On the disappearance of an occasional apple, an orange, or if one of the fruit-stands was upset, it was declared that Jimmy did it. All fights around the corner originated from Jimmy.
So bad was this boy’s reputation that every one in the ward, including several Sunday-school teachers, was kept busy looking for a favorable opportunity to give Jimmy, what they thought he deserved, “a good licking.”
The groceryman was not slow in letting his customers know how bad Jimmy was.
He was kicked, lectured, preached to, and a dozen times a day was pushed off the corner.
He was abused because he annoyed men and women by his misbehavior.
No one ever stopped to ask this boy where he lived; what about his parents, his home life, or to see if there was really any good in him worth trying to develop. The bad was visible, and the people seemed to delight in their vain efforts to correct him by censures and kicks.
There was no question about Jimmy being bad, about as bad as any street-boy would become who had his own way, and, whose parents permitted him to go and come when he pleased, and to associate with bad company, particularly boys older than he was.
Jimmy was a leader of a gang of little toughs who always met at the corner, in the evenings, and delighted in making it unpleasant for those who lived within hearing distance. He was strong, quick, and could throw to the ground any boy of his size, and never hesitated trying a much larger boy. He was the terror of the corners.
Yet with all his bad reputation, no one ever caught him doing anything for which he could be punished under the state laws.