or him as a bell-boy in a men's club, where it was hoped that
the uniform and the variety of experience might enable him to take the
first steps toward regular pay and a settled life. Through another
bell-boy, however, he heard of the find of a diamond carelessly left
in one of the wash rooms of the club. The chance to throw out
mysterious hints of its whereabouts, to bargain for its restoration,
to tell of great diamond deals he had heard of in his travels,
inevitably laid him open to suspicion which resulted in his dismissal,
although he had had nothing to do with the matter beyond gloating over
its adventurous aspects. In spite of skilful efforts made to detain
him, he once more started on his travels, throwing out such diverse
hints as that of "a trip into Old Mexico," or "following up Roosevelt
into Africa."

There is an entire series of difficulties directly traceable to the
foolish and adventurous persistence of carrying loaded firearms. The
morning paper of the day in which I am writing records the following:

"A party of boys, led by Daniel O'Brien, thirteen years old,
had gathered in front of the house and 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 party, called him a coward, and when he
pulled a revolver from 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 the Alexian
Brothers' Hospital, but died a short time after being
received there. Nieczgodzki was arrested and held without
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 knowledge that a boy of nineteen was lodged in the county
jail awaiting the death penalty. He had shot and killed a policeman
during the scrimmage of an arrest, although the offense for which he
was being "taken in" was a trifling one. His parents came to Chicago
twenty years ago from a little farm in O