Spirit of youth and city streets 1915 jane addams

LIBRARY

Agriciûral College.
VOL...^..SLl.'?
C LA^' NO
I..

DATE

.

.,..:::...:...

3 .^^ 7 J1«L 9- -

COST
ST.

<^^
"^.

,%

.

/:, 50

/
J

19/4.

i-î-.-fA:.!.,

/*

/^

A.

%

o?> ô'^t^'
HQ

hbl,stx
Spirit of

3

youth and the

796.A3

city stree

T1S3 DD713flEb

fi

>

This bo'

onh^

am

a day

ti

indicate
'

* T7

or
L

THE

SPIRIT OF

YOUTH AND

THE CITY STREETS

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK

BOSTON CHICAGO
SAN FRANCISCO
•

•

MACMILLAN &
LONDON

•

CO., Limited
BOMBAY CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE
•

THE MACMILLAN

CO.

OF CANADA. Ltd

TORONTO

THE

SPIRIT

OF YOUTH

AND THE CITY STREETS

By

JANE ADDAMS
HULL HOUSE, CHICAGO
Author of Democracy and Social Ethics
Newer Ideals of Peace, etc.

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1915
AU rights reserved

Copyright, 1909,

By

the MACMILLAN COMPANY,

Set up and electrotyped. Published October, 1909. Reprinted
November, December, 1909. Januarj', April, July, November,
February, 1912; February, 1914; July,
1910 December, 1911
;

:

;

1915.

l<

^If

NottoooD iBress:

Berwick

&

Smith Co., Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.

TO MY DEAR FRIEND
JLonifit

tit

Hobm Botoen

WITH SINCERE ADMIRATION FOR HER UNDERSTANDING
OF THE NEEDS OF CITY CHILDREN AND WITH WARM
APPRECIATION OF HER SERVICE AS PRESIDENT
OF THE JUVENILE PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION OF CHICAGO

CONTENTS
CHAPTEE

I

Youth in the City

3

CHAPTEE

II

The Wrecked Foundations of Domesticity

CHAPTEE

25

III

The Quest for Adventure

51

CHAPTEE IV
The House of Dreams

75

CHAPTEE V
107

Youth in Industry

CHAPTEE VI
The Thirst for Eighteousness

139

FOREWORD
Much of the material in the following pages
has appeared in current publications. It is here
presented in book form in the hope that it may
prove of value to those groups of people who in
many cities are making a gallant effort to minimize the dangers which surround young people and to provide them with opportunities for
recreation.

CHAPTER

I

YOUTH IN THE CITY
Nothing

is

more certain than that each gen-

eration longs for a reassurance as to the value

and charm of
it lose its
is

life,

and

secretly afraid lest

why

its

and

poets

so passionately

it

who have been

artists

and

explore for themselves

able to

This

sense of the youth of the earth.

doubtless one reason

cherishes

is

to others the perpetual

reveal

to

springs of life's self-

renewal.

And

man

yet the average

cannot obtain this

desired reassurance through literature, nor yet

through glimpses of earth and sky.

come

to

It

can

him only through the chance embodi-

ment of joy and youth which
throw in his way.
the mass of

men

itself

may

It is doubtless true that for

the message

is

challenged and so invincible as
in youth itself.

life

when embodied

One generation

has depended upon

its

young
3

never so un-

after another

to equip

it

with

YOUTH AND THE CITY STEEETS

4

gaiety and enthusiasm, to persuade

ing

that liv-

men everywhere have

a pleasure, until

is

it

anxiously provided channels through which this

wine of

might

life

their delight.

The

and be preserved for

flow,

classical city

promoted play

with careful solicitude, building the theater and

stadium as
temple.

it

built the

market place and the

The Greeks held

tegral a part of religion

their

games

so

in-

and patriotism that

they came to expect from their poets the highest
utterances at the very

moments when the sense

of pleasure released the national

In the

life.

medieval city the knights held their tourneys,
the

guilds

dances,

the

pageants,

their

and the church made

people

festival for its

their

most

cherished saints with gay street processions, and
presented a drama in which no

less

a theme

than the history of creation became a matter of
thrilling interest.

men

Only

concluded that

it is

in the

modem

city

have

no longer necessary for

the municipality to provide for the insatiable
desire for play.

upon

a most
this

In so far as they have acted

this conclusion,

at

difficult

the

they have entered upon

and dangerous experiment; and

very moment when the city has

YOUTH IN THE CITY
become

and daily labor

distinctly industrial,

continually

is

We

divided.

and

sub-

modern

city

monotonous

more

forget

5

how new

the

and how short the span of time in which

is,

we have assumed

that

we can

eliminate public

provision for recreation.

A

further difficulty

lies

in the fact that this

industrialism has gathered together multitudes

of eager

young creatures from

all

quarters of

the earth as a labor supply for the countless

and workshops, upon which the pres-

factories

ent industrial city
civilization

is

based.

Never before

have such numbers of young

in

girls

been suddenly released from the protection of
the

home and permitted

upon

city

streets

and

to

to

walk unattended

work under

alien

roofs; for the first time they are being prized

more for

their

labor

power than

for

their

innocence, their tender beauty, their ephemeral

Society cares more for the products

gaiety.

they manufacture than for their immemorial
ability

to

reaffirm

the

charm of

existence.

Never before have such numbers of young boys
earned money independently of the family

and

felt

themselves free to spend

it

life,

as they

—
YOUTH AND THE CITY STREETS

6

choose in the midst of vice deliberately disguised as pleasure.

This stupid experiment of organizing

and

failing to organize play has,

brought about a

when

pleasure will not be denied, and

turned into

all sorts

of course,

The love of

revenge.

fine

of malignant

We

measures.
fountain
these

itself

we

grow quite

dam up

the sweet

are affrighted

almost

but

streams;

neglected

has

of restrictive

all sorts

even try to
because

it

and vicious

appetites, then we, the middle aged,

distracted and resort to

work

by

worse

than the restrictive measures

is

belief that the city itself has

no obligation in

the

matter,

modern

our apparent

an assumption upon which the

city turns over to

commercialism prac-

tically all the provisions for public recreation.

Quite as one set of

young people

into

men has

industrial

order to profit from their
of

men and

also of

women,

have entered the neglected

toil,

I

organized the
enterprises

in

so another set

am

sorry to say,

field of

recreation

and have organized enterprises which make
profit out of this invincible love of pleasure.

In

every

city

arise

so-called

**

places''

YOUTH IN THE CITT
**

gin-palaces, "

in

they

we

Chicago

are

allay

gaiety,

but,

thirst,

Huge

pockets.

dance

fiction;

merely

dispensed, not

is

ostensibly

really

sold

is

it

in

say

called

euphemistically

''places,''— in which alcohol
to

7

in

halls

stimulate

to

order
are

empty

to

opened

to

which hundreds of young people are attracted,

many

of

circle,

within

whom

for
it

it

stand wistfully outside a roped
requires

cents

five

ment and intoxication which
innocent

procure

to

for five minutes the sense of allure-

pleasure.

These

is

sold in lieu of

coarse

and

illicit

merrymakings remind one of the unrestrained
Restoration London, and they are

jollities of

indeed their direct descendants, properly commercialized,

still

confusing joy with

gaiety with debauchery.

lust,

and

Since the soldiers of

Cromwell shut up the people's playhouses and
destroyed

Saxon

their

pleasure

fields,

the

Anglo-

city has turned over the provision for

public recreation to the most evil-minded and

the most unscrupulous

munity.

We

see

up and down the

members

thousands of
streets

of the comgirls

walking

on a pleasant evening

with no chance to catch a sight of pleasure


8

even through a lighted window, save as these
lurid places provide

Apparently the mod-

it.

ern city sees in these girls only two possibilities,

both of them commercial:

to utilize

power

by day

their

first,

new and

a chance

tender labor

and shops, and then an-

in its factories

other chance in the evening to extract from

them

their petty

wages by pandering

to their

love of pleasure.

As

these overworked girls stream along the

us see only the self-conscious

street, the rest of

walk,

the

clothing.
its

the preposterous

giggling speech,

And

yet through the huge hat, with

wilderness of bedraggled feathers, the girl

announces to the world that she

is

here.

She

demands attention

to the fact of her existence,

she states that she

is

in

ready to

human development

assertion that he
being,

make

live, to

take her

The most precious moment

place in the world.

is

is

the

young creature's

unlike any other

human

and has an individual contribution
to the world.

established type

is

to

The variation from the
at the root of all change,

the only possible basis for progress,

all

that

YOUTH IN THE CITY
keeps

life

9

from growing unprofitably

and

stale

repetitions.

only the artists

Is it

yonng creatures
are themselves
Is

as they

who really see these
are— the artists who

endowed with immortal youth?

our disregard of the

it

artist's

message

which makes us so blind and so stupid, or are

we

under the influence of our Zeitgeist that

so

we can
young

detect only commercial values in the
as well as in the old?

our

It is as if

eyes were holden to the mystic beauty, the

redemptive joy, the civic pride which these
multitudes of young people might supply to

our dingy towns.

The young creatures themselves piteously
look

all

about them in order to find an ade-

quate means of expression for their most precious message

came

to

:

One day

young man

a serious

Hull-House with his pretty young

ter who, he explained,

every single evening,

wanted

*'

to go

somewhere

although she could only

give the flimsy excuse that the flat
little

and too

cult role

of

stuffy to stay in."

elder brother, he

best, stating that

sis-

was too

In the

had done

he had taken her

diffi-

his

*'to all the


10

missions in the neighborhood, that she had had

a chance to listen to some awful good sermons

and

to

some elegant hymns, but that some way

she did not seem to care for the society of the
best

Christian

The

people.''

reddened painfully under

and could

offer

sister

little

this cruel indictment

no word of excuse, but a

ous thing happened to me.

Perhaps

it

curi-

was the

phrase **the best Christian people," perhaps

it

was the delicate color of her flushing cheeks
and her swimming eyes, but certain it is, that

my

instantly

and vividly there appeared

mind the

delicately tinted piece of wall in a

Eoman catacomb where

to

the early Christians,

through a dozen devices of spring flowers,
skipping lambs and a shepherd tenderly guiding the young, had indelibly written
the Christian message
joy.

Who

is

is

down

that

one of inexpressible

responsible for forgetting this

message delivered by the *'best Christian peo-

Who

ple" two thousand years ago?
that the lambs, the
so caught

But

little

is

to

blame

ewe lambs, have been

upon the brambles?

quite

as the

modern

most valuable moment

city wastes this

in the life of the girl,

H

YOUTH IN THE CITY
and drives

into all sorts of absurd

and obscure

expressions her love and yearning towards the

world in which she forecasts her destiny, so

it

often drives the boy into gambling and drink-

ing in order to find his adventure.

Of Lincoln's enlistment of two and a half

number were under

million soldiers, a very large

twenty-one, some of them under eighteen, and
still

Even

others were mere children under fifteen.
those stirring times

in

and high
sponded

resolve were at the flood,

as

who

no one

over them,

no one

re-

who refused

to shoot the

slept the sleep of childhood, knew,

else

of which his

patriotism

and the great soul

as did ''the boys,"

who yearned
sentinels

when

knew, the precious glowing stuff

army was made.

millions of boys

who

are

now

venturous action, longing to

But what

of the

searching for ad-

fulfil

the same high

purpose 1

One of the most pathetic
dance halls of Chicago

is

sights in the public

the

number

of

young

men, obviously honest young fellows from the
country, who stand about vainly hoping to
make the acquaintance of some *'nice girl."
They look eagerly up and down the rows of


12
girls,

many

of

whom

are

drawn

by

to the hall

the same keen desire for pleasure and social
intercourse which the lonely

young men them-

selves feel.

One Sunday night

had

at twelve o'clock I

occasion to go into a large public dance hall.

As

I

girl

was standing by the
I

had come

proached

me and

to

find,

rail

looking for the

a young

quite simply asked

man
me to

apin-

troduce him to some ''nice girl," saying that

he did not know any one there.

On my

replying

that a public dance hall was not the best place
in

which

I don't

to look for a nice girl, he said

know any

girl.

awfully lonesome since I came to

halls in

come here!

town."

loneliness" that

It's

is

I'm

''Some

one of the best

He was voicing the "bitter
many city men remember to

have experienced during the

first

they had "come up to town."
the right sort of

But

Chicago."

then he added rather defiantly:

nice girls do

'

other place where there

a chance to meet any kind of a

And

'
:

man and

in these dance halls

girl

years after
Occasionally

meet each other

and the romance with such

a tawdry beginning ends happily and respect-

YOUTH IN THE CITY

But, unfortunately, mingled with the

ably.

respectable

young men seeking

acquaintance of
channel which

young
girls

13

form the

to

young women through the only
is

many
among the

available to them, are

fellows of evil purpose, and

who have

houses or rigid
likewise

left

women who

lonely

their

homes for a

*'

boarding
fling" are

little

openly desire to

make

young men whom they meet,

money from

the

and back of

it all is

sale of intoxicating

the desire to profit

by the

and ''doctored" drinks.

Perhaps never before have the pleasures of
the

young and mature become

separated as in the modern

dance halls
sible

filled

city.

so

definitely

The public

with frivolous and irrespon-

young people

in a feverish search for

pleasure, are but a sorry substitute for the old

dances on the village green in which

all

of

the older people of the village participated.

Chaperonage was not then a

social

duty but

natural and inevitable, and the whole courtship period

was guarded by the conventions

and restraint which were taken as a matter of
course and had developed through years of
publicity

and simple propriety.


14

The only marvel
to put

the

life into

new

that the stupid attempt

is

wine of traditional country-

the fine old

bottles of the

modern town

does not lead to disaster oftener than

and that the wine

it

does,

and

so long remains pure

sparkling.

We

cannot afford to be ungenerous to the

city in

which we

live

without suffering the

penalty which lack of fair interpretation

know

al-

ways

entails.

in

weakness and wickedness, and then seek

its

to rectify
least

Let us

and purify

it

until

modern

the

it

city

shall be free at

from the grosser temptations which now

young people who are

living in its

tenement houses and working in

its factories.

beset the

The mass of these young people are possessed
of good intentions and they ar« equipped with
a certain understanding of city
self

could be

made

life.

This

it-

a most valuable social in-

strument toward securing innocent recreation

and better

social organization.

They are

ready serving the city in so far as

combed with mutual

benefit

it is

al-

honey-

societies,

with

''pleasure clubs,'' with organizations connected

with churches and factories which are

filling

YOUTH IN THE CITY
a genuine social need.

And

15

yet the whole ap-

paratus for supplying pleasure

is

wretchedly

inadequate and full of danger to whomsoever

may approach

Who

it.

is

inadequacy and dangers?

responsible for

We

who have come

expect the fathers and mothers
to the city

from farms or who have emigrated

from other lands
dangers.

its

certainly cannot

We

to appreciate or rectify these

cannot expect the young people

themselves to cling to conventions which are
totally unsuited to

modern

city conditions, nor

yet to be equal to the task of forming

new

conventions through which this more agglomerate social life

may

we cannot hope

that they will understand the

express

itself.

Above

all

emotional force which seizes them and which,

when

it

does not find the traditional line of

domesticity, serves as a cancer in the very
tissues of society

and as a disrupter of the

securest social bonds.

No attempt

treat the manifestations of this
instinct with dignity or to give
cial utility.

The spontaneous

for pleasure, the desire of the

appear

finer

is

made

to

fundamental
it

possible so-

joy, the clamor

young people

to

and better and altogether more

16


lovely than they really are, the idealization not

only

of

but of the whole earth

each other

which they regard but as a theater for

their

noble exploits, the unworldly ambitions, the

romantic hopes,

which they

the

live,

if

might they not do

more

beautiful,

to

world

make-believe

in

properly utilized, what

make our

sordid cities

more companionable ?

And

yet

moment every city is full of
young people who are utterly bewildered and
at the present

uninstructed in regard to the basic experience

which must inevitably come

to them,

and which

has varied, remote, and indirect expressions.

Even

who may not agree with the
who claim that it is this funda-

those

authorities

mental sex susceptibility which suffuses the

world with

its

deepest meaning and beauty,

and furnishes the momentum towards
will perhaps permit

me

all art,

to quote the classical

expression of this view as set forth in that
ancient and wonderful conversation between

Socrates and the wise
tes asks:

woman

Diotima.

Socra-

**What are they doing who show

this eagerness

And what

is

and heat which

is

all

called love?

the object they have in view?

YOUTH IN THE CITY
Answer
you.

me.''

Diotima replies:

17

*'I will

The object which they have

in

teach

view

birth in beauty, whether of body or soul.

For

.

is
.

.

not as you imagine the love

love, Socrates, is

.... but

of the beautiful only

the love of birth

in beauty, because to the mortal creature gen-

eration

is

a sort of eternity and immortality."

To emphasize the
is

we

eternal

aspects

of love

not of course an easy undertaking, even

if

follow the clue afforded by the heart of

every generous lover.
in certain

His experience at

moments tends

to pull

least

him on and

out from the passion for one to an enthusiasm
for that highest beauty

the most perfect form
pression

.

Even

the

and excellence of which
is

but an inadequate ex-

most loutish tenement-

house youth vaguely feels

this,

rare intervals reveals

in

''girl."

at least at

talk

his

to

his

His memory unexpectedly brings hid-

den treasures

and he

it

and

to the surface of consciousness

recalls the

more

delicate

and tender

experiences of his childhood and earlier youth.
*'I

remember the time when

my

little

sister

died, that I rode out to the cemetery feeling

that everybody in Chicago had
2

moved away


18

from the town
funeral,

and yet

make room

to

for that kid's

everything was so darned lonesome
it

was kind of peaceful too."

Or, **I

never had a chance to go into the country when
I

was a

had

kid, but I

Side, that I

Park.

I

remember one day when

I

package way out on the West

to deliver a

saw a

flock of sheep in

Douglas

had never thought that a sheep could

be anywhere but in a picture, and

when

I

saw

those big white spots on the green grass be-

ginning to move and to turn into sheep, I
exactly as

if

frame over the organ and was walking
park.

'

'

felt

Saint Cecilia had come out of her

Such moments come into the

life

in the

of the

most prosaic youth living in the most crowded
quarters of the

courage and

to

make them come
give

solidify

not only

those

to en-

moments,

to

true in our dingy towns, to

them expression

We

What do we do

cities.

in

fail

in

forms of art?
this

undertaking but

even debase existing forms of

art.

We

informed by high authority that there

is

are
no-

thing in the environment to which youth so

keenly responds

as

streets, the vaudeville

to

music,

and yet the

shows, the five-cent the-

YOUTH IN THE CITY

19

aters are full of the

most blatant and vulgar

The

and obscene words, the

songs.

trivial

meaningless and flippant airs run through the

heads of hundreds of young people for hours

engaged

at a time while they are

We

factory work.

in

monotonous

totally ignore that ancient

connection between music and morals which

was

so long insisted

well as poets.

The

broken away from

upon by philosophers as
street
all

music has quite
both of the

control,

educator and the patriot, and

we have grown

singularly careless in regard to

upon young
against

it

people.

its

influence

Although we

legislate

in saloons because of its dangerous

influence there,

we

constantly permit music on

the street to incite that which should be controlled, to

to

degrade that which should be exalted,

make sensuous that which might be

lifted into

the realm of the higher imagination.

Our

attitude towards music

carelessness

make

for

towards

all

common joy ^nd

is

those

typical of our

things

for the restraints of

higher civilization on the streets.

our

cities

which

It is as if

had not yet developed a sense of

re-

sponsibility in regard to the life of the streets,


20

and

continually

that

forget

recreation

is

stronger than vice, and that recreation alone

can

stifle

the lust for vice.

Perhaps we need

whom

philosophy of the Greeks to
of fact

whom

was

page from the

to take a

the world

also the world of the ideal,

and

to

the realization of what ought to be, in-

volved not the destruction of what was, but

merely

its

perfecting upon

its

own

To

lines.

the Greeks virtue was not a hard conformity

law

to a

felt as alien to the

natural character,

but a free expression of the inner
treat

thus the fundamental susceptibility of

which now

sex

bewilders

so

the

street

and drives young people themselves
sorts

of

would mean

difficulties,

from the things of sense and
affairs of the imagination.
fit

To

life.

to this gross

and heavy

the mind, to scatter
of banality

from

it

It

to

life

into

loosen

all
it

to link it to the

would mean

stuff the

wings of

''the clinging

and vulgarity," and

to

to

mud

speed

it

on through our city streets amid spontaneous
laughter, snatches of lyric song, the recovered

forms of old dances, and the traditional rondels
of

merry games.

It

would thus bring charm

YOUTH IN THE CITY
and beauty

to

the

prosaic

it

subtly with the

as

with the vigor and

future.

arts

city

of the

renewed

21

and connect
past as
life

well

of the

CHAPTER II
THE WRECKED FOUNDATIONS
OF DOMESTICITY

CHAPTER n
THE WRECKED FOUNDATIONS OF
DOMESTICITY
*'

Sense with keenest edge unused

Yet unsteel'd by scathing

fire:

Lovely feet as yet unbruised
On the ways of dark desire!'*

These words written by a poet to his young
son express the longing which has at times
seized all of us, to guard youth

may

of difficulties which

from the mass

be traced to the ob-

scure manifestation of that fundamental susceptibility of

which we are

all

slow to speak

and concerning which we evade public responsibility,

although

it

brings

its

scores of victims

into the police courts every morning.
At the very outset we must bear in mind that

the senses of youth are singularly acute, and

ready to respond to every vivid appeal. We
know that nature herself has sharpened the
senses for her

own

purposes, and
S5

is

deliber-

—


26

them

ately establishing a connection between

and the newly awakened
for

susceptibility of sex;

only through the outward senses that

it is

the selection of an individual mate

is

made and

the instinct utilized for nature's purposes.

would seem, however, that nature was

It

deter-

mined that the force and constancy of the
stinct

must make up for

and that she was

totally

its

unconcerned that

instinct ruthlessly seized the

when he was

least

this

youth at the moment

prepared to cope with

it

;

only because his powers of self-control and
crimination are unequal to
his

senses

world.

are

'the task,

helplessly

not
dis-

but because

wide open to the

These early manifestations of the sex

susceptibility are for the

formless,

most part vague and

and are absolutely without

to the youth himself.

definition

Sometimes months and

years elapse before the individual mate
lected

in-

lack of precision,

is

se-

and determined upon, and during the

time

when

and

it

the differentiation

often

is

not

— there

is
is

not complete
of necessity a

great deal of groping and waste.

This period of groping
fact that the youth's

is

complicated by the

power for appreciating

WEECKED FOUNDATIONS
is

27

inner

obstructs

fairly

traffic

rent," and

it

is

nothing short of cruelty to

This period

city.

is

seems at times as
increased

liberately

difficult
if

gaudy and

its

sensual,

modern

everywhere, but

a great city almost deperils.

awakened senses are appealed
is

The

'

outer cur-

the

over-stimulate his senses as does the

it

*

far ahead of his ability for expression.

to

The newly
by

that

all

by the flippant

street

music, the highly colored theater posters, the

trashy love stories, the feathered

the

hats,

cheap heroics of the revolvers displayed in the

pawn-shop windows.
ceptibility

ponding

the result
told

is

stir
is

This fundamental sus-

thus evoked without a corres-

as dangerous as possible.

upon good authority that

nation

is

and

of the higher imagination,

retarded,

''If the

We

are

imagi-

while the senses remain

awake, we have a state of esthetic insensibil-

ity,"— in other words, the senses become sod-

den and cannot be
is

this

state

lifted

from the ground.

of "esthetic insensibility"

which we allow the youth
distressing

and

to fall

so unjustifiable.

then becomes merely a

which

It

into
is

so

Sex impulse

dumb and powerful

in-


28

stinct without in the least

awakening the im-

agination or the heart, nor does

overflow

it

into neighboring fields of consciousness.

Every

hundreds of degenerates who

contains

city

have been over-mastered and borne down by
it;

they

fill

infirmaries.

men

the casual lodging houses and the

In

Warner,

social scale.

designates

ties,

making

many

instances

and promise

of ability

it

for failure

to the

in his

has pushed

it

bottom of the

American Chari-

as one of the steady forces

and poverty, and contends

that ''the inherent uncleanness of their minds

prevents

many men from

rising above the

of day laborers and finally incapacitates

He

even for that position."
the

modern man has

than the

man

of a

It is difficult to state

tress

might be averted
its

historic paths.

them

also suggests that

a stronger imagination

few hundred years ago and

that sensuality destroys

utilized in

rank

him the more

how much
if

rapidly.

and

evil

dis-

the imagination were

higher capacities through the

An

English moralist has lately

asserted that ''much of the evil of the time

be traced to outraged imagination.
strongest quality of the brain and

it is

may

It is the

starved.

WKECKED FOUNDATIONS

29

Children, from their earliest years, are hedged

with facts

in

they are not trained to use their

;

minds on the unseen."
In failing to diffuse and utilize this funda-

mental instinct of sex through the imagination,

we

not only inadvertently foster vice and en-

we throw away one

ervation, but

of the most

precious implements for ministering to

There

highest needs.

is

no doubt that

life's

this

ill

adjusted function consumes quite unnecessavast stores of vital energy,

rily

we contemplate
which

tions

than the

it

are

in its

infinitely

dumb swamping

school boy and girl

even when

immature manifesta-

more wholesome

process.

knows the

Every high

difference be-

tween the concentration and the diffusion of
impulse, although they would be hope-

this

lessly

bewildered by the use

They

will declare one of their

be "in love"

if

his

fancy

is

of

terms.

the

companions to

occupied by the

image of a single person about

whom

all

newly found values gather, and without
his solitude

the

is

stimulus

an eternal melancholy.
does not appear as

a

the

whom
But

if

definite

image, and the values evoked are dispensed

YOUTH AND THE CITY

30

iSTEEETS

over the world, the young person suddenly

seems to have discovered a beauty and
cance in

many

signifi-

things— he responds to poetry,

he becomes a lover of nature, he

is filled

with

religious devotion or with philanthropic zeal.

Experience, with young people,
trates the possibility

and value of

It is neither a short

is

to place the

not this the

tion

which

generation

if

diffusion.

beauty for mere de-

mind above

sum

rests

illus-

nor an easy undertaking

to substitute the love of
sire,

easily

the senses; but

of the immemorial obliga-

upon the adults

of

each

they would nurture and restrain

the youth, and has not the whole history of
civilization

been but one long

effort

to sub-

stitute psychic impulsion for the driving force

of blind appetite?

Society has recognized the ^'imitative play"

impulse of children and provides them with
^^

build a house," and

upon which they may

lavish their tender-

tiny bricks with which to
dolls
ness.

We

exalt the love of the

stability of the

mother and the

home, but in regard

to those

difficult

years between childhood and maturity

we beg

the question and unless

we

repress,

we

WEECKED FOUNDATIONS
do nothing.

We

are so timid and inconsistent

we

that although

31

declare the

home

to be the

foundation of society, we do nothing to direct
the force

upon which the continuity of the

home depends.

And

for years in a

crowded quarter where men,

women and

yet to one

who has

constantly

children

jostle

lived

each

other and press upon every inch of space in
shop,

tenement and

street,

nothing

is

more

impressive than the strength, the continuity,
the

varied

and powerful manifestations, of

family affection.

It

goes without saying that

every tenement house contains
years spend

food

women who

for

their hurried days in preparing

and clothing and pass their

sleepless

nights in tending and nursing their exigent
children,

with never one thought for their

own comfort or pleasure or development save
as these may be connected with the future of
their families.
We all know as a matter of
course that every shop

is

crowded with work-

ingmen who year after year spend

all

of their

wages upon the nurture and education of

their

children, reserving for themselves but the shab-

32


biest

clothing

and a crowded place

the

at

family table.

''Bad weather for you to be out in/' you

remark on a February evening,
S.

freezing

without

it

you meet

hobbling home through the

rheumatic Mr.
sleet

as

an overcoat.

''Yes,

bad," he assents: "but I've walked to

is

work

all this last

boy back

year.

We've

to high school,

sent the oldest

you know," and he

moves on with no thought that he

doing

is

other than fulfilling the ordinary lot of the

ordinary man.
These are the familiar and the constant manifestations

family

of

intimate a part of

life

which

affection

that

we

are

so

scarcely observe

them.
In addition to these

we

find peculiar mani-

festations of family devotion exemplifying that

touching affection which rises to unusual sacrifice

because

"My
Italy.

and

it

is

close to pity

and feebleness.

cousin and his family had to go back to

He

got to Ellis Island with his wife

five children,

but they wouldn't

feeble-minded boy, so of course they

let in
all

the

went

WEECKED FOUNDATIONS

My

back with him.

33

cousin was fearful dis-

appointed.''

''These

Or,

mother, were
Kishinef.

I

wife,

his

up

me

to

when Tim was

my

right to take care

all

my own."
my

would on

children belong to
after

and

father

and I'd no more go back on them

have seven children of

died

my

my

of

children

five

done for in the bad time at

all

It's

of the kids,

I

the

He and

brother.

than

are

born.

my

husband.

Or, again:

sister,

I

My

own.

"Yes,

husband

The other three

who

died the year

get on pretty well.

I

scrub in a factory every night from six to
twelve, and I go out washing four days a week.

So far the children have

all

gone through the

grade before they quit school," she

eighth

concludes,

beaming with pride and

That wonderful devotion
at times, in the

joy.

to the child

seems

midst of our stupid social and

industrial arrangements, all that keeps society

human, the touch of nature which unites
as

it

lifted

The

was that

same

out

the

it

devotion

evitable
3

of
to

conclusion

the
of

which

devotion

it,

first

swamp

of

bestiality.

child

is

"the

the

in-

two premises of


34

man

the practical syllogism, the devotion of

woman.''

to

force which

It

of course, this tremendous

is,

makes

bond which holds

possible the family, that

society together

and blends

the experience of generations into a contin-

uous story.

The family has been

called *'the

fountain of morality," "the source of law,"
''the

necessary prelude to the state"

but while

it is

itself;

continuous historically, this dual

bond must be made anew a myriad times

in

each generation, and the forces upon which
its

formation depend must be powerful and

unerring.
it

It

to a force

would be too great a risk

to leave

whose manifestations are

mittent and uncertain.

The desired

inter-

result is

and fundamental.
One Sunday evening an excited young man

too grave

came

to see me, saying that he

vice;

some one must

do, as his wife

tell

him

was in the

must have ad-

at once

what

to

state's prison serv-

ing a sentence for a crime which he himself

had committed.
before,

He had

seen her the

day

and though she had been there only a

month he was convinced that she was developing consumption.
She was "only seventeen,

WEECKED FOUNDATIONS

35

and couldn't stand the hard work and the
'low down' women" whom she had for com-

My

panions.

remark that a

was too young

girl of

seventeen

to be in the state penitentiary

brought out the whole wretched story.

He had been

unsteady for

many

years and

the despair of his thoroughly respectable fam-

who had

ily

sent

him West the year

In Arkansas he had

His mother was far

sixteen and married her.

from pleased, but had

finally sent

him money

to bring his bride to Chicago, in the

he might

before.

fallen in love with a girl of

settle there.

En

hope that

route they stopped

at a small

town for the naive reason that he

wanted

have an aching tooth pulled.

to

the tooth gave
to

him an

But

excellent opportunity

have a drink, and before he reached the
of the country practitioner he

office

As they passed through

toxicated.

he

bule

stole

although the
to

let

carried

the

it

little

alone.

it

an

overcoat

in-

the vesti-

hanging

there,

wife piteously begged him

Out of sheer bravado he

across his

street,

was

arm

as they

walked down

and was, of course, immediately

arrested ''with the goods

upon him." In sheer


36

from her husband,

terror of being separated

the wife insisted that she had been an accom-

and together they were put

plice,

county

jail

Jury.

At

the

into

Grand

awaiting the action of the

the end of the sixth week, on one

of the rare occasions

when they were permitted

to talk to each other through the grating

which

separated the men's visiting quarters from the

women's, the young wife told her husband
that she

had
if

made up her mind

to

swear that she

What

stolen the overcoat.

could she do

he were sent to prison and she were

She was afraid to go

free?

left

and

to his people

could not possibly go back to hers.

In spite

of his protest, that very night she sent for the
state's

attorney and

made

a full confession,

giving her age as eighteen in the hope of mak-

ing her testimony more valuable.

time on they stuck to the
indictment,

Apparently

the
it

trial

lie

and

had seemed

to

her

From

that

through the
conviction.

him only a

well-

arranged plot until he had visited the penitentiary the

day before, and had

piteous plight.
last,

Remorse had

and he was ready

to

really seen her

seized

make every

him

at

restitu-

WBECKED FOUNDATIONS
She, however,

tion.

up— on

the

more determined

Her

letters,

had no notion of giving
as she realized more

contrary,

what prison

clearly

37

life

meant, she was daily

him the experience.
the unformed hand of

to spare

written in

a child— for her husband had himself taught

her to read and write— were

filled

with a riot

of self-abnegation, the martyr's joy as he feels

the iron enter the

flesh.

Thus had an

neglected girl through sheer
worthless

sort

of

devotion to

young fellow

entered into

drink,

illiterate,

that noble

a

inclined

to

company

of

martyrs.

When

How

girls

'*go

wrong" what happens?

has this tremendous force, valuable and

necessary for the foundation of the family, be-

come misdirected?

When

its

manifestations

follow the legitimate channels of

we

call

wedded

life

them praiseworthy but there are other
;

manifestations

quite

outside

the

legal

and

moral channels which yet compel our admiration.

A

young woman of

married

my

acquaintance was

to a professional criminal

named

Joe.

Three months after the wedding he was ar-


3S

rested and '*sent

up"

for

Molly

two years.

had always been accustomed

to

many

lovers,

but she remained faithful to her absent hus-

band for a year.

At the end

of that time she

obtained a divorce which the state law makes
easy for the wife of a convict, and married a

man who was

"rich and respectable"— in fact,

he owned the small manufacturing establish-

ment

in

which her mother did the scrubbing.

He moved

his bride to another part of

away, provided her with a

six miles

*'

town

steam-

heated flat," furniture upholstered in *'cut

and many other luxuries of which

velvet,"

Molly heretofore had only dreamed.
as she

up

One day

was wheeling a handsome baby carriage

and

brother,

down the prosperous street, her
who was '* Joe's pal," came to tell

her that Joe was **out," had come to the old

tenement and was

'*

mighty sore" because "she

had gone back on him."

Without a moment's

hesitation Molly turned the

the direction of her old

wheeling
six miles.

and went

it

until she

baby carriage

in

home and never stopped

had compassed the

entire

She and Joe rented the old room
to housekeeping.

The

rich

and

re-

WRECKED FOUNDATIONS
made

husband

speetable

every

39
to

effort

persuade her to come back, and then another
series of efforts to recover his child, before
set

her free through a court proceeding.

however, steadfastly refused to marry her,
*'sore" because she had not

he

Joe,

'* stood by."

still

As

he worked only intermittently, and was too
supervised by

closely

at

old

his

the

occupation,

police

to

do

much

Molly was obliged to

support the humble menage by scrubbing in
a neighboring lodging house and by washing
''the

odd shirts" of the

born,

lodgers.

For

five

during which time two children were

years,

when

she was constantly subjected to

the taunts of her neighbors, and
charitable

agencies refused

to

when

all

the

help to

give

such an irregular household, Molly happily

went on her course with no shade of regret or
sorrow.

"I'm

all

right as long as Joe keeps

out of the jug," was her slogan of happiness,

low in tone, perhaps, but genuine and

Her surroundings were

'
'

game.

*
'

as sordid as possible,

consisting of a constantly changing series of

cheap

*'

furnished rooms" in which the bat-

tered baby carriage

was the

sole witness of


40

But Molly's heart was

better days.

courage

desolate until her criminal lover

up"

full

of

and happiness, and she was never

was

*'sent

again, this time on a really serious charge.

These irregular manifestations form a link

between that world

in

which each one struggles

to *'live respectable," and that nether world

which are

in

found cases of devotion and

also

of enduring affection arising out of the midst
of the

folly

who through
reant

and the shame.
all

girl

there

tribulation supports her rec-

or

''lover,"

The

the

girl

her drink and opium habits,

who overcomes
who renounces

luxuries and goes back to uninteresting daily
toil for

who

the sake of the good opinion of a

wishes her to

' *

appear decent,

'
'

man

although he

never means to marry her, these are also impressive.

One
had

to

of our earliest experiences at Hull-House

do with a lover of

charming young

girl

attached to him.
for

protection

I

this type

and the

who had become fatally
can see her now running

up the broad

steps

of

the

columned piazza then surrounding Hull-House.

Her

slender figure

was trembling with

fright,

WEECKED FOUNDATIONS

41

her tear-covered face swollen and bloodstained

from the blows he had dealt

me when

to abuse

he

is

''He

her.

is

apt

drunk," was the only

by way of apology,

explanation, and that given

which could be extracted from

When we

her.

discovered that there had been no marriage

ceremony, that there were no living children,

had twice narrowly escaped losing

that she

her

life, it

seemed a simple matter

the relation should be broken

She apa-

off.

remained at Hull-House for a few

thetically

weeks, but

when her strength had somewhat

when her

returned,

from

to insist that

his prolonged

began

lover

to

recover

debauch of whiskey and

opium, she insisted upon going home every

day

to

prepare his meals and to see that the

tenement was clean and comfortable be-

little

cause "Pierre

is

always so sick and weak after

one of those long ones."
that she

she

was

pulsion,
will

was drifting back
at last restrained

to him,

and when

by that moral com-

by that overwhelming of another's

which

those

This of course meant

who

is

always so ruthlessly exerted by

are conscious that virtue

is

strug-


42

gling with vice, her

mind gave way and she

became utterly distraught.

A poor little Ophelia,

I

met her one night wan-

dering in the hall half dressed in the tawdry

pink gown '^that Pierre liked best of all" and
groping on the blank wall to find the door

which might permit her to escape
In a few days
restraint

recovered
is

no

it

her lover.

to

was obvious that

hospital

was necessary, but when she

we were

civic

finally

obliged to admit that there

authority which can control the

From

acts of a girl of eighteen.

the hospital

she followed her heart directly back to Pierre,

who had

in the

meantime moved out of the

Hull-House neighborhood.

We

knew

he had degraded the poor child

by obliging her

to earn

money

later that

still

further

for his drugs by

that last method resorted to by a degenerate

man

to

whom

a

woman's devotion

It is inevitable that a force

enough

which

still clings.
is

enduring

to withstand the discouragements, the

suffering and privation of daily living, strenu-

ous

enough

to

impulses which

overcome

make

and

for greed

rectify

and

the

self-indul-

gence, should be able, even under untoward

WRECKED FOUNDATIONS
conditions, to

lift

are really within

marked contrast
ing a

up and transfigure those who
its grasp and set them in
or using

it

what has happened

Why

to these

are merely playit

But

for gain.

wretched girls?

has this beneficent current cast them

upon the shores
it

who

to those

game with

43

of death

and destruction when

should have carried them into the safe port

Through whose

of domesticity?

fault has this

basic emotion served merely to trick
ride

and

de-

them?

Older nations have taken a well defined line
of action in regard to

Among

it.

the Hull-House neighbors are

of the Latin races

who employ

many

a careful chap-

eronage over their marriageable daughters and
provide husbands for them at an early age.

''My father

will get

a husband for

me

this

winter," announces Angelina, whose father has

brought her to a party at Hull-House, and she

adds with a toss of her head, "I saw two
ready,

saved
feels

but

my

enough money
quite

dom and

as

content

ability

says

father

to

to
in

they

al-

haven't

marry me."

She

her father's wis-

provide

her

with

a


44

husband as she does
cort

home

her

capacity to

in his

safely

es-

He

from the party.

does not permit her to cross the threshold

unaccompanied by himself, and
dowry and the husband are provided

after nightfall

unless the

before she

is

eighteen he will consider himself

derelict in his

can't even

come

She

winter.

to the Sodality

lives only across

but her mother won't
father
a

out

is

"Francesca

duty towards her.

let

her come because her

West working on

comment one often
when it is

hears.

well only

meeting this

from the church
a railroad,"

is

The system works

carried logically through

end of an early marriage with a prop-

to the

erly-provided husband.

Even with
is

tried in

when

the Latin races,

America

it

when

the system

often breaks down, and

the Anglo-Saxons anywhere imitate this

regime

it

low the

is

first

repression

is

usually utterly futile.

They

fol-

part of the program as far as
concerned, but they find

it

im-

possible to follow the second because all sorts

of inherited notions deter them.
girl, if

she

is

The repressed

not one of the languishing type,

takes matters into her

own

hands, and finds her

WEECKED FOUNDATIONS
pleasures in

illicit

knowledge.

''I

45

ways, without her parents'

had no idea

going to public dances.

my

daughter was

She always told me she

was spending the night with her cousin on the
South Side.

many
officer

I

hadn't a suspicion of the truth,"

An

a broken-hearted mother explains.

who has had

a long experience in the

Juvenile Court of Chicago, and has listened to

hundreds of cases involving wayward
gives

it

as his

deliberate impression that

had been

a

from families where

large majority of cases are

the discipline

girls,

rigid,

where they had

taken but half of the convention of the Old

World and

left

the other half.

Unless we mean to go back to
World customs which are already

these Old

hopelessly

broken, there would seem to be but one path

open to us in America.

That path implies

freedom for the young people made safe only
through their own

self-control.

This, in turn,

must be based upon knowledge and habits of
clean

companionship.

In

course between the two
city,

and

in

the most

is

point

of

safe in a

fact

no

modern

crowded quarters the

young people themselves are working out a


46

protective code which reminds one of the instinctive protection that the free-ranging child

country learns in regard to poisonous

in the

plants and ''marshy places," or of the cautions

and

abilities that the

in regard to

ice

mountain child develops

and

This state-

precipices.

ment, of course, does not hold good concerning a large

number

city quarter
ates,

the

passed,

wrong"

who may be

children

mothers who
habits

of children in every

of

fall into

classed as degener-

careless
all

crowded

or

dissolute

sorts of degenerate

and associations before childhood

is

who cannot be said to have ''gone
at any one moment because they have

never been in the right path even of innocent
childhood; but the statement
ing thousands of girls

is

sound concern-

who go

to

and from

work every day with crowds of young men
who meet them again and again in the occasional evening pleasures of the more decent
dance halls or on a Sunday afternoon in the
parks.

The mothers who are of most use
normal city working

girls are the

to these

mothers who

develop a sense of companionship with the

WRECKED FOUNDATIONS

47

changing experiences of their daughters, who
are willing to modify ill-fitting social conventions into rules of conduct

which are of actual

service to their children in their daily lives of

work and

factory

of city amusements.

Those

mothers, through their sympathy and adapt-

for

activity

solemn warnings and restraint,
Their vigorous

self-expression for repression.

family

and

substitute keen present interests

ability,

life allies itself

by

a dozen bonds to the

educational, the industrial and the recreational

organizations of the

modern

and makes

city,

for intelligent understanding, industrial

effici-

ency and sane social pleasures.

By

all

means

let

us preserve the safety of

the home, but let us also
in

make

safe the street

which the majority of our young people

find their recreation

relationships.

Let

and form
not

us

great processes of social

life

their

permanent

forget

that

the

develop themselves

through influences of which each participant
is

unconscious as he struggles alone and un-

aided in the strength of a current which seizes

him and bears him along with myriads
others,

a current which

may

so

easily

the very foundations of domesticity.

of

wreck

CHAPTER III
THE QUEST FOB, ADVENTURE

CHAPTER

III

THE QUEST FOR ADVENTURE

A

certain

spirit of

number

upon the

of the outrages

youth may be traced to degenerate or

who

careless parents

totally neglect their re-

sponsibilities; a certain other large

wrongs are due

to sordid

number

of

men and women who

deliberately use the legitimate pleasure-seeking

of

young people

There

as lures into vice.

re-

mains, however, a third very large class of
offenses for

which the community as a whole

must be held responsible

if it

would escape the

condemnation, ''Woe unto him by
fenses come."

whom

This class of offenses

is

of-

trace-

able to a dense ignorance on the part of the

average

citizen

as

to

the

requirements

of

youth, and to a persistent blindness on the part
of educators as to youth's most obvious needs.

The young people are overborne by their

own

undirected and misguided energies.

mere temperamental outbreak
51

A

in a brief period


52

of obstreperousness exposes a promising boy to
arrest

and imprisonment, an accidental com-

bination

of

circumstances

and overwhelming

too

complicated

be coped with by an

to

immature mind, condemns a growing lad
criminal

may

for
tive

impulsive

to a

misdeeds

be thought of as dividing into two great

trends

two

These

career.

somewhat obscurely analogous

historic divisions of

we

are told that

man and even
may be

successors

to

the

man's motive power,

the activities of primi-

all

those of his more civilized

broadly traced to the im-

pulsion of two elemental appetites.

The

first

drove him to the search for food, the hunt
developing into war with neighboring tribes

and

finally

broadening into barter and modern

commerce; the second urged him

and protect a mate, developing
life,

to

secure

into domestic

widening into the building of homes and

cities,

into the cultivation of the arts

and a

care for beauty.

In the

when
action,

life

these

of each

primitive

when he

undefined power.

is

boy there comes a time
instincts

urge him to

himself frightened by their

He

is

faced by the necessity

of taming them, of reducing
able

impulses just at the

boy's will

is

them

to

manage-

moment when

*^a

the wind's will," or, in the words

when

of a veteran educator, at the time
is

53

'*it

almost impossible for an adult to realize the

boy's irresponsibility and even moral neuras-

That the boy often

thenia."

fails

may

be

traced in those pitiful figures which show that

between two and three times as much incorrigi-

between the ages of thirteen and

bility occurs

sixteen as at any other period of

The second

division

of motive

life.

power has
The

been treated in the preceding chapter.
present chapter

is

an

effort to point out the

necessity for an understanding of the
of motives

if

we would minimize

tions of the struggle

first

trend

the tempta-

and free the boy from the

constant sense of the stupidity and savagery
of

life.

To

civilization

set his feet in the
is

worn path

not an easy task, but

it

of

may

give us a clue for the undertaking to trace his

misdeeds to the unrecognized and primitive
spirit of

adventure corresponding to the old

activity of the hunt, of warfare,

covery.

and of

dis-


54

To do

intelligently,

this

remember

we

many boys

that

have to

shall

years

the

in

immediately following school find no restraint

They drop

either in tradition or character.

learning as a childish thing and look upon
school as a tiresome task that

demand
his own

is

finished.

They

who

earns

pleasure as the right of one

They have developed no capa-

living.

city for recreation

even muscular

demanding mental

skill,

effort or

and are obliged

to seek

only that depending upon sight, sound and
taste.

Many

their mothers,

can, that

of

They even

''losing a job,''

pay board

to

spend in

left to

bait the excitement of

and often provoke a foreman

only to see ''how

They are

to

more money may be

the evening.

if

them begin

and make the best bargain they

much he

stand."

will

constitutionally unable to enjoy any-

thing continuously and follow their vagrant
wills

unhindered.

Unfortunately

lends itself to this distraction.
is

difficult to

know what

At the

to select

to eliminate as objects of attention

thronged

the

city

best, it

and what

among

streets, its glittering shops, its

its

gaudy

advertisements of shows and amusements.

It

;

is

55

perhaps to the credit of niany city boys that

the very

first

puerile spirit of adventure look-

ing abroad in the world for material upon which
to exercise itself, seems to center about the

The impulse

railroad.

is

not unlike that which

excites the coast-dwelling lad to

"The
And

dream

of

beauty and mystery of the ships
the magic of the sea."

I cite here a

dozen charges upon which boys

were brought into the Juvenile Court of Chicago, all of which might be designated as deeds

A

of adventure.

surprising number, as the

reader will observe, are connected with
roads.

They are taken from the court records

and repeat the actual words used by
officers,

ents,

irate

when

judge.

police

neighbors, or discouraged par-

the boys were brought before the

(1)

Building

fires

tracks; (2) flagging trains

;

moving train windows;

at

rail-

along the railroad
(3)

throwing stones

(4) shooting at the

actors in the Olympic Theatre with sling shots
(5)

breaking signal lights on the railroad; (6)

stealing linseed oil barrels
to

make a

fire;

(7)

from the railroad

taking waste from an axle

;
;


56

box and burning

it

upon the railroad tracks;

(8) turning a switch and running a street car
(9) staying

off the track;

order to see the

away from home

to

(10) setting fire to a barn in

sleep in barns;

fire

engines come up the street

(11) knocking down signs; (12) cutting West-

ern Union cable.

Another dozen charges

also

taken from actual

court records might be added as illustrating
the spirit of adventure, for although stealing
is

involved in

all

less inspired

of them, the deeds were doubt-

much more by

the adventurous

impulse than by a desire for the loot
(1)

Stealing thirteen pigeons from

(2) stealing a

buy

to

use

a revolver;
at

night

on the wharf;

a barn

bathing suit; (3) stealing a tent

(4) stealing ten dollars
to

itself

(6)

from mother with which

(5) stealing a horse blanket

when

it

was cold sleeping

breaking a seal on a freight

car to steal "grain for chickens"; (7) stealing

apples from a freight car; (8) stealing a candy
peddler's

wagon "to be full up just for once";
hand car; (10) stealing a bicycle
ride; (11) stealing a horse and buggy

(9) stealing a

to take a

and driving twenty-five miles

into the country


57

(12) stealing a stray horse on the prairie

trying

to sell it

Of another dozen
they were

also

it

due to

although the

spirit,

(2)

might be claimed that
this

first

same adventurous
were classed as

six

(1) Calling a neighbor a

disorderly conduct:

"scab";

and

for twenty dollars.

breaking down a fence; (3)

flip-

ping cars; (4) picking up coal from railroad
tracks;

(5)

carrying a concealed "dagger,'*

and stabbing a playmate with

it;

stones at a railroad employee.

were called vagrancy:

(1)

(6)

throwing

The next three
Loafing on the

docks; (2) "sleeping out" nights; (3) getting

"wandering
larceny,

spells."

One,

designated petty

was cutting telephone wires under the

sidewalk

and

selling

them;

another,

called

burglary, was taking locks off from basement

and the

one bore the dignified

title

of "resisting an officer" because the boy,

who

doors

;

last

was riding on the fender
to

of a street car,

refused

move when an officer ordered him off.
Of course one easily recalls other cases

which the manifestations were negative.

remember

an

exasperated

and

in
I

frightened

mother who took a boy of fourteen into court


58

upon the charge
cused

him

of

shooting

**

cigarettes," "keeping
idle."

She

of incorrigibility.

ac-

"smoking

craps,"

bad company," "being

The mother regrets

it

now, however,

for she thinks that taking a boy into court

only gives him a bad name, and that "the
police are
court,

down on

a boy

who has once been

and that that makes

it

in

harder for him."

She hardly recognizes her once troublesome
charge in the steady young

who

brings

home

and stay of her old
I recall another

New York

of nineteen
is

the pride

age.

boy who worked

and back again

he was quite fourteen years
ing the truant

man

wages and

all his

officers as

his

way

to Chicago before
old, skilfully escap-

well as the police

special railroad detectives.

to

He

and

told his story

with great pride, but always modestly admitted
that he could never have done

it if

his father

had not been a locomotive engineer

so that he

had played around railroad tracks and "was
onto them ever since he was a small kid."

There are

who

many

of these adventurous boys

exhibit a curious incapacity for

which requires sustained energy.

any

effort

They show


59

an absolute lack of interest in the accomplishment of what they undertake, so marked that
challenged in the midst of their activity,

if

they will be quite unable to

tell

you the end

Then there are those tramp

they have in view.

boys who are the despair of every one
with them.

tries to deal
I

who

remember the case of a boy who traveled

almost around the world in the years lying be-

tween the ages of eleven and
lived for six

made up
ible

months

his

mind

in

fifteen.

He had

Honolulu where he had

to settle

when

the irresist-

''Wanderlust" again seized him.

He was

scrupulously neat in his habits and something
of a

dandy

had never

in appearance.

stolen,

several times
fate

him

which

He

boasted that he

although he had been arrested

on the charge of vagrancy, a

him

befell

in the Detention

Juvenile Court.

in Chicago

Home

and landed

connected with the

The judge gained a personal

hold upon him, and the lad tried with

powers of

his untrained

all

good and please the judge.'' Monotonous
tory

work was not

the

moral nature to ''make

to be

fac-

thought of in connec-

tion with him, but his good friend the judge


60

found a place for him as a bell-boy in a men's

was hoped that the uniform and
the variety of experience might enable him to
take the first steps toward regular pay and a
club,

where

settled
ever,

it

Through another

life.

he heard

the

of

carelessly left in one of the
club.

The chance

hints of

its

of

find

how-

bell-boy,

a

diamond

wash rooms

of the

throw out mysterious

to

whereabouts, to bargain for

restoration, to tell of great

had heard of

diamond

inevitably laid

in his travels,

which resulted

him open

to suspicion

dismissal,

although he had had nothing

with the matter beyond gloating over
venturous aspects.

made

its

deals he

in his

to
its

do
ad-

In spite of skilful efforts

to detain him, he once more started on

his travels,

throwing out such diverse hints as

that of ''a trip into Old Mexico," or ''follow-

ing up Roosevelt into Africa."

There

is

an entire

series of difficulties di-

rectly traceable to the foolish
persistence

and adventurous

of carrying loaded firearms.

morning paper of the day
ing records the following:

in

which

I

am

The
writ-


"A
years

61

party of boys, led by Daniel O'Brien, thirteen
had gathered in front of the house and

old,

O'Brien was throwing stones at Nieczgodzki in revenge
for a whipping that he received at his hands about a

month

ago.

The Polish boy ordered them away and

threatened to go into the house and get a revolver if
they did not stop. Pfister, one of the boys in O'Brien's

him a coward, and when he pulled a refrom his pocket, dared him to put it away and
meet him in a fist fight in the street. Instead of accepting the challenge, Nieczgodzki aimed his revolver at
Pfister and fired.
The bullet crashed through the top
of his head and entered the brain. He was rushed to
party, called

volver

the Alexian Brothers' Hospital, but died a short time
after

being received there.

and held without

Nieczgodzki was arrested

bail.'*

This tale could be duplicated almost every

morning what might be merely a boyish scrap
;

is

turned into a tragedy because some boy has

a revolver.

Many

citizens

in

Chicago have been made

heartsick during the past

month by the knowl-

edge that a boy of nineteen was lodged in the

county

jail

awaiting the death penalty.

had shot and

killed a policeman during the

scrimmage of an
for which he
fling

one.

He

arrest,

although the offense

was being ''taken in" was
His

parents

twenty years* ago from a

came
little

to

farm

a tri-

Chicago
in Ohio,


62

the best type of Americans,

be the backbone of our

whom we

who has aged and sickened

boast to

The mother,

cities.

the trial,

since

can only say that "Davie was never a bad boy
until about five years

ago when he began to go

with this gang who are always looking out
for fun."

Then there are those piteous

cases due to a

perfervid imagination which fails to find material suited to its

demands.

I

can recall mis-

adventures of children living within a few
blocks of Hull-House which

chagrin those of us
ister

to

their

Greek boy of

who

may

fill

with

are trying to adminI

remember a

who was

arrested for

deeper needs.
fifteen

well

attempting to hang a young Turk, stirred by

some vague notion of carrying on a traditional
warfare, and of adding another page to the

When

heroic annals of Greek history.
the incident

amounted

to little

sifted,

more than a

graphic threat and the lad was dismissed by the
court, covered with confusion

he had brought disgrace
Greece when he had hoped
I

and remorse that

upon the name of
to

remember with a lump

add
in

to its glory.

my

throat the

THE QUEST FOE ADVENTURE
Bohemian boy

who committed suinot "make good" in

of thirteen

cide because he
school,

63

could

and wished

to

show that he too had

**the stuff" in him, as stated in the piteous
little letter left

citement, the desire to

drum

This same love of ex-

behind.

experience of

jump out

hum-

of the

also induces boys to

life,

experiment with drinks and drugs to a surprising extent.

For several years the residents

of Hull-House struggled with the difficulty of

prohibiting the sale of cocaine to minors under

a totally inadequate code of legislation, which
has at

happily been changed to one more

last

and

effective

enforcible.

The

long

effort

brought us into contact with dozens of boys

who had become
The

first

the house of

man

victims of the cocaine habit.

group of these boys was discovered in

"Army

levee district

George."

This one-armed

and

also in the

by a system of signals

so that the

sold cocaine

on the

streets

word cocaine need never be mentioned, and the
style

and

size of

the package was changed so

often that even a vigilant police found
to locate

lad

it.

than a

What
traffic

it

hard

could be more exciting to a
in

a

contraband

article,


64

carried on in this mysterious fashion?

I recall

our experience with a gang of boys living on

There were eight of

a neighboring street.

altogether, the eldest seventeen years of

them

age, the youngest thirteen,

and they practically

What answered

lived the life of vagrants.
their club house

and Desplaines
which

in

was a corner

Streets,

they slept

lot

strewn with old

by night and

boilers,

many

The gang was brought to the

by day.

to

on Harrison

times
atten-

tion of Hull-House during the summer of 1904

by a distracted mother, who suspected that they
were all addicted to some drug. She was terribly frightened over the state of her youngest

boy of
and

thirteen,

his

who was

hideously emaciated

mind reduced almost

remember the poor woman

to vacancy.

I

as she sat in the

reception room at Hull-House, holding the un-

conscious boy in her arms, rocking herself back

and forth
*'I

in her fright

and despair, saying:

have seen them go with the drink, and eat

the hideous opium, but I never

knew anything

like this."

An
first

investigation

showed that cocaine had

been offered to these boys on the street

THE QUEST FOE ADVENTUEE

65

by a colored man, an agent of a drug store, who
had given them samples and urged them to
try

it.

In three or four months they had be-

come hopelessly addicted

to its use,

and at the

end of six months, when they were brought to
Hull-House, they were
tion.

in a critical condi-

all

At that time not one

of

either

stole

from

"swiped junk," pawned

their

going to school or working.
their parents,

them was

They

clothes and shoes,— did any desperate thing to
*'get the

dope," as they called

it.

Of course they continually required more,
and had spent as much as eight dollars a night

which they used

for cocaine,

share alike."

but

it

really

It

to

"share and

sounds like a large amount,

meant only four doses each during

the night, as at that time they were taking
twenty-five cents' worth at once
possibly secure

it.

if

they could

The boys would

tell

no-

thing for three or four days after they were
discovered, in spite of the united efforts of
their families, the police,

Hull-House.

But

finally

and the residents of
the superior boy of

the gang, the manliest and the least debauched,
told his tale,
5

and the others followed

in quick

66

They were

succession.

where

to be helped,

willing to

go some-

and were even eager

if

they could go together, and finally seven of

them were sent

to the Presbyterian Hospital

for four weeks' treatment

went

to

more.

and afterwards

The emaciated

pounds during
head of which

child

little

and doping.

are

all,

have but

more

of the

At the present

save one, doing well, al-

though they were rescued so
to

twenty

testified that at least three of the

irregular living

moment they

gained

his sojourn in the hospital, the

boys could have stood but

seemed

all

the country together for six weeks

little

late

that they

One

chance.

is

still

struggling with the appetite on an Iowa farm

and dares not

trust himself in the city because

he knows too well

how

cured in spite

better

of

cocaine

may

legislation.

be proIt

is

doubtful whether these boys could ever have

been pulled through unless they had been

al-

lowed to keep together through the hospital

and convalescing period,— unless we had been
able to utilize the
collective force

for the drug.

gang

spirit

and

to turn its

towards overcoming the desire

The

desire

to

dream and

see visions

plays an important part with
habitually use cocaine.

I

67

tJie

also

boys who

recall a small

used by boys for this purpose.

hut

They washed

dishes in a neighboring restaurant

and as soon

had earned a few cents they invested in

as they

which they kept

cocaine

enough for a

pinned underneath

"When they had accumulated

their suspenders.

real

debauch they went to

this

hut and for several days were dead to the out-

One boy

side world.

told

me

that in his dreams

he saw large rooms paved with gold and silver

money, the walls papered with greenbacks, and
that he took

away

in buckets all that

he could

carry.

This desire for adventure also seizes

A

group of

girls

girls.

ranging in age from twelve to

seventeen was discovered in Chicago last June,

two of
to

whom

open

tills

were being trained by older

women

in small shops, to pick pockets, to

remove handkerchiefs, furs and purses and
to lift

merchandise from the counters of de-

partment

stores.

All the articles stolen were

at once taken to their teachers

and the girb

themselves received no remuneration, except


68

occasional sprees to the theaters or other places

The

amusement.

of

girls

gave no coherent

reason for their actions beyond the statement
that they liked the excitement and the fun
of

Doubtless to the

it.

added the pleasure and
in the shops

and the

The boys are more
town

life,

thrill

glitter of

*Mown town."
down-

indifferent to this

and are apt

was

of danger

interest of being daily

to carry

on their adven-

tures on the docks, the railroad tracks or best
of all

upon the unoccupied

This inveterate

prairie.

demand

of youth that life

shall afford a large element of excitement is in

a measure well founded.
that

it is

We know

of course

necessary to accept excitement as an

inevitable part of recreation, that the first step

which

stirs

or sleeping centers of a man's

body

in recreation

the

worn

and mind."

is

*'that excitement

It is

nothing else that
it

uses

only
it

when

defeats

it is

its

followed by

own

up strength and does not

end, that

create

it.

In

the actual experience of these boys the excite-

ment has demoralized them and
law-breaking.

led

them

When, however, they seek

into

legit-

imate pleasure, and say with great pride that


69

they are ''ready to pay for it," what they find
is

legal but scarcely

more wholesome,— it

merely excitement.

still

amid

is

''Looping the loop"

shrieks of simulated terror or dancing in

disorderly saloon halls, are perhaps the natural
reactions to a day spent in noisy factories and
in trolley cars whirling through the distracting
streets,

but the city which permits them to be

the acme of pleasure and recreation to

its

young

people, commits a grievous mistake.

May we

not assume that this love for excite-

ment, this desire for adventure,
will be evinced

as a challenge to their elders?

of us

who

is

basic,

by each generation of

live in

And

into court fifteen thousand

the age of twenty,

common law

and
boys

yet those

Chicago are obliged to confess

that last year there were arrested

who had

and brought

young people under
failed to keep even

Most
young people had broken the law
the

city

of the land.

of these
in

their

blundering efforts to find adventure and in
response to the old impulse for self-expression.
It

is

said indeed that practically the whole

machinery of the grand jury and of the criminal courts

is

maintained and operated for the


70

benefit of youths

and
age,

it is

between the ages of thirteen

Men up

twenty-five.
true,

to ninety years of

commit crimes, but they are not

characterized by the recklessness, the bravado

and the horror which have stained our records
in

Chicago.

experience of

An

adult with the most

life

sordid

and the most rudimentary

notion of prudence, could not possibly have

Only a

committed them.

utilization

of that

sudden burst of energy belonging partly

to the

future could have achieved them, only a capture of the imagination and of the deepest emotions of youth could have prevented

them!

Possibly these fifteen thousand youths were

brought to grief because the adult population

assumed that the young would be able
only that which

is

to grasp

presented in the form of

sensation; as if they believed that youth could

thus early become absorbed in a hand to mouth
existence,

and

so entangled in materialism that

there would be no reaction against

though we were deaf

to

the

it.

It is as

appeal of these

young creatures, claiming their share of the joy
of

life,

desires

flinging out into the dingy city their

and aspirations after unknown

realities,

their

and

ment
to

unutterable longings
pleasure.
is

for

71

companionship

Their very demand for excite-

a protest against the

dulness of

life,

which we ourselves instinctively respond.

CHAPTER IV
THE HOUSE OF DREAMS

CHAPTER IV
THE HOUSE OF DREAMS
To the preoccupied adult who is prone to use
the city street as a mere passageway from one
hurried duty to another, nothing is more
touching than his encounter with a group of
children and

young people who are emerging

from a theater with the magic of the play
thick upon them.
familiar
quite

home.

street

unable to

From

still

They look up and down the
scarcely recognizing it and
determine the

direction

of

a tangle of *'make believe" they

gravely scrutinize the real world which they
are so reluctant to reenter, reminding one of

the absorbed gaze of a child

way back from

his

who

fairy-land

is

groping

whither

the

story has completely transported him.
*'

Going

to the

show"

for thousands of

people in every industrial city
sible

is

young

the only pos-

road to the realms of mystery and ro-

mance; the theater

is

the only place where

75


76

they can satisfy that craving for a conception
of life higher than that which the actual world

In a very real sense the drama

offers them.

and the drama alone performs for them the
office of art as is clearly

revealed in their blun-

dering demand stated in

play

unlike

them a
more

real

than

for **a

The theater becomes

life."

dreams"

*' veritable house of

crowded
This

many forms

the

noisy

to

infinitely

and the

streets

factories.

first

for romance

simple
is

demand upon

the theater

closely allied to one

more com-

plex which might be described as a search for
solace

and distraction

in those

moments

of first

awakening from the glamour of a youth's
interpretation of life to the sterner realities

which

are

These

perceptions

thrust

upon
which

around" and imprison the

his

consciousness.

inevitably
spirit of

*'

close

youth are

perhaps never so grim as in the case of the

We

wage-earning

child.

own moments

of revolt against life's actuali-

ties,

can

all

our reluctance to admit that

to be as unheroic

we saw about

recall

all

life

our

was

and uneventful as that which

us, it

was

too unbearable that

THE HOUSE OF DREMiS
*Hhis Avas

all

there

avenue of

possible

effort to believe, in

was" and we tried evfery
escape. As we made an
spite of what we saw, that

was noble and harmonious,

life

77

we

as

stub-

bornly clung to poesy in contradiction to the

we

testimony of our senses, so
of

see thousands

young people thronging the theaters bent
upon the same

their turn

provides

a

quest.

in

The drama

between the romantic

transition

conceptions which they vainly struggle to keep

and

intact

and

life's cruelties

they refuse to admit.

A

tion has been cultivated

which

trivialities

child

whose imagina-

able to do this for

is

himself through reading and reverie, but for

the overworked city youth of meager education,

to

perhaps nothing but the theater

perform

this

The theater

important

also has a strange

our ancestral past not

and quite

as

able

power

to fore-

Each boy comes from

cast life for the youth.

ness,"

is

office.

**in

he

forgetful-

entire

unconsciously

uses

ancient war-cries in his street play, so he longs
to reproduce

valors

a

and to see

set before

and vengeances of a

much more

society

him the

embodying

primitive state of morality than


78

Mr. Patten

that in which he finds himself.

has pointed out that the elemental action which
the stage presents, the old emotions of love

and jealousy, of revenge and daring take the
thoughts of the spectator back into deep and
well

worn channels

in

which

his

mind runs with
The
else.

a sense of rest afforded by nothing

cheap drama brings cause and

and
a

more

action, once

man

effect, will

into relation

the thrilling conviction that he

be master of his

power

and gives

may

of this psychology,

quite unconscious

yet

The youth of course,

fate.

views

the deeds of the hero simply as a forecast of
his

of

own
his

future and

own

''shows" of
too

all

improbable

this fascinating

it is

view

which draws the boy to

career

They can scarcely be

sorts.

for

do, his belief in his

portraying,

him,

own

prowess.

A

as

they

series of

slides which has lately been very popular in the

five-cent

theaters

of

masked men breaking

Chicago,
into

portrayed

killing the father of the family

away

the

family treasure.

five

a humble dwelling,

and carrying

The golden-haired

son of the house, aged seven, vows eternal ven-

geance on the spot, and follows one villain after

THE HOUSE OF DREAMS

79

another to his doom.

The execution of each

shown in lurid

and the

depicts

series

upon

detail,

the

hero,

is

last slide of the

aged

ten,

his father's grave counting

kneeling

on the fingers

of one

hand the number of men that he has

killed,

and thanking God that he has been

permitted to be an instrument of vengeance.

In another series of

slides,

a poor

woman

is

wearily bending over some sewing, a baby

is

crying in the cradle, and two

little

nine and ten are asking for food.
the mother sends

them out

In despair

into the street to

beg, but instead they steal a revolver

pawn shop and with

it kill

man, robbing him of $200.
with the treasure which
in the
fall

baby 's

upon

cradle,

is

boys of

from a

a Chinese laundry-

They rush home

found by the mother

whereupon she and her sons

their knees

and send up a prayer of

thankfulness for this timely and heaven-sent
assistance.
Is

it

not astounding that a city allows thou-

sands of

its

youth to

fill

their impressionable

minds with these absurdities which certainly
will

become the foundation for their working

TOUTH AND THE CITY STREETS

80

moral codes and the data from which they will

judge the proprieties of

life?

starved at home, should

It is as if a child,

be forced to go out and search for food,
ing, quite naturally, not that

ing but that which

is

which

is

select-

nourish-

and appealing

exciting

to his outw^ard sense, often in his ignorance

and

blundering

foolishness

which are

Out
House

filthy

my

of

into

substances

and poisonous.

twenty years' experience at Hull-

I can recall all sorts of pilferings, petty

and even burglaries, due

larcenies,

to

that

never ceasing effort on the part of boys to
procure theater tickets.

I can also recall in-

direct efforts towards the

most

pitiful.

young

I

same end which are

remember the remorse

girl of fifteen

who was brought

of a

into the

Juvenile Court after a night spent weeping in
the cellar of her
a mass of
a

hat.

home because

artificial flowers

She stated that she had taken the

flowers because she
attention of a

say

she had stolen

with which to trim

losing the

young man whom she had heard

that '*a girl

to be seen."

was afraid of

has to be dressy

This young

if

she expects

man was

the only

THE HOUSE OF DEEAMS

81

one who had ever taken her to the theater and

he failed her, she was sure that she would

if

never go again, and she sobbed out incoherently,
that she "couldn't live at all without it."

parently the blankness and grayness of

Ap-

life itself

had been broken for her only by the portrayal
of a different world.

One boy whom I had known from babyhood
to take money from his mother from

began

the time he was seven years old, and after he

was ten she regularly gave him money

for the

However, the Saturday

play Saturday evening.

performance, ''starting him

off like,"

he always

went twice again on Sunday, procuring the

money
all

in all sorts of

of his earnings after he

spent in this
to

illicit

know

way

ways.

Practically

was fourteen were

to satisfy the insatiable desire

of the great adventures of the wide

world which the more fortunate boy takes out
in reading

Homer and

Stevenson.

In talking with his mother, I was reminded
of

my

E;ussia

experience

when

were seated

one Sunday afternoon in

the employees of a large factory
in

an open-air theater, watching

with breathless interest the presentation of
6


82

folk stories.

I

was

told that troupes of actors

went from one manufacturing establishment
to another presenting the simple elements of

history and literature to the illiterate employees.

This tendency to slake the thirst for adventure

by viewing the drama
and primitive
for

of course, but a blind

is,

effort in the direction of culture,

"he who makes himself

its

vessel

and bearer

thereby acquires a freedom from the blindness

and soul poverty of daily existence."
It is partly in response to this

sophisticated

young people

need that more

often

go to the

theater, hoping to find a clue to life's perplexities.

Many

times the bewildered hero reminds

one of Emerson's description of Margaret Fuller, **I

me";

don't

know where

am

I

going, follow

is

dealing with

nevertheless, the stage

the moral themes in which the public

is

most

interested.

And
ater

if

while

many young

people go to the the-

only to see represented, and to hear

discussed, the themes which

tragically important, there

seem
is

to

them

so

no doubt that

what they hear

there, flimsy

often

becomes their actual moral

is,

easily

and poor as

it

THE HOUSE OF DEEAMS
guide.

In moments of moral

the sayings of the hero

a similar plight.

83

they turn to

crisis

who found

himself in

The sayings may not be pro-

found, but at least they are applicable to conduct.

In the last few years scores of plays

have been put upon the stage whose

titles

might be easily translated into proper headings
for sociological lectures or sermons, without

including the plays of Ibsen,

mann, which deal

Shaw and Hauptmoral issues

so directly with

that the moralists themselves wince under their

teachings and declare them brutal.
this

But

it

is

very brutality which the over-refined and

complicated city dwellers often crave.

Moral

teaching has become so intricate, creeds so metaphysical, that in a state of absolute reaction they

demand

definite

instruction

for

daily

living.

Their whole-hearted acceptance of the teaching
corroborates the statement recently

made by an

English playwright that ''The theater

is

literally

making the minds of our urban populations
day.

It is a

to-

huge factory of sentiment, of char-

acter, of points of honor, of conceptions of con-

duct, of everything that finally determines the

destiny of a nation.

The theater

is

not only a


84

place of amusement,

it is

place where people learn

and

a place of culture, a

how

to think,

Seldom, however, do

feel.'*

we

act,

associate

the theater with our plans for civic righteousness,

although

factor in city

has become so important a

it

life.

One Sunday evening
gation was

made

last

of four

winter an investi-

hundred and sixty

theaters in the city of Chicago, and

it

was

six
dis-

covered that in the majority of them the leading theme was revenge
rival; the outraged

;

the lover following his

husband seeking

his wife's

paramour or the wiping out by death of a
;

on a hitherto unstained honor.

mated that one sixth

It

was

blot
esti-

of the entire population

of the city had attended the theaters on that

day.

At

same moment the

that

churches

throughout the city were preaching the gospel
of good will.

Is

not this a striking commen-

tary upon the contradictory influences to which
the city youth

is

constantly subjected?

This discrepancy between the church and
the stage

is

at times apparently recognized

by

and a blundering

at-

the five-cent theater

tempt

is

made

itself,

to suffuse the songs

and moving

THE HOUSE OF DREAMS

§5

Nothing could more ab-

pictures with piety.

surdly demonstrate this attempt than a song,

by

illustrated

tures of a

pictures, describing the adven-

young man who follows a pretty

girl

through street after street in the hope of
*'

snatching a kiss from her ruby

young man

is

way, and he

when

is

when

a sudden wind

girl to shelter

under an arch-

overjoyed

storm drives the

The

lips.''

about to succeed in his attempt

the good Lord, ''ever watchful over in-

nocence," makes the same wind ''blow a cloud
of dust into the eyes of the rubberneck," and
*'his foul

piety

is

purpose

also

shown

is

foiled."

This attempt at

in a series of films depicting

Bible stories and the Passion Play at Oberam-

mergau, forecasting the time when the moving
film will be

viewed as a mere mechanical de-

vice for the use of the church, the school

and

the library, as well as for the theater.

At

present, however, most

hold the

attention

of

the

improbable tales

youth of the city

night after night, and feed his starved imagination as nothing else succeeds in doing.
addition

to

theater

also fast

is

these

fascinations,

the

In

five-cent

becoming the general

social

;


86

center and club house in

borhoods.

It is

many crowded

neigh-

easy of access from the street,

the entire family of parents and children can

attend for a comparatively small

and the performance

sum

of money,

lasts for at least

an hour

and, in some of the humbler theaters, the spectators are not disturbed for a second hour.

The room which contains the mimic stage
small and cozy, and

less

and there

lar theater,

is

social life as if the foyer

is

formal than the regu-

much more
and

pit

gossip

and

were mingled.

The very darkness of the room, necessary for
an exhibition of the
tion to

many young

is filled

films, is

an added attrac-

people, for

whom

the space

with the glamour of love making.

Hundreds of young people attend these

five-

cent theaters every evening in the week, in-

cluding Sunday, and what
there becomes the

sole

is

topic

seen and heard
of

conversation,

forming the ground pattern of their

social life.

That mutual understanding which in another
social circle

the arts,

is

is

provided by books, travel and

all

here compressed into the topics sug-

gested by the play.

The

young

people

attend

the

five-cent

THE HOUSE OF DREAMS
something

with

groups,

theaters

in

"gang"

instinct,

stunts in

"our theater."

87

boasting

the

of

They

of

the

films

and

find a certain

advantage in attending one theater regularly,
for the liabitues are often invited to

come upon

the stage on "amateur nights," which occur
at least once a
is,

week

in all the theaters.

This

of course, a most exciting experience.

If

the "stunt" does not meet with the approval
of the audience, the performer

and a long hook pulls him

jeers
if,

greeted with

is

off the stage;

on the other hand, he succeeds in pleasing

the audience, he

mance and

may

the address of which

supplied by the obli-

and exciting career

lucrative

Almost every night

him.
line

is

booking agency,

and thus he

manager,

ging

be paid for his perfor-

later register with a

of children

may

fancies
is

that

a

opening before

at six o'clock a long

be seen waiting at the

entrance of these booking agencies, of which
there

are

fifteen

that

are

well

known

in

Chicago.

Thus,

the

only

art

which

is

constantly

placed before the eyes of "the temperamental

youth"

is

a debased form of dramatic art, and


88

a vulgar type of music, for the success of a

song in these theaters depends not so much

upon
of

its

its

musical rendition as upon the vulgarity

appeal.

In a song which held the stage

of a cheap theater in Chicago for weeks, the

young singer was helped out by
from which she threw a

a bit of mirror

flash of

whom

the faces of successive boys

from the audience as she sang the

my

are

Affinity."

Many

into

light

she selected

''You

refrain,

popular songs relate

the vulgar experiences of a city

man wander-

ing from amusement park to bathing beach in
search

of flirtations.

"stunts" and

may

It

recitals of city

be that these

adventure contain

the nucleus of coming poesy and romance, as
the songs and recitals of the early minstrels

sprang directly from the
all

the

more does the

rection, both in the

life of

effort

the people, but

need help and

development of

nique and the material of

its

its

di-

tech-

themes.

The few attempts which have been made in
this

those

direction are astonishingly rewarding to

who regard

the

power of

self-expression

as one of the most precious boons of education.

The Children's Theater

in

New York

is

the

THE HOUSE OF DEEMIS

89

most successful example, but every settlement
in

which dramatics have been systematically
can

fostered

also

testify

to

surprisingly

a

quick response to this form of art on the part
of

young

The Hull-House Theater

people.

is

constantly besieged by children clamoring to
*'take part" in the plays of Schiller, Shake-

and Moliere, although they know

speare,

means weeks
memorizing of

''stiff" lines.

enthralled
children

by the

whose

final

The audiences

rendition

have

tastes

when

still

sit

and other

supposedly

debased by constant vaudeville,
cally eager to

it

and the complete

of rehearsal

been

are patheti-

come again and again.

Even

required from the

young

more

is

actors, research into the special historic period,

copying costumes from old plates, hours of
labor that the ''th"

may

be restored to

proper place in English speech,
siasm

is

unquenched.

But

their

quite aside

its

enthu-

from

its

educational possibilities one never ceases to

marvel at the power of even a mimic stage to
afford to the

young

a

magic space

in

which

may be lived in efflorescence, where manners may be courtly and elaborate without
life

90


exciting ridicule, where the sequence of events
is

impressive and comprehensible.

beauty of

life

craves above
fatigably

Order and

what the adolescent youth

is

all else

demands

as the younger child inde-

"Is this where

his story.

the most beautiful princess in the world lives?"

asks a

little girl

peering into the door of the

Hull-House Theater, or

^
'

land always stay here "
?

Does Alice in WonderIt is

much

easier for

her to put her feeling into words than

it

is

for

who has enchantingly rendered the
Ben Jonson's ''Sad Shepherd,''
him who has walked the boards as

the youth

gentle poetiy of

or

for

Southey's
is

Wat

Tyler.

quite as clinging

His association, however,

and magical

as

is

the child's

although he can only say, ''Gee, I wish I could

always feel the

way

I did that night.

would be doing then."

Something

Nothing of the

artist's

pleasure, nor of the revelation of that larger

world which surrounds and completes our own,
is lost to him because a careful technique has
been exacted,— on the contrary this has only
dignified

and enhanced

it.

It

would

also

be

easy to illustrate youth's eagerness for artistic
expression from the recitals given

by the pupils

THE HOUSE OF DREAMS
of the

by

New York
of

those

the

91

Music School Settlement, or
Hull-House

Music

These attempts also combine social

School.

life

with

the training of the artistic sense and in this

approximate the fascinations of the five-cent
theater.

This spring a group of young girls accus-

tomed

to the life of a five-cent theater, reluct-

antly refused an invitation to go to the country
for a day's outing because the return on a late

train

would compel them

to miss one evening's

They found it impossible to tear
away not only from the excitements

performance.
themselves

of the theater itself but from the gaiety of the

crowd of young men and
gathered

outside

discussing

girls

invariably

the

sensational

posters.

A

steady English shopkeeper lately

plained

that

unless

he

provided

his

comfouB

daughters with the money for the five-cent
theaters every evening they

steal

it

from

and he feared that they might be driven
procure it in even more illicit ways. Because

his

to

would

till,

his entire family life

had been thus disrupted

he gloomily asserted that

**this

cheap show


92

Iiad ruined his 'ome
ica.''

and was the curse of Amer-

This father was able to formulate the

many immigrant

anxiety of

absolutely bewildered

parents

who

of their children in the cheap theater.

anxiety

An

not,

is

eminent

are

by the keen absorption

indeed,

alienist of

This

without foundation.

Chicago states that he

has had a number of patients among neurotic
children whose emotional natures have been so

over-wrought by

the

crude appeal

which

to

they had been so constantly subjected in the
that

theaters,

they have become victims

hallucination and mental disorder.

ment of

this physician

may

The

be the

first

alarm which will awaken the city to
in regard to the theater, so that

be

made

safe

and sane

it

of

state-

note of
its

duty

shall at least

for the city child whose

senses are already so abnormally developed.

This testimony of a physician that the conditions are actually pathological,

may

at last

induce us to bestir ourselves in regard to procuring

a

more

wholesome

form

recreation.

Many

have

undertaken only after

been

of

public

efforts in social amelioration

such

ex-

posures; in the meantime, while the occasional

THE HOUSE OF DREAMS
child

is

93

driven distraught, a hundred children

permanently injure their eyes watching the moving films, and hundreds more seriously model
their conduct

upon the standards

them on

mimic

this

set

before

stage.

Three boys, aged nine, eleven and thirteen
years,

who had

recently seen depicted the ad-

ventures of frontier

up

of a stage coach

life

including the holding

and the lassoing of the

driver,

spent weeks planning to lasso, murder, and rob
a neighborhood

four

milkman, who started on his
the

at

made

their headquarters in a barn

enough money
their

o'clock

to

in

buy a

'
'

Dead Men

One spring morning the

with their faces covered with black

ambush"

and saved

revolver, adopting as

watchword the phrase

Tales."

They

morning.

route

no

Tell

conspirators,
cloth, lay

* *

in

Fortunately for

for the milkman.

him, as the lariat was thrown the horse shied,
and, although the shot was appropriately fired,
the milkman's

life

was saved.

influence of the theater

even among older boys.

is

Such a direct

by no means

rare,

Thirteen young lads

were brought into the Municipal Court in
Chicago during the

first

week that

"Raffles,

Spirit of youth and city streets 1915 jane addams

Spirit of youth and city streets 1915 jane addams

Recomendados

Recomendados

Mais conteúdo relacionado

Semelhante a Spirit of youth and city streets 1915 jane addams

Semelhante a Spirit of youth and city streets 1915 jane addams (11)

Último

Último (20)

Spirit of youth and city streets 1915 jane addams