“Now, my lady,” said the newsboy, “don’t you worry for a minute, one of our officers started in a dead run after him and I know he will catch him. We don’t allow anything like that to happen. That boy don’t belong to the association.”
The lady was escorted to a drug store where people wait for cars, and advised to remain there until the newsboys returned. She did not have to wait long, for, in a short time, the officer returned with a dozen newsies all trying to push the “grafter” ahead of them. When in front of the lady, he was made to hand her the package, and get down upon his knees and ask her forgiveness. The old lady was placed upon a street-car, and the officers took charge of the boy. They brought him to the president’s office.
“Mr. President,” said a member of the executive committee, “we have here a new boy. He was pretending to sell papers on the streets, but he proved to be a ‘grafter,’ for we caught him stealing a package from an old lady who worked all summer to save money to buy a Christmas present for a little girl who is a cripple. We run him down.” The boy hung his head. He was under no obligations to any of the boys, and could have been independant over his capture but when he was told the package belonged to a little cripple, it had a strange effect upon him. He lost sight of everything but the wrong done to the little girl.
“I didn’t know it belonged to a cripple or I wouldn’t have taken it. You see, we at home don’t think nothing of taking things as we can get, we believe in helping ourselves to anything we wants when no body is looking. I am sorry I took the present.”
The boy lived in a bad neighborhood. His father was dead, his mother had no influence over him, he roamed the streets at will, and spent the majority of his nights sleeping in freight-cars. He was just the kind of a boy who grows up along the docks of our lake cities, and takes advantage of every opportunity to steal anything he can use or care for without being detected, from freight depots or cars. This is the class of young men the association has been aiming to reach for a long time. The selling of papers being only a subterfuge for stealing. He was fifteen years old and admitted having done many bad things.
“It is boys like you,” said the president, “who disgrace any association, and while no one seems to look after you, or want you, we will take you into the association and the officers will have you under their charge; what do you say to that?”
“Well, I guess you have me down pretty fine, and if I wants to ever get a job I must start my life over again.”
“The boys will forget this little package act, and blot out all your bad deeds, if you will begin a new life, and I will guarantee that in six months, by the time warm weather comes, we will get you a nice position.”
“If I would have known that package belonged to a little girl do you suppose I would have swiped it?” he added.
“It isn’t that alone we object to. Every time you steal something someone suffers, and the only way to avoid injuring any one is not to steal at all,” said the president.