Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1911-10-23
RUNNING IN GANGS.

pated called attention to the fact that
one O. the most dangerous influences
that surround boy life iu this city
TODAY is their habit Of running IN
gangs. Hardly a day passes that this
is not conclusively shown in the po-
lice court and very few boys are
brought up for violations OF the law
except when they run in gangs, and
it IS then that the worst and usually
the largest bows cause the other mem
bers of the gahg to do things they
would not dare to do were they alone
or comprised only few. Judge Port
erfeld, of the Kansas City Juvenile
Court. the home of that kind OF court,
has had special opportunities to learn
the principal causes OF juvenile delln-
ouency, and when he states unreserv-
edly that so-called "boys' gangs" have
brought more youths into his court
than any other agency of youthful
decentralization he speaks from long
experience in dealing with boys. 1t
is the homely old illustration OF the
'specked" apple and the sound ones.
and the stories OF depravity almost
invariably begin and end the same.
The boy who is brought up to the
bar of the Juvenile Court, headed for
the criminal court and the jail or
peuitentiary, was "a good boy until
he got to going with the gang.
Then the sound apple became quickly
as "specked as the worst.
The Kansas City Journal prints an
interview with him. and says:
Probably the most potent influence
for evil exercised by these gangs is
the inculcation Of false notions OF
"manliness" and courage" into the
members. a boy With every instinct
OF his nature and training revolving
against committing the petty depre-
dations aud the hooliganism OF the
average gang" fears above all other
things to be thought coward, afraid
to take risks which others are will
ing to take. 1t is an elemental in
stinct handed down through thou
sands OF generations OF his ancestors
and it will not be eradicated in
week. The dare" is the fatal ap-
peal which makes many q boy cross
the Rubicon OF responsibility and
plunge into the commission OF lawless
deeds.
Then there is.a well-nigh irresistible
potency in the mere psychology of as
ISOLATION. Boys, who are only men in
embryo, and men, who are only boys
grown up, respond intuitively to the
suggestion of good. But usually it is
enough to propose an adventurous ex-
petition, fraught with the dagger at
tending all lawless acts, and there is
not a member of the gang" but IS
ready to follow the evil lead. At the
best there seems to be q cumulative i'm
petus to the association OF a number Of
boys inclined to be needless OF restraint.
The individual tendency toward the
mischievous or the positively unlawful
seems to be multiplied by the number
OF members. so that the gang OF a dozen
boys is about twelve times as bad" as
the worst one in the crowd.
The problem Of breaking up these
gangs is serious one, not to be solved
offhand. Almost every ncighborhood
is infested with willful and hayward
boys who commit many petty misde-
meanors aud do an immense amount
of mischief before they reach and cross
tue border line separating; the lawful
from the actually illegal Ihe PRIMARY
responsibility rests with the parents,
not the police and the courts. Any
parents permitting their children to
roam the heighborhood or the down.
town streets in spirit of rowdyism,
alert to destroy property and annoy the
people OF the neiehborhocd. should be
brought up>with sharp turn as con.
tributing to the delinquency of their
offspring. No parent is doing his duty
Ky the community, and above all by
his boy, when he permits him to run
the streets" in company with Other