Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-09
BY THOMAS X. HENRY.
children are rare.

Dangerous children are rare.
They seldom carry' their primitive
day dreams Of slaughter and carnage
INTO reality. Yet not infrequently news
papers contain accounts of killings by
Early adoleScents.
Children with cravings which threaten
to be realized occasionally come into
the Gales Special School, after proving
unmanagable in other public schools.
There they are given special study ny
Harold D. Fife principal
Paul was a sullen. unmanagable BOY
with an obsession for knives.
He was a dangerous kid and the
teachers were afraid of him, with good
reason. 1t wasn't the child's fault that
he never had killed anybody. 1t was
his good luck
When a teacher tried to discipline
him he would draw knife on her.
On several occasions he attacked other
children with knives. 1t was wonder
that the schools put up with him as
long as they did. Again and again
knives we're taken away from him and
he always was able to get another.
Where he got them nobody knows.
Probably he stole most of them.
hnhIG q Necessity
A knife was a necessity for the lads
existence. 1t was as vital as morphine
to a dope fiend The probability Is
that he suffered nervous fortunes when
deprived of a knife. He would have
got them somehow, regardless of what
obstacles were put in his way.
Fife volunteered to take Paul. School
officials warned him that he would be
dealing with crazy kid who was GER
tain to kill somebody sooner or later
and that it would be best to put MIN
away somewhere, with no further at
tempts at reform.
The child came from an excellent
family. There was nothing wrong with
his home environment. Ills brothers
and sisters were all perfectly normal
He had a low /. O., placing him
among the high-grade morons. In
school he had been continual failure
in everything He wouldn't study. He
couldn't learn If he did.
Fife had him examined by a first
class psychiatrist who found at the
base of the knife throwing obsession
the old inferiority complex. The child
suffered from his apparent inferiority
in his classes. He had to have some
way of attracting attention, of becoming
the central figure on the stage.
Knives did it. When he flew at
somebody with a long. sharp knife in
his hands folks noticed him. The smart
children became insignificant figures
compared to Paul on such an occasion.
Sought Impression.
He wanted to impress himself on
folks. to make them feel his presence
and his Importance. A teacher Woulo
feel knife thrust in her body. she
would pay attention to Paul then-ne
would be the most important inquire IN
the world to her. =,
paul. of course, hadn't reasoned all
this out He simply felt it. So long
MS he had knife in his pocket he felt
himself the ruler of his little universe.
without knife he felt sick, helpless
and unnecessary.
It was almost a foregone conclusion
that the time would come when muir
der would be necessary to the boys
peace of mind--a murder into when
he would be forced inevitably.
At the Gales School Paul remained
the sullen. unmanageable. bone-headed
kid The change of environment ap-
parently did no good. He still carried
knives Fife tried to talk him out OF
it. but it is impossible to argue a per-
son out of cbessions. The form may be
changed. but not the substance.
Fife suspected that here again was
case of dual personality. but there
was no point of contact. The child
seemed to have no interests upon
which other interests could be grated.
Even knives did not constitute such an
interest. They existed, for him, only
to stab folks with.
Wanted to Kill Pitcher.
If Paul was playing base ball and
was struck out, for instance, his i'm
mediate reaction would be to rush the
pitcher who so Inundated him with a
knife.
The teacher saw that he had an al
most hopeless job on his hands. The
only course open was a patient study
of minute behavior characteristics,
some one of which might prove key
to the boys better nature. 1t required
weeks and weeks before the clue came
weeks during which Paul just moped
around the room, pretty much his
own boss.
Fife noticed the boy several times
puttering with the valve of the steam
radiator in the room. At such times
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