With one hundred and fifty-two newsboys, sellers and bootblacks, enrolled as active members for life; with an unwritten constitution and laws that were made to suit conditions, and that were subject to change at every meeting; with meeting places in alleys, in vacant store-rooms, theatres or wherever boys could meet on short notice, Boyville was started. Trustees were chosen from newspaper representatives, and leading citizens, but the detail work, the real work among the boys, was placed in the hands of the president—to make a success or failure of the project. It was first found necessary that the president should keep in personal daily touch with every boy, not in bunches but each boy, sellers and bootblacks. A membership card was issued. This card simply let the public know the bearer was a member of Boyville, Newsboys’ Association. For this, and all benefits of the association, the boy paid nothing in money. No assessments of any kind. Nothing that would permit even a donation. He was simply required to obey the rules—not to swear, to steal, to play craps, a game so common among sellers, or smoke cirgarettes.
WHERE THE BOYVILLE NEWSBOYS’ ASSOCIATION WAS ORGANIZED, DECEMBER 25, 1892.
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There were but three officers, the president, vice-president and secretary. The two latter, newsboys. Jimmy the newsboy, and Johnny the bootblack, both leaders of gangs. These two boys were told that the success of the association depended entirely on their work. They had charge of the one hundred and fifty-two members. Their first orders were: “that each boy must watch the other boys and correct a fellow member for doing anything that would disgrace the association. They must not wait to see an officer to punish a member for stealing, swearing or playin’ o’craps. They must not depend on what they heard, but on what they saw. Take the law into their own hands, and punish on the spot.”
The end of the first month found twenty-eight membership cards taken from boys who had violated the rule, “you must not steal,” and nine taken from boys who smoked cigarettes. The fines were from five to fifteen days. When the fines numbered fifty membership cards, the president made arrangements with a theatre to admit the members, permitting no boy to enter unless he showed his membership card. The boys who were fined, and did not have their cards, were dealt a pretty heavy blow, for boys. A little banquet was given and again no boy admitted to the hall without showing his card. This occasional hit had its effect in reducing the cards in the hands of the president to an average of about ten a month.