The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-08-24
YOUTHS ARE
 IN TROUBLE Given Heavy Fines by
 Recorder. MALICIOUS MISCHIEF CLUB Membership Includes About Forty
 Young Boys. Police are on the Trail, and Every Ef- fort Will Be Made to
 Break Up the

Mobile, Aug. 23.-(Special. )--When Arthur Mckenzie, Charles Grove, Ed Ervy and Eugene Mckenzie, all youths of apparently about IT years of age. and all residing Tn the neighborhood of Spring Hill Avenue and Broad Streets. were this morning fined by Judge Hale in the Recorders Court $15 or thirty days for annoying two young ladies, the fight which the Po- lice Department backed by the Record CT, intends to wage on gang of boys in this portion of the city, was begun and according to Chief Rondeau will be continued without let-up until the Expectations of the gang have ceased and the gang itself entirely disappear ed
 During the trial of the four boys 1t was brought out in the evidence that there existed among the youths living in and around the vicinity, a band known as the Thirty Flights" This band, according to the boys state- ments, is composed of more than forty boys and youths, all living in that vi- cinity. The boys admitted that the ob- Ject of the band was malicious mischief generally, and that their favorite pas time was rocking" negroes who hap pened to pass through the vicinity
 The boys denied that they had ever molested any white person, but the statement Is denied by several resi- dents of the neighborhood, who state that any stranger passing along the street in this vicinity after a certain hour of the night, is liable to be at- tackled by the band and that he is for tunate who escapes without more or less serious injuries to his person.
 The particular offense for which the four confessed members of the band were this morning fined, was the an- moving of two young. girls. the Misses Tutte who live on the corner of Spring Hill Avenue and Broad Street. The. of- fense was committed last Tuesday night when the two girls. accompa- nied by four youthful boy companions left Bienville Square, where they had been to attend the band concert.
 According to the girls story, soon after they and their escorts left the Square, going along Dauphin Street in the direction of Broad Street, a por-. ton of the gang" numbering twenty or more, began following them, mak- ing both sneering- and insulting re- marks and anoying The young people in every conceivable way.
 After passing the Central Market. the young ladies state that the gang became even more annoying and began to do thetB utmost to engage the es- corts of the young ladies in a fight, threatening to kill them when they started on the return trip to town,
 Finally, the young ladies' home was reached and they and their escorts went inside, whereupon the gang sur rounded the house, more than one coming up into the front gallery and several going around the house and entering the back gallery For some time they hung around the place, talk ing and making cat calls to each other and threatening the boys on the in- side. The father of the girls was aroused and went in search of an of hcer. The boys disappeared when Mir Tutte appeared on his front gallery but came back as soon as he had gone in search of a policeman.
 The four boys arraigned in court were positively identified by the girls as members of the gang which follow ed them, and were also identified by their mother as being a part of the gang which are responsible for many depredations of minor character in the neighborhood.
 Each of the four boys admitted hav- ing followed along Dauphin Street but all claimed that they were simply going home" They told conflicting stories about the transaction at the Tutte home. only one of them admit ting that the house had been sur rounded.
 The prosecution of the case was rep resented by Attorney Harry T. Smith of the firm of Gregory L. and H. T. Smith. Attorney Smith made a strong plea not only for the conviction of the boys, but for a heavy penalty He went on to explain that he had no desire to see any of the youthful de- fendants punished save for their own good, but told how their present con- duet, if allowed to go on unchecked, would in all probability lead to somes thing vastly worse-probably the peni- tentiary or the gallows.
 Arthur J. Groves. father of young Grove, was in court and stated that he had never before heard of the existence