The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1910-08-04
George Reddinger Goes to ST. Louis
When He Learns That the
Police Are on His
Trail.
WANT OTHER BOYS TOO
Police Worried Continually by the
Theivlng Of Youngsters Who
Arc Oft Times Encouraged
In Crime.

Among the prisoners in the city
jail from Tuesday night until this
morning, we're three boys young lads,
the oldest not being over sixteen,
and the youngest of the trio ten
years of age. Roy Griffin, Russell
Brown and Leroy Reddinger were he
three south side chaps who were re-
leased after their cases of implication
in petit theft In one way or another,
had been continued and they were
told that they might be taken at any
time to court to prove their innocence
or plead guilty.
Monday noon and tuesday at the
the same hour, quantity of fruit and
soap was taken from the rear ship
ping walk of the Buck-Reiner whole
sale house at Second on Johnson
street Griffin, Brown and Reddinger
we're hunted UP by the police on
Tuesday evening and Wednesday
morning and told what they knew OF
the theft. from the wholesale house.
Tod Griffin, the youngest and small
est fellow of the bunch, said that on
Tuesday noon. George Reddinger, a
brother of Leroy, had come to his
home on the south side and asked him
to take walk. The two went to the
wholesale house and Griffin says Red
dinger told him to stay outside and
keep watch while he went in. Later
the boy says, Reddinger came out
with some fruit and soap.
Soap Five for Nickel.
Reddinger took the soap to the
home of Griffin's sister and sold her
five bars of the dirt exterminator for
a five cent piece. Evidence that the
boys were fond of fruit in cans and
canned meats was shown in the list
of things Reddinger is said to have
stolen from the wholesale house. In
all about three dollars worth of goods
in tins were taken, there being four
| cans Of cherries. two of blackberries,
! four of salmon and one of apples 1t
| is supposed that the lads had feast
on what was taken, as none of 1t was
returned and an officer sent to the
home of the Griff1ns could find only
the soap that had been sold there
No One In Shipping Room.
| At the noon hour when there was no
| one in the shipping department OF
the Buck-Reiner wholesale house,
Reddinger who is said to have taken
the canned goods and soap, had a gold
! en- opportunity to slip in and make
away with the food stuffs. 1t was to-
day learned by the police that he
has gone to u. Louis and an effort
will be made to get the other boys
| away.
! The Bad Boy Problem.
In Keokuk. the bad boy problem Is
a perplexing one. Within the las.
two or three weeks, not less than a
half dozen boys have been sent away
to the state reformatory where an
effort to make men OF them will be
put forth by those In charge of the
institution The police officers are at
a loss what to do with the youngsters
that get themselves into the juvenile
courts by petit thieving. There is a
class of boys here who are well de-
serving Of the care of the officers and
an effort to break up their childish
stealing is to be made.
The young boys who get into the
police courts for various misdemean-
ors, chief among which is stealing,
are not always to blame and many
times their difficulties and inability
to keep out of mischief rests with
those who are older and should know
better.
For instance in the recent case of
the Reddinger boy, where the soap
was sold to the woman OF a house
hold, it was encouragement for the
lad to keep on stealing, when she
knew that the soap if it was worth
anything at all, could not be sold at
the ridiculously low price of half
dozen bars for a nickel
Reformatory Exit From Trouble.
Chief of Police Schevers said today
/ that the only way to keep the boys
out of mischief was the reform school
much as the officers dislike the idea
of sending them away to reforma
tory, this seems to be the only solu
ton to the problem of making the bad
/ boys of the city good ones Anothe,
way is to get the boys away from the
I city and farm them out for awhile
some place so that their small gangs
may be broken up. This latter way il
the more preferable, although it is no
always certain that the "farmed'' on,