California's First Vacation School [pp. 426-434]

he Boys' Club - An Adjunct of the Vacation School
aiicther evasioll of the liee~se taw. These iiess of the short-sighted eeo~omy that
places are the storm-centers of child crime`does not recognize the playground, the
in the ward. kindergarten, and mannal and industrial
There is no place by right5 and scarcely training as potent factors ill Civic progress
by sufferance, for the young people of this may appear when these children re~ch
region. They are to a great extent de- manhood. The old Greeks, to whom we
~rived of the shmulus of social respect- always compare ourselves in seasons of
abifity. It is rare for any one wbo can win civic glorification, did better, they gave
the admiration of the growing youth and the boy the first chance.
~rouse them to personal effort for improve- There is still a darker aspect to the
ment to associate with them in any other street amusements as the boys become
tban a patronizing way. The stre~t and older, and they drift naturally, nigllt after
open lots covered wfth refuse are the only night, to the particular corner where their
playgrounds open to them; but the street gang "hangs out." The gang instinct is
is an educator with its own plan, and the only a snrviving rndimentary trait of
plan is not a safe one. Street-fights', primitive times, wfth its close ties of
games of chance, a tramp. a fir~ an arrest, solidarity and loyalty to its leader.
a railroad accident, saloon brawls, a revolt- Allowed to h~dulge these hereditary tening case of cruelty to animals,-the chil- dencies without resources-their only ocdren are there and gloat over tbe details. cupation being rude jokes, idle talk, low
iTneonsciously they become evaders of the stories, singJng the songs of the cheap
law, for their first ideas of law and order theaters that drain their pockets, rough
are inseparab}y associated with the police- dancing, and "joshing" each other and
man, their natural enemy, the relentless the passers-by-all this results in an Csindividual who despoils their youthful sentially lawless disposition and a destrucpleasures; and with no provision for tive attitude of niind that leads to an
healthful, clean amusements wherein lies ufter lack of social responsibility. By and
that power and instinct by which their by the street will not see them so often;
characters are built, most paths that the they will have graduated from its vile
spirit of adventure and enterprise can fol- school, and their diploma entitles them by
low Jead to the police station. The costli- depraved tastes and appetites to enter