CHAPTER XXIII.
From the very beginning of the Boyville association there has scarcely been a day without something of importance transpiring among the boys. It has been gradually building up, incidents and noble acts showing the willingness of these boys not only to do right themselves but to assist others.
The work so humbly begun in 1892, with one hundred or more members, mostly the poorest boys of the streets, little outcasts, as they are often called, developed so rapidly under the self-governing plan, that in the early part of the year 1905 the books of the Boyville Newsboys’ Association showed a membership of over three thousand boys under fourteen years of age. This enrollment includes two hundred and fifty boys who started with the association as sellers and shiners of shoes, but who today have graduated from the street. The majority of this number are engaged in some business, lawyers, doctors, commercial travelers, clerks or working in some trade, and all ambitious not only to earn a living for themselves but also to lend a helping hand to those who are in need, ever having in mind the teachings of the association. The following will show how well some of the principles have been remembered and how long they remained intact.
Early in January of 1905, a young man brought to the president an old pocket-book containing twenty-two dollars and sixty cents ($22.60), together with some letters, the contents of which revealed the fact that the owner was a poor woman and had been visiting her relatives to secure assistance in raising money to pay taxes, long since due, on her home. Names were given, but no residence.
The president said to the young man: “You know we advertise what the boys find in the daily papers and do everything we can to seek the owner and—”
“Yes, sir,” replied the young man, “I know all this and have been through it many years ago. That is just what I want you to do, please try to find the rightful owner. I want no compensation, and I don’t want my name mentioned in any way.”
LINING UP READY TO GO TO CHURCH.