complying with this
order. with the danger IL entailed or