The sun., 1908-07-05
TEACHING THE WORST OPBOYS
CHELDREN'S AID SOCIETY HAS
A CLASS or THEM.

A CLASS or THEM.
Miss stansbury. VINO Teaches lt. Took Tnir.
teen Of Them 70 the Ceuntry-Eac,dents
~ tho Trip-Gang Esie ne She Seen It
--Grcen Fruit No Terror TO Them.
There was a slight disturbance In the
bad boy class Of the Children's Aid Society
school at 535 East Sixteenth street the
other day. One OF the boys reached over
and cuffed another, openly and soundly. as
though bestowing nerited punishment.
Whan Mias 6tansbury. tho teachor.
looked at him. the csiffer enlightened her.
'He said I killed God,' be explained
briefly.
Miss Stansbury continued merely to look.
being for the moment incapable Of other
action.
-Ididn't.- said the cuffed one, He cusssd
and told him he was crucilying Christ"
Then Miss Stansbury understood.
Just the day but one before Miss Stans-
bury. whom her pupils all call Miss Emma,
had returned from a cottage among the
Connecticut hills where she had taken
her entire class TO spend eleven days.
This cottage was lent to her by friend
for this house party. and fhs china, glass,
silver, linen and other furnishings Of u
civilized house were left In place. On
one wall hung q largo and beautiful repro
duction of Christ Before Plate One
day Miss Stansbury found a group OF boys
before this picture.
who's that man. asked one. pointing
to the principal figure in the picture.
THAT is Christ said the teacher.
who's Christi" said the boy.
Miss Emma had taught twenty years in
the Children's Aid Society school, but
still she was shocked. 1t seemed difficult
to believe that the boy had reached the
age Of IL years in New York without know
ing who Christ was. They never speak
Of religion in the society schools, because
children Of many faiths 60 there; but still
it seemed to her that no one could object
to her answering the boys question. So
she explained the picture to the best of
her ability. And then she gave them
little application. One Of the disturbing
things to Miss Emma is the foul words
with which her oherubs interlard nearly
every sentence. So she told the boys that
when they did certain specified things
they were crucifying Christ again and
among these things she named bad Ian
guage. The lesson sank home in one young
heart, with the result aforesaid.
Amy one noticing Miss Emma with her
group Of thirteen boys-three Of the class
couldn't go-on the Sound steamer bound
for Connecticut would have had no idea that
she was doing a rather remarkable thing.
The bad boy class includes q number OF in
corrigible truants brought there by the
truant officer. 1t contains others who in
stead Of being dragged into school have
been kicked out Besides that there are
seven who had never stepped inside school
house until they came to Miss Emma a year
ago. They had simply grown /up to the
age Of IL or l3 years as ignorant of schools
as if they lived in wilderness.
These boys have regular civil wars among
themselves. with pitched battles. In the
vicinity Of the school named there flourish
the Sixteenth, Fourteenth. Thirteenth and
Twelfth street gangs. They fight each
other with broken crockery, glass. iron and
other handy and dangerous things. At one
time in the last winter four of Miss Emmas
boys were making daily visits to the dis
pensary for the dressing OF their wounds
1t so happened also that she had in her
class at that time the captains of the four
her classroom door a deputation from the
Nineteenth street gang totally foreign
body from distant territory. They had
the assurance to tell her that she had no
right to keep the four captains in school
when they were needed in the gangs. and to
demand that she release them. Upon her
refusal to do so they threatened her.
-All right for you" they said; you'd
better not go through Twelfth street, that's
all, being apparently sent in behalf of the
Twelfth street gang.
At the close Of school she informed her
boys. that she was going through Twelfth
street. They tried to dissuade her.
"Aw. don't you do it, they said: they
hsy hs sS Shs1 sAs sases
way She refused even this concession,
but threw out a casual hint that private
detective would be following her all the way.
She made leisurely circuit Of the whole
firing line purely In spirit Of bIavado, to
she says she would have been driven from
the neighborhood.
Ordinarily the Chiidren's Aid Society
teachers act as their own truant officers.
The bad boy class probably would not last
two weeks without daily visits to the homes.
sent after an incorrigibe Word got out
that he was coming and he walked into an
ambush. The boys threw things down on
him from windows-tomato cans, broken
plates and other trifiing but momentarily
useful objects. A somewhat heavy cook
ing utensil broke his hat, which probably
saved his head from the same fate.
Last winter one of Miss Emma g boys took
a handbag away from woman on the public
highway. He was arrested, kept for few
days by the Society for the Prevention OF
Cruelty to Children and then released. For
several weeks thereafter the boy g mother
had to escort him to school and Miss Emma
had to escort him home to keep him from
being beaten up by the 81 xteenth street gang,
Their attitude was curious and instructive
They simply took the ground that the boy
was a fool for having got caught and lost
the bag. thus preventing the gang from
sharing in it's contents, and proposed to
punish him 80 that he would not be fool in
just the same way again.
This slight sketch may throw some light
on the fact that there were those who con-
sidered that Miss Emma 8 act in going to the
country alone with thirteen Of these hopeful
youths was heroic. She said she did it
merely as part Of the years schooling. q
two weeks lesson in civilized living.
"The families these boys come from
never sit down to a meal together said
she. in twenty years Of almost daily