Page:Upbuilders by Lincoln Steffens.djvu/203



on the other hand, to “ditch your papers and run,” is a disgrace in Boyville now. A boy called on the Judge one day with an offer from the gang to “ lick” any kid that ditched his papers or in any other way went back on the Judge, and the Judge had some difficulty in explaining why that wasn’t “square.”

Wonderful ? Yes, it’s wonderful, if you don’t see what “it” is, and Denver didn’t — at least, official Denver didn’t. The Judge saw that he had to “win out” with what the world calls “young criminals born,” so he watched for a chance; and the chance came.

“One morning,” he says, “the newspapers reported the capture of Lee Martin and Jack Heimel, two notorious boy burglars known as ‘The Eel,’ and ‘Tatters.’ They were the lead- ers of the River-Front gang of sneak thieves, pickpockets, burglars, etc., and they had done time in the reform school and jails in Colorado and elsewhere. The newspapers, having told all about them and their crimes, went on to say that these criminals had amply qualified for a long term, and they should therefore be tried in the criminal court, not before the new-fangled, grand- motherly juvenile department. Here was my chance and a challenge.

“I visited the jail. The boys were in separate