CHAPTER VI.
A dozen or more newsboys can be seen at almost any hour of the day, dodging here and there around the corners, down alleys, or playing in the rear of the circulating offices of the great dailies. In all kinds of weather they will be found at their posts, prompt in delivering their papers to subscribers, or upon the streets crying the most important of the many head lines of the transactions of a day. Would it be possible to get this noisy, hustling crowd of boys together and gradually to bring this great power, this great force, into a channel for doing good? To form an association where the boy would be “de whole thing” with only the hand of man to guide where it was necessary? To simply push the button? In short, would it result in doing good among the class of boys who are neglected in more ways than men and women imagine? Reflection resulted in adopting a name that would imply everything—
“Boyville.”
It means work with and among newsboys by the boys themselves.
The Boyville Newsboys’ Association.
It was at once organized, and in its preamble of incorporation was written the Golden Rule. In the formation of Boyville it must not be understood that its mission was to draw good boys from good homes; but rather to give help to bad boys, come from where they may, when they appear on the streets—away from home influences. Whether they come from the most palatial residences on the shaded avenues, or from the crowded hovels of alleys, from poorly kept tenements, or even those who are compelled to sleep in public stairways, barns, or wherever a boy can creep under shelter without being noticed.