Infantile Adepts in Wickedness.
We very frequently hear “the innocence of childhood” mentioned, but those who talk much of it do not know how far advanced children are in cities, in deception and crime. The prosecution of picture-show proprietors has brought this out in New York strongly. It is contrary to law for children to gather around such places, or to enter such places without guardians, but to meet this the children gather around such places and beg grown people to “take them to see the show.” In other instances, the children have put their nickels together and raised a sum to hire “fathers” and “mothers,” one of whom takes in the whole flock of the youngsters, and it has been found that children of very youthful years, almost infantile, are adepts at gambling, and consult dream books to “get wise” as to the best means of beating the game. The New York World remarks, regarding the gambling, that “the babies hire grown people13to help them to turn the trick. Why not childhood suffrage, since the mother is away from home, and the father is played out?”