1902: Boys run away to Chicago. "Why shouldn't we come armed?" they asked. "Aren't there Indians in Chicago?"
Chicago the Mecca of Boys who Run Away from Home
Flock here from Villages in Search of Easy Money,
Indians and Adventures.
1902, July 27 Chicago Tribune
To make use of a metaphor that is so old that respect should be shown to its age, but that is a neat figure of speech nevertheless, Chicago is the Mecca of most of the boys who run away from home.
These boys come here impelled by motives as many and different as the boys themselves, and they expect to find here wonders whose proper habitat is surely in a book of fairy tales. Some city detectives and all the probation officers attached to Judge Tuthild's Juvenile court make a special study of the runaway evil, so that they may combat it intelligently, and it is from them that interesting details are obtained about the lads who flock into Chicago every day from other cities, small towns, villages, and the country. According to these official specialists the whole face of the runaway evil has changed and in its new features it is little known by the parents or guardians of the boys.
These boys come here impelled by motives as many and different as the boys themselves, and they expect to find here wonders whose proper habitat is surely in a book of fairy tales. Some city detectives and all the probation officers attached to Judge Tuthild's Juvenile court make a special study of the runaway evil, so that they may combat it intelligently, and it is from them that interesting details are obtained about the lads who flock into Chicago every day from other cities, small towns, villages, and the country. According to these official specialists the whole face of the runaway evil has changed and in its new features it is little known by the parents or guardians of the boys.
"If they knew as much about the runaways as we do," said a probation officers the other day, "we would have hundreds less runaways to deal with.. The trouble with the boys is that they have a wrong conception of Chicago."
Looking For Indians
Only a couple of months ago a boy 16 years old and his cousin, who was two years his junior, left their comfortable homes in Philadelphia, paid their way as far west as their small store of money would carry them, then took to those parts of the railroad polling stock known indifferently as "side door Pullmans" and "box car sleepers." They arrived in Chicago one morning dusty and tired, and were picked up by a policeman from the Harrison street station. He fed them, and as they sat at the table he noticed that their clothing bulged out over the pockets. They were asked to disgorge, and each boy produced two revolvers. One of them had a bowie knife in a hunting sheath.
"Why shouldn't we come armed?" they asked. "Aren't there Indians in Chicago?"
They were no more unsophisticated than the young fellow who came here from Lowmoor, Va. with a revolver in his pocket. He had run away from home and that that there were wild animals to be fought within an easy walk of Chicago city limits.
They were no more unsophisticated than the young fellow who came here from Lowmoor, Va. with a revolver in his pocket. He had run away from home and that that there were wild animals to be fought within an easy walk of Chicago city limits.
[ Other reasons the boys gave: wanted to join known outlaws, they expected to get rich, some wanted to be sailors on the lakes, etc. Girls run away because they desire to be on state and act.]
Effect of Dime Novels
In this is found a hint to the parents or guardians of boys out of the city, who have reached the runaway age. Eliminate the dime novel with its ever present temptation to running away, assert these officers, and you have eliminated many of the chances that a boy will come to Chicago before he is able to take care of himself. .....
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| 1902, July 27 Chicago Tribune |
