San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-08-04
Listen, World!
Bad Boys
By Elsie Robinson


day. l was watching Six Bad Boys
Their ages ranged from 10 TO ~. Far
ther back, in the Jail, 4 dozen more
such bows awaited trial. The papers
were full of scare heads about the |
.Juvenile Crime Wave. Ministers were |
preaching about it. Club ladies were |
holding sessions over it. And all the |
time. day after day, the boys were
being rounded up and marched to
iail. So l thought I'd 60 down and
nave a look. / wante dto see what
a Juvenile Crime Wave looked like.
They had stuck out ears. They
had very big feet that shuffled.
They had awkward hands; the young
est one had warts. Only the centers
of their faces were washed. They for
got TO use their handkerchiefs. One
of them pointed at the latest police
man and whispered. The rest giggled
and then suddenly remembered and
slouched down, their eyes frightened
and sullen, their young, dirty hands
twisted in their pockets.
They. did not look like the thieves
and siugCers they were. They looked
ike bad little boys with stick out ears.
There was only one thing that made
me remember that this was the po-
lice court and that presently We were
going TO shut some or those boys away
from the sunshine for years. That
was a dreadful, fevered emptiness
about their eyes. Their eyes WANT
ED SOMETHING. The eyes did not
know what they wanted. The brains
behind those eyes did not know what
the eyes wanted. Those brains had
made many attempts to satisfy that fc.
vered hunger in those eyes. They had
hurt and stolen, and they had set fire
10 buildings and wrecked, automobiles.
i went from that police court into
a cheap movie place where boys like
to 60. ! had heard good deal about
that movie place because some club
ladies were agitating against it. They
said that boys turned into bandits be-
cause they saw banditry on that
screen. / did not think much OF that
theory. | had known quite a few
boys before there were any screens
around. Ny brother scalpcd my best
doll Just after we'd come from Sun
day school picnic. So that's that.
/ sat through the 81 reels. The
boys were wriggling and yelping
around me like puppies. They almost
bit holes in that film and | almost Bit
with them. That was n pip Of a pic.
ture. There was everything in it that
real guy would like. Breaking bron-
chos, fighting outlaws, log drives,
prairie scbooners, round ups. EVERY
THING. Gosh that was SOME PIC
TURE!
And on the next day rode for
many hours until i came into the
back land where nobody lives. There
was something oddly familiar about
the great flats and deep gullies of that
back land. At first l could not place
it. Then l suddenly realized that it
was just such a land as l had seen
in that movie place-a rough land fit
for adventure. To break such a land
would be in itself an adventure. Men
no older than my Juvenile Crime Way-
ers had found adventure in the sos in
breaking such lands But this back
land was empty. There it lay waste,
at one end Of the country. And at the
other end, twenty boys sat in Jail,
waste also.
Is there connection between it all ?
They say that the homes are reSpOns-
ible for juvenile banditry. But good
homes aren't enough. Young blood
needs more than good home. YOUNG
BLOOD NEEDS ADVENTURE.
WHAT ADVENTURE is LEFT
FOR YOUNG BLOOD TODAY?
Where in our tight hard social and
industrial system may youth find rich
colorful living? Where are the lesiti'
mate risks? Where may it show its
sudacity and ingenuity?
You can't keep boys away from
pocket TASKS and revolvers merely by
loving them and preaching at them
YOU'VE GOT TO GIVE THEM 4
VITAL, ADEQUATE SUBSTITUTE
FOR POCKET FLASKS AND RE
VOLyERS. AND UNTIL YOU DC
YOU'RE GOING TO HAYS JUVE'
NILE CRIME WAVES!
What's the answer?
wish ! could try my plan. II
could I'd have the government Sc
aside great tracts of the waste bach
country for BOYS, and thereon I'd in
stall FEDERAL COW RANGES.
And I'll bet you the doll that my baf
kid brother scalped that nineteen on
Of those twenty Juvenile Crime Waivers
would become heroes Of the lasso
with all that implies of courage nnC
honesty and square living. And tht
twentieth kid who wanted to slay ;
sheik? Well they'd take care of him
Expensive? Yes. But not a hun
dredth part as expensive as polio
courts, prison cells and rotting maj
power.