



Produced by Mark C. Orton and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive)






Transcriber's Note: Minor typographical errors have been corrected
without note. Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have
been retained as printed. Words printed in italics are noted with
underscores: _italics_.


THAT LAST WAIF OR SOCIAL QUARANTINE


  HORACE FLETCHER'S WORKS

  THE A.B.-Z. OF OUR OWN NUTRITION.
    Thirteenth thousand. 462 pp.

  THE NEW MENTICULTURE; OR,
    THE A-B-C OF TRUE LIVING. Forty-Eighth thousand. 310 pp.

  THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE; OR,
    ECONOMIC NUTRITION. Fifteenth thousand. 344 pp.

  HAPPINESS AS FOUND IN FORETHOUGHT MINUS FEARTHOUGHT.
    Fourteenth thousand. 251 pp.

  THAT LAST WAIF; OR,
    SOCIAL QUARANTINE. Sixth thousand. 270 pp.




THAT LAST WAIF

OR

SOCIAL QUARANTINE

A BRIEF


BY

HORACE FLETCHER

_Advocate for the Waifs_

_Fellow American Association for the Advancement of Science_


NEW YORK
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
1909


MATTHEW, xviii; 1, 2 and 14


 1. At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus saying,
Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

 2. And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him
in the midst of them.

14. Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in
heaven, that one of these little ones should perish?


COPYRIGHT, 1898
BY HORACE FLETCHER




CONTENTS


1903 PREFACE,                                                      ix

PREFACE,                                                            9

THE LOST WAIF,                                                     17

MENACE OF THE HAVE-TO-BE,                                          39

SOCIAL QUARANTINE FIRST,                                           71

QUARANTINE,                                                        93

UNCIVILIZED INCONSISTENCIES,                                      105

QUARANTINE AGAINST IDLENESS,                                      131

QUARANTINE AGAINST MISUNDERSTANDING,                              145

QUARANTINE AGAINST MALADMINISTRATION,                             157

SUGGESTIONS FOR LOCAL QUARANTINE ORGANIZATION,                    169

SARAH B. COOPER,                                                  191

CORROBORATIVE TESTIMONY,                                          221

"AND A LITTLE CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM,"                             227

SUMMARY,                                                          233

LOGICAL SEQUENCES,                                                251

APPENDIX:

    IT HAS BEGUN,                                                 263

    DEDICATION,                                                   269




"_It was Juvenal who said, 'The man's character is made at seven; what
he then is, he will always be.' This seems a sweeping assertion, but
Aristotle, Plato, Lycurgus, Plutarch, Bacon, Locke, and Lord Brougham,
all emphasize the same idea, while leading educators of a modern day
are all united upon this point._" [_Sarah B. Cooper, to the National
Conference of Charities and Correction of the United States and
Canada._]

                     *      *      *      *      *

"_This institution was established as the result of a quickened public
conscience on the subject of waifs of the State, a comprehensive
understanding of the relation of the State to the child, and the
demonstrated effect of such institutions in decreasing crime._" [_The
American Journal of Sociology, May, 1898, page 790._]




FOREWORD


"Waif," as herein employed, applies to all neglected or abused
children, and not especially to those who have lost their parents, or
have been abandoned.

While the evidence of the kindergartners may seem extreme as to the
possibility of making useful citizens of _all_ children, the unanimity
of their enthusiasm must be taken as very strong evidence.

The plea for a social quarantine which shall establish protection for
helpless infancy during the period of present neglect, and when the
cost is insignificant, is made in the belief that, once attracted to
the idea of the possibility of social quarantine, which is nothing if
not complete, popular sentiment will demand a continuance of organized
protection for each member of society as long as he may be helpless or
weak, without reference to an age limit.

Immediate special attention, however, should be given to the victims
of the "sweaters," to unsanitary work-rooms and other environing
conditions provided by conscienceless (usually alien) employers, and
to the prevention of children being employed in occupations where
temptation is so strong as to be a menace to unformed character.




1903 PREFACE


When first published, five years ago, this appeal for better care of
children born into unfortunate environment met with very favorable
reception, especially from practical child educators and child
economists; and the author received numerous requests to address
gatherings of altruists in various parts of the country. He responded
to some forty of these invitations, and met with warmest encouragement
and the assurance that the sentiment of this book was shared pretty
generally, when the facts in the case were understood. In meeting men
of all kinds in the outside world, as well as women from whom a
generous sympathy might be expected, he found that any scheme offering
care and protection for neglected children excited the sympathy and
enlisted the assistance of all classes, and most readily the aid of
people in the more lowly walks of life, who came nearer to the need
and realized the want. The wealthy Christian mother of the Avenue
would respond to the suggestion of a more efficient care for the
helpless ones with "We should certainly do all that we can for these
poor little unfortunates, for Christ's sake;" while the ruddy
barkeeper, who unwillingly pushed out the bottle to a parent of
neglected kids in the slums, when talked to about an effective
quarantine to protect the neglected ones, would say, "Certainly; yes,
indeed! for Christ's sake give the babies a chance."

In both cases the sympathy and sentiment were the same, and the author
believes it to be universal. All that is needed to guard against
helplessness is concentration of interest, for a little time, on this
one elementary need, and the full measure of reform will soon be in
effective operation.

While the conferences above referred to were being held, the author
had opportunity to learn the existing conditions, relative to the
greatest and most fundamental needs in approaching and perfecting a
reform of the kind recommended, and learned that uncertain, irregular,
or otherwise faulty nourishment is the cause of much perversion among
the poor, and is especially harmful to the young among them. The
author had just completed his initial experiments, and had published
the booklet "What Sense? or, Economic Nutrition," and by them saw a
way to provide teachers, mothers, and other child protectors with a
teachable theory of nutrition that seemed to him to be scientific but
simple, and which had been most gratifyingly effective wherever it had
been intelligently tried.

But in the course of these lecture conferences it developed that more
than the unsupported word of a layman was necessary in order to even
command attention in a matter that everybody thought they knew all
about themselves, and in whose general opinion the whole world joined.
It did not seem credible, although quite logical, that health, morals,
temperament, physical efficiency, and all the requirements of virtue
and good citizenship could be mended or modified by mere attention to
the ingestion of food and more careful eating.

As time went on it seemed evident to the author that not only was a
right intelligence, relative to the initial act of nutrition, helpful
in conserving health, but that it was fundamentally necessary to
physical efficiency, mental clearness, and moral tone, and that all
work, which was done by educators without this basic knowledge as an
underlying necessity of teaching or training, could but be simply
ameliorative and not curative in its effect; and, failing to be able
to say the convincing word himself, it seemed necessary for the author
to interest the highest physiological authority in the subject and
make demonstration a means of convincing them. This, in order that
they might speak to deaf ears with the effectiveness of the megaphone,
while poor lay I, the author, could not raise my voice above a
whisper.

In transferring this book to the "A.B.C. Series," and linking it up
with the "A.B.-Z. of Our Own Nutrition," and other books of the
"Series," the megaphonic connection has been established, and now the
attorney for the waifs is ready to turn on a renewed current of
sympathy and see what will happen.

The work, as it originally shaped itself, was dropped by the author,
for the time being, as being built on sand, if presented without a
good theory of scientific feeding as one of the foundation principles,
and hence these intervening five years have been employed in getting
authority for the economic theory required.

These five years also have added _time-proof_ to the personal
experience of the author, and have added many confirmatory experiences
to his own. Continued pursuit of the subject has also developed
possibilities of endurance, efficiency, and happiness that were not
known to exist in former times, so that we begin to doubt if the
normal man or woman has been seen in the world since history has given
us a record.

During these five years of study of the question, left incomplete in
the present volume as first issued, only confirmatory evidence of the
hopes expressed herein has been deduced. The author has had abundant
opportunity to add experiences in England, Italy, and, in fact, all
over Europe, and in this country, that strengthen the faith and call
for action or guilt of infamous indifference. The work of Dr. Bernardo
in England has progressed steadily, and each annual showing is better
than the last, while the public demonstrations at Albert Hall, London,
are becoming more intrinsically interesting than any other exhibitions
or entertainments that are held in that great auditorium.

The Salvation Army work, too, has been closely inspected and followed,
and, while its aims are more curative than preventive, and give
promises in the future rather than in the immediate present, it cannot
but meet with highest approval for what it does in a practical way
among the degenerate. Quite recently General Booth has added a
Department of Hygiene to his staff outfit, and the whole tendency of
the work is improving and is already splendid. It is not yet broad
enough, however, and does not deal with the basic necessities of
complete nutrition reform applied to children.

The whole course of reform on charitable principles has been steadily
progressive, but the most conclusive and convincing demonstration of
possibilities, all the way from waif-saving to the last ultimate
refinement of physical and mental reform, has been given us by two of
the most modest and self-unconscious persons possible to imagine. To
Dr. and Mrs. J. H. Kellogg, of Battle Creek, Michigan, we owe more
than any of us can ever pay for a demonstration of humane
possibilities, which proves the full contentions of this book most
conclusively. Twenty-four of the most unfortunate of waifs, rescued
and endowed with all the opportunity of respectable manhood and
womanhood and good citizenship, is the record of this one little
married but childless couple; and after that who shall ever dare to
say that there should ever be any "Have-to-be-bad" persons to fill an
altogether unnecessary "ten-per-cent-of-submerged-stratum" of society?

Some account of this family of true and practical salvation is given
in the "A.B.-Z. of Our Own Nutrition" and in "The New Glutton or
Epicure," and need not be repeated here, for without full appreciation
of the contents of each of the books of the "A.B.C. Series" the
argument of either is incomplete.

H. F.


Explanation of The A.B.C. Life Series

THE ESSENTIALS AND SEQUENCE IN LIFE

It would seem a considerable departure from the study of menticulture
as advised in the author's book, "Menticulture," to jump at once to an
investigation of the physiology and psychology of nutrition of the
body and then over to the department of infant and child care and
education as pursued in the _fearthought_ and in the kindergarten; but
as a matter of fact, if study of the causation of human disabilities
and misfortunes is attempted at all, the quest leads naturally into
all the departments of human interest, and first into these primary
departments.

The object of this statement is to link up the different publications
of the writer into a chain of consistent suggestions intended to make
life a more simple and agreeable problem than many of us too
indifferent or otherwise inefficient and bad fellow-citizens make of
it.

It is not an altogether unselfish effort on the part of the author of
the A.B.C. Life Series to publish his findings. In the consideration
of his own mental and physical happiness it is impossible to leave out
environment, and all the units of humanity who inhabit the world are
part of his and of each other's environment.

It would be rank presumption for any person, even though gifted with
the means to circulate his suggestions as widely as possible, and
armed with the power to compel the reading of his publications, to
think that any suggestions of his could influence any considerable
number of his fellow-citizens of the world, or even of his own
immediate neighbourhood, to accept or follow his advice relative to
the management of their lives and of their communal and national
affairs; but while the general and complete good of humanity should be
aimed at in all publications, one's immediate neighbours and friends
come first, and the wave of influence spreads according to the
effectiveness of the ideas suggested in doing good; that is, in
altering the point of view and conduct of people so as to make them a
better sympathetic environment.

For instance, the children of your neighbours are likely to be the
playmates of your own children, and the children of degenerate parents
in the slum district of your city will possibly be the fellow-citizen
partners of your own family. Again, when it is known that right or
wrong nutrition of the body is the most important agent in forming
character, in establishing predisposition to temperance or
intemperance of living, including the desire for intoxicating
stimulants, it is revealed to one that right nutrition of the
community as a whole is an important factor in his own environment, as
is self-care in the case of his own nourishment.

The moment a student of every-day philosophy starts the study of
problems from the A.B.C. beginning of things, and to shape his study
according to an A.B.C. sequence, each cause of inharmony is at once
traced back to its first expression in himself and then to causes
influenced by his environments.

If we find that the largest influences for good or bad originate with
the right or wrong instruction of children during the home training or
kindergarten period of their development, and that a dollar expended
for education at that time is worth more for good than whole bancs of
courts and whole armies of police to correct the effect of bad
training and bad character later in life, it is quite logical to help
promote the spread of the kindergarten or the kindergarten idea to
include all of the children born into the world, and to furnish
mothers and kindergarten teachers with knowledge relative to the right
nutrition of their wards which they can themselves understand and can
teach effectively to children.

If we also find that the influence of the kindergarten upon the
parents of the infants is more potent than any other which can be
brought to bear upon them, we see clearly that the way to secure the
widest reform in the most thorough manner is to concentrate attention
upon the kindergarten phase of education, advocate its extension to
include even the last one of the children, beginning with the most
needy first, and extending the care outward from the centre of worst
neglect to finally reach the whole.

Experience in child saving so-called, and in child education on the
kindergarten principle, has taught the cheapest and the most
profitable way to insure an environment of good neighbours and
profit-earning citizens; and investigation into the problem of human
alimentation shows that a knowledge of the elements of an economic
nutrition is the first essential of a family or school training; and
also that this is most impressive when taught during the first ten
years of life.

One cannot completely succeed in the study of menticulture from its
A.B.C. beginning and in A.B.C. sequence without appreciation of the
interrelation of the physical and the mental, the personal and the
social, in attaining a complete mastery of the subject.

The author of the A.B.C. Life Series has pursued his study of the
philosophy of life in experiences which have covered a great variety
of occupations in many different parts of the world and among peoples
of many different nations and races. His first book, "Menticulture,"
dealt with purging the mind and habits of sundry weaknesses and
deterrents which have possession of people in general in some degree.
He recognised the depressing effect of anger and worry and other
phases of _fearthought_. In the book "Happiness," which followed next
in order, _fearthought_ was shown to be the unprofitable element of
forethought. The influence of environment on each individual was
revealed as an important factor of happiness, or the reverse, by means
of an accidental encounter with a neglected waif in the busy streets
of Chicago during a period of intense national excitement incident to
the war with Spain, and this led to the publication of "That Last
Waif; or, Social Quarantine." During the time that this last book was
being written, attention to the importance of right nutrition was
invited by personal disabilities, and the experiments described in
"Glutton or Epicure; or, Economic Nutrition" were begun and have
continued until now.

In the study of the latter, but most important factor in profitable
living, circumstances have greatly favoured the author, as related in
his latest book, "The A.B.-Z. of Our Own Nutrition."

The almost phenomenal circulation of "Menticulture" for a book of its
kind, and a somewhat smaller interest in the books on nutrition and
the appeal for better care of the waifs of society, showed that most
persons wished, like the author, to find a short cut to happiness by
means of indifference to environment, both internal and external,
while habitually sinning against the physiological dietetic
requirements of Nature. In smothering worry and guarding against anger
the psychic assistance of digestion was stimulated and some better
results were thereby obtained, but not the best attainable results.

Living is easy and life may be made constantly happy by beginning
right; and the right beginning is none other than the careful feeding
of the body. This done there is an enormous reserve of energy, a
naturally optimistic train of thought, a charitable attitude towards
everybody, and a loving appreciation of everything that God has made.
Morbidity of temperament will disappear from an organism that is
economically and rightly nourished, and death will cease to have any
terrors for such; and as _fear_ of death is the worst depressant
known, many of the _worries_ of existence take their everlasting
flight from the atmosphere of the rightly nourished.

The wide interest now prevalent in the subjects treated in The A.B.C.
Life Series is evidenced by the scientific, military, and lay
activity, in connection with the experiments at the Sheffield
Scientific School of Yale University and elsewhere, as related in the
"A.B.-Z. of Our Own Nutrition" and in "The New Glutton or Epicure" of
the series.

The general application is more fully shown, however, by the
indorsement of the great Battle Creek Sanitarium, which practically
studies all phases of the subject, from health conservation and child
saving to general missionary work in social reform.

HORACE FLETCHER.




PREFACE


"And a little child shall lead them."

                     *      *      *      *      *

The text of this appeal was furnished by the accidental observation of
a waif of not more than four years of age, who was gathered into the
meshes of the law, and then pushed back into a stifling atmosphere of
criminal neglect under ban of the official sentence, "Now get! you
little bastard, and to hell with you!"

                     *      *      *      *      *

This waif disappeared into the slums without leaving any clue to his
identity, and without any certainty of rescue, except by means of a
quickened public conscience that shall organize to mend the existing
defects arising from our careless lack of system in child protection,
so as to rescue _all waifs in need_, in order to include the lost
waif of our story.

                     *      *      *      *      *

The development of the day-nursery and kindergarten methods of child
care and character-building has proven that _ninety-eight per cent.,
at least_, of the formerly-considered "hopelessly submerged ten per
cent. stratum of society" can be saved and added to the mass of good
citizenship by these means, and that the insignificant few, abnormally
weak or perverse, are better subjects for industrial schools before
criminal tendencies develop into habit, than for street schools of
aimlessness and resultant crime.

                     *      *      *      *      *

Hope of success in exciting pity and justice for the victims of
neglect and persecution within our gates is nourished by the evidence
of that strong national sympathy for persecuted and neglected humanity
which caused the sacrifice of war for the relief of our suffering
neighbors in the island of Cuba. The same strength of purpose and
thoroughness of aim--at one-twentieth of the cost, applied to a
profitable investment instead--would free our fair land of the last
vestige of the neglect which now breeds ceaseless crime.

                     *      *      *      *      *

The spirit of reform is awake to the demands of present civilized
ideals. What we are willing to do for the _reconcentrados_ of Cuba,
let us do for our own defenseless ones!

                     *      *      *      *      *

The author dedicates the proceeds of the sale of this book, and
whatever personal effort may seem to be useful, to the home cause,
with the hope that his readers may enjoy the same happiness of
sympathy which has inspired the appeal, and join in a comprehensive
movement, with their mite or in the fullness of the strength they are
blessed with, to close up the present narrow gaps in social quarantine
through which all disease and disorder come, and thereby assist the
noble army of pioneers--the kindergartners and the social settlement
missionaries--to effectively stamp out the germs of epidemic disorder
which are now a shameful reproach to our manhood and a constant menace
to our happiness.

                     *      *      *      *      *

But there is still a brighter hope than that of a quickened humanitarian
conscience. There also is strong evidence of a quickening of _Christian_
conscience, which prompts the putting aside differences of creed and
uniting in efforts to apply the Golden Rule of the Master to _all_
helpless ones in need, in response to the prophecy and command: "Suffer
little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is
the Kingdom of Heaven." "And the Last shall be First."

                     *      *      *      *      *

We have won a battle in the cause of freedom abroad; and, while the
spirit of rescue is still keen, let us turn our burning search-lights
inward and purify our home conditions in a manner worthy of the ideals
we champion.

                     *      *      *      *      *

Among the recorded utterances of Christ there was no more direct
prophecy than, "And a little child shall lead them." That prophecy
will surely be fulfilled. Why not now?

    "Within the past twenty-six years nine thousand five hundred and
    fifty-six trained boys and girls, the flower of my flock, have
    been placed out in situations in the colonies, and have been
    continuously looked after and supervised ever since by a company
    of devoted and experienced men and women. Results recently
    tabulated in reports to and from the government of Canada show
    that the failures among these emigrants is less than 2 per cent.
    (actually only 1.84 per cent.) of the whole."--_Thomas J.
    Barnardo, F.R.C.S., Ed. Founder of the "Doctor Barnardo's Homes,"
    London, England._




THE LOST WAIF


    "The simple and salient fact is, we do not get hold of little
    children soon enough. An unfortunate childhood is the sure
    prophecy of an unfortunate life. Implant lessons of virtue and
    well-doing in earliest childhood, says Plato. Give me the child,
    says Lord Bacon, and the state shall have the man. Let the very
    playthings of your children have a bearing upon the life and work
    of the coming man, says Aristotle. It is the early training that
    makes the master, says the German poet. Train up a child in the
    way he should go; and, when he is old, he will not depart from it,
    says the Revealed Word."--_Sarah B. Cooper, before the National
    Conference of Charities and Correction._




THE LOST WAIF


It was our first night in an American city after the breaking out of
war between Spain and the United States.

The States had undertaken the war for the purpose of freeing Cubans
from cruelties perpetrated by Spanish officials, and it was currently
reported that the government was spending more than a million of
dollars daily to accomplish the rescue. There was no doubt in the
minds of the American people of the justice of the American cause and
no one regretted the cost. Seven hundred and fifty thousand men had
volunteered to serve in the army or navy and Congress voted money as
freely as it was asked.

Let these facts stand as a background for our story.

                     *      *      *      *      *

Coming from Europe, as we had done, between two Wednesdays, without
passing through New York City, our first impressions of a wildly
enthusiastic patriotism, as manifested by the advertising class, were
gained in Chicago, and were especially striking by contrast with the
quiet of the lands we so recently had left. We had been studying
social questions in Germany, Holland and England during the past year,
and were therefore more observant of varied expressions and contrasts
in social life.

In the evening we strolled on the streets in company of a friend from
New Orleans, who was the first to greet us on arrival, to see the
wonderful window illuminations and color displays that made the
pavements at night brighter than day. Crowds of men, women and
children, representing every stratum of society, promenaded past these
shows or lingered before them. Behind great panes of plate glass were
groups of ghastly wax figures representing naval engagements or camps
of starving Cuban _reconcentrados_. The favorite mottoes displayed
were "Suffering Cuba Must Be Free," and "Remember the Maine." In
drinking places there was added to the last motto, "Down with Spain."

The show windows were continuous for many blocks and each shopman
tried to eclipse the displays of his neighbors by the novelty,
brilliancy or sensationalism of his own. Every known electrical device
was used in the effects and nothing that we had ever seen abroad--in
the Orient or in Europe--approached the wonder of these advertising
conceits. They were more marvelous than anything Madame Toussaud ever
designed. They formed a veritable Patrio-Commercial-Midway-Plaisance
and continued to attract a street-full of people until long after
midnight. Our New Orleans friend declared that "they had done more to
excite popular sympathy for the Cuban cause than the jaundiced
newspapers themselves."

At several points we met companies of Salvation Army men and women on
street duty. The old army under the command of General Booth and the
new American division under the Ballington-Booths were both in the
field. They were waging quite a different kind of warfare, but with
an enthusiasm not to be outdone by the newer cause. With drum,
tambourines, singing and prayers they tried to draw an audience from
the stream of the promenade to listen to appeals in behalf of starving
women and children _ter hell wid you_ in alleys, areas and cellars
within a quarter of a mile of the scene of all this patriotic
extravagance. The appeals of the Salvation soldiers were earnest and
pathetic, but their cause was no novelty and had lost its effect by a
monotony of iteration and reiteration, and the victims of abuse and
neglect that the army sought to rescue were too near to the feet of the
crowd to be seen and pitied. A few small coins, principally from
visiting countrymen, were collected, but scarcely enough, it seemed,
to support the commissariat of the army itself. The protests of the
speakers corroborated this seeming. Here were exhibited, side by side,
expressions of far-away charity and near-to neglect of it; an
incomprehensible inconsistency; a contrast, indeed!

But this is not the contrast royal of our story, which furnishes us
with our text. We were yet to witness an evidence of barbaric neglect
such as the bull ring does not engender and that even the cruelty of
the Dark Ages did not equal.

                     *      *      *      *      *

Our party had drifted with the crowd until nearly midnight, when we
turned toward Michigan Boulevard and the lake for quiet and fresh air.
We were full of the idea that Cuba would be made free, and proud of
America for realizing her destiny of being the pioneer in the vanguard
of progress toward universal freedom; but we were soon to be called
back to facts, and home realities, by a revelation of cruelest neglect
that must continue to haunt us until the possibility of such neglect
has ceased to exist. Under the shadow of the portal of the Pullman
Building, which serves as general offices of the Pullman's Palace Car
Company, we met an adventure that showed an appalling contrast to the
patriotic enthusiasm that blared in the thoroughfares we had just
quitted. We were arrested by the plaintive voice of a child in the
toils of a six-foot policeman.

"Please, mister," wailed the child, "lemme go. I didn't swipe none ov
dem cakes; 'twas me brudder and de odder kids dat swiped 'em; I ain't
done nothin', and I won't do nothin' no more if you'll only let me
slide; I won't never come out annudder night--honest I won't--if
you'll let me go. Me brudder an' de udder kids'll go home widout me
an' I don't know de way. Please, mister cop, lemme go; please!
please!!--"

The child could not have been more than four years of age, but his
small vocabulary was as full of the slang of the slums as it was
deficient in the terms of childhood and innocence. The policeman was
kindly disposed, but felt compelled to administer some sort of
correction, and this is how he did it: His reproof was well meant, but
oh! how evil was it in its suggestions to a soul just receiving its
first impressions of life, and of the world, out of which to build a
character.

"What's the use of your lyin' to me, yer little monkey? You know
you're a thief and the kid of thieves. The gang you trains wid is the
toughest in town. Every mother's brat of you'll deckerate a halter one
of those days--sooner or later anyhow, an' probably sooner. You're
born to it an' can't help it, I s'pose, but if I catches yer 'round
here again I'll thump yer on the head wid my club and you'll find
that'll hurt wurser'n a lickin'.--Where does yer live, anyhow?"

The child answered, giving an indefinite address on the West Side that
was undoubtedly false, as charged by the officer, but which was as
glibly given as a parrot's favorite phrase.

"Oh! I knows you're a-lyin,' but I knows yer gang just the same; it's
the rottenist in the city and turns out more thieves and murderers
than all the rest of town put together. Well! yer h'aint got much show
to be different; and, (turning to us, who had stopped to listen)--I
don't s'pose the kid's ter blame for doin' what all the people he
knows does all the time and thinks it's workin.' I s'pose his father
and mother sends him out to steal; that is, if he's got a
father--which 'aint likely. There's a gang of about fifty of 'em that
works my beat and durin' these excitin' times when there's big crowds
on the streets and plenty of hayseeds in town they give a pile of
trouble. They hangs around and swipes anything they can get hold of.
The little rascals knows that we 'aint got no place to jug 'em 'cept
in the regler coolers and as there 'aint no more'n enough room in them
for the big crooks we has to let 'em go, and the little cusses knows