throw in supplies, one member sitting in the back of the wagon and shooting at
all who interfered. One gang specialized on stealing baby carriages, depositing
their inmates on the sidewalk. Another blew up a grocery store because its owner
refused a gift they demanded. Another tried to saw off the head of a Jewish
pedler. One member killed another for calling him "no gent." Six murderous
assaults were made at one time by these gangs within a single week. One who is
caught and does his "bit" or "stretch" is a hero, and when a leader is hanged, as
has sometimes happened, he is almost envied for his notoriety. A frequent ideal
is to pound a policeman with his own club. The gang federates all nationalities.
Property is depreciated and may be ruined if it is frequented by these gangs or
becomes their lair or "hang-out." A citizen residing on the Hudson procured a
howitzer and pointed it at a boat gang, forbidding them to land on his river
frontage. They have their calls, whistles, signs, rally suddenly from no one
knows where, and vanish in the alleys, basements, roofs, and corridors they
know so well. Their inordinate vanity is well called the slum counterpart of self-
esteem, and Riis calls the gang a club run wild. They have their own ideality and
a gaudy pinchbeck honor. A young tough, when arrested, wrenched away the
policeman's club, dashed into the street, rescued a baby from a runaway, and
came back and gave himself up. They batten on the yellowest literature. Those
of foreign descent, who come to speak our language better than their parents,
early learn to despise them. Gangs emulate each other in hardihood, and this is
one cause of epidemics in crime. They passionately love boundless
independence, are sometimes very susceptible to good influence if applied with
great wisdom and discretion, but easily fall away. What is the true moral
antitoxin for this class, or at least what is the safety-valve and how and when to
pull it, we are now just beginning to learn, but it is a new specialty in the great
work of salvage from the wreckage of city life. In London, where these groups
are better organised and yet more numerous, war is often waged between them,
weapons are used and murder is not so very infrequent. Normally this instinct
passes harmlessly over into associations for physical training, which furnishes a
safe outlet for these instincts, until the reductives of maturer years have
perfected their work.
The causation of crime, which the cure seeks to remove, is a problem
comparable with the origin of sin and evil. First, of course, comes heredity, bad
antenatal conditions, bad homes, unhealthful infancy and childhood,
overcrowded slums with their promiscuity and squalor, which are always near
the border of lawlessness, and perhaps are the chief cause of crime. A large per
cent of juvenile offenders, variously estimated, but probably one-tenth of all, are