The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-11-19

GANG BREAKS UP
High School Boys POked Much
Fun at Motorists.
Operated for Over Year in West
Part of City.
NO PROPERTY WAS DESTROYED
Youths Wanted COmpaniOnship
More Than Anything Else.
Many Novel Games We're In.
vented by the Gang.
no PROPERTY WAS DESTROYED

even street car crews who Travelled
on Seventeenth street west OF Bolles
avenue and into the College Hin
neighborhood from q year ago TINS
November to last March. That is, the
most daring and active operations OF
the gang ware discontinued IN March:
The boys We're not or the criminal
type, they hadN no desire to destroy
property, but had to have what they
called sport and show the natives they
were alive.
The gang had it's inception during
the month of November, 1920, just at
the end of-the football season After
the football season the hoys did not
have enough sore shoulders, broken
ankles and strained ligaments to worry
them so the next thing was to worry
I someone else. However, the boys did
not carry on their mischieVous work
at first. Like all powerful organiza-
tions the growth of the work went
slow at first, but increased with a
powerful momentum.
Didn't Want to Stay at Home.
The boys did not want to stay home
at night because their parents refused
to allow them to smoke in the house.
Furthermore, they were not going to
stand out in the cold to smoke an old
pipe. But what the boys wanted as
much as anything was companionship.
One of the charter members of the
gang had a friend, three or four years
his senior. who told him of an old, I'M
occupied shack located at Sixteenth
and Oakley streets, which would serve
the purposes of the youths. The
shack was duly inspected and after a
consultation, it was decided to occupy
it. OF course an old coal stove was
installed as well as a bunky cooking
utensils, an old lamp, and deck of
cards Now don't think these boys
were gamblers, because they were not.
One liberal member contributed jar
of navy beans and asa result, no one
ever lost more than fifty navy beans.
But from all indications the youths
had the gambling fever. as many a
passerby heard the mumblings hit
him sevenia, pair of treys, Just one
mile from home, ninety days. From
experience everyone knows that every
game gets old unless it's cards, but the
boys did not like poker, and were tired
of blackjack.
Basketball With Dice.
So they used their heads and in
vented a game of basketball with dice.
Every number represented a goal foul
or some other play. But after every
team in the Kansas conference had
been represented in these games and
the championship of the conference
had been won six times the boys grew
tired of the novel and original game
About this time the basketball season
was well under way and old mother
earth was warming up a bit and the
boys enjoyed the fresh air and the
order of the shack was neglected
One spring afternoon after an absence
of four days from the shack the bows
visited it but could not gain entrance
The combination lock was evidently
broken. Upon examining a secret side
entrance it was found to be broken
Nandals had entered the shack, de-
stroyed cooking utensils, broken the
pipes and finally had committed the
objectionable sin of swipin' the chew
in tobacco. After following up all
the clews the guilty person was found,
but absolutely denied that he com
mitted the offense. 1t was finally de-
Cided that the only fair way to de-
eide the case was by trial. The date
was sent for the following Sunday
afternoon. Everyone scheduled to at
tend arrived on time. However, one
unlimited guest arrived. He was the
defendants Sunday school teacher
The trial was postponed for two days
and this time the defendant did not
show up. He got his. After a very
humiliating punishment at the hands
Of the order of the shack for steal
ing and breaking his word. he prom
ised to restore twice as many pipes
as We're stolen as well as a like amount
of chewin'. But we must hurry on.
Spring Fever Breaks Out
One evening the spring fever caught
the gang and they had 70 90 some
thing. The easiest thing TO do was to
pull trOleys and they did it. The
next evening they warned motorists to
travel two blocks out of their way on
account of a supposedly fallen live
wire.
The next week the order of the
shack sOaped the street car tracks at
Seventeenth street and College ave
nues and had reached the height of
its power, having DELAYED street car
service. The boys lost their nerve in
pulling trolleys because they were
afraid serious accident would result,
and they were only out for fun.
They believed it a brilliant ceremony
to see a street car slide down the hill,
when the motor was reversed and the
motorman desired to have the car
travel the opposite direction. Men
from the car barns were sent out to
locate the trouble and they found it.
All the members of the gang escaped
by way of the Washburn campus. This
decisive blow, that of being routed
and defeated, broke the spirit of the
gang. They did not have the nerve
to grease tracks afteE that altho they
did not realize the danger of it at
the time. They later adopted the fol-
lowing rule into their code, Thou
shalt treat a street car man the way
you would like to be treated if you
were one" The last operations of
the gang were those of jerking auto
mobile tires. An old automobile tire
was attached to a rope or wire and
placed in "a road Many passing mo-
toflStS stopped 10 get the tire and
when they were ready to pick it up. it
was Jerked. The motorist, after going
thru such a humiliating experience
rapidly made his departure About
this time school was over for the year
and the band disbanded. some of the
members leaving the city and the
others preferring the old swimmin'
$ hole on summer evenings Strong eff
forts were made to revive the>erder of
the shack from its summers sleep this
fall and things were progressing nicely
when esordet received its death blow
and the ownership of the shack was
revealed.
An old man had lived in the shack
and died there several years ago His
daughter in Kansas CT{tv baoa ~, I,,s,