“I’ll be there,” replied Jimmy, and after a moments thought he asked.
“And can I bring some of my friends with me?”
“Certainly, that is exactly what I want you to do. Bring your gang, all your friends, particularly the little toughs, and when you come into my office don’t let any one stop you from seeing me.”
“Oh, don’t be afeared o’that, we knows as how to get there.”
A few other things were talked about and they separated for the day.
As the gentleman rode down town he thought of the events of the morning, of the life of a newsboy. These little wiry, nervous street boys, alert of eye, and lithe of limb, who flock the principal thoroughfares of our great cities at almost all hours of the day.
Newsboys and bootblacks, boys whom the world seems to have forgotten. By peculiar conditions these boys are used to being at odds with the world. It need not be told that our newsboys, as a general rule, as people know them, are regarded as a swearing, stealing, lying, dishonest lot of young criminals, and these qualifications are recognized adjuncts to their business. With these conditions is it not a wonder that any of them ever succeed in working their way into the ranks of respectibility? People who curse and kick them, as they did Jimmy, never stop to think that these neglected newsboys, of today, sharp, shrewd and keen, may be the thieves, the burglars, the highwaymen; or the successful patriotic citizens of tomorrow.
No one will dispute the fact that, the street-boy is surrounded on every hand by degraded and vicious men, with drunkenness regarded as a desirable condition, and the indulgence in drink only limited by the ability to procure it.
Among many, robbery is regarded as a fine art, and the tribute of praise bestowed upon rascality. If christian people do not find time, amid the rush and roar of the city, in their mighty struggle for wealth, to lend a hand to lead him out on the highway of honest success, what is to become of the street-boy?
Is it not true that many a boy is bad because the best part of him was never developed?