pleasure as the right of one who earns his own living. They have
developed no capacity for recreation demanding mental effort or even
muscular skill, and are obliged to seek only that depending upon
sight, sound and taste. Many of them begin to pay board to their
mothers, and make the best bargain they can, that more money may be
left to spend in the evening. They even bait the excitement of "losing
a job," and often provoke a foreman if only to see "how much he will
stand." They are constitutionally unable to enjoy anything
continuously and follow their vagrant wills unhindered. Unfortunately
the city lends itself to this distraction. At the best, it is
difficult to know what to select and what to eliminate as objects of
attention among its thronged streets, its glittering shops, its gaudy
advertisements of shows and amusements. It is perhaps to the credit
of many city boys that the very first puerile spirit of adventure
looking abroad in the world for material upon which to exercise
itself, seems to center about the railroad. The impulse is not unlike
that which excites the coast-dwelling lad to dream of

"The beauty and mystery of the ships
And 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
of adventure. A surprising number, as the reader will observe, are
connected with railroads. They are taken from the court records and
repeat the actual words used by police officers, irate neighbors, or
discouraged parents, when the boys were brought before the judge. (1)
Building fires along the railroad tracks; (2) flagging trains; (3)
throwing stones at moving train windows; (4) shooting at the actors in
the Olympic Theatre with sling shots; (5) breaking signal lights on