Resting. What Next?
Early Lessons in Craps
It is not uncommon for fights to end by a formal match between two opposing leaders, though very often, particularly if the leader of the weaker gang wins, these conflicts are indecisive because the stronger gang will not accept defeat. In one case two gangs entered into a formal truce because one gang was obliged to go through the other’s territory on the way to school, and found it inexpedient to fight a battle four times a day. The other gang recognized the justice of this position and according to compact permitted their enemies to go through the street unmolested throughout the school year.
Tales of this kind could be multiplied almost indefinitely, for the exploits of boyish gangs dominate the West Side problem. Such headlines as
UPPER WEST SIDE DISTURBED
Boys Discharge Rifles—One Man Shot and Windows Broken[15]
GIRL SHOT IN GANG FIGHT
Seriously Wounded While Walking in Eleventh Avenue—Assailant Escapes[16]
are comparatively common in the newspapers; yet most of the occurrences of this kind in the district never reach the ears of a reporter. The following is from the press account of a typical gang war: