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Show TRUANTS ITIOM HOME. TRIALS AND t EMPTATIONS OF RUNAWAY RUN-AWAY BOYS IN NEW YORK. 4 rintii Matter of Fact Talk from .New York's thief Inspector Hoys t.rt Their Ideas f the City rrm Lnrlfl Hunks Few rvnniplcs from tl.B Kecord. Having already referred in general way to th. evil rfl'.rU Hint usually fall to tin! lot of il boy who U r-, j foolish Mini beads! roll',' :t, run aw.iy from homo mid try hi.n firt.iti" in tim great city, I will cite a few ruse" of tlio many Willi whi.'ii tlie records nf our polii'e department depart-ment phor.Til. All teach thesanie i ssun. I., January, (i year or two i;"". a boy eb V":i years old Kit. his homo in Albany at. 1 came to this city, as lie al'lerward iid. "I.. .-(' tin; nghK" As day utter il.i- pa s:-,c I i:ud -he i!id not returti, bis jiaiviiN, greatly worried, made inf juirii s for iiiiu in many directions. Tins police of Hue city wen.' tisked to join in tho i.rcii. 'lie.' boy bad rii absent iibout thr.'O weekf, when one day an officer who was patrol'iingn poK in the neighborhood of the docks eauie uion a buy who sl.;-.;-jreri'd as he walked. The ulliivr's fir-t. impression was that the boy wi. intoxicated, intox-icated, but upon making n close, exam-' exam-' inatiou and questioning biui it turned out that he was not intoxicated, but weak from lack of food mid from exposure ex-posure in the wintry weather. The policeman took him to headquarters headquar-ters and gave him a good meal. After-ward After-ward it wils disiovcred that bo w,u the boy from Albany wlioso disappoarancf had caused mo much concern. j His parents wero promptly commiini- rated with, mid he wad very (,'lad indi'ed to go homo with his father, who camo after him without delay. A few months after thitt ocriirnul our pilic wero reipiiUd to look for two boyB ono fiftena yearn old, tno other thirteen who had run uway from their j homos in a New England city. They i hjul K'sl hoi'ioH and kind parents, but they had tired of rinj? to scliool. Tho idea of wonderful adventures had Wn put into their heaibi by the lxioka they had been allowed to read, mid they determined to see lifo for themselves in a larger city than tho ono whore they had been brotisht up. Thpy wandered about New York for five days, but found lifo hero a sterner reality than they Lad (supposed. The littlo money tiny had was noon ppent, and at the end of the fivo days they were glad to give themselves up to tho police, and tearfully asked to bo sent back to their homes. One day a policeman attached to one of the down town precincts aw a boy, evidently a stranger in the city, sitting on the porch of a house, and soon found that he was exhausted from lumber an 1 partially overcomo by tho heat. Tho boy was only eleven years of m;o. ilo had come hero alono from a town in Maaehu8iUs, first becjwso bo wished to see what tho gn at city was like, and also beeauso ho had un undo Lett?, and expected to be hospitably received. Ho had the address of bis uncle, but as he was totally unfamiliar with tiio city ho could not eai-ily lind tho house. When at last, after much wandering, he did succeed in Retting to tho rtreet .....l riMiiil-u.r t.-i wtiicli tm bail lieeii kii (il'ven directed, ho was worse oil than if ho had not found them. Tho hope of finding his undo had been the ono lhiii that cheered him daring his jounieyins through tho labyrinth of Hlreets. l'ut now his undo refused to aid or harbor him. Oiviug him a littlo bread and butter wrapped in a paper, ho turned tho boy adrift upon the ihoerle-ssstrtHiti. Under our law tho undo was arrested for his inhuman Conduct, but ho wan discharged in court on his promise to see that tho boy was taken back to hi parents. After the ambition to go west aim fight Indiana perhaps the desiro to ko upon tha stiiKO is the Ht mutest motivo luiiinating boy who tako a plunge into tho wido world for themijelvoH. More pirla than boys are "stao Btmck," but tho girls do not run away as tho boys do at least not when they aro bo young an mobt of tho runaways of the other ecx. No doubt tho exjierieuce pained in rnnniiur away from homo is often salutary. salu-tary. The glamour and glitter that are imagined to surround life in a big city juts speedily seen to have no existence eaT6 in the fancy, and the difficulties in tho way of a Ftrange lad in a strange place who is seeking a situation, even of tho humblest kind difficulties which amount practically to an insurmonnt- I able obstacle are soon doeply impressed upon the mind. Fortnuately, before tho matter has gone much further, in must cases a sncceurfnl search is uiado for the missing ono and ho eagerly seks his father's door acyiin. But this experience is not one that rational parents would choose for their prowing boys. Tho stern realities of life will come all soon enough in tho natural course of things, i A I have already more than intimated, many years of experience in police work convince me that scarcely anything worso could happen to a boy reared in the country or in a small town than to le thrown upon his own rewnrces in abnsy and bustling city like New York. The chances axe all against his earning a livelihood, eve.u in an humble way, aud all in favor of falling into bad company and leading a worthless, if not a posi- lively wicked, life. Tha alluring pidnres of city life which are drawn in certain bKks and papers that are widely circuhited have no corresponding reality, aud onco more i would caution parents to use tho utmost care in tho selection of their children's reading maiu.-r. Here is one avenue of discontent that can ciusiiy be dosed up, or, rather, never opened. ilureover, the hiird and bit cor experiences experi-ences of boys who have attempted to Buck X'.n ir fortunes in tho great city, aud the gladness with which they welcome an opportunity to get back within the niiadow of the roof tree froui which t'aey had lately fled, teach tiiorouglily tho lea-K.ra lea-K.ra that "to nUiy at home is best." Thomaa Byrnes in Yout h's Companion. |