THE TRAINING OF 
 
 A WORKING BO\ 
 
 PELHA
 
 THE TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY
 
 
 MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED 
 
 LONDON 1JOMBAY CALCUTTA 
 MELBOURNE 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 NEW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO 
 DALLAS SAN FRANCISCO 
 
 THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. 
 
 TORONTO
 
 THE TRAINING OF A 
 WORKING BOY 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. H. S. PELHAM, M.A. 
 
 DOMESTIC CHAPLAIN TO THE BISHOP OF BIRMINGHAM 
 
 PREVIOUSLY 
 
 WARDEN OF OXFORD AND BERMONDSEY MISSION 
 HEAD MISSIONER OF BIRMINGHAM STREET CHILDREN'S UNION 
 
 WITH A FOREWORD 
 
 BY THE RIGHT REV. 
 
 THE LORD BISHOP OF BIRMINGHAM 
 
 MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED 
 
 ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON 
 
 1914
 
 COPYRIGHT
 
 TO 
 MY NEPHEW AND GODSON 
 
 H. J. P. 
 
 IN THE HOPE THAT IN YEARS TO COME 
 
 HE WILL REALIZE, AND DISCHARGE, 
 
 HIS DUTY TO THE CHILDREN 
 
 OF THE POOR
 
 FOREWORD. 
 
 THIS is a book on ' the boy ' for ' the boy ' by one 
 who knows ' the boy/ and it will prove, in my 
 judgment, of great value to all desiring to be of use 
 to that most complex and interesting personality, 
 the English lad. For years religious and social 
 workers have confessed that their efforts to keep in 
 proper touch with, and to exercise due influence 
 upon, the boy passing from childhood into adultness 
 have been, comparatively speaking, failures, and 
 yet the future citizenship of our land depends upon 
 how we manage our young manhood at this critical 
 period of life. The author of this book has succeeded 
 where individuals and even institutions have failed, 
 and therefore his experience and his advice must 
 be valuable. Certain facts show themselves pro- 
 minently in this book as requisite for proper dealing 
 with young humanity. First of all comes the 
 recognition of individuality. No one can expect, 
 whether for forming or strengthening character in 
 a particular person, to do so by means of a super- 
 ficial connection with the mass of the members of a 
 large club. It is done by remembering that we must
 
 viii FOREWORD 
 
 put the something which is ours into close association 
 with the individuality of every other upon whom 
 we desire to exercise influence. Another point 
 which must be borne in mind is that we must work 
 upon the whole of a lad's nature. The spiritual 
 work will be all the more effective if our efforts for 
 the body and for the mind are just as careful as 
 those we use for the moral character. Again we 
 must remember that if we are going to bring the 
 best out of anybody we must believe that the best 
 is there. The success of any social worker, and 
 particularly a social worker with the young, is only 
 then assured when he is conscious of the good that 
 is in the one for whom he is labouring. All through 
 this book may be noticed the unfailing appreciation 
 of the good in the human boy. The book makes no 
 pretence at fine writing, but I venture to say that 
 no one will be able to read it without being conscious 
 that the writer knows his subject, and that his 
 suggestions have the special value which comes 
 from the experience of devoted and richly blessed 
 labour. 
 
 H. R. BIRMINGHAM. 
 
 BISHOP'S CROFT, 
 
 BIRMINGHAM.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 xi 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 T*TTI7< T>^*r 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 I. THE Bov - 
 
 II. His HOME- I0 
 
 IV. His RECREATIONS 42 
 
 III. His EDUCATION- 
 
 IV. His RECREATION 
 
 V. CHILD EMPLOYMENT - * 55 
 
 VI. BOY LABOUR - ..'. - 69 
 
 VII. JUVENILE OFFENDERS 87 
 
 VIII. HOW TO HELP THE BOY - - IO2 
 
 IX. THE CLUB- . jjg 
 
 X. THE SUMMER CAMP - . I35 
 
 XI. RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION -V - j 4 6 
 
 APPENDICES . I( -Q 
 
 INDEX .
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PACK 
 
 VIEW OF A CAMP - - Frontispiece 
 
 A COURT 1 3 
 
 Ax SCHOOL 39 
 
 A WEEK-END PARTY ] 
 
 ' 53 . 
 SATURDAY AFTERNOON J 
 
 A JUNIOR CLUB 8 5 
 
 A SENIOR CLUB I0 7 
 
 THE CAMP MAGISTRATES ") 
 
 '43 
 A CHEERFUL GROUP 
 
 THE PROBLEM ] 
 
 [ - - J 55 
 
 THE CAMP CHAPEL J
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 To add to the large number of books which have 
 been written about the working boy is a task that 
 requires considerable courage. I do not approach 
 it with any idea that these books are inadequate or 
 out of date, for the men who wrote them have in 
 most cases had a longer and wider experience than 
 myself. Rather I have undertaken the task, partly 
 because these books have been devoted to the boy 
 of London and Manchester, while the boy of Bir- 
 mingham and the Midlands is still unknown so far 
 as literature is concerned ; partly for another reason, 
 and this latter reason seems to me important enough 
 to call for a more special explanation. 
 
 There are three features of the work on behalf of 
 the working boy, to which I desire to call attention. 
 All thoughtful men are awake to the importance of 
 helping and assisting the working boy, for his lot 
 is obviously a hard one. Countless organizations 
 have therefore sprung up, each designed to remove 
 some special hardship, or to assist the boy in some 
 particular direction. While this interest and activity 
 are of great value, there is a danger that in our
 
 xii INTRODUCTION 
 
 efforts to remove some particular evil or to meet 
 some special need, we may lose sight of the individual 
 boy himself, and his many-sided character. For 
 no effort is of much value unless its final and ultimate 
 object is to give each individual boy the chance of 
 developing to the full the whole of his nature. If 
 he is regarded simply as one of a class, he will 
 remain so, and will never become what his Maker 
 meant him to be. This is not a theoretical danger ; 
 it is one of most pressing importance in education, 
 both secular and religious, as well as in the many 
 state and voluntary organizations, which everywhere 
 exist. My first aim, then, in writing this book, is 
 to lay stress on this side of what is termed the problem 
 of the working boy, and to urge the vital importance 
 of keeping the individual in mind in all our philan- 
 thropic and religious activities. 
 
 This leads to a further point. An individual 
 cannot be helped, except by another individual. 
 That is true of all ages and classes, but it is especially 
 true of the working boy. He cannot, and will not, 
 be organized ! We may drive him to school, to 
 a club, or to the Labour Exchange, but the value 
 of each of these depends on the extent of the personal 
 influence of the teacher, the club helper, and the 
 worker on the Care Committee. This appears so 
 obvious that one wonders whether it is really 
 necessary to insist upon it. Yet from practical 
 experience, I am convinced that it is. The classes
 
 INTRODUCTION xiii 
 
 in an elementary school, for example, are so large 
 that the teacher is quite unable to give attention 
 to any particular boy. In the same way the value 
 of any club or brigade is too often judged by the 
 efficiency of the organization, or by the general 
 smartness that is shown by the members as a whole. 
 The extent of the personal influence which the 
 helper or officer has upon each boy separately is 
 very often not considered at all. No doubt it is 
 easier to organize than to render personal assistance, 
 but it is infinitely less effective. Organization is 
 indispensable, but it must never be considered as 
 an end in itself, only as the means by which personal 
 help can be rendered efficiently and without waste. 
 A sufficient supply of men and women, endowed 
 with human sympathy, is therefore imperative. 
 There is an abundance of organizers, theorists, and 
 students of sociology, but there is a heartrending 
 scarcity of educated men and women who are willing 
 to be the wise counsellors and sympathetic friends 
 of the individual working boy. 
 
 This need is noticeable for another reason. No- 
 thing makes a stronger or more irresistible appeal 
 to the charitable feelings than the street child. 
 Few of his sufferings are due to his own faults or 
 failures ; he is the prey of his surroundings. He 
 is always to the fore ; he forces, it may be, an 
 evening paper into our hands ; and he is invariably 
 cheery, in spite of his hard life. Who can resist
 
 xiv INTRODUCTION 
 
 the appeal that he makes ? The Press get up 
 Christmas collections for him ; he is preached about 
 in school and college chapels ; the least generous 
 man feels forced to throw a copper to him in the 
 street. Yet, while this is certainly better than a 
 heartless indifference, it is attended by serious 
 dangers. For after all, the paramount necessity 
 in his training is not so much to alleviate his distress 
 as to teach him to help himself. All who know the 
 poor at all, know full well that one of the main 
 difficulties in improving their position is their lack 
 of self-respect. If the charitable emotions of the 
 public are allowed unfettered scope, then a grave 
 danger is involved in the premium that it puts on 
 cadging. The real demand, therefore, at the present 
 day is not for patronising charity, but for personal 
 service. 
 
 This brings me to my last point. There is perhaps 
 no class of man who can render this service so well 
 as the man who has been through the University 
 and the Public School. He has had many advan- 
 tages, and has learnt many lessons, which eminently 
 qualify him for such work. And yet, comparatively 
 speaking, how few there are who are willing to 
 volunteer ! Even in London, the home of the 
 school and college missions, the scarcity cannot be 
 ignored. It is terrible in our provincial cities. I 
 am hopeful that the day is dawning when all those 
 who leave our Public Schools and older Universities
 
 INTRODUCTION xv 
 
 will realize their responsibility and extend to the 
 working boy the hand of real fellowship. If this 
 book, with its description of the boy and his sur- 
 roundings, and of the many ways in which friendship 
 can be shown, succeeds in persuading a few more 
 of my fellow Public School-men to give that help, 
 I shall be fully rewarded.
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE BOY. 
 
 WHO is the working boy, and what is he like ? Why 
 is it necessary to help him ? These are the questions 
 that I desire to answer in this chapter. For it is no 
 exaggeration to say that a very large number of 
 people have but little knowledge of the real nature 
 of the cheery but grimy youngster with whose 
 appearance we are all so familiar. Still less do they 
 realize how important that youngster is and what a 
 tremendous power for good he and his friends are 
 capable of becoming. 
 
 I propose to deal with the boy between the ages of 
 twelve and seventeen who is the son of poor parents. 
 That is the age of boyhood, and it is during those 
 five years that he is made or marred. Below the age 
 of twelve he hardly realizes his powers ; he is indeed 
 very receptive of influence, but in a quite uncon- 
 scious manner. On the other hand, when he has 
 reached the age of seventeen, his character has been 
 largely bent in one direction or another. Some, no 
 doubt, may put this age higher, but I am sure that
 
 2 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 even they will agree that the critical years when the 
 first all-important choice of life is made are when 
 the boy is between twelve and seventeen. 
 
 What is he like ? Does he show in any way the 
 same characteristics as his wealthier brother at the 
 Public School ? 
 
 I am quite sure that all who know this boy will 
 agree that one of his most delightful characteristics 
 is his unceasing sense of humour. It may be some- 
 what shallow, and on the vulgar side, but he can 
 appreciate a joke and can always manage to see the 
 funny side of things. It is well that he can, for 
 without it his life would be almost intolerably dull 
 and would quite inevitably make him a mere machine. 
 There are some men who imagine that it is dull and 
 wearisome work to sit in a club room and try to 
 amuse a boy. It is really just the opposite, for in 
 the boy a club helper finds a cheery and hearty 
 companion, who by his genuine love of fun removes 
 any chance of dullness. 
 
 Next to his humour, I would put his courage. 
 When one thinks of the trials and hardships that 
 these youngsters have to contend with, one wonders 
 how they can bear it. A Public School boy has 
 every comfort and convenience provided for him by 
 his parents. The working boy has nothing and his 
 parents do not care. No doubt familiarity breeds 
 contempt, and it must be admitted that he can 
 easily manage with less food and scantier clothing
 
 THE BOY 3 
 
 than others in a different class. Even allowing 
 for that, his life is one of hardship. But he is not 
 a grumbler ; he may become one in later life, when 
 his self-respect has decayed ; but there are many 
 boys who would rather starve than grumble. I 
 remember a boy who volunteered one evening after 
 school to carry some boxes from one room to another. 
 After a quarter of an hour he fainted, and on his 
 recovery, he told me that he had had no food, 
 except for a piece of bread and dripping, for twenty- 
 four hours. There are hundreds like that boy, who 
 would be ashamed to beg. I am confident that 
 though there are many men and women who delight 
 to recount their woes, their children have an inherent 
 self-respect and courage, which are nothing short 
 of marvellous. 
 
 He loves a joke ; he is full of pluck. He is, 
 moreover, supremely confident in his own powers. 
 This is not surprising, for from his earliest childhood 
 he has had to fend for himself. With his mother 
 at work as well as his father, there is no one who has 
 time to do anything for him ; he must pick things 
 up by the light of nature, and he does. A small 
 boy was asked one day by a magistrate as to who 
 brought him up. "No one brought me up ; I 
 growed," was his descriptive answer. He feels that 
 he stands alone and that he must rely on himself 
 and not on others. This characteristic has its 
 dangerous side. For it makes him rather suspicious
 
 4 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 of advice ; he instinctively objects to being treated 
 as a child or being told the way to do a thing ; he 
 wants to try, and if he fails, it can't be helped. So 
 soon, however, as he realizes that one is really 
 anxious to help him to develop his powers, he 
 willingly responds. But while this is a danger, it 
 is also a source of hope. For it makes him eager 
 to take responsibility whenever an opportunity 
 occurs. Many of his would-be helpers make a 
 serious mistake in failing to recognize this. They 
 feel they must do everything ; whereas they should 
 consider it their primary duty to leave as much as 
 possible to the boy himself. 
 
 What a fascinating companion such a boy makes ! 
 He is always ready to see one's poorest jokes, always 
 cheerful and always confident. These qualities 
 may, it is true, lead him into trouble, but mischievous 
 though he may be, he is none the less attractive. 
 
 But there are other points about him to be noticed. 
 He is wonderfully sharp. The street in which he 
 lives is full of life and bustle ; very irritating to 
 grown-ups, but intensely interesting to an inquisitive 
 youngster. Mr. Bray in his invaluable book on 
 the Town Child has described it in a remarkably 
 vivid manner. 
 
 " In this respect he is typical of the environment 
 of a town. It is the abode of the irrelevant, dis- 
 connected and casual change. Its panorama, in 
 all the endless variations, produces no conception
 
 THE BOY 5 
 
 of a world of phenomena, related through cause and 
 effect, and merely serves to fill the mind with a 
 whole lumber room of useless though perhaps 
 entertaining rubbish. But incidentally one well- 
 known characteristic of the city matured child finds 
 here its explanation. In this medley of the unex- 
 pected, he is continually called on to adjust his 
 actions to some alteration of the environment. By 
 frequent practice he acquires an unusual dexterity 
 in the task. He develops a phenomenal sharpness 
 and readiness of resource ; that rapid perception of 
 the new accompanied by an immediate decision 
 of how to meet it. But there is no permanent set 
 of the mind in this attitude towards the world, 
 nothing that will, so to say, subject phenomena to 
 its own purpose instead of merely adapting itself 
 to the exigencies of the moment. Here, too, lies 
 the source of the child's acute perception of all that 
 happens in his neighbourhood, that queer assortment 
 of fragments of knowledge about events and people, 
 which is ready to overflow in a ceaseless stream of 
 words. But nothing connects the facts, nothing 
 rivets them in the memory ; the new takes the place 
 of the old, and the past is little more than a mis- 
 cellaneous collection of scenes through which he 
 has lived during the last few years. Open the door 
 of the crowded lumber-room of the mind and a host 
 of the articles, most recently thrust in, will tumble 
 about your ears."
 
 6 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 The result is obvious and inevitable. He becomes 
 sharp beyond description. Nothing escapes his 
 notice, and men and things 'are summed up in a deft 
 and swift manner. One notices the difference 
 between him and a country boy most conspicuously 
 in camp. The solid, dependable, but rather stupid 
 young yokel, cuts a poor figure in any game or 
 amusement against the quick, sharp youngster off 
 the street. 
 
 I remember a very striking proof of this. One 
 Wednesday evening a small boy, a licensed street 
 trader, came in to see me with the request that 
 I would persuade his mother to allow him to play 
 football, instead of selling his papers on the following 
 Saturday. This I refused to do, and thought no 
 more about the boy till he came in on the Friday, 
 with the information that he was going to play 
 football after all. On my request for further 
 information, he told me that he got his papers as 
 usual on the Wednesday evening, and when he saw 
 a policeman close at hand he walked into a public 
 house. When he came out, the policeman summoned 
 him for breaking the licensing regulations. He was 
 sent before the licensing magistrate, who revoked 
 his license for a week. " So," said the boy, " I 
 can't sell my papers however much my mother 
 wants me to." Few others would have had the 
 sharpness to invoke the aid of bye-laws in the satis- 
 faction of his desire to play a game of footer !
 
 ^ THE BOY 7 
 
 His love of excitement is due to the same unsettling 
 influence of the street. He must be up and doing ; 
 he cannot understand a desire for peace and quiet. 
 Not that this is by any means peculiar to a street 
 boy ; people to-day, as a whole, live on excitement. 
 But with him it is intensified. What a thrilling 
 sight it is to see a good fight between two of his 
 neighbours in the street, especially if one of them is 
 a woman ! There may be an arrest, or a fire engine 
 will dash past, and he can join in the crowd which 
 rushes along behind. Not far from his home there 
 is an open fruit stall, and why not see whether an 
 apple can be pinched without detection and a 
 thrashing ? This is all thoroughly bad, for he is 
 led to seek excitement and change in everything. 
 Cricket is too dull ; he demands football or a game 
 of pitch and toss in a secluded spot ; he cannot 
 stick at a job for more than a month or two because 
 he desires a change of surroundings. 
 
 We have seen his humour, courage, self-confidence, 
 sharpness, and love of excitement. Let me note 
 two other prominent characteristics. As I stated 
 at the beginning of this chapter, he is responsive 
 and very receptive of influence whether good or 
 bad. At home he is too often treated with in- 
 difference, varied by silly weakness on the one hand 
 and an undue harshness on the other. He gets no 
 attention of any kind there. So when some one 
 comes along who takes an interest in him, he responds
 
 8 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 and follows where he is led. This is an important 
 trait in his character, and productive of much 
 result. It is true, I believe, that the very large 
 percentage of those who are now in prison or the 
 workhouse, started their downward course through 
 the influence of ' pals ' made at the street corner. 
 It is equally true that those who are now leading 
 honest, decent, Christian lives, owe their characters 
 to the influence of other men and women, rather 
 than to sermons and lectures. It is of vital impor- 
 tance that this should be recognized, for it bears 
 directly on the methods adopted to teach and train 
 him. He may not be willing to learn facts ; but he 
 is willing to be led by him who teaches those facts. 
 
 Lastly, I come to a feature of his character that 
 must inspire boundless hope. He is above all things 
 loyal to his friends. Many a time have I found 
 cases where a widow has had her rent paid by her 
 neighbours, for the poor are ever ready to help a 
 family in times of illness or distress. The boy 
 inherits this, and he will support a pal through 
 thick and thin. To do a job for a friend comes 
 naturally to a street boy ; it is a duty that he under- 
 stands. I am anxious to lay the fullest emphasis 
 on this, because through it he quickly learns to play 
 for his club, rather than for himself, and in it lies 
 the reason for the popularity of a good club. This 
 characteristic, however, is miserably neglected. The 
 appeal made to him by those who would help him,
 
 THE BOY 9 
 
 is far more often along the line of bribery and 
 corruption, than of service and self-sacrifice. True 
 it is that on the surface he appears extraordinarily 
 selfish, but his willingness to be useful to others is 
 really a much more powerful factor in his life. 
 
 There, then, the street boy stands. All know him 
 by sight, though there are few who know his nature. 
 It is so plainly necessary to know him before we 
 can hope to help him, that I make no excuse for 
 trying to sketch him as I see him. He is going to 
 be a man one day. In his hands lie the future of 
 the city, the country and the church to which he 
 belongs. His own future, therefore, is one of 
 paramount importance to Church and State. One 
 hears people condemn the exaggerations of working 
 men who are Socialists, while Labour Members are 
 treated with distrust and are accused of a lack of 
 statesmanship and foresight. One seldom finds 
 these critics willing to take the trouble to go and 
 train the future Labour Member, and by personal 
 contact and mutual understanding to give him a 
 wider outlook and a healthier motive. He criticizes 
 and does nothing. Surely men of education and 
 wealth should learn that perhaps the greatest service 
 they can render to the State is to train the future 
 citizen by bringing to bear upon him when he is 
 young and unsettled, the influence of a strong and 
 healthy character.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 HIS HOME. 
 
 I HAVE tried to give a general estimate of the working 
 boy. There are, of course, many types ; in fact, 
 each boy is different from his neighbour. Just as in 
 the Public School there are popular and unpopular 
 boys, shy and pushing boys, placid and passionate 
 boys, so in any street or club many varieties both 
 in temperament and character are found. There 
 is the leader, the ' ragster,' the affectionate youngster, 
 the boy who is retiring and apt to get pushed aside, 
 the thoughtful scholar, and the ' harum-scarum ' 
 young fellow. All are there, and it is the first 
 duty of one who wishes to assist them, to pierce 
 below the outer surface and find the true nature. 
 To do that, we must try and understand his sur- 
 roundings and the influences to which he is subject, 
 the most potent of which is undoubtedly the home. 
 There are few things more striking than the difference 
 between the son of devoted and sensible parents, 
 however poor they may be, and the boy who has 
 been neglected at home. It is imperative that
 
 HIS HOME ii 
 
 we should spend some time in thoroughly examining 
 the home of the working boy, and, so far as possible, 
 try to judge the nature of its influence. 
 
 We must, however, be quite clear as to whose 
 home we are going to examine, for there are many 
 social scales even among the poor. At the top we 
 have the skilled artisan and the mechanic, earning 
 something like 2 a week. Next to him there are 
 the policeman and postman, the small but prosperous 
 shopkeeper, who lives in the poorest parts perhaps, 
 but holds himself aloof from his neighbours, except 
 when his business demands otherwise. With them 
 there is the ' boss ' of the public house at the corner, 
 who knows all the gossip and scandal of the district. 
 Below them again in the social scale there is a curious 
 assortment of those who are employed in semi- 
 skilled trades, and those who are unskilled, but 
 whose work is assured. This class is undoubtedly 
 in the majority, and it is the class, moreover, from 
 which many clubs draw their members. 
 
 Next to them one finds those whose work is purely 
 casual or seasonal ; who are in work for one month 
 and for the next two months are unemployed. 
 Relying on the wages of their sons at work and on 
 the earnings of their children from the sale of news- 
 papers, they are quite content to muddle along as 
 best they can, and will not bestir themselves to seek 
 regular employment. They are not degraded in 
 any vicious sense, but inherently lazy. Some of
 
 12 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 them are extraordinarily nice and careful of their 
 children, but quite incapable of sticking to any 
 regular work. The sons of this type of men are very 
 similar to those of the last type. They live next 
 door, go to the same school, play together in the 
 street, and attend the same club. No doubt, there 
 is a certain amount of difference in their home 
 training, but their other surroundings are the 
 same. 
 
 There are many, however, who cannot afford to 
 take a house ; furnished apartments or the ' doss ' 
 are their domicile. Those who go to such places 
 are of the lowest and most worthless type. They 
 have been the proud possessors of a home, but have 
 not paid the rent and so they left precipitately, or 
 as we say in the slums they ' shot the moon.' They 
 shift from place to place, and to them home-life 
 is an unknown quantity. 
 
 What, then, are the buildings which they misname 
 home ? Few rich people ever penetrate into the 
 actual home ; they are content to meet the inmates 
 at the club or other meeting place. We hear a great 
 deal about the housing problem, and terrifying 
 statistics are hurled at an unsympathetic audience. 
 It is not my purpose to paint in any vivid colours 
 the dirt and squalor of the homes. It is too easy 
 to exaggerate, although in saying this, I do not 
 wish in any way to minimize the seriousness of the 
 problem. The need for reform is obvious. For
 
 HIS HOME 13 
 
 what could be worse than the average house in one 
 of the courts, so common in Birmingham, where 
 the people we are dealing with live and move and 
 have their being. A narrow, ill-lighted passage 
 leads from the street into the courtyard, with houses 
 round three sides of it. Sometimes the other side 
 is open, though it is more often built in with a high 
 wall. Let us knock at the front door of one of 
 these houses, and if we can persuade the inhabitants 
 that we are not the rent collector, a cordial welcome 
 is given to us. We walk straight into a room of 
 twelve feet square, and it is indeed a strange sight 
 that presents itself. Let us imagine it is about 
 seven o'clock at night. The father is just back 
 from work : he has lit a pipe and is demanding tea. 
 The elder son, a boy in the iron trade, comes in with 
 oily clothes and oily hands, and everything he 
 touches becomes oily also. The sister is there too, 
 and the younger children who are still at school. 
 The mother, who got in half an hour before, is trying 
 to do two things at once, making tea and keeping 
 that mischievous child, who is in the second standard, 
 from falling into the fire. After a few minutes the 
 son disappears into what resembles a cupboard to 
 try and wash the outer covering of oil from off his 
 hands and face. The sister follows suit, for she is 
 going to walk out that evening with her young man. 
 Upstairs, there are two bedrooms, with one bed in 
 each, and here the family of six have to sleep, three
 
 14 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 in a bed. There is a good deal of competition for 
 the middle place ! Such is one type of home. 
 Rather better is the house facing the street, as 
 sometimes the cupboard we noticed as the washing 
 place is enlarged into a small sort of scullery, and 
 there may even be a yard behind. 
 
 What kind of home-life exists in these homes ? 
 What are the difficulties which confront its occu- 
 pants ? 
 
 In the first place, then, the parents are often of 
 a very poor type, and have no permanence in their 
 work. For this reason the amount of furniture 
 depends on the activity of the father. One week 
 the dining-room, drawing-room, kitchen, smoking- 
 room, or nursery (call it what you will, for it is the 
 same room) is filled with furniture. The week 
 after, it is bare, for the furniture is round the corner 
 at the pawnbroker's. This must have a most 
 disturbing influence upon the children. Public 
 School boys often remember their room at home by 
 some special piece of furniture, but with the children 
 of the poor there is no such bond. 
 
 The overcrowding of the home is also intolerably 
 unhealthy. The crush in the bedroom is bad, 
 unspeakably bad. If, for instance, one of the 
 family has consumption, it is highly unlikely that 
 the other members will escape the clutch of that 
 horrible disease. It requires unceasing labour on 
 the part of the mother to keep it clean and orderly;
 
 HIS HOME 15 
 
 indeed, it is impossible if, as is often the case, she 
 goes to work as well. 
 
 The publicity of the life of the inhabitants of the 
 court, again, is productive of many evils. As the 
 five or six families living in the court are forced 
 to share a common washing place and a common 
 lavatory, there is no privacy at all. Each one 
 knows all about the others, and the children on 
 their way home late in the evening often meet a 
 drunken neighbour in the narrow entry. They 
 become speedily acquainted with evil from their 
 earliest childhood, evil to which eventually they 
 become indifferent ; for familiarity breeds contempt. 
 
 There is another serious feature in the life of these 
 people. They move incessantly from house to 
 house, either because they cannot pay the rent, or 
 else because, as Tommy has gone to work and is 
 bringing in an extra six shillings a week, they feel 
 they can afford a better and bigger house. The 
 mother gets ill, or the father has a fit of laziness, and 
 back they drift again to the poorer quarters. They 
 do not move very far, for they are wonderfully 
 conservative as regards locality. But their addresses 
 change from month to month, as a register of 
 addresses of a Boys' Club will clearly prove. 
 
 In the home itself things are no better. Very 
 often the parents have married early, before they 
 have had sufficient to live upon, which too often 
 means unhealthy, if not feeble-minded children. In
 
 16 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 many cases drunkenness and impurity are rife, 
 while the income depends on the success of the 
 father's gambling adventures. 
 
 Before one attempts to draw any general con- 
 clusion, there is, however, one thing which must be 
 noted. There is an increasing demand for women's 
 labour. In Birmingham this demand is incessant. 
 This is quite disastrous, for as a result the children 
 are left to their own devices from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. 
 The home is locked, with them outside, so that the 
 gutter must form the luncheon table. The physical 
 strain that such work imposes upon the mother too 
 often shows itself in the children, an evil which 
 demands fuller attention than it is possible to give 
 it here. 
 
 The effects that such homes have upon the boy 
 who is drawn from them, may be summarized under 
 two headings, i.e. the absence of any attachment 
 to a house as a home ; and also, and more important 
 still, the lack of personal attention to his training. 
 
 The reason for the first of these evils, the looseness 
 of the home life, is clear and obvious. No proper 
 and sound home life is possible when the boy has 
 had ten or fifteen houses misnamed home. To us 
 the house in which we romped as children, and to 
 which we returned with glee at the end of the school 
 term, was the embodiment of all the many home 
 ties and affections. It may have been only senti- 
 ment, but even so it had a wonderful influence upon
 
 HIS HOME 17 
 
 us. How different with the working boy ! He has 
 no special room, where he can store his treasures 
 and to which as he grows up he can look as the place 
 where he dreamed dreams and formed ideals for 
 his life. With him all is change and restlessness, 
 and those are reflected in his wild, reckless and 
 impulsive character. Solidarity, dependability, con- 
 stancy and persistency he has never learnt, simply 
 because he has never had that permanent home to 
 which they belong. 
 
 But, further, we come to the other disturbing 
 feature of the home life of these boys, and that is 
 the very little attention paid to them at home. The 
 attitude of the parents to the children is a serious 
 one, and needs full comment and explanation. 
 What is this attitude ? In what way or in what 
 methods do they attempt to train the boy ? One 
 may say that there are three different types in this 
 respect. 
 
 (i) In the first place, we have those who show 
 an utter indifference to the welfare and future of 
 their son. The case of Arthur C., a member of a 
 club, comes to my mind. Though very unreliable 
 and rather fickle in his aims and desires, he was a 
 good chap at heart. One night he met me as I was 
 coming back late, and told me that he could not find 
 his family. He had had tea with them at about 
 six or seven, and had then gone off to the club. He 
 returned to go to bed about half-past ten, to find his
 
 i8 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 parents had gone and taken all their belongings 
 with them. Not only that, but they had left no 
 message as to where they had gone. He was, 
 therefore, homeless for the night. That is just an 
 example of the indifference which is shown by many 
 parents towards their children. This indifference 
 is quite consistent except on one or two occasions. 
 When a boy is a nuisance in the home, disturbs the 
 father's pipe of peace, or gets in the mother's way, 
 he gets a thrashing. After that outbreak, indiffer- 
 ence again reigns supreme, until he is on the point 
 of going to work, when the father will rouse himself 
 and insist upon the boy earning a big wage, regard- 
 less of future prospects. Apart from such occasions, 
 however, the son plays no part, and has no share, 
 in the home life. What wonder is it that he does 
 not love his home and that he regards it not as a 
 true home, but as a common lodging-house where 
 he and his parents happen to live together. 
 
 It is easy to see the result. That boy has pecu- 
 liarities of temperament, individual talents and 
 powers which need development. The home is 
 where these should be recognized and turned into 
 useful channels ; where his powers should be 
 developed by kind, strong, sensible discipline. No 
 such thing, however, occurs ; to his parents he is 
 merely a parcel of flesh and bones. He is neglected, 
 and he emerges stunted in growth, warped in 
 character, and indifferent to the call of his higher
 
 HIS HOME 19 
 
 nature. We would like to believe that such parents 
 are the exception, but experience forbids this hope, 
 for they are all too common at the present time. 
 
 (2) We turn to a second type. There are many 
 parents who do honestly and sincerely wish to do 
 their best by the children. But stress of circum- 
 stances and ignorance forbid it. The home is small, 
 and the mother is fully occupied, when back from 
 work, with looking after the youngest children 
 and in trying to keep the house neat and tidy. The 
 father, a sober, self-respecting man, smokes Tiis 
 pipe in the corner. There is literally no room for 
 the boy who wants his fun and romp, and he is 
 unwillingly but by force of necessity pushed out into 
 the street, till the children have gone to bed. The 
 mother and the father, therefore, see but little of 
 their son, and it is extraordinary how ignorant the 
 parents can be about him, not because they do not 
 want to know, but because they have no oppor- 
 tunity. 
 
 Again, they are often entirely ignorant of how to 
 train him. I remember going to see a woman 
 about her son. Our conversation was most difficult 
 as the baby was yelling in a cot in the corner. I 
 was thunderstruck when the mother seized her 
 husband's pot of beer and gave the baby a drop or 
 two to drink. I vehemently expostulated, but 
 she said that the baby liked it, and when I pointed 
 out how bad it was for the child, she was quite
 
 20 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 astonished. Why should she know better ? She 
 has never been taught how to care for her children, 
 and what is good or bad for them. The same 
 ignorance displays itself in their methods of discip- 
 line. One day they show a silly weakness, the next 
 day an undue harshness. There is no method, and 
 the result is that the boy believes discipline depends 
 upon the temper in which his parents happen to 
 be. They quite honestly care about their sons, but 
 they do not know how to put this care into efficient 
 practice. 
 
 (3) It is with relief that we turn to another side 
 of the picture. There are many homes where the 
 mother and father not only take an interest and 
 pride in their children, but in spite of adverse circum- 
 stances train and discipline them in a manner beyond 
 praise. I know of a home in a poor court of 
 Birmingham where there are four children. The 
 family is genuinely poor, but the children do not 
 show it. The boys are always clean and neat, 
 though a close scrutiny would show many patches ; 
 they are polite and obedient, and unselfishness 
 marks their conduct at home. Behind them are 
 parents who know and understand the responsi- 
 bilities and duties of their position ; a strong 
 discipline is maintained and one that is actuated 
 by a sympathetic knowledge of their children's 
 individual needs and eccentricities ; they know 
 how to make full use of what they have, even though
 
 HIS HOME 21 
 
 it is but little. It is with utter thankfulness that 
 we say that such homes do exist, and we take heart 
 in hoping that they will increase. 
 
 Before I turn to other subjects, there are two 
 other points to be mentioned. Many people wax 
 enthusiastic about the state of the clothes of these 
 children, and no doubt their enthusiasm has a cause. 
 Take, for instance, the boots that the poor buy. 
 The soles of these boots are often of the cheapest 
 stuff, and nothing more than mere cardboard. Their 
 other clothes are cheap beyond description, so that 
 it is no wonder if many go ragged and ill-shod. I 
 am doubtful, however, whether it is as bad as it 
 seems, for there are hundreds of agencies to supply 
 clothes, besides the charitable individual effort. 
 Although I do not wish to say that no child need 
 go ragged, for there are some who seem to be left 
 out, yet I am quite certain that parents realize that 
 money is to be made out of ragged children, and 
 that a bootless boy can make certain of sixpence, 
 if not more, on a snowy day. 
 
 The other important point is the food, which is 
 scarce at the best of times. Let me give a menu 
 of a child for a day. 
 
 Eight o'clock : two slices of bread and dripping, 
 and a cup of very strong tea. 
 
 One o'clock : a cheap stew and another slice of 
 bread and dripping. 
 
 Six o'clock : a cup of tea, and two slices of bread.
 
 22 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 If they are fortunate enough to get an extra 
 penny, they may be able to visit a fish shop before 
 bed. That menu is often reduced. And one 
 frequent cause for such is the thriftless habits of the 
 mother. There is much waste in the home, even 
 among the poorest, and it is no unusual sight to 
 see big crusts of bread thrown aside with a reckless- 
 ness and waste, more to be expected in a millionaire 
 than in those who have a hard struggle to make 
 both ends meet. 
 
 One word in conclusion. The home life is the 
 most potent influence in the boy's life. But it is 
 being threatened from all sides. Well-meaning 
 philanthropists and a sentimental public are too 
 prone to take the burden off the parents, little 
 realizing that it only accentuates their indifference 
 towards their children. It is imperative that the 
 public, and especially social reformers, should realize 
 that the nation is built up on the home, and that 
 the whole force of their influence should be directed 
 to strengthening the family ties, and to purifying 
 and elevating the home life and influence.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 HIS EDUCATION. 
 
 FOR nine years of his life, the boy is forced to attend 
 an Elementary School for twenty-seven and a half 
 hours a week. It will be admitted that his future 
 depends on the kind of education that he receives 
 during that time, especially when it is remembered 
 how little training he receives at home. Although it 
 may be true that with the better class boy the 
 function of the school is to develop the initial training 
 of the home, it is different with the son of the poorest 
 parents. For in their case education has to eradicate 
 the evil influence of the home, before it can implant 
 in him the most rudimentary ideas of right and 
 wrong. It is clear, therefore, that the work of an 
 Elementary School must be widely different from 
 that of the Preparatory and Public School. The 
 work of the former is much more difficult, for it 
 must be negative as well as positive ; it must aim 
 at destroying as well as at building up. 
 
 The influence of a good school upon the neighbour- 
 ing district is reflected in the way in which the
 
 24 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 building, with its somewhat florid tower, rises 
 above the squalid courts and houses by which it 
 is surrounded. Very often it is the only solid building 
 in the district ; it is certainly the brightest, while 
 its playground is usually the only open space in the 
 neighbourhood. It is an oasis in a desert of squalor 
 and dirt ; for, apart from the Church, it is the only 
 source of those influences which are elevating and 
 wholesome. It is, therefore, essential that the 
 whole-hearted energies of the community should 
 be directed towards bringing these schools up to 
 the highest pitch of efficiency and usefulness. They 
 are not only places of learning ; they are the source 
 of all that tends to uplift the childhood of the slum. 
 
 Let me say at the outset that I do not pretend 
 to be an educationist in the limited sense of the 
 word, for I have never undertaken the arduous 
 duties of a schoolmaster. The knowledge, from 
 which I write, is based upon a wide friendship with 
 hundreds of Elementary School boys and teachers, 
 and incessant visits to the schools. Any criticisms 
 also that I may put forward are those of a man who 
 realizes the good work that the schools are doing 
 and longs for more ! 
 
 The first matter that attracts our attention is 
 concerned with the subjects that a child is expected 
 to learn. Reading, writing and arithmetic must 
 be three indispensable parts of all elementary 
 education, as it is upon them that the whole structure
 
 HIS EDUCATION 25 
 
 of education is based. This is generally admitted 
 in theory, and so it would seem to be unnecessary 
 to do more than notice it. Yet it is in fact very 
 necessary that repeated emphasis should be laid 
 upon their importance. Complaints are frequently 
 made by business men that it is very difficult to 
 secure an office boy who can write well, and who can 
 add up a list of figures with any degree of accuracy. 
 While it is no doubt true that the purpose of educa- 
 tion is not to make all boys efficient clerks, yet 
 there is no trade in which a boy will do well whose 
 calculations appear, as is often the case, to be based 
 on the assumption that 2+2 = 5. There are count- 
 less boys who, twelve months after they have left 
 school, are quite unable to write legibly, to read 
 properly or to calculate accurately. Apart, how- 
 ever, from the industrial prospects of the boy, his 
 future will be immeasurably poorer and narrower 
 if he is unable to read well. With the Free Libraries 
 so close at hand, literature of a good description is 
 available to the poorest, and yet few of the younger 
 generation read much beyond the football news or 
 the latest murder. It is open to doubt whether our 
 schools are doing what they might in developing 
 in the boys a taste for reading good literature. 
 Although amended editions of Scott's novels and 
 other similar books are in use in many schools, 
 they are apt to be treated as a subject to be taught, 
 more than as a pleasure to be enjoyed. For this
 
 26 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 and other reasons greater attention should be 
 directed to securing efficient instruction in the 
 three R's. 
 
 At present this is difficult owing to the large 
 quantity of extra subjects which are crowded into 
 the time-table. History, geography, singing, draw- 
 ing, woodwork, and elementary science are all given 
 their due proportion of time out of the twenty-seven 
 and a half hours in the week, while a few progressive 
 schools are beginning to teach subjects which we 
 may describe as utilitarian. In one school, for 
 instance, boys are taught to mend their clothes, a 
 most useful occupation. Crowds upon crowds of 
 facts are pushed into the boy's mind, which are 
 promptly forgotten six months after he has left 
 school. Besides this, too little attention is paid 
 to the natural bent of the boy. For instance, all 
 boys must learn drawing, though it is quite clear 
 that there are many boys in every school who are 
 by nature unable to gain any advantage whatever 
 from this form of instruction, though they may be 
 musical or at any rate capable of gaining help from 
 singing. Thus it would appear to be a reasonable 
 reform that these subjects should be made optional. 
 
 History is an important subject, for there would 
 probably be less bigotry in our trade unions if 
 our boys were given a taste for it. Dates and the 
 order of the succession of the Kings of England are 
 driven into the boy's head, and insufficient attention
 
 HIS EDUCATION 27 
 
 is paid to interesting him in the gradual development 
 of his country. It might be arranged, for instance, 
 that teachers should take boys to see the neighbour- 
 ing buildings and places of historic interest, so as 
 to make the instruction objective, though time 
 for these visits should be provided for during the 
 regular school hours, as it is unfair to expect the 
 teacher to do much in this way in his spare time. 
 The supreme aim should be to develop in the boys 
 a real taste for those things which will be of interest 
 to him in later years, and not merely to give him a 
 knowledge of a miscellaneous crowd of unconnected 
 facts. 
 
 It must be admitted that one of the chief obstacles 
 in this direction is the modern system of inspection. 
 For the teacher's reputation is made or marred by 
 the alacrity with which the boys in his standard 
 answer the questions of the inspector. He is 
 compelled to aim at fixing facts into the minds of 
 his pupils, so that they will be able to answer the 
 questions asked in the examination. This system 
 is detrimental to the development of tastes. It 
 might be quite easily arranged that such inspection 
 should be held in the three elementary subjects, 
 but that it should be dispensed with where history, 
 literature, and kindred subjects are concerned. 
 Any slackness or inability on the part of the teacher 
 could easily be detected in other ways, and it would 
 have the immense advantage of leaving the teacher
 
 28 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 free to develop the boys' taste along his own lines. 
 Teachers are human beings with human limitations, 
 and it is asking too much of them to adopt with 
 success the methods laid down by a central body. 
 They should be allowed greater freedom to choose 
 their own lines, especially when it is remembered 
 that this freedom is always granted to masters in 
 Preparatory and Public Schools, whose task is 
 infinitely easier. 
 
 Before we leave the question of the curriculum, 
 I should like to draw attention to a matter in which 
 reform seems to be needed. A smattering of know- 
 ledge rather than intelligence is the result of much 
 of our education, and the reason for this is not hard 
 to find. For the art of teaching has been brought 
 to such a high pitch of efficiency that, provided the 
 boy will keep quiet, knowledge drifts into his head 
 with very little effort being required of him. Seldom 
 is he called upon to worry a thing out for himself 
 as is the case with the better class boy, who is given 
 a piece of translation or some mathematical problem 
 which he has to make the best of by himself in his 
 hour of preparation. As it is impossible to expect 
 him to do any work at home, it would be advisable 
 that half an hour each day should be set apart for 
 this unaided struggle with a problem which will 
 force him to think for himself. In this way his 
 intelligence will be aroused, and his keenness stimu- 
 lated, with the result that he will not be an unthink-
 
 HIS EDUCATION 29 
 
 ing receptacle of facts, as he is apt to be under the 
 present system. 
 
 This brings us to another difficulty with which the 
 teacher is confronted. His work is to develop as 
 well as to teach the boy, and he is expected to 
 undertake this task with sixty or more boys, which 
 is the average number in any one standard. It is 
 quite unreasonable to expect this of any man. He 
 has no time in which he can pay attention to the 
 needs, difficulties or aspirations of any one par- 
 ticular boy, for it takes him all his time to keep them 
 quiet and to teach them the necessary amount. 
 Thus the boy is apt to be regarded as one of a class, 
 not as an individual with his particular needs and 
 idiosyncracies. The Board of Education has begun 
 to pay attention to this, and it is insisting on a 
 general reduction in the size of the classes. But 
 reform comes slowly, and public opinion must be 
 raised on this matter if the ideal is to be attained. 
 We are told that it will mean a great additional 
 expense. Very likely it will, but surely it is a most 
 necessary expense if the aim of education is the 
 development of the boy as an individual. From 
 this, it necessarily follows that some differentiation 
 should be made among the boys. At present the 
 normal boy glides up the school, spending a year in 
 each standard, usually ending at the sixth. There 
 are, of course, brilliant boys whose progress up the 
 school is meteoric, and who reach the seventh
 
 3 o TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 standard at an extraordinarily early age, while, on 
 the other hand, there are a few dullards who lag far 
 behind. But with the normal boy progress is slow 
 and steady, and he proceeds up the standards without 
 any attention being paid either to his natural in- 
 clinations, as we noticed above, or to his future life. 
 Reform in the latter direction is very difficult, 
 for it would be quite impossible, even if it were 
 advisable, to give each boy specialized treatment 
 according to the trade which he was likely to enter 
 on leaving school. But much more might be done 
 than is done at present. It is sometimes the case 
 that there is a particular trade in the locality, into 
 which many of the boys are eventually drafted. 
 Surely it would not be very difficult to give these 
 boys some instruction of a special character which 
 would be of value to them in their work. We have 
 in Birmingham a most energetic and public-spirited 
 Jewellers' Association, which has secured differential 
 treatment on the lines that I have indicated. Both 
 boys and girls are chosen from the neighbouring 
 Elementary Schools to attend the special jewellers' 
 school on certain afternoons of the week, where they 
 receive instruction in designing and other similar 
 subjects which will be of direct value to them in 
 the future. I am quite willing to admit that it 
 would be difficult to extend this system when trade 
 is so subdivided, and when few firms do more than 
 one particular piece of work. But if this principle
 
 HIS EDUCATION 31 
 
 is accepted and constantly kept in view, it would be 
 found, I am certain, that much more could be done 
 in this direction than is at present realized. 
 
 We now turn to the all-important matter of 
 discipline, an indispensable factor hi the full educa- 
 tion of a boy, and one to which the schools are 
 giving more and more attention. By the time that 
 he leaves school, the boy has learnt the elementary 
 ideas of obedience, smartness and courtesy. With 
 little or no support from the home, our schools are 
 succeeding in turning wild and reckless youngsters 
 into smart and obedient boys. Their work is nothing 
 short of marvellous, considering the difficulties under 
 which they labour. The regular drills, the insistence 
 on punctuality, and the strict maintenance of order 
 have a far-reaching effect upon the character, and 
 it is an encouraging sight to visit a slum school 
 and see the results of such training upon the elder 
 boys. While I do not wish to criticize such magni- 
 ficent work, I must admit that I feel that the cane 
 is too much hi evidence. There is a danger that 
 the incessant tappings on the hand with the cane 
 will produce a certain contempt for punishment. 
 I believe that it would be wiser to reduce the number 
 of punishments and to increase their severity, for 
 a sound thrashing once or twice during his school 
 life would do a boy infinitely more good than any 
 number of petty canings on the hand. Indeed 
 I am of opinion that the discipline of a good school
 
 32 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 could be maintained without the cane and hi ways 
 which are more educative and less punitive. For 
 instance, many schools have some system by which 
 the elder boys, called monitors, have small duties 
 entrusted to them, giving a sense of responsibility 
 that tends to develop their self-respect. This is 
 all-important for a working boy to learn, for he is 
 the object of much charity and sympathy, through 
 which he will be injuriously affected unless the 
 school counteracts it by developing in him that idea 
 of sturdy independence to which we as a nation owe 
 so much. It is difficult to do a great deal in this 
 respect, but it is possible to give many small duties 
 and posts of responsibility, and this would certainly 
 be a step forward in the right direction. 
 
 But, however good the instruction and the discip- 
 line may be as systems, the real burden lies upon 
 the teacher. Character is made by character, and 
 it is the personal influence and example of his teacher 
 which prove the main factors in a boy's training. 
 The extent of this influence is indeed limited by the 
 size of the classes and by the shortness of the school 
 hours, but even allowing for these difficulties the 
 teacher has a great opportunity, which many are 
 quick to seize. Both hi school, and out of their 
 own leisure, many of them are devoting both time 
 and attention to the boys committed to their care. 
 Unstinted praise must be given to them for their 
 devoted work.
 
 HIS EDUCATION 33 
 
 We wish that this were equally true of all teachers, 
 but unpleasant as it is to say so, many of them regard 
 their work simply as a profession, with but little 
 consciousness of their grave responsibility. The 
 blame for this must partly be attributed to our 
 system of training. A man's ability to teach is 
 tested by examination, and it is on the result of this 
 that his future largely depends. His keenness for 
 the work itself, his power of sympathizing with, and 
 understanding, boys are not among the set subjects, 
 and are too often disregarded when appointments 
 are made. 
 
 This naturally affects the system by which he is 
 prepared for his work in the Training Colleges. Many 
 of them do lay great stress on the personal equip- 
 ment for the work, but when the examination is 
 prominent, it is forced somewhat into the background 
 and cannot receive the amount of attention to 
 which it is entitled. It is high time, therefore, that 
 the public should demand that the teachers should 
 be only those who realize the responsibilities of the 
 work. We must get the best men trained in the 
 most efficient way. 
 
 If we are to do this, it is necessary that we should 
 give them salaries proportionate to this work, for 
 the present position in this respect is disgraceful. 
 There are few more responsible positions, and it is 
 imperative that we should secure the best men and 
 pay them accordingly.
 
 34 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 There is one defect in the Elementary School 
 which impresses itself most forcibly on the mind of 
 an old Public School boy or University man, and 
 that is the weakness, and sometimes the utter lack, 
 of any esprit de corps shown by the boys for their 
 school. To neglect this is to rob the education of 
 a most important factor. For it should be clearly 
 an essential feature of any system of education to 
 develop in the boy a willingness to forget himself 
 for the good of others. To neglect this is seriously 
 to damage the usefulness of the training. No man 
 is of much value unless he has learnt the duty of 
 serving the community of which he is a member, 
 To give a boy a pride in his school, to stir his en- 
 thusiasm for the success of the school football team, 
 to teach him that if he does wrong he disgraces the 
 school as well as himself, are among the most 
 important lessons that can be taught. Two simple 
 methods by which this can be done are the provision 
 of school caps, and honour boards on which are 
 inscribed the names of boys who have won scholar- 
 ships, or prizes in swimming or other athletics. 
 The value of the school football or cricket team is 
 also immense, for the keenness that is aroused by 
 the regular competitions among the different schools 
 has deep influence upon the school, and many 
 teachers are indefatigable in their work of choosing 
 and training their team. 
 
 For games are an educative force in themselves
 
 HIS EDUCATION 35 
 
 if played under proper supervision, and it would 
 be time well spent if an hour or two could be given 
 out of school hours to organized games. The main- 
 tenance of this esprit de corps among the boys who 
 have left is well done through the organization of 
 Old Scholars' Clubs. Though they have not yet 
 been adopted to any great extent, the marked 
 success of the few in existence will encourage their 
 adoption in other places. In this respect, I should 
 like to draw attention to a very remarkable effort 
 that was made by the headmaster and teachers of 
 one of the poorest of the Elementary Schools in 
 Birmingham. In the evening of two nights in each 
 week, the desks were moved out of the way, and a 
 vaulting horse, parallel bars and rings took their 
 place. In other rooms quiet games and a small 
 library were provided, while space was also found 
 for boxing and wrestling. White vests and knickers 
 were provided at some nominal expense. Through 
 this club mutual friendships were formed between 
 boys and masters which had a strong influence upon 
 the tone of the whole school. 
 
 It is not right, however, that all this work should 
 be left to the teachers. A great deal can be done 
 by voluntary men and women who will take an 
 unofficial interest, not in the whole school only, but 
 hi the individual boys. The school managers are 
 very often little more than patrons of the school. 
 It is really urgent that they should realize that
 
 36 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 their position entails upon them a responsibility 
 in rendering unofficial help to the overworked 
 teachers in a slum school. It is in the supply of 
 this kind of help that Voluntary Schools have a 
 great advantage over the ordinary Council Schools, 
 for the members of the Church to which the school 
 is attached are available for supplementing the 
 ordinary work of the teachers in the directions that 
 I have suggested, and in personal work among the 
 children. Again and again, masters in Council 
 Schools have told me how they envied the Voluntary 
 Schools in this respect. 
 
 For the teachers have other burdens thrust upon 
 them, which cannot strictly be described as educa- 
 tional, and yet are essential complements to any 
 school. There is first of all the provision of free 
 meals for necessitous children. Breakfasts, con- 
 sisting of porridge and treacle, with a plentiful 
 supply of bread and butter, are supplied on five 
 days in the week to those who are clearly proved 
 to be otherwise unprovided for at home. No one 
 can deny that these meals are essential. It is all 
 very well for comfortable business men to talk about 
 undermining parental responsibility. For, although 
 it is generally agreed that this is a danger which 
 must be carefully guarded against, it is perfectly 
 useless to attempt to teach any boy who, through 
 lack of food, is physically unfit to learn. It is, to 
 put it in the lowest ground, economy to feed the boy
 
 HIS EDUCATION 37 
 
 so that the instruction given to him may not be 
 wasted. 
 
 Further, education must take into account the 
 health of the boy as well as his mind, because a 
 stunted and weak generation is as bad for a nation 
 as one that is ignorant and stupid. Men have 
 partially realized this, and have not only insisted 
 upon the provision of food but also upon the careful 
 medical supervision of the boy. Medical officers 
 are appointed to the schools, who make a periodical 
 inspection of the children, and either secure them 
 treatment at the school clinic or make strong 
 recommendations to the parents to see that their 
 children are attended to. It is here also that 
 voluntary helpers are needed, for the parents will 
 not always follow the doctor's advice unless they 
 are urged to do so from outside ; while financial 
 help is sometimes required, as, for instance, in the 
 provision of spectacles. The development of the 
 boy's physique is as important as the training of 
 his mental powers, so that the provision of meals 
 and the medical care must be treated as essential 
 parts of the work of the school, and no amount 
 of money or labour spent on them can be too 
 large. 
 
 I have left to the end two of the most important 
 points of our whole educational system. The first 
 is that the boy's school life ends too early. At 
 the age when he is becoming more fully conscious
 
 3 S TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 of his own powers and limitations, and so needs the 
 wisest guidance and the strongest influence, he is 
 plunged headlong into the office or the factory, 
 where he gains his independence and is deprived of 
 the control and discipline of the school. On his 
 fourteenth birthday, and not a day later, he leaves 
 school, and no one can say him ' nay.' That is 
 sufficiently bad, but it is worse in the case of the 
 clever boy who leaves even before this time, gaining 
 his exemption by passing the labour examination. 
 For they are the very boys who would profit from 
 a fuller education, which would enable them to 
 rise above their fellows and, it may be, raise their 
 fellows with them. No such further education 
 except that of the secondary school is open to them. 
 Even if they stay at school until fourteen, their 
 time is either spent in going over the same ground 
 as before, or, as is often the case, in running messages 
 and doing odd jobs for the headmaster. Usually, 
 however, they leave school, and act as errand boys, 
 the law of the land forbidding them entrance to 
 a factory until they are fourteen. Here, then, is a 
 clear case for reform. It should be made impossible 
 for these clever boys to leave school early, and it 
 should be arranged that as a matter of course they 
 should be transferred to some school where a higher 
 and better education is given to them. 
 
 Many would go further and raise the age of leaving 
 up to sixteen, unless it was clearly proved that the
 
 HIS EDUCATION 39 
 
 boy could only be a hewer of wood and drawer of 
 water, in which case he might be allowed to go to 
 a factory earlier. Public opinion is at present 
 opposed to this reform, as likely to inflict a hardship 
 on the poorest families, as it is forgotten that if 
 you take this large supply of boys off the labour 
 market, there will probably be a proportionately 
 bigger demand for men's labour. It seems likely, 
 if not certain, that the loss to the parents of the 
 boys' wages would be nearly compensated for in 
 other directions. At any rate, it is our duty to see 
 that our future citizens are adequately trained, and 
 if this cannot be done, now that the boys leave 
 school at the age of fourteen, we must insist that 
 something shall be done at any cost. 
 
 Until, however, the time comes when the public 
 will understand the importance of this, we ought 
 to be able to secure to the boy some continued 
 education. Under the present conditions of boy 
 labour, it would be futile to make attendance at 
 an evening continuation school compulsory. This is 
 no doubt desirable, but with it must go the limitation 
 of the hours of labour. On the evenings when the 
 boy is to attend his classes, he should be able to 
 leave work at 5 o'clock, so that he will not be so tired 
 as to be incapable of benefiting from the education. 
 Better still, he should be forced to attend some 
 technical or special trade school on two or three 
 afternoons of the week. It is a scandal that a boy
 
 40 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 should be able to snap his fingers at the school on 
 his fourteenth birthday. 
 
 The other point which I have left to the end is 
 the most important of all. The boy's nature is not 
 composed only of mind and body. He has a soul ; 
 he has religious instincts ; he has a genuine reverence 
 for what is good and noble. His religious education 
 is one of quite crucial importance, and ought not to 
 be considered as a subject for sectarian strife. I 
 do not desire to enter into a heated discussion as 
 to the relative merits of Council and Voluntary 
 Schools. I am convinced, however, of the superiority 
 of the latter, not only because they possess a good 
 supply of voluntary helpers to supplement the 
 work of teachers, but also because they can meet 
 two needs in the religious education of the boy 
 which the Council School cannot meet. 
 
 In the first place, it is quite essential that the 
 teachers should be convinced of the truth of what 
 they teach. This is necessary in all education, but 
 especially so when the subject is religion. This 
 essential condition can be secured in the Voluntary 
 School only, for although I readily admit very many 
 Council teachers do hold genuine religious con- 
 victions, there is no guarantee that this will always 
 be the case. This, to my mind, is the all-important 
 point, for it is the teacher, rather than the subject, that 
 counts, and it is important that in some schools, at 
 any rate, we should be quite certain of our teachers.
 
 HIS EDUCATION 41 
 
 Further, no religious education is of any value 
 unless it is definite and related to something tangible 
 which the boy can appreciate. Vague generalities 
 as to the importance of being good will carry no 
 weight with him once he has left the school, for he 
 requires something more solid and concrete. If, 
 on the other hand, we teach him the meaning of 
 the Church, as the body of Christ, if we show him 
 that he can only obtain his full powers as a member 
 of that body, and that as a churchman it is his duty 
 to serve his friends, he will not only take an intelli- 
 gent interest in the Church's teaching, but will also 
 naturally attach himself to the organization of his 
 Parish Church. These are two essential factors in 
 all religious education, and they are only secured 
 in the Voluntary Schools. 
 
 Education is the full development of all the boy's 
 faculties, body, mind and soul ; it must not be 
 regarded simply as the mere teaching of facts. All 
 the criticisms that I have offered are directed to 
 securing that this development should be more 
 adequately carried out, and that the personal 
 influence of the teacher, which is the chief factor, 
 should be given freer scope than it receives at present. 
 We have much to be thankful for ; but there 
 remains still more to be done before our schools are 
 really able to develop the boy into the kind of man 
 that his Maker intended him to be.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 HIS RECREATIONS. 
 
 THE value of properly organized games in the 
 training of character will be readily admitted by 
 all healthy men. It is no less true that inadequate 
 recreation and undesirable amusements are proved 
 to have an injurious effect. It is therefore necessary 
 for us to look closely into the working boy's recrea- 
 tions, and to see whether these are likely to have a 
 good or a bad influence upon his character. If it 
 is bad, then we must discover what possibilities 
 there are in the way of reform. 
 
 For, in spite of his unhealthy surroundings, the 
 working boy is full of life and go. To sit still and do 
 nothing is something which he has never tried. He 
 must be up and doing as soon as he leaves the school 
 or the workshop. This is true of all boys, but 
 especially true of the son of working parents, for 
 his school makes little or no regular provision for 
 athletics, and his natural energies have no healthy 
 outlet elsewhere. 
 
 The neighbourhood in which he lives provides a
 
 HIS RECREATIONS 43 
 
 considerable amount of interest and excitement. 
 But he desires quite naturally to play some game, 
 or, to use his own words, ' to have a swank.' Thus 
 he insists on having a game of football. With the 
 aid of his friends, he will endeavour to beg, borrow 
 or steal a small ball. Now and then he may have 
 a piece of luck and get the loan of a football for the 
 Saturday, which he proceeds to use in the street 
 on the Friday evening. Failing this, a piece of 
 paper tied up with string makes quite an effective 
 substitute. The street is the only available pitch, 
 and though the gutter and a passing cart are a 
 bit of a nuisance, quite a thrilling game can be 
 enjoyed, so long as no policeman appears. I 
 remember one Christmas holidays, hearing an ab- 
 sorbing account of a keen match that had been 
 played between the boys of two neighbouring 
 streets. Hot and dirty, they recounted to me with 
 zest all the interesting incidents of the game. The 
 fact that that ball had now and then disappeared 
 within a house did not seem to have interfered at 
 all with their pleasure. 
 
 If this form of amusement fails, he will pass away 
 the time in some exciting games, the rules of which 
 baffle the casual observer. It would seem as if 
 the main features of the game were to run across the 
 street as often as you can without being run over, 
 or caught by your opponent, to give as many 
 nervous shocks as possible to grave business men
 
 44 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 and old ladies, and then, if your opponent catches 
 you, to say he cheated and to back up your argument 
 to this effect with muscular force. All very splendid, 
 but hardly educative for the boy or conducive of 
 peace of mind to the passer by. 
 
 The fact is that he has very little opportunity 
 for ' letting off steam.' He has little time to go 
 far from his home, and there is little if any space 
 near by. For, strange as it may seem, the school 
 playground is closed to him in the evening. It is 
 quite impossible to understand why this should be 
 so. The Board of Education insists on each school 
 being provided with a good sized playground, which 
 is really only used just before school and during 
 the intervals in the morning and afternoon sessions. 
 Some authorities are realizing the ridiculousness of 
 this, and are opening them in the evening. But the 
 opposition of the caretaker, and the fear of damage 
 to the school windows keep the majority back from 
 taking this obvious step. 
 
 Apart from the playground, there are very few 
 open spaces in the slums. There are some which 
 have been provided because perhaps the land 
 couldn't be used in other ways. The parks are in 
 the suburbs among the houses with a garden, 
 and even there he will usually find a neat little 
 notice informing him that he must ' keep off the 
 grass.' On the Saturdays he may get a chance of 
 a game on the regular pitches in the park in the
 
 HIS RECREATIONS 45 
 
 morning. In the afternoon they are occupied by 
 teams of clerks, etc., who could easily afford to go 
 further afield and hire a ground. The first necessity, 
 therefore, is the provision of more open spaces in 
 the centre of the town. Thanks to the tireless 
 energy of Mr. N. G. Chamberlain and others, we in 
 Birmingham are being provided with a few ideal 
 places for the children. One of them has a large 
 asphalt ground, where boys can kick footballs about, 
 with swings and some few gymnastic appliances 
 along the sides. 
 
 Even this, however, is insufficient. For it is 
 obvious that, without proper supervision, they will 
 not be taken full advantage of. Here, then, comes 
 the importance of arranging organized games for 
 the children in the evening. A big step in this 
 direction has also been taken in Birmingham, and 
 quite invaluable work has been done by a band of 
 willing workers. Voluntary helpers make them- 
 selves responsible for an open space, and arrange 
 and umpire at games of stump cricket and rounders. 
 What a tremendous opportunity presents itself here ! 
 There must be hundreds of men and ladies who 
 could well spare two hours from five to seven in the 
 evening to give the children a jolly time, and teach 
 them to ' play the game.' 
 
 As I have already noticed, many schools have 
 their own school football team, which enters for 
 the inter-school competition. Quite apart from its
 
 46 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 value to the tone of the school, it is most useful in 
 ensuring to some boys, at any rate, the chance of 
 a keen game on a proper ground under proper 
 supervision. It would not require much more effort 
 to arrange a second or even a third division in the 
 competition so as to give the younger boys also a 
 chance. 
 
 The local authorities have also done valuable 
 work in the provision of swimming baths and in 
 offering free passes to all boys who can swim a 
 certain length. Many schoolmasters and teachers 
 make a great point of teaching their boys to swim, 
 and of coaching them up for the schools swimming 
 competition. Swimming and bathing in general 
 is perhaps the healthiest of recreations, and no 
 amount of effort would be wasted in organizing 
 swimming clubs in the case of the junior boys. 
 
 All this work, however, is mainly directed to the 
 helping of the schoolboy. Even more urgent is 
 the need of the boy who has just started work in 
 the factory. With him it is the Saturday afternoon 
 that affords the only opportunity for a game. But 
 once again the difficulty arises as to where he is to 
 play. There are very few football grounds within 
 a reasonable distance and available to those who 
 cannot afford to pay much rent. For the charges 
 for an ordinary ground are very high. 6 a year 
 is the lowest possible price for a private field, how- 
 ever unsuitable for football it may be. When the
 
 HIS RECREATIONS 47 
 
 train fares and the necessary equipment are also 
 considered, it will be seen that the chance of a game 
 is limited to those who are lucky enough to belong 
 to a regular boys' club, or to those who fortunately 
 work for an employer who is willing to finance a 
 football team of his young employees. We wish 
 there were more such employers. A ten-pound note 
 spent in this way would give infinite enjoyment, 
 and would result in a healthier and keener lot of 
 young workmen. We commend the idea to those 
 who now have works of their own or who will on 
 leaving school or the university enter their father's 
 business. 
 
 A further need must be mentioned here. The 
 boys quite naturally get very tired of only playing 
 friendly games. Properly organized competitions 
 for boys are urgently needed. Some competitions 
 do exist, but they are very often quite unsatisfactory 
 in that too little attention is paid to the spirit in 
 which the games are played, and none at all to 
 seeing that the age limit is kept. It is of frequent 
 occurrence that a team of elder boys will enter for 
 a league limited to boys of the average age of sixteen, 
 either bringing down the average by playing two 
 small boys of twelve, or by simple fraud ! The 
 Council of Workers among Boys in Birmingham 
 has made a move in this direction by arranging proper 
 competitions. Their work could well be copied 
 in other smaller places and extended so as to include
 
 48 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 teams of boys who are not connected with a definite 
 brigade or club. 
 
 Football occupies the first place in a working 
 boy's desires. If he cannot play it, he will watch 
 it, and so off he goes to witness some league match 
 between professional teams. Much has been said 
 and written about the evil of large crowds watching 
 instead of playing football. I quite agree that 
 these professional matches are a mere perversion 
 of the game, and that they give rise to betting, 
 which is simply disastrous. But it is monstrously 
 unfair to call the crowd loafers and lazy louts, 
 when absolutely no chance is given to them of 
 playing themselves. It is merely childish to abuse 
 them for not doing what they cannot do. It 
 is the same thing with the magistrate who, on 
 fining a boy for playing football in the street, will 
 tell him to play in the places provided for the 
 purpose ! ! 
 
 But football does not last the whole year round. 
 The summer comes along, when the educated person 
 thinks of cricket, lawn tennis and other quieter 
 occupations. Now places where football can be 
 played are impossible as cricket pitches, for the 
 game would be dangerous, to put it in the mildest 
 terms ! But it is also, in the boys' opinion, a very 
 slow and uninteresting form of amusement. There 
 are, therefore, few who even want to play this game, 
 so that in summer a boy's Saturday afternoons are
 
 HIS RECREATIONS 49 
 
 apt to hang heavy on his hands. He will perhaps 
 go off with one or two pals and bathe in a neighbour- 
 ing canal ; he may even go further afield, especially 
 if he can afford to hire a decrepit old bicycle. Every 
 effort should be made to try and organize country 
 walks or bicycling clubs. They can be both popular 
 and useful. 
 
 I must now draw attention to three other forms 
 of amusement which are indulged in by the boys 
 for lack of something to do. 
 
 Provided that the requisite money is forthcoming, 
 he will very likely spend much time in the neighbour- 
 ing picture palace or music hall. Much has been 
 said and written on both sides, and I feel that it is 
 quite impossible to enter a wholesale condemnation 
 of these places. I have no hesitation whatever in 
 saying that far too much money is spent by the 
 boys on what at the best of times is but a very poor 
 and cheap form of amusement. That I think will 
 be admitted by everyone. It is much harder to 
 form a clear opinion as to the effects of such enter- 
 tainments upon the children. Some of the films 
 are dangerously suggestive, while others are too 
 utterly melodramatic to be wholesome for a small 
 boy. I saw once, for instance, a film on which a 
 man was pictured as about to be electrocuted. 
 Although something sensational happened before 
 he was actually dead, the picture of the man being 
 tied to the chair, and his frantic struggles, were
 
 5 o TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 hardly suitable for a child to watch. On the other 
 hand, there are some films which are of a high 
 educative value, such as Kearton's pictures of the 
 Indian Jungle and those of the Antarctic expedition. 
 
 It is quite idle to condemn all picture palaces as 
 being bad for children, and we should rather aim 
 at two reforms. The first of these is that no boy 
 under eleven years of age should be allowed to go 
 unaccompanied, and, secondly, that a very strict 
 censorship should be kept on the films, not only 
 as regards their morality, but also as regards their 
 sensationalism. 
 
 The music halls are on a different footing. I am 
 quite clear in my mind that our cities would be 
 infinitely better without these cheaper halls which 
 the working boy frequents. The influence of the 
 crowd, the suggestiveness of the performance and the 
 spectacular appeal to his excitement or emotionalism 
 are rotten to the very core. An occasional visit 
 may do no harm, but the boys usually become 
 habitue's, and it is in this that the evil lies. 
 
 Perhaps the most alarming feature of the city 
 life of to-day is the vast extent of gambling and 
 betting. The first taste comes through the sale 
 of the betting and other evening papers. The 
 gambling spirit is caught and becomes a habit, 
 quite as strong as the drinking habit. The dull 
 monotony of the factory is partly responsible, for 
 the boy demands some excitement in reaction. A
 
 HIS RECREATIONS 51 
 
 game of pitch and toss or a surreptitious game of 
 nap in a dark court and doorway supply it. Betting 
 on the result of league football matches has also 
 grown to a formidable extent, encouraged by the 
 football papers. It is a most serious feature of 
 boy life to-day. It is not due to any inherent evil 
 in the boy ; it is due to the fact that he has little 
 or nothing to occupy his time, and ' Satan finds 
 plenty for idle hands to do.' 
 
 Another distressing occupation is the silliness 
 with girls, leading to looseness of life, if not to direct 
 impurity. It is a heartrending occupation to walk 
 about the centre of Birmingham on a Saturday and 
 Sunday night, and to witness the thousands of boys 
 and girls ragging about and engaging in perfectly 
 filthy conversation. This goes on in the poorer 
 parts of the city as well, and is largely responsible 
 for the terrifying spread of immorality. Forced 
 marriages between quite young people are of frequent 
 occurrence, while a hopeless laxity in the attitude 
 shown to the other sex is the general rule. It is a 
 disastrous state of affairs which no one can witness 
 with equanimity. 
 
 Therefore, both from a negative as well as a 
 positive point of view, the provision of adequate 
 opportunities for wholesome recreation is quite 
 indispensable. They are necessary as a counter- 
 attraction to vicious and unsatisfactory forms of 
 amusement ; they are equally necessary in that
 
 52 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 good and properly organized games teach the 
 all-important lessons of playing for the side rather 
 than for oneself and also of playing a clean, straight 
 game. The advantage to the health of the boy is 
 so obvious that one need not enlarge on it except 
 to say that if exercise is necessary to a Public 
 School boy, who lives and works in a healthy atmo- 
 sphere, it must be infinitely more necessary to 
 those who spend their days in the foetid atmosphere 
 of a workshop and the unhealthy surroundings of 
 their home. 
 
 There is one further form of voluntary effort that 
 ought to be noticed. To a slum child his school 
 holidays are not by any means an unmixed blessing. 
 In the winter the school is very often the only warm 
 and cheerful building that he knows. When the 
 holidays come round, and for over a fortnight the 
 street alone is open to him, the prospects are dis- 
 tinctly cheerless. At the best he mopes about, 
 doing nothing in particular ; more often he either 
 drifts to the station entrance among the undesirable 
 loafers in the hope of getting a bag to carry or else 
 makes a general nuisance of himself. An effort 
 has been made to meet this need in Birmingham 
 for the last three years, which has proved so useful 
 and satisfactory that I describe it hi case other 
 people in other places may follow the example. In 
 saying this, I do not mean that we are the only 
 ones who have adopted the plan. Both in Bristol
 
 A WEEK-END PARTY 
 
 SATURDAY AFTERNOON 
 
 Facing p. 52
 
 HIS RECREATIONS 53 
 
 and London similar plans have been adopted 
 during the summer holidays. 
 
 During the week after Christmas we have arranged 
 for what we have termed a Holiday School. One 
 hundred and fifty children, both boys and girls, have 
 been chosen as pupils, not because of their amenity 
 to discipline, but because they were the most likely 
 to get into mischief. Their parents are asked to 
 sign a card saying that they are willing their children 
 should attend, so as to secure their co-operation. 
 The children are divided into classes of ten or fifteen, 
 each class having at least two teachers. 1 Subjects 
 are chosen which are interesting and useful. With 
 the girls canvas work, basket-making, and dressing 
 of dolls form the curriculum, while a wider range of 
 subjects is supplied for the boys. In one room a 
 gas stove is provided, and a lesson in elementary 
 cooking is the source of infinite keenness, partly 
 perhaps because there is a tangible and partially 
 satisfying result. Leather work, bent iron work, 
 basket-making, fretwork and chip-carving all claim 
 their devotees. The two hours in the afternoon are 
 divided into two sections, each class having two 
 distinct occupations. The children enjoy the school 
 immensely, as is shown by the fact that over 80 per 
 cent, of the children did not miss at all. 
 
 We were afraid at first that the maintenance of 
 discipline might be a difficulty. But it was a 
 
 1 See Appendix C.
 
 54 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 groundless fear. The children from the very start 
 behaved excellently, though we did not, of course, 
 maintain the rigid silence of the ordinary school- 
 room. Quiet conversation was allowed, and was 
 really useful in enabling the helpers to know as well 
 as to teach their pupils. Helpers gave their services, 
 and so, in addition to other advantages, saved us 
 much expense. The cost of the whole school, 
 including firing and lighting, was easily covered by 
 20, which can hardly be described as an excessive 
 amount in view of its usefulness and the fund of 
 enjoyment it provided for the helpers and the 
 children. 
 
 I have endeavoured to describe the amusements 
 of the boy and the many ways in which he can 
 be given healthy recreation. To be able to enjoy 
 life in a wholesome manner is an important lesson 
 for all to learn. It is a hard one for the working 
 boy, who has very little spare time and fewer 
 occupations. Few greater services can be rendered 
 than in supplying the necessary opportunities and 
 in the organization of really healthy amusements.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 CHILD EMPLOYMENT. 
 
 THE main difference between the Street boy and the 
 Public School boy lies in the fact that the former 
 becomes a wage-earner while still at school. Of 
 course, he has to go to school till he is thirteen or 
 fourteen, but this does not prevent his parents 
 using him out of school hours to gain an extra 
 is. 6d. or 2s. a week. A Public School boy never 
 thinks of earning any money till he has left school, 
 and, in fact, does not begin to do so seriously till 
 he is twenty-two or twenty-three years old. This is 
 an important point, for failure to recognize it 
 prevents a proper understanding of the son of 
 working parents. 
 
 When we face the facts we find that over the whole 
 area covered by the Greater Birmingham Education 
 Committee more than 12 per cent, of the boys are 
 engaged in some form of employment hi addition 
 to those engaged in street-trading. This does not 
 appear at first sight to be much, but when it is 
 remembered that in many of the schools there are
 
 5 6 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 few, if any, children who are employed, it will be 
 seen that the percentage is really much higher in 
 the schools which are attended by the sons of the 
 poor. There is one school, for instance, where 
 36 per cent, of the boys are employed, while fre- 
 quently the percentage is between 20 and 30. 
 
 It will thus be seen that the number of children 
 engaged in work is very considerable indeed, and 
 requires careful attention. There are two con- 
 siderations which I should like to emphasize at the 
 beginning. 
 
 In the first place, it has to be remembered that 
 this employment, usually amounting to about 
 twenty hours in the week, is in addition to the 
 twenty-seven and a half hours spent in school. 
 Therefore, a very large number of children are at 
 work for a third of the whole week. It is quite clear 
 that this amount of labour, whether physical or 
 mental, is far too much for a young and growing 
 boy whose nourishment is very meagre. The 
 inevitable result is that his powers of receptivity in 
 the way of education are short of what they should 
 be. It is a positive scandal that we should spend 
 millions of money on the education of our working 
 boys, and at the same time allow much of it to be 
 wasted through permitting them to be unreasonably 
 employed. 
 
 Further, it is frequently the case that a boy is 
 engaged in work during the dinner hour and at five
 
 CHILD EMPLOYMENT 57 
 
 o'clock, which means that very slender and hurried 
 meals are his portion. To keep up his health and 
 strength a boy who is engaged in heavy employment 
 ought to receive more nourishment than others, 
 whereas in fact he receives less. 
 
 The commonest form of employment for a boy is 
 the running of errands for different shops. In some 
 ways this is perhaps the most satisfactory, for, 
 as a general rule, the pay is fairly good and the 
 hours not too long. No doubt at Christmas time 
 many are kept at work till very late at night, but 
 as a rule there is not much done after eight o'clock. 
 
 A considerable number of children are engaged in 
 assisting their mothers to sew buttons and hooks 
 and eyes on to cards. Such work is of a sweated 
 nature, for the wages are quite disgracefully low, 
 and the work monotonous and long. The conditions 
 of this form of employment have doubtless improved 
 since Miss Olive Malvery opened the eyes of the 
 public by her book Baby Toilers. But it is quite 
 bad enough, and in one way especially that escapes 
 attention. For the home ought to speak to the boy 
 of rest and quiet. Certainly many homes are any- 
 thing but satisfactory, but although they may be 
 bad in many ways, yet a boy should feel that in 
 his home he can, if he likes, get away from work 
 and toil. But if ' home work ' is done, this is 
 impossible, as the only sitting-room in the house 
 is turned into a workshop, and here the mother and
 
 5 8 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 children are engaged in strenuous labour. This 
 necessarily destroys any remnants of love for his 
 home that the boy may have, for it speaks to him 
 of work, hard, dull and badly paid. This may seem 
 to some to be rather a far-fetched argument, but I 
 am speaking from experience when I say that the 
 home influence is invariably weak where home work 
 is found. 
 
 The form of employment which has attracted 
 considerable attention in the last year or two is 
 that in barbers' shops. Here boys are engaged as 
 latherers, so as to save the actual barber time and 
 trouble. There are two special evils which this 
 involves. In the first place, the hours are very 
 long, particularly on a Saturday. On this day a 
 boy engaged as a latherer will usually work from 
 twelve to sixteen hours. Out of 522 boys engaged 
 in lathering, 167 worked from twelve to fourteen 
 hours, while 313 worked from fourteen to sixteen 
 hours. Taking the whole week into consideration, 
 we find that 129 worked from thirty to thirty-five 
 hours, 167 from thirty-five to forty, while 104 worked 
 over forty hours. The late hour to which the work 
 is continued is also a serious feature. Frequently 
 the boys are kept up to eleven and twelve o'clock at 
 night, in spite of the law which forbids any boy 
 under fourteen years of age to work after nine 
 o'clock ! 
 
 Further, however, these cheap barbers' shops have
 
 CHILD EMPLOYMENT 59 
 
 a bad influence upon the boys' character, for there 
 is a considerable amount of talk that is anything 
 but healthy, while from a physical point of view the 
 conditions are very bad. There is no doubt that 
 this form of employment needs the most careful 
 supervision and restriction. The Local Authority 
 has the power to do it ; it only needs the will. 
 
 I turn now to the employment of boys as street 
 traders, and I wish to deal with this somewhat 
 fully. For it is the paper boy who is most in pro- 
 minence. His shouts are loud and piercing ; he is 
 conspicuous and ubiquitous ; and he is importunate 
 in his demands that we should buy his papers. 
 
 By the local bye-laws any child between the ages 
 of eleven and sixteen can obtain a licence to trade 
 in the streets, so long as application is made by the 
 parent in person ; with this proviso, that girls 
 between the ages of fourteen and sixteen must be 
 in the company of a guardian when trading. The 
 term trading includes the selling of papers, matches 
 and wood, and singing in the streets for the purpose 
 of gain. But no begging is allowed. The licence 
 badge must be worn in a conspicuous place. No 
 child may trade before six o'clock in the morning 
 or after nine o'clock at night. Very few, however, 
 do any trading before breakfast or at the dinner 
 hour. The majority sell between five and nine in 
 the evening. 
 
 So much for the nature and extent of street trading.
 
 60 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 What of the effects on the children ? Are these 
 good or bad ? I suppose that everyone with first- 
 hand knowledge will agree that they are bad, or 
 at any rate are not beneficial. Opinion is practically 
 unanimous that street selling is most demoralizing 
 to children. But in dealing with a question like 
 this, a general conclusion is not sufficient. We 
 must go more into detail and discover what specific 
 evils exist. For the sake of clearness, I shall place 
 these evils under two heads Physical and Moral. 
 
 Let us take the Physical evils first evils which 
 are serious and which appeal forcibly to us, though 
 not of such great importance as the other. 
 
 The most serious of these is the exposure to bad 
 weather which a street trader has to endure. Snow 
 and rain do not stop the supply of or the demand 
 for evening papers. Whatever the weather may 
 be, out into the street the boy has to go, there to 
 loiter about, shivering with cold. This would be 
 bad enough in any circumstances, but it is made 
 doubly worse by the fact that few wear warm 
 clothing. This is not always due to a lack of decent 
 clothing, for a boy who is on the make knows 
 perfectly well that ragged clothes are a splendid 
 advertisement. Even, however, when the circum- 
 stances are normal and the weather fine, one has 
 still to reckon with the long hours. Fortunately, 
 as I said, only quite a few sell papers before school, 
 or at dinner time. The majority trade from five
 
 CHILD EMPLOYMENT 61 
 
 to nine in the evening or even shorter hours, but for 
 a boy of eleven, even three hours' work, besides his 
 five hours in school, must have a detrimental effect 
 upon his health. No child can stand eight hours' 
 work a day without suffering for it in the long run, 
 especially when he has very poor and very little food 
 to keep him going. Worst of all, however, to my 
 mind, is the great strain on the nervous system 
 imposed upon the traders. Not only is the actual 
 strain of selling bad enough, but there is also the 
 strain of having to take home so much money, under 
 penalty of the strap. Anyone who has the slightest 
 knowledge of boys will admit that that sort of strain 
 has the worst possible effect upon their health. 
 
 But one may be asked whether these criticisms 
 are supported by facts. I am not a medical man, 
 but I think sufficient proof is forthcoming in the 
 fact that those who are acquainted with the health 
 of the poor unhesitatingly condemn the practice 
 on these grounds. 
 
 Now let us turn to what I have called Moral evils. 
 
 I suppose that all of us will agree that one of the 
 most important virtues to cultivate among the poor 
 is self-respect. This ought to be kept in view in 
 all our dealings with them. We all know the 
 infinite harm that has been done by promiscuous 
 charity, whether to young or old. This lack of 
 self-respect is perhaps the worst characteristic of 
 the poor of our cities. They seem willing to say or
 
 62 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 do anything to secure a little extra help. Without 
 any hesitation whatever I say that street trading 
 encourages this vice among the children. It is not 
 generally known, that so long as he wears a badge, 
 a child may sing in the streets for the purpose of 
 getting money. Surely no better education for a 
 career of cadging could be devised. 
 
 Leaving that out of account, the child soon learns 
 that if he can present a sufficiently pitiable appear- 
 ance, he can confidently rely on getting a penny 
 for a halfpenny paper. I daresay all of us have 
 been offenders in this respect. Think of what this 
 means to an impressionable child ; and on that 
 ground alone street trading stands condemned. 
 Take a typical instance brought to light by evidence 
 at the children's court. A boy was presented with 
 a good suit of clothes. These he wore at home and 
 in the club, but he had others underneath which 
 were very ragged. Each night he took off the good 
 ones, hiding them behind a pillar of one of the offices 
 in the centre of the city, and putting them on again 
 when he returned home. 
 
 But, further, and as a corollary to this loss of 
 self-respect, I am sure that street trading tends to 
 produce a certain restlessness and instability of 
 character. The occupation is one of excitement, 
 wildness and rush ; it appeals on that ground to 
 the boy, so full of spirits. He is his own master, 
 he can do what he likes, go where he likes and work
 
 CHILD EMPLOYMENT 63 
 
 as long as he likes, provided he makes the money 
 required by his parents. As a result, it is found 
 that those who have been traders for any length of 
 time are unpunctual and quite unable to keep an 
 engagement, or to settle down to anything which 
 needs regularity. 
 
 It is said, of course, that this need not necessarily 
 be attributed to street trading, but is due to their 
 unsettled surroundings, and that just the same 
 consequences ensue if the child is playing in the 
 streets. This I question. Unless he has some job, 
 a boy does not come up into the centre of the town, 
 and it is there that the mischief is done. After all, 
 if he is playing in the streets near home, he is within 
 call of his parents. At any rate, there is not the 
 additional excitement of rushing headlong with a 
 bundle of papers anywhere and everywhere. 
 
 Loss of self-respect and instability of character 
 are the two evil results, so far as morals are concerned, 
 upon which I should like to lay the most emphasis. 
 But just as serious is the tendency of street 
 traders to lapse into gambling habits. In the 
 evidence which was collected about street trading 
 by children for the Poor Law Commission Report, 
 it is remarkable how witness after witness reports 
 this as one of the most noticeable vices connected 
 with this sort of employment. 
 
 The reasons for this are not difficult to discover. 
 One of the chief of them is to be found in the sporting
 
 64 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 papers, through which the boy becomes acquainted 
 with racing news and the possibility of making a 
 little money by backing a winner. Here is one 
 instance of what I mean. The other day I noticed 
 a man buying an evening paper from a boy which 
 he began to read before he went on. As he walked 
 off he remarked to a friend, ' Hurrah ! I have won 
 ten bob on that horse.' Here is another. I re- 
 member one of my boys appearing in a new pair of 
 boots, and when I asked him how he got them, he 
 said they were given him by a man who had made 
 money by betting on races after receiving tips on 
 them from him. He said a large number of men came 
 to him for tips instead of buying sporting papers. 
 
 In such ways the boy becomes acquainted with 
 betting, and is led on to try his own hand at it. 
 
 There is another cause for this tendency which 
 should be mentioned. A large number of boys 
 congregate at the central offices and distributing 
 depots of the newspapers, with the result that boys 
 of school age are thrown with loafers and loungers, 
 many of whom go there solely for gambling and 
 betting purposes, and not in order to get papers. 
 These big chaps of nineteen or twenty arrange 
 sweepstakes on every conceivable event, and they 
 practically compel the smaller boys to enter for 
 them, who in that way become initiated into a 
 vicious habit which spells ruin to their whole 
 character.
 
 CHILD EMPLOYMENT 65 
 
 The last moral evil connected with street trading 
 which I wish to mention is the opportunity afforded 
 by it for direct dishonesty. ' The Chief Constable 
 of Sheffield among others was asked whether any 
 special boys' occupation led to crime, and he at 
 once and unhesitatingly said that street selling made 
 the boys thieves.' It is a very easy job to extract 
 a few matches from a number of boxes and with 
 them to fill another ; nothing is easier than to say 
 that one has no change, when a man in a hurry 
 offers a threepenny bit for a paper ; there is no danger 
 of being detected if the boy feels inclined to keep 
 a penny or two out of the money given to his mother. 
 The excuse for the latter kind of dishonesty is that 
 the parent ordinarily gives only a penny out of 
 three shillings to the child, who, perhaps naturally, 
 thinks that he has a right to more. These are 
 small things, no doubt, but it is just these small 
 things which tend to degrade the boy's standard 
 of morals. 
 
 I think I have said sufficient to show the evils 
 to a boy's life as a street trader. 
 
 When one turns to the question of reform, I feel 
 I cannot do better than quote the recommendation 
 of a thoroughly representative Committee which 
 was appointed to enquire into the question in 
 Birmingham. 
 
 ' The Committee unanimously recommend that 
 boys and girls up to eighteen years of age should be
 
 66 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 entirely forbidden from trading in the streets. 
 They are entirely agreed that this prohibition is 
 demanded as a result of the evil consequences which 
 follow from the practice. 
 
 ' Failing entire and immediate prohibition, and 
 pending the formation of a strong public opinion, 
 they recommend : 
 
 ' (i) That no girl under 18 years of age be 
 
 allowed to trade in the street. 
 ' (2) That no boy under n years of age be 
 
 allowed to trade in the street. 
 ' (3) That no boy between the ages of 14 and 
 18 years of age be allowed to trade in the 
 street. 
 
 ' (4) That no boy be allowed to trade in the 
 street on any day before 4.30 p.m. or after 
 8 p.m. (This regulation to apply to 
 Saturdays and holidays.)' 
 
 To return to the general question of child employ- 
 ment, it is advisable to try and meet two arguments 
 which are advanced in its favour. In the first place, 
 we are told, of course, that what the boys earn just 
 helps to keep a widowed mother or a crippled father. 
 From what I know of this type of boy, I do not 
 believe that this is the case with any but a very 
 few. Far more often are the boys sent out because 
 the father is lazy or the mother spendthrift, or 
 because the boy himself wants a little pocket money. 
 Let me give one or two examples.
 
 CHILD EMPLOYMENT 67 
 
 William B works nearly twenty hours in the 
 
 week, earning 2s. 3d. His father earns i i2s., 
 his elder sister and brothers bring in an extra 
 i is. 6d. The total income is therefore 2 153. gd., 
 out of which 6s. 6d. goes in rent. There are two 
 small boys younger than William. 
 
 Frank P , earning 2s. a week, is the son of a 
 
 police sergeant, who, with two elder sons, brings in 
 32s. 
 
 Herbert B works for twenty-five hours for 
 
 2s. when the net income of the family is 3 75. It 
 is true there are six young children, but even so, 
 it can hardly be described as a necessitous family. 
 
 Perhaps the most flagrant case is that of Albert 
 
 M , whose father has two fish shops. Albert, 
 
 though only nine years old, is kept at work for 
 fifty-six hours. The father admits that he takes 
 11 a week in one of the shops. 
 
 I am perfectly convinced that no hardship what- 
 ever would be entailed if child labour were prohibited 
 or closely restricted by law. After all, the widowed 
 mother and the crippled father can always get help 
 from the parish. 
 
 Again, people will tell us that the boy is better 
 occupied in this way than hi loafing about the 
 streets. There is a considerable amount of truth 
 in this, and I think many would be disposed to allow 
 employment which was very strictly limited and 
 supervised. But even so, it must be borne in mind
 
 68 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 that it is only a makeshift policy and that the ideal 
 is complete prohibition. 
 
 It is true, therefore, that we should insist on the 
 Local Authorities using the powers that were given 
 to them under the Employment of Children Act, 
 1903, by which law it is also utterly illegal for any 
 child to be engaged after nine o'clock at night. The 
 law is perfectly explicit on this point, although it 
 is flagrantly broken. Other cities, such as Notting- 
 ham, have taken strong steps in forbidding boys to 
 be employed as lather boys or in selling programmes 
 in a theatre, etc., while the hours which boys may 
 work are very limited. I earnestly hope that a 
 law will be passed which will not leave the matter 
 open, but will insist on a heavy curtailment all 
 over the country. 
 
 For the employment of schoolboys is one of 
 extreme danger to their education and welfare. 
 It is imperative that the public conscience should 
 be stirred, and that even if it is inexpedient to forbid 
 it altogether, it shall be so strictly limited and 
 supervised that it is robbed of its most dangerous 
 features.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 BOY LABOUR. 
 
 ON his fourteenth birthday, the boy leaves the 
 Elementary School and straightway seeks employ- 
 ment. He does not wait till the term is over, nor 
 even to the end of the week, but immediately 
 demands a character from his headmaster and 
 leaves. Armed with this and indomitable cheek, he 
 looks about him for a job. 
 
 There are many openings for him. It is always 
 easy for him to get a place after leaving school, 
 for school has smartened him to a marked degree, 
 and as a monitor in the seventh standard, he has 
 learned to take a certain measure of responsibility. 
 In Birmingham it is even easier than in other places, 
 as in a manufacturing city crowds of boys are needed 
 to feed the iron monsters of machinery. There is 
 also an endless supply of little factories, for the 
 trade of the Midland Metropolis is to a considerable 
 extent carried on by small firms, with only a few 
 hands. Even in some obscure court or yard one 
 can find a small ' stamping ' or ' polishing ' firm.
 
 70 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 All these firms require a boy, and so the demand is 
 enormous. 
 
 He can therefore easily secure a job, but what 
 will it be ? In his choice lies the crisis of his life, 
 and it is in this most of all that he needs a guidance, 
 which more often than not he fails to get. 
 
 There are three types of employment into which 
 he may enter, varying intensely both in present pay 
 and in future prospects. This difference is not 
 recognized by the majority of boys, for like their 
 parents they are amazingly short-sighted. But it 
 is none the less real, and to fail to understand it, 
 is disastrous. It must, however, be borne in mind 
 that although the line of distinction is very clear 
 so far as trades in general are concerned, it is very 
 difficult to speak definitely about particular firms. 
 The type of employment that is offered to boys by 
 a certain firm may be bad in itself and may lead 
 directly to nothing. But the firm may be willing 
 to meet that difficulty itself and to secure that the 
 boy is transferred to another branch of their work 
 of a more satisfactory nature. Therefore, trades 
 in general may be distinguished and classified with 
 a fair amount of certainty. Particular firms may, 
 however, and in many cases do, form an exception 
 to the general rule. 
 
 In the first place, then, there are many jobs 
 which are better performed by a boy than by a 
 man, at a smaller cost. The boy is quick and sharp,
 
 BOY LABOUR 71 
 
 and is needed to carry messages. In Birmingham, 
 where everything is very concentrated geographi- 
 cally, and where the leading offices are close together, 
 it is infinitely quicker to despatch a note by the hand 
 of a boy than to send it through the post. Offices, 
 therefore, require his services, for which they pay 
 handsome wages. Shops must have the parcels 
 of the customers delivered by a youngster. Hotels 
 and restaurants require a boy in uniform to open 
 the doors, which their lordly patrons are too lazy 
 to open for themselves. The railway luggage cart 
 requires a boy to dangle his legs behind so as to 
 see that parcels are not stolen unawares. 
 
 Street trading is also an occupation that has many 
 attractions for a quick and lively boy. He rushes 
 hither and thither with an early edition of the 
 evening paper, thankful that he is free from the 
 weariness of school, and afraid of the dull slow life 
 at a factory bench. It is a glorious time for such 
 a boy, and by no means regarded with dismay by 
 his parents. For he earns his money daily instead 
 of weekly, a most important feature of the work, 
 as it enables him to get the price of a ticket to a 
 music hall on other days besides a Saturday, while 
 it is invaluable to a spendthrift mother. 
 
 All these kinds of work are full of life and excite- 
 ment, and are thus wonderfully attractive to the 
 boy. He is free, with all the charm of freedom on 
 the streets. To carry a message, threading his
 
 72 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 way through the crowded thoroughfares of a busy 
 city, is infinitely more attractive than the dull 
 monotony of feeding a machine. Above all, he gets 
 good pay ! He may reasonably hope to get 75. a 
 week or more, a sum that means a lot to a mother 
 struggling to make both ends meet. For this reason 
 above all others, the work is popular and has far 
 too many recruits. It is hard to condemn the boy, 
 still less the parents, who have had a terrible pinch 
 to feed the hungry schoolboy, and to whom the 
 75. even without prospects is more satisfactory 
 than 55. with prospects. But it is bad, desperately 
 bad. The wages increase steadily till the age of 
 sixteen or seventeen, and then cease. For the boy 
 asks for a man's wages and is refused, and is forced 
 to make way for another boy at a lower wage. So 
 it goes on in a never-ending cycle. Boy after boy, 
 bright and quick at the start, is hurled on to the 
 street without a trade, undisciplined, and unaccus- 
 tomed to factory life. Unskilled casual labour is 
 his only lot, unless it be the prison or the workhouse. 
 Another kind of employment can be chosen ; and 
 that is work of an unskilled character in a factory. 
 It is hard to generalize on this type of work, for 
 there are innumerable varieties. Like the previous 
 class, it may land a boy into the gutter at seventeen, 
 or it may lead him to a permanent berth, with a 
 pension attached. It is the commonest type of 
 work, and into it fifty or sixty per cent, of
 
 BOY LABOUR 73 
 
 our schoolboys may drift. Innumerable jobs await 
 them, and it is hard to speak with confidence as to 
 their relative merits, for so much depends upon the 
 individual firm and the individual master. A large 
 number of boys will, if they are regular and punctual, 
 find in such a factory permanent employment, but 
 it is quite unskilled and unsatisfactory in many 
 ways. For it is monotonous beyond description. 
 A boy will find himself condemned to do the same 
 piece of work in the same way, at the same hours, 
 and in the same place for many weeks together. 
 One day is like another ; no change, and no demand 
 for initiative or intelligence. 
 
 What wonder is it if, when working hours are over, 
 he suffers from a violent reaction, expressing itself 
 in noise, or in being a general nuisance to all around. 
 He must let off steam and give vent to his pent-up 
 feelings. If no wholesome outlet is allowed him, 
 he will find one in a surreptitious game of pitch and 
 toss, in ' swanking ' with the girls along the brightly 
 lit streets, or in offering caustic witticisms from the 
 gallery of the music hall. 
 
 In addition to the monotony it is work that kills 
 ambition. Even if he is lucky enough to get taken 
 on by a firm who will keep him through his life, he 
 will remain an unskilled labourer to the end, earning 
 it may be 305. or 405. if he is lucky, but certainly 
 not more. He knows how to make one screw of 
 a motor car perfectly, but the other parts he never
 
 74 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 sees ; if by any chance that piece ceases to be used 
 and is superseded by new ideas, he will probably 
 find himself one of the unemployed. It is an enor- 
 mous loss to his welfare that this should be the 
 case. For ambition is badly needed by the poor. 
 Their lives are dull and tedious, and they look for 
 nothing beyond their daily needs. Such a state of 
 low content marks their whole nature. After two 
 or three years of this work they have no desire to 
 be any better than their fathers. At school they 
 may dream dreams, and build castles in the air ; 
 two years' work in a factory destroys all these 
 wholesome imaginations and leaves them mere 
 machines, undesirous to rise to higher places in 
 their homes or in their character. 
 
 Further, it is heavy work, and one that tires him 
 out in a most unhealthy way. Look at the seventh 
 standard boys in any Council School, and a stranger 
 will often be struck by their appearance. Weaklings 
 no doubt there are, and in too large a number ; but 
 on the whole they are a healthy lot. Watch these 
 boys for a year or two and what a change comes over 
 them ! The colour leaves their cheeks ; a slouch 
 succeeds the sprightly active run, their sharpness 
 is deadened into a hopeless sleep ! Generation 
 after generation of healthy youngsters grow up to 
 be seedy louts. It is a terrible decay from a purely 
 physical point of view. 
 
 It is not only, however, a strain upon his health.
 
 BOY LABOUR 75 
 
 For after working from seven in the morning till six 
 or seven o'clock at night, he is much too tired out 
 to benefit from any continuation class, unless it is 
 surpassingly attractive. He can make a noise and 
 enjoy a bout at boxing in a club ; but such energy 
 is entirely different from what is needed at the 
 evening class. Reformers tell us that we must at 
 all costs send the boy to an evening school. It is 
 no use ; he can't learn anything if he goes. Before 
 advance can be made in this direction his working 
 hours will have to be reduced. 
 
 Such work, then, is monotonous and hard without 
 any stimulus to ambition. But it is not wholly 
 bad, for it is quite fairly paid work, bringing, it may 
 be, six or seven shillings a week at the start. It may 
 be permanent, if the boy can be induced to be 
 regular, and if the kind of trade is staple and un- 
 affected to any great extent by the passing whims 
 and fashions of society. 
 
 Even more, it depends upon the employer, and 
 it is just because of this that the right kind of 
 Public School boy is important. A large number of 
 old Public School men have either built up a business 
 of their own or have inherited one. To them an 
 unequalled opportunity offers itself of doing much 
 permanent good to their employees. It is reasonable 
 to hope that future generations will surpass the 
 present, not hi launching any great philanthropic 
 organizations, but in seeing that the boys in their
 
 76 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 firms are not reduced to machines by the monotony 
 of their work, in securing shortened hours of 
 work for attendance at an evening class, and by 
 trying to kindle into flame the healthy ambition 
 of the boy. 
 
 We turn to the third type of employment. There 
 still remain a few openings for really skilled employ- 
 ment. They are few and far between, partly owing 
 to the growth of machinery, but still more to the 
 specialization and detailed subdivision of all work. 
 Few men or boys ever learn the whole of one trade. 
 They will learn a part. So that skilled men are rarely 
 needed except in one or two trades. Thus the 
 apprenticeship system is rapidly dying out, except 
 in a few cases. Printing, jewellery and engineering 
 are among the few remaining exceptions. A pre- 
 mium is very seldom paid, and only a loose form of 
 indenture binds the boy. There are indeed openings 
 which lead to a career of skilled employment, offering 
 endless possibilities, but few of the poorer boys can 
 take them, for in addition to their scarcity, not many 
 members of an elementary school are mentally 
 equipped for such work. It must be remembered 
 that the boy of the slums is not of the best. His 
 upbringing is against his full development, and 
 although he may reach the seventh standard, that 
 is not necessarily a proof of capacity in work. 
 
 There is further the financial difficulty which 
 prohibits for many boys an entrance into skilled
 
 BOY LABOUR 77 
 
 employment. These jobs are but poorly paid, 
 45. 6d. or 55. being the average earnings. There is 
 a vast difference between 45. 6d. and 73., and the 
 fierce stress makes the demand for the bigger wage 
 a reasonable one. There are many boys, whose 
 capacity is really great, who are condemned to a 
 life of unskilled labour for the sake of the extra two 
 or three shillings. It is therefore increasingly 
 difficult to make boys enter skilled employment, 
 even if an opportunity for doing so occurs. 
 
 These are the three openings to the boy on his 
 fourteenth birthday. Which will he take ? Will 
 he take the higher wage and tread the road which 
 leads to poverty or prison ? Will he enter an 
 unskilled job in the neighbouring factory, which 
 will reduce him to a machine-like mediocrity or a 
 decent livelihood? Will he learn a trade, and, 
 surviving the strain involved in his early years, rise 
 to a position of usefulness ? 
 
 Which is it to be ? That is the vital question, 
 the answer to which will make or mar the hopeful 
 boy. There are many difficulties which present 
 themselves, as his choice is affected by forces that 
 are most powerful, though indiscriminating. 
 
 For, in the first place, there is the chronic difficulty 
 of cash. His circumstances are such that the highest 
 paid work, which is invariably the worst, is by far 
 the most attractive. This we have dealt with 
 previously, so we need not enlarge upon it, except
 
 7 8 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 to repeat that it accounts for more wasted human 
 life than any other. 
 
 The ignorance and lack of foresight shown by his 
 parents are immense. There are many parents, 
 really anxious to see their sons do well and indeed 
 to help them, but unable to do so from sheer igno- 
 rance. To them one job is the same as another, 
 and their advice is largely based upon what others 
 do. For instance, one boy in a court may elect to 
 become a ' dogger-up.' The other boys in the court 
 follow suit, because it is the custom to do so. In 
 this, as in other things, they cannot look beyond 
 the present. 75. is 75 ; let the future take care of 
 itself. They have no one to guide or advise them, 
 and the boy seldom appeals of his own accord to 
 his schoolmaster. 
 
 This is a serious handicap to a right choice, for 
 all questions of his physical health and individual 
 capacity are ignored. He and his parents hear that 
 Tom Smith is making 6s. a week at stamping ; 
 therefore he can do the same, quite regardless of 
 whether his health can stand it or whether he is 
 not capable of taking skilled employment. The 
 result is drift ; he drifts into any sort of job ; a 
 gust of temper or windy words whirl him out of it ; 
 once again he drifts into another job. It is essential 
 that this drift should be arrested, and that definite 
 help and advice should be given him on leaving 
 school.
 
 BOY LABOUR 79 
 
 There are various people ready to hand who are 
 able to give that advice ; it is only necessary to bring 
 them together, and from their knowledge to form a 
 sound judgment. There is the schoolmaster, who 
 knows the boy well, and has watched his develop- 
 ment through the eight or nine years that he has 
 been at school. Intimate knowledge of the boy's 
 character and peculiarities he may not have, but he 
 will know his general capacity and particular bent 
 of mind. Moreover, he has the official report upon 
 his health, from which he can tell whether it is heavy 
 or light, indoor or outdoor work for which the boy 
 is physically fit. 
 
 Next to the schoolmaster, there stands the 
 voluntary worker. An increasing number of school 
 children are now connected with some Sunday 
 School or Club, or other voluntary organization. 
 For instance, in December, 1913, 68 per cent, of the 
 children leaving school in Birmingham were reported 
 by the school teachers as being in touch with some 
 social or religious organization. Whoever is re- 
 sponsible for the boy hi such a way can render 
 invaluable advice. For he is more likely to know the 
 actual character of the boy himself, while he knows, 
 too, the home conditions, and how great the pressure 
 of poverty is at home. Both kinds of knowledge 
 are invaluable, for the character of the boy must be 
 taken into account in the choice. It is quite useless, 
 for instance, to send a shifty and dishonest boy into
 
 8o TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 a jeweller's shop ; work free from such temptation 
 must be found for him. It is obvious, too, that a 
 knowledge of the home is essential. It is the helper 
 who can tell whether the family exchequer can 
 allow the boy to be content with a lower wage ; it 
 is he, too, who can bring influence upon the parents, 
 with whom the ultimate decision must rest. 
 
 The Labour Exchange official completes the list. 
 He is able to advise as to the prospects that any 
 particular trade affords and can tell what openings 
 exist. He supplies what no other person can, a 
 detailed knowledge of the stability, permanence 
 and hopefulness of a particular trade or firm. 
 
 These three sets of people can offer sound advice, 
 for they regard the question from entirely different 
 points of view. Though as individuals their advice 
 may not be infallible, yet collectively and as a body 
 they can supplement each other, and their united 
 opinion will probably secure that a round peg is 
 fitted into a round hole. 
 
 Thus comes the idea of the system of After Care 
 Committees, or Juvenile Advisory Committees, 
 which many towns are adopting or have adopted. 
 These Committees are composed of school teachers, 
 voluntary workers, and the responsible authority 
 of the Labour Exchange. Every child is brought 
 up before the Committee connected with his school 
 three months before he leaves for work. The advice 
 is tendered from the different quarters mentioned,
 
 BOY LABOUR 81 
 
 and the parent is thus assisted to a wise decision. 
 The Exchange will then look out for a suitable job, 
 so that a boy on leaving school is not turned adrift 
 haphazard, but leaves to go direct to some employ- 
 ment. If by any chance he falls out of employment, 
 it is to this Committee that he will turn for advice 
 and help. 
 
 Important and essential as the choice of work 
 must be, the battle is not over when it is made. 
 For the boy must be kept at that work, and this is 
 not by any means an easy job. It is quite extra- 
 ordinary how very irregular these working boys 
 are. It will be frequently found that a boy may 
 have as many as five or six different kinds of work 
 before he is sixteen years of age. It is seldom that 
 a boy is found to keep the job that he took on 
 leaving school. This chopping and changing is 
 disastrous ; for it not only leaves a boy ' jack of 
 all trades and good at none/ but it has a demoralizing 
 effect upon his character. The reasons for it are, 
 however, obvious, and could be overcome without 
 much difficulty. 
 
 It must be remembered that a boy on leaving 
 school becomes a free man ; at any rate, in his own 
 eyes he is. He is exempt from the discipline of 
 school, and there is no attendance officer to compel 
 regularity. His position, too, at home is changed. 
 While at school he was a heavy drag upon the 
 family resources ; as a working boy he is an impor-
 
 82 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 tant asset, for his weekly wages, minus 6d. pocket 
 money, are paid into the family exchequer. There- 
 fore he must be treated with respect, and his dignity 
 must not be offended by abuse or the infliction of 
 the strap ! For there is always room for him in the 
 doss-house round the corner, or at the home of a 
 neighbouring friend. The result is the growth of 
 a strong spirit of independence, restive under 
 restraint and unwilling to submit to any discipline. 
 So trouble is bound to arise in a factory, where 
 discipline is necessary. He may, perhaps, be rather 
 clumsy or a trifle insolent ; the foreman naturally 
 expostulates in no mild manner; the boy resents 
 his action, and he leaves in a temper. His excuse 
 to the outside world is that he is not going ' to be 
 shouted at like that by a blooming gaffer.' Off he 
 goes to another factory, where the same thing most 
 probably takes place. 
 
 In his early years, at any rate, he is ambitious 
 so far as wages are concerned. He may start at 
 6s. a week. In a very short time he will ask for a 
 rise and get the sack, or else he hears that Bill is 
 getting 75. at the factory up the road, and Bill has 
 promised to get him a job there. Off he goes, 
 despite the change of work, which means that his 
 previous experience and learning is merely wasted. 
 
 Both these difficulties would be minimized im- 
 mensely, were it not that, in the interval that the 
 change involves, he can always fall back upon paper
 
 BOY LABOUR 83 
 
 selling in the streets. In that occupation he can 
 be moderately sure of earning 95. a week, and more 
 if the details of a thrilling murder fill the evening 
 papers. This money he can earn without keeping 
 regular hours, and free from the eagle eye of a 
 watchful foreman. Stop this kind of work, and the 
 risk of being without any means of earning anything 
 would help to keep him at his job. 
 
 For these reasons he tends to become most 
 irregular and to drift incessantly from job to job. 
 
 How is it possible to stop this drift ? A great 
 deal can be done by abolishing street trading till 
 the age of nineteen or twenty. But still more 
 through the members of the After-Care Committee 
 of his school. Each boy should be definitely 
 attached to some man who can keep an eye upon 
 him, and by word of friendly counsel or reproof 
 restrain the boy's sense of independence. When 
 he leaves the factory in a fit of temper with the 
 gaffer, it is possible for the helper to reduce the boy 
 to a saner state of mind and to persuade the foreman 
 to take him back. Here is a splendid work for many 
 men who would like to help the working boy, and 
 yet cannot manage the long hours entailed by 
 club- work. One wishes that every old Public 
 School boy could adopt some two or three boys hi 
 this way. For their work would be invaluable. 
 
 There is, in conclusion, one word that I wish to 
 say about the employment of boys as golf caddies.
 
 84 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 It is a type of work that stands apart from the 
 ordinary industrial life, and so has attracted a 
 considerable amount of public attention. There 
 are types of boy labour which are a great deal 
 worse, both in prospects and conditions, than that 
 of carrying golf clubs, making a tee or marking a 
 ball, and I am not willing to admit that it is an 
 unmitigated evil. I am only speaking of the golf 
 clubs around Birmingham, but there, at any rate, 
 comparatively few boys over fourteen are employed, 
 and the majority of them have in the past secured 
 good situations through the golfers, who usually 
 have employed them. The work is a healthy one, 
 for even a damp field in foggy weather is healthier 
 than the foetid atmosphere of a factory or workshop. 
 Golfers too, for the most part, realize their responsi- 
 bilities and take a personal interest in the boys. 
 It is quite idle for men to say (as a schoolmaster 
 once said) that ' a boy is better dead than carrying 
 clubs.' It is certainly no worse than many other 
 occupations which pass unnoticed, while it has great 
 advantages. 
 
 In spite of this, however, I am forced to admit 
 that all is not well with the golf caddies, and for 
 two or three reasons. In the first place it is a loafing 
 life, for in the middle of the week during winter 
 and for many days in the summer the boy gets little 
 or no employment. No golfers are about, and the 
 boys are left to occupy their time as best they can.
 
 BOY LABOUR 85 
 
 Then, again, it cannot be denied that it is best for 
 a boy to enter regular and permanent work as soon 
 as he leaves school, and the work of carrying clubs 
 is essentially a boy's work and does not pay well 
 enough for a man, while in itself it does not help 
 a boy in any permanent direction. 
 
 I am inclined to think that in the Midlands, at 
 any rate, it is a question for individual golfers to 
 deal with. I doubt whether any organization can 
 be devised to meet the difficulties, whilst if each 
 golfer felt that it was his bounden duty to secure 
 employment for the boy who usually caddied for 
 him, much of the difficulty would be- removed. I 
 think also that the evils of loafing could be easily 
 met either by the provision of a carpenter's shop, or 
 even only a few games, or still better by the employ- 
 ment of the boys on the course in raking or digging 
 bunkers, rolling greens, re-turfing divot marks and 
 such-like simple jobs. It may be a foolish sugges- 
 tion, but I am inclined to think that there are many 
 slum boys who might be set up for life from a health 
 point of view by acting as a golf caddie for a year 
 or two before entering factory life. 
 
 Some people who are not golfers and so do not 
 understand the duties of a caddie, tell us that no 
 man ought to need a boy to carry his clubs, and that 
 they ought to carry them themselves, while others 
 inform us that men will do as well. My first answer 
 to such people is that they should take up golf
 
 86 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 seriously for a year, and that if they do they will 
 easily understand how indispensable a factor in the 
 enjoyment of the game is the boy who not only 
 carries the clubs, but is keen on his master's success, 
 and able to offer valuable advice as to the right 
 club to use. It is certainly not conducive to sound 
 and steady playing if the golfer has his mind divided 
 in trying to hit the ball and in watching where it 
 - goes ; such a division of attention usually ends 
 in an ignominious ' top ' or ' fluff ' into the nearest 
 bunker ! 
 
 The best feature, however, of this problem is that 
 golfers are awake to their responsibility, and the 
 Report of a Committee of Birmingham golfers who 
 enquired into the actual numbers, wages, and pros- 
 pects of the local caddies gives suggestions for 
 reform. 
 
 Whatever the employment may be, however, all 
 citizens must feel that a heavy responsibility is laid 
 upon them hi seeing that the costly education 
 expended on a boy is not entirely wasted by his 
 future occupation. Much can be done by proper 
 organization and regulation of conditions and hours. 
 But much more still can be accomplished by men 
 who will assist the boy to make the choice, who will 
 try to keep him regular at work, and who will always, 
 both in trade and pleasure, realize their responsi- 
 bility as regards the industrial future of any boy 
 with whom they are thrown into contact.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 JUVENILE OFFENDERS. 
 
 IT is somewhat difficult to find a suitable name by 
 which to classify those boys who, for one reason or 
 another, find themselves in the Police Court. They 
 are not necessarily criminals ; many of their offences 
 are very trivial, and if committed by a Public School 
 boy would be kept the secret of his house master. 
 So I have chosen the official name used for boys 
 under sixteen years of age, although I class together 
 with them those older than this. 
 
 It is important that at the outset we should have 
 clear in our minds some of the causes to which can 
 be attributed many of the offences of the working 
 boy. 
 
 The main cause, no doubt, is the laxity of the 
 discipline at home. As I have tried to point out 
 before, the boy receives very little training or 
 attention at home, since the parents are sometimes 
 wilfully neglectful, though more often they are 
 merely indifferent and ignorant. The boy is left 
 very much to himself, and it is hardly surprising
 
 88 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 if he gets into trouble. Very often, therefore, the 
 parents are really responsible for the boy's wrong- 
 doing ; he suffers from their neglect. 
 
 Again, he has much spare time which, for lack of 
 other accommodation, he is forced to spend upon 
 the streets, and it would be a miracle if a boy who has 
 no healthy outlet for his superfluous energy did not 
 make himself a general nuisance. He plays football 
 in the street, which is an offence against the bye-law ; 
 he discovers from selling papers that money can be 
 won by betting ; he finds an outlet for his desire 
 for excitement in playing a clandestine game of 
 pitch and toss. He has nothing with which to pass 
 away the time, and so finds himself in conflict with 
 the police. 
 
 Sometimes it is his physical health which is 
 responsible. We are told that the health has a 
 direct bearing upon a boy's character, and certainly 
 those who are feeble-minded are almost invariably 
 weak in character, with little or no conception of the 
 difference between right and wrong. The latter, 
 however, are a small minority, and should be treated 
 as feeble-minded, and given separate treatment in a 
 special institution. 
 
 From a considerable acquaintance and friendship 
 with many Juvenile Offenders, I am quite convinced 
 that the majority are fully capable of becoming 
 efficient, honest and useful citizens. They suffer 
 from no inherent criminal tendencies. Their energies
 
 JUVENILE OFFENDERS 89 
 
 have been misdirected through lack of discipline at 
 home, and for lack of some healthy and useful outlet. 
 Let me give an example. A boy not very long ago 
 stole the key of the school from the caretaker. 
 With it he locked all the doors into the school and 
 then dropped it down a neighbouring drain. Great 
 was the annoyance next morning when the caretaker 
 found himself unable to get it. It was a mischievous 
 thing to do, no doubt, but he at any rate showed 
 remarkable ingenuity, and stood to gain nothing 
 for himself except the pleasure of baffling his school- 
 master. It was a case of misdirected energy, and 
 I am quite sure that this is the chief reason for the 
 majority of the offences committed by the younger 
 boys. 
 
 The State has taken this fact into consideration, 
 and has arranged that all boys under the age of 
 sixteen may be tried at a special Children's Court, 
 from which the ordinary public is excluded, and at 
 which the methods of procedure are somewhat 
 different. The dock, for instance, is never used, and 
 social workers are allowed to be present and speak 
 for a child. In passing, I should like to express my 
 opinion that this plan should be extended so as to 
 include boys up to the age of twenty-one. They are 
 much the same as those of sixteen, in that their 
 offences are more due to stupidity and lack of 
 discipline than to any inherent evil tendencies. 
 This might mean a division of the work of the court
 
 90 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 into two sections, schoolboys being tried at the one 
 and those between fourteen and eighteen at another. 
 I put forward this proposal, not only because the 
 treatment of boys of seventeen and eighteen should 
 be the same as those under sixteen, but also because 
 the privacy and the informality of the proceedings 
 are just as important for them as for the younger 
 ones. 
 
 Further, I would suggest that special Magistrates 
 having a knowledge of boys should be appointed 
 to sit at these courts. Birmingham is fortunate in 
 having one or two Magistrates who do thoroughly 
 understand the work, and deal with the boys in a 
 way that the latter can appreciate. This is not 
 always the case, as I shall point out later. 
 
 It would be well also if some of the archaic legal 
 expressions could be translated into the ' vulgar ' 
 tongue. Sometimes a boy is bound over, and the 
 phraseology used in such a case is entirely unintelli- 
 gible to both the parent and the child. They have 
 not the faintest conception of what the Magistrate's 
 Clerk is talking about ! It very often happens, too, 
 that the boy is not always spoken to in a way that 
 puts him at his ease. I do not for a moment suggest 
 that the proceedings should be too free and easy ; 
 far from it. Let me explain what I mean in detail. 
 When the policeman or witness have given their 
 evidence, the boy is asked whether he would like 
 to cross-examine them. He imagines that this is
 
 JUVENILE OFFENDERS 91 
 
 his chance of putting his side of the case, and so 
 promptly starts off with his explanation. He is 
 very often stopped in quite an unnecessarily abrupt 
 manner, as the particular moment for his defence 
 has not arrived. The boy gets ' rattled,' and when 
 the proper time does come, is simply unable to put 
 his case clearly. I have known many instances 
 hi which this has happened, and it has always seemed 
 to me to be a very unnecessary formality. It is 
 most important for the sake of justice that the boy 
 should be able to put his case clearly, and any 
 abruptness on the part of the officials often throws 
 him off his balance and makes it almost impossible 
 for him to do so. 
 
 We now turn to the punishments which the 
 Magistrates have the power to inflict. Here we must, 
 for the sake of clearness, deal separately with those 
 for boys over sixteen and those for boys under that 
 age. Let us take the former class first. 
 
 The very large number of the offences by these 
 boys are against the bye-laws, i.e. loafing, jostling, 
 obstructing, playing football in the street, and so 
 on. The Magistrates, for these offences, can either 
 inflict a fine, or imprison, or put the boy on probation. 
 
 With small offences there is no doubt that the 
 fine is the simplest and the best, so long as one 
 essential condition is made. This is, that where the 
 fines cannot be paid on the spot, time for payment 
 is always allowed. This is essential. For only the
 
 92 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 other day two boys of seventeen and eighteen found 
 themselves in prison for seven days for playing 
 football in the street, through their inability to pay 
 the fine. It is unnecessary to point out how posi- 
 tively harmful that was to the boys. Much more 
 attention should be paid to this than is the case at 
 present. I know of very many boys who have 
 served a sentence of seven days' hard labour because 
 the money for the fine was not forthcoming on the 
 actual day. 
 
 The Home Office has repeatedly issued instructions 
 on the urgency of allowing extension of time, and 
 a bill enforcing this has been promised. We are 
 told that there is a difficulty in that many would 
 use this extension of time in changing their abode 
 and so avoiding payment. I very much doubt 
 whether the number of such cases would be at all 
 appreciable, and even if one or two did escape 
 payment, the harm would be very much less than 
 that caused by commitment to prison. 
 
 The Magistrates have also the power of placing 
 a boy on probation, which means that he is placed 
 under the care and supervision of either some 
 policeman told off for probation work, or a social 
 worker. Many of the offences, while not being 
 serious when taken by themselves, are often signs 
 of a disordered and undisciplined life. Many of 
 these elder Juvenile Offenders are, for instance, 
 casual inhabitants at some cheap and unsatisfactory
 
 JUVENILE OFFENDERS 93 
 
 lodging-house. They are in need of strong influence 
 exerted by one who will find them work and suitable 
 lodgings. 
 
 But it should be made quite clear that, if the boy 
 is brought up for any offence during his time for 
 probation, he will be severely dealt with. This 
 should even be the case if he offends after his proba- 
 tion is over, for he has been given a chance, and if 
 he refuses to take warning, then severe punishment 
 should be inflicted. I know of one boy, for instance, 
 who was put on probation for being concerned in 
 a case of stealing. During that period he was 
 given seven days' hard labour for jostling, the 
 Magistrates ignoring the fact that he was then on 
 probation. Although his career has been one of 
 successive misdemeanours, he has never been really 
 seriously punished. There is a very real danger that 
 probation will lose its force unless severe punish- 
 ment, e.g. imprisonment for three months, follows 
 any breach or offence during the specified period. 
 
 Then we come to the punishment of imprisonment 
 with hard labour. There is no doubt that the boy 
 is very seriously alarmed at this punishment for the 
 first or even the second short sentence. But hi 
 this, as in other things, familiarity breeds contempt. 
 I heard of a case the other day of a boy who had 
 done eighteen sentences of a week or fortnight, in 
 one year. Prison would present few terrors to him 
 after that. But a sentence of three months, or even
 
 94 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 a month, is a different matter, and is cordially 
 disliked by a youthful offender. It is important, 
 therefore, that in cases of a repeated offence, or 
 where probation has been broken, a severe sen- 
 tence should be inflicted, or that the boy should be 
 committed to some Borstal Institution, which is 
 educational in character. 
 
 Let me add a few words here about the importance 
 of the work of what is called the Borstal Committee, 
 which is in existence at all prisons, and the function 
 of which is to advise, and to help in securing work 
 for any boy leaving prison. The members of this 
 Committee are voluntary workers, and most valuable 
 work can be rendered by them, not only in obtaining 
 work for the boys, but even more by putting them 
 in touch with some social organization in which 
 they will be brought under healthy and invigorating 
 influences. 
 
 The mam need, then, with these elder Juvenile 
 Offenders, is that their past record and their whole 
 condition of life should be taken into account, and 
 that no boy should carelessly be punished without 
 these particulars being very fully considered. 
 
 We now turn to the case of those boys who are 
 under sixteen, and are tried in the special Children's 
 Court. It should, however, be noted at the outset 
 that in cases tried there the child is not always 
 even the ostensible defendant. Any child, for 
 instance, who, in the opinion of the Education
 
 JUVENILE OFFENDERS 95 
 
 Authority, is not under proper control is brought 
 up before the court in order that he may be formally 
 committed to an industrial school. But in all 
 cases the parents are held responsible for the boy's 
 offence, in that one of them is summoned to attend 
 the court with the children. 
 
 The smaller offences against the bye-laws are 
 usually punished by a fine. Criticisms are some- 
 times made that this punishment falls upon the 
 parent, not on the child. That is perfectly true, 
 but although in the court the parent will assert 
 that their son is the model of virtue and ' never 
 gives no trouble,' a different tale is told at home, 
 and the son ' cops out ' in a merciless manner. 
 
 The humanitarian ideas, which are so much the 
 fashion at the present time, have made Magistrates 
 unwilling to inflict the ancient method of correction, 
 that of whipping. A boy under fourteen years of 
 age may for certain offences be ordered to be birched. 
 This is done by a police officer in private, though 
 the parent may, if he so desire, be present. A sharp 
 punishment such as this is very often excellent, 
 especially if the boy comes from a fairly respectable 
 home, when his offence is very likely due to an 
 outburst of spirits. It is, however, dangerous in 
 the extreme if used promiscuously. I entirely 
 agree with the suggestion that the benefit of proba- 
 tion would be increased if, for serious offences, a 
 boy could be birched, and then put upon probation.
 
 96 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 The reason for this suggestion is that there is a 
 danger lest a boy should think lightly of probation 
 and so be unconvinced of the seriousness of his 
 offence. At present this is impossible, and it might 
 be wise for this permission to be granted, especially 
 if the Magistrates were men who had a knowledge 
 of boys. 
 
 There is no doubt whatever that probation is the 
 effective way of dealing with the majority of the 
 boys, whose homes are for the most part bad, and 
 who do need some strong influence. The probation 
 officers are usually men who have real sympathy 
 with the boys, and in Birmingham at any rate they 
 are tireless in their work. It is no small credit to 
 them that parents should ask, as I have heard them 
 do, that the probation officer should be allowed to 
 continue his visits to the home even though the 
 probation period is over. 
 
 In connection with this, I think it might be useful 
 to draw attention to the most useful effort that 
 has been made in connection with the children's 
 court at Birmingham. At the request of the 
 Magistrates, a representative of the Birmingham 
 Street Children's Union informs the Parochial 
 Clergy of all children who claim to be nominally 
 attached to the Church, and who are put on pro- 
 bation. This has secured that the work of the 
 probation officer is supplemented by those who can 
 persuade the child to join some social or religious
 
 JUVENILE OFFENDERS 97 
 
 organization. The Roman Catholics look after 
 their boys in the same way, and find it equally 
 useful. It is a work that other towns would do well 
 to copy. 
 
 But in addition to these punishments, the Magis- 
 trates may commit a boy to an Industrial or Re- 
 formatory School. To the former schools are sent 
 boys who are not under proper control, who per- 
 sistently refuse to attend school, or who have 
 committed some offence of a criminal nature, so 
 long as they are not over fourteen years of age. 
 They are committed to an Industrial School till they 
 are sixteen years of age. Boys over fourteen and 
 under sixteen are committed to a Reformatory for 
 serious offences until they are eighteen. 
 
 Before attempting to describe the work of these 
 schools, I should like to express my conviction that 
 such commitment should only be ordered when it 
 has been clearly proved that either the home is 
 utterly bad, involving a complete lack of proper 
 parental control, or that the boy is so bad that 
 nothing but three or more years of strict discipline 
 will bring him to his right mind. There is too great 
 a readiness to send a boy away from his home, a 
 measure which ought to be considered an exceptional 
 method of treatment. An indifferent home is, 
 to my mind, more likely to equip a boy for his 
 life's work than any institutional treatment. For 
 the schools are not quite all that could be desired,
 
 9 8 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 and at the best they must be institutional in character. 
 Many of them are, it is true, doing exceptionally 
 good work, and deserve fuller recognition from the 
 public than they get at present. 
 
 It must be remembered that the children who are 
 committed to these schools are capable of becoming 
 first-rate citizens. They are not bad by nature ; 
 but they have been miserably neglected at home. 
 
 Let me give, as an example, the case of Ted L . 
 
 His mother was a very weak character, while his 
 father neglected him entirely. Ted was continually 
 getting out of hand and into trouble, simply from 
 excess of spirits. He found himself sent of! to a 
 Reformatory, and I lost sight of him for some 
 time. A short time ago, he came to see me in the 
 smart uniform of the Royal Artillery. He has done 
 amazingly well, and has the makings of a first-rate 
 man. What a jolly hour we spent recalling his 
 previous pranks ! 
 
 The function of the school is, therefore, not only 
 the suppression of vice but also the development 
 of virtue, and the direction of the boy's natural 
 energies into useful and wholesome channels. 
 
 In this lies the solution to the very vexed question 
 of the discipline in these schools. There is no 
 doubt that in some of them discipline often becomes 
 a regular fetish, and the boy's individual need is 
 lost sight of in the desire to create a tone. In such 
 schools we find an excessive and cruel amount ,of
 
 JUVENILE OFFENDERS 99 
 
 caning and birching used to reduce the boys to 
 a uniform standard. Far better is it to sacrifice 
 mere smartness to the development and encourage- 
 ment of individual capacity by allowing them a 
 certain amount of freedom of action, if not of actual 
 responsibility for the behaviour of their fellows. 
 
 I have known many old Industrial School boys, 
 and I am bound to say that though they may be 
 outwardly respectable and moderately efficient 
 workmen, they are woefully lacking in any real 
 strength of character or initiative. That part of 
 the work of the schools which most needs attention 
 is the training of the boy to stand on his own feet, 
 by giving him a certain amount of independence of 
 action. 
 
 The extent to which this can be done depends upon 
 the personnel of the staff, for it is upon the superin- 
 tendent and the teachers that the burden lies. Here, 
 as elsewhere, it is character of the master that 
 is the chief factor, and we should insist that the 
 best men are secured for the work. 
 
 The industrial training given in the schools usually 
 takes the form of farming, bootmaking and tailoring. 
 There is no question that, taking the schools as a 
 whole, the boys are given an excellent start in life, 
 and that the majority of them take full advantage 
 of it. Of course, there are failures ; it would be 
 foolish to expect otherwise, considering the type of 
 boy. But they are comparatively few and far
 
 ioo TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 between, and if in addition to the industrial training 
 more attention were paid to the strengthening of 
 character and the development of the spirit of 
 independence and initiative, there would be very 
 little to criticize in the work of the schools. 
 
 There is one danger, and that is, that the boy on 
 his discharge is liable to suffer for a while from a 
 reaction against the strict discipline of the school. 
 It is therefore well that, so far as possible, they 
 should be sent to some boy's home where they can 
 taste their new-found liberty under a discipline 
 which is less rigid than that of the school. But 
 this would not be possible with all the boys, and so 
 the greatest care should be taken in seeing that the 
 boy is put into touch with some organization ; at 
 any rate, strict enquiries as to the place where he 
 is going to should be made. This is not always 
 
 done. Jack M , for instance, was sent to a 
 
 Welsh farm on his discharge on licence. His 
 brother in Birmingham applied for permission to 
 have the boy living with him. No enquiries were 
 made before this permission was granted, and it 
 was with the greatest difficulty that I could even 
 find the boy, for he had changed his address 
 five times between August and November. I found 
 the home entirely unsatisfactory and the boy in 
 disgraceful work. It would be wise if every city 
 could have a Central After-Care Committee for such 
 boys, through which all placements could be made,
 
 JUVENILE OFFENDERS 101 
 
 and by the members of which the supervision of the 
 boy and his employment could be done. It has 
 worked with success in Birmingham, and though 
 many schools have not yet used its services, those 
 which have done so have expressed their apprecia- 
 tion of its work. 
 
 Let me end, as I began, by repeating with all the 
 emphasis that I can that the youthful offender is 
 not necessarily a criminal by nature, and in the 
 large majority of cases is capable of becoming a 
 really useful and serviceable member of the com- 
 munity so long as he is brought under proper control 
 and influence. It is the work of the Children's 
 Police Court and the Certified Schools to secure 
 these for him in the most efficient manner and not 
 merely to punish him.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 HOW TO HELP THE BOY. 
 
 How can we help the working boy and his younger 
 brother ? What assistance does he really need, 
 which is not extended to him at present ? That is 
 the problem that we must face, regardless of the 
 consequences to our money and our time that the 
 answer may entail. For we have seen that this 
 boy is full of possibilities for good and evil. He is 
 at the start no mere machine, or parcel of flesh and 
 bones. He is a very lively creature with boundless 
 resources of human energy and initiative at his 
 command. He possesses a distinct individuality 
 peculiar to himself. Let me repeat again that there 
 is no such person as the ordinary working boy. 
 Each of them is quite out of the common, with 
 abilities and weaknesses of his own. 
 
 At present much is being done for him, as we have 
 already noticed. From his earliest childhood he is 
 protected by law from many things that are obviously 
 bad and detrimental to his welfare. The State 
 has begun to realize its responsibility towards him,
 
 HOW TO HELP THE BOY 103 
 
 and by legislation has gone a long way in mitigating 
 the evils and in removing the obstacles that beset 
 his path. He receives an expensive education ; 
 he is not allowed to work out of school more than a 
 certain time, and then only under certain conditions 
 and regulations. If he gets into trouble, and in 
 excess of larking breaks some law, there is a special 
 police court to correct him and to restore him to 
 better ways. His labour is supervised, and a careful 
 eye is kept upon the conditions under which he works. 
 His health is attended to at school, and any weakness 
 or infirmity is dealt with in its early stages. Much 
 is being done, and we are thankful for it. But all 
 this help, advice and restraint, suffer from one 
 defect. It is organization, and as such must tend 
 to deal with the boy as one of a class rather than as 
 an individual requiring individual treatment. 
 
 Indispensable and valuable, therefore, as this work 
 is, it does not meet a most pressing need. For the 
 boy is a boy, and must be dealt with as such. For 
 the Englishman, both by temperament and nature, 
 hates and loathes with all his heart any attempt to 
 organize his life. Such attempts are censured as 
 interfering with individual liabilities, or are dubbed 
 ' grandmotherly legislation.' This feeling is no 
 doubt pushed too far sometimes, as legislation of a 
 protective character is essential. We do, however, 
 need continual reminders that human character 
 cannot be made by any bye-law or Act of Parliament.
 
 io 4 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 Individual capacity and ability will not be dragged 
 out by any philanthropic or educational organization. 
 They can only be permanently developed by personal 
 training. This is fully recognized at our Public 
 Schools and Universities. The son of wealthy 
 parents receives an immense amount of individual 
 attention from his parents and his masters. His 
 essays are corrected and his mistakes explained to 
 him personally ; his peculiarities of temperament 
 are noted, and he is encouraged or corrected accord- 
 ingly. No such thing happens with the working 
 boy or his younger brother, who are treated as 
 members of a class. This is especially serious, for 
 their life is so infinitely complex and full of surprises. 
 Many influences are at work upon their character 
 and temperament, and each boy as a result possesses 
 many traits. It is peculiarly important, then, that 
 he should receive individual attention. 
 
 But where is he to receive it from ? Who is there 
 to render him that help ? In the majority of cases 
 he does not get it at the home. He seldom sees his 
 father, who would be likely to understand him, as 
 there is no room for him when his father is at home. 
 The mother very often tries to do her best, but she 
 is harassed in all directions, by the cramped con- 
 ditions of the home, the noise of the children, the 
 dust and dirt of the city streets, and the incessant 
 difficulty of making both ends meet. It is not 
 surprising if she neglects to pay attention to her
 
 HOW TO HELP THE BOY 105 
 
 boy, and adopts the policy of laissez faire. Even 
 if she does make an effort, she does it too often in 
 a gruff and grumbling way. 
 
 Then there is the school. Unstinted praise must 
 be given to many masters and teachers for the 
 efforts they are making in this direction. But it 
 is extra work, little opportunity offering itself in 
 the crowded hours and rooms of school. 
 
 In the factory it is the rare exception if the 
 foreman or the employer pays attention to the small 
 boy who runs messages or feeds a machine. Thus 
 the boy emerges into manhood, a self-made man. 
 ' No one brought me up ; I growed.' This is a 
 disastrous state of affairs, and accounts for much 
 that is low and squalid in our larger cities. 
 
 There is, however, one exception to this general 
 rule. There is one person ever ready to give advice 
 and to influence the youngsters, i.e. the loafer at 
 the corner of the street. The virtuous inhabitants 
 stand aloof; not so with the wastrel who supports 
 the lamp-post. He is ever ready to have the 
 quick-witted, cheery youngster near at hand to help 
 to while away the weary hours of doing nothing. 
 The boy is useful to him too, as a watchman, when he 
 wants to gamble or indulge in other shady occupa- 
 tions. There are thousands of men who owe their 
 existence in the prison or the workhouse or the 
 asylum to the subtle and degrading influence of the 
 corner lounger. ' I got among bad pals ' is the
 
 io6 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 frequent explanation that is given by them for their 
 fall. 
 
 Here, then, lies the need. It is for men who will 
 supplement the work of the home and the school 
 by giving to these boys some individual training 
 and the benefit of a healthy influence. Such work 
 is not only necessary, but wonderfully productive. 
 No one is more receptive than the street boy. He 
 is plastic beyond imagination until he reaches the 
 age of sixteen or seventeen. A casual hint ; a 
 suggestion as to conduct, couched in sympathetic 
 tones ; a strong, but kindly discipline as of an elder 
 brother ; above all the wholesome influence of a 
 healthy friend ; these are the things a boy needs, 
 and from which he is ready to benefit. They can 
 be given by any man who has intelligence and 
 human sympathy. They are not peculiar to an 
 expert, or the artificial possession of a trained man. 
 All possess them to some extent, and can develop 
 them by use. 
 
 It is a popular fallacy to believe that some men 
 are ' good with boys,' and others not. The influence 
 that any man possesses upon a working boy is in 
 proportion to his intelligence and human sympathy. 
 True it is that a club may be uncongenial to some 
 men, because of a retiring nature, or a dislike of 
 noise. But there are working boys of a similar 
 disposition over whom such men can have some 
 power and who will respond to their advice. Still
 
 HOW TO HELP THE BOY 107 
 
 less is it necessary to be an athlete. A very dis- 
 tinguished football player once stayed a week at a 
 slum club. Great things were expected of him by 
 the staff, and the boys were duly informed of his 
 prowess. But great was the disappointment when 
 judgment was passed that he was ' an awful swanker.' 
 After another visit, when he avoided any mention 
 of his powers, he was liked by many, not indeed as 
 a football player, but as a sympathetic friend. This 
 is the secret : friendship. The working boy needs 
 friends, not athletic or wealthy or educated patrons. 
 Surely the power of friendship belongs to some 
 extent to all. 
 
 I have already pointed out countless ways in 
 which this help can be rendered. There is the 
 School Care Committee, through which he can be 
 put into touch with some boy who needs advice 
 as to his future employment, or whose parents are 
 lazy about securing the medical treatment that he 
 needs. There is the young man just out of prison 
 to whom a little sympathy and friendship would 
 make all the difference in the world. Our Reforma- 
 tories and Industrial Schools are discharging many 
 boys each year who require the influence of a strong 
 friend to check the reaction from the strict discipline 
 of the previous years. There is the clever boy, 
 capable of rising to an important post, for whom 
 a little private tuition would be invaluable. The 
 openings in this direction are innumerable, and lie
 
 io8 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 ready to hand to any man who is prepared to work, 
 however much he may dislike the boy as a member 
 of a club. 
 
 This work can, of course, be done to a large extent 
 by men who are engaged in business, and in the 
 ordinary course of their daily life. The employer 
 who takes an individual interest in the future, the 
 amusement and the interests of his youthful 
 employees, is doing an important work. In his 
 club he will find the page boy, on the golf course 
 there is the caddie. A man who conscientiously 
 tries to discharge his responsibilities to those with 
 whom he is directly thrown into contact will be 
 doing social work of the highest order. 
 
 True, he has his wider duties to be discharged to 
 those who have a less direct claim upon his time 
 and attention. A man who is awake to these will 
 find it necessary to give two or three evenings a 
 week to visiting the boys for whose health or employ- 
 ment he has made himself responsible through 
 the After-Care Committees. Anyone, both in his 
 ordinary life and on his spare evenings, will find 
 endless opportunities in every place for doing 
 invaluable social service, even if a club or brigade 
 are uncongenial to him. 
 
 There is another opportunity for individual work 
 to which I must call attention. The emigration of 
 working boys to the Colonies has been very pro- 
 minently before the public in late years. Canada,
 
 HOW TO HELP THE BOY 109 
 
 New Zealand and Australia offer not only a welcome 
 but also a magnificent opening to any healthy young 
 man who is not afraid of work. I must admit, 
 however, that I am not enthusiastic about it, for 
 there seem to me to be two dangers involved which 
 require careful consideration. In the first place 
 it must be borne in mind that the working boy of 
 our big cities is not usually suited to country life ; 
 in fact, I would go further and say it is exceptional 
 if he is. I have known many boys work their way 
 back from Canada, while others have simply drifted 
 into the big centres of population, where their 
 chance is no better than in England, and where they 
 are complete strangers. I am quite aware that 
 many organizations for emigration take great trouble 
 about providing suitable places for emigrants, but 
 they do not always supervise them afterwards. 
 
 It must be remembered also that, as the colonies 
 will only accept strong and healthy boys, any 
 extensive system of emigration will deprive the 
 mother country of her best sons. There are, of 
 course, some boys who are by nature unsuited to 
 factory life, while there are others to whom a fresh 
 start in a different country may make all the differ- 
 ence. To emigrate such boys, under adequate 
 and extended supervision, is very valuable, but it 
 should, I think, be remembered that they are the 
 exception and not by any means the rule. 
 
 Before, however, I pass to the Clubs and Brigades
 
 no TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 which require separate treatment, I should like to 
 say a word or two in regard to the work of School 
 and College Missions, which are such a prominent 
 feature in the social and religious work in the big 
 centres of population. Their original idea was to 
 form an outlet for social service to the members 
 of a particular school or college, and also to be a 
 place where men could reside among the poor. In 
 addition to these special missions, there are a few 
 settlements unconnected with any one school or 
 college, but which have the same purpose. I have 
 had the privilege of being at the head of two of these 
 settlements, in South London and in Birmingham, 
 and I am desirous of laying stress on three features 
 of the work which appear to me to be of paramount 
 importance. 
 
 In the first place, it appears to me to be vitally 
 important that settlements should undertake work 
 that is of a complementary character. The State 
 has extended its machinery to social questions, 
 while the Church has its definite organization as 
 well. It is not the function of a settlement to start 
 a rival organization to these, but to co-operate in, 
 and supplement, their work. Let me take two 
 instances of what I mean. The State has started 
 a system of Labour Exchanges for boys, which will 
 only be effective in proportion to the amount of 
 voluntary effort that they receive. It is the duty 
 of a settlement to supply this assistance, and not
 
 HOW TO HELP THE BOY in 
 
 to start some inferior labour bureau for their own 
 particular boys. Or, again, in regard to the Church's 
 work, it is very doubtful whether a school mission 
 should take charge of a parish. For one reason or 
 another the school may wish to move its mission 
 to some other district, in which case the parish is 
 left without any adequate provision for its main- 
 tenance. Surely it would do infinitely better work 
 if it undertook more direct missionary and pioneer 
 work among those who are not touched by the 
 ordinary parochial machinery. In this way they 
 would cover a wider area and would be free to move 
 when the occasion for doing so arose. 
 
 Then again, their work should be of such a nature 
 as will appeal to those belonging to the school or 
 college with which they are connected. For one of 
 their purposes is to interest boys and undergraduates, 
 and to give to them an opportunity for doing social 
 work. Here, again, it is more than ever doubtful 
 whether it is wise for a school or college to take a 
 parish as its mission. In a parish most of the work 
 is of a description that cannot appeal in the same 
 way as does a club for boys or men. Sick-visiting, 
 mothers' meetings and suchlike essential features 
 of parish life cannot possibly appeal with any force 
 to a healthy Public School boy, whereas a boys' 
 club, in which he can meet others of his own age, 
 though of a widely different class, or the summer 
 boys' camp, give him a human interest in a remark-
 
 H2 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 ably effective way. This is only an example of 
 what I mean when I say that school and college 
 missions should remember that the value of their 
 work is not only to be judged by its efficiency in 
 assisting the poor, but also in the amount of personal 
 interest that it creates at the school or college with 
 which it is connected. 
 
 My last suggestion is perhaps a repetition in a 
 different form of what I have said before. The 
 work of a settlement must be human. There is 
 a very real danger lest the workers in a settlement 
 become investigators rather than friends. So much 
 stress has been laid upon the need for knowledge 
 as well as sympathy, that it frequently happens 
 that the personal work is crowded out by committee 
 meetings, investigations about particular evils and 
 such like impersonal work. However important 
 that may be, it is not the proper work of a school 
 mission. Their work is surely that which the late 
 Canon Barnett described as the original ideals of 
 the promoters of Tonybee Hall, ' their desire was, 
 as human beings, to help human beings.' 
 
 That should be the guiding principle of all social 
 work. Without it no man can really effect much, 
 especially if the working boy is his first care. No 
 machinery, however skilfully devised, will produce 
 an intelligent, honest, and serviceable man out of 
 a wild and reckless street boy. Organization may 
 check overlapping; social science may prevent
 
 HOW TO HELP THE BOY 113 
 
 mistakes ; but they are means to an end, not ends 
 in themselves. Personal influence, the reaction of 
 character on character, is the only effective force in 
 social or religious reformation. 
 
 At present, however, there are comparatively 
 few men forthcoming to do this work. There are 
 many who could spare the time, and who ought to 
 render this invaluable help, so badly needed by many 
 a boy. If any one questions it, let him go and stand 
 near some city station or tram terminus, and let 
 him see the thousands of young men flying to their 
 suburban homes, regardless of the paper boy they 
 leave behind. Some, of course, may have to work 
 for some examination, in order to improve their 
 chances. But an infinitely larger number do nothing 
 in particular in the evenings, and could well spare a 
 night or two a week, with advantage to themselves 
 and to their less fortunate brother in the slums. 
 There are, again, many men belonging to some 
 religious organization, a men's service or adult 
 early morning school, who often rest content with 
 attendance at the class or service, and do nothing 
 more. One cannot help feeling that such classes 
 would receive renewed vigour and stimulus if they 
 as a body made themselves responsible for a club 
 of poorer boys. 
 
 It is the man who has been to a Public School or 
 University who ought to be leading in this work. 
 He has had advantages which others have not ;
 
 ii 4 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 he has natural gifts, unpossessed by other men. 
 For he has mixed with other boys and men, and by 
 contact with them he has learned an ease in manner 
 and a natural freedom from self-consciousness. 
 He can, therefore, make friends easily and quickly. 
 His wider education has given him a bigger outlook 
 upon life. As a monitor or prefect he has learned 
 the art of leadership and a willingness to take 
 responsibility ; as a member of a house or college 
 he has become accustomed to forget himself for 
 the good of a common cause. He has, moreover, a 
 chance of becoming interested in the difficulties of 
 the life of a working boy, for most schools and 
 colleges possess some club or settlement. Why is 
 it, then, that in spite of these advantages so few of 
 them respond ? One reason is that the appeal is 
 made along wrong lines. The boy at a decent 
 Public School is a generous hearted person, but he 
 is likely to become nauseated with pitiful tales of 
 shoeless urchins and woebegone street arabs. Thrill- 
 ing stories of parental brutality may appeal to his 
 sentiment, though they will not inspire him to a 
 life of service. A step further must be taken, and 
 an explanation of the causes for such things should 
 be given. The general way in which he could render 
 assistance, other than financial, could be pointed 
 out, as the time for his leaving school draws near. 
 Can we not show him that to help in his club does 
 not mean merely to teach a ragged, dirty boy to
 
 HOW TO HELP THE BOY 115 
 
 wash his hands and to refrain from swearing, but 
 that it does mean an opportunity to train by personal 
 influence and example those who, by force of numbers, 
 will make or mar their Church and nation in future 
 years ? 
 
 A much closer connection, too, between the 
 school and club is desirable. In many cases the 
 school missions are so distant from the school that 
 an interchange of visits is rendered impossible. 
 It is necessary to lay stress on the advisability of 
 making mutual hospitality a possibility. A boy 
 who has seen the club, and who has boxed with 
 Harry Smith and Billy Jones, is far more likely to 
 have his interest stirred than one whose only infor- 
 mation about the club is the terminal or only 
 annual visit of the school missioner. Why, for 
 instance, could not the footmen needed in the school 
 houses be obtained from the school club ? 
 
 I think a distinguished headmaster rightly 
 diagnosed the situation when he said that Public 
 School boys ' do not care because they do not know.' 
 ' I believe,' he continued, ' that by a certain amount 
 of systematic instruction boys may be quite easily 
 stirred to a real and intelligent interest in these 
 great questions of the day, which may lead them 
 later on to take an active part hi their solution.' 
 We tell the boy of wretched youths, their hardships, 
 their crime and their sordidness. So far so good. 
 But it is not good enough. We must teach him
 
 n6 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 also why these youths are wretched, sordid and 
 criminal ; what effect such youths have upon the 
 community at large, and who is responsible for their 
 reform. 
 
 This is what is meant by those who advocate the 
 teachings of civics. The word civics is, no doubt, 
 a bad one ; for it conveys the idea of economic 
 sociology. Its true meaning is instruction as to 
 the origin, the nature, and the method of reform 
 of the social evils which are crushing out any nobility 
 of character from the majority of our countrymen. 
 In some schools a course of civics has been tried 
 with great success. Though this may not always 
 be practicable, it is usually possible for a master 
 to arrange for such instruction for his elder boys. 
 History, for instance, can be put into relation with 
 the present. ' If he is reading,' says Mr. Spence, 
 ' of the Black Death and the Statute of Labourers, 
 he had better be given some notion of our present 
 labour difficulties and learn something of strikes 
 and wages boards.' 
 
 Such may be one means of interesting Public 
 School boys and others in social work. 
 
 Let me conclude by saying that whatever source 
 they come from, men are urgently needed to supple- 
 ment the work of the home and school. However 
 complete the organization of his education and 
 labour may be, the working boy will always need 
 the guiding hand of a sympathetic friend, a friend
 
 HOW TO HELP THE BOY 117 
 
 who will pass on whatever he possesses in the way 
 of character, strength and religious conviction. He 
 needs the unconscious influence and the quiet 
 advice of one who has himself weathered the storms 
 of boyish difficulties and temptations.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE CLUB. 
 
 IN the last chapter I tried to suggest certain ways 
 in which a man may be able to assist boys indi- 
 vidually, even though he is unwilling to face a crowd 
 of boys together as members of a club. I now turn 
 to the work of a Boys' Club or Brigade, their nature, 
 their management, and the main features of such 
 efforts. The whole idea of a Boys' Club rests on 
 the fact that a working boy is never content unless 
 he is a member of some clique or gang. He simply 
 hates to be alone ; he is by nature sociable, and does 
 not know what shyness is ! It was a realization of 
 this which led Canon Barnett, Quintin Hogg and 
 others to start Clubs for these boys and so to deal 
 with them as members of a clique. 
 
 The movement has spread, and now we not only 
 have countless Boys' Clubs all over the country, 
 but other organizations of a kindred nature, such 
 as the Boys' Brigade, the Church Lads' Brigade, 
 and the Scouts. For although the ostensible purpose 
 of these latter organizations was to meet some
 
 THE CLUB 119 
 
 particular need, such as discipline, or the cultivation 
 of intelligence and usefulness, yet the fact remains 
 that their work would not last for a day if the boy 
 was not essentially a gregarious creature. It would 
 be absurd for me to do more than touch upon the 
 work of these three useful organizations. For they 
 deal with a class of boy who is as a rule higher up 
 in the social scale than the boy of the slum, with 
 whom I have been connected. 
 
 The main difference between the work of a Brigade 
 and that of a Club is that, as the helper in the former 
 is an officer, and must insist upon the boys regarding 
 him as such if proper discipline is to be maintained, 
 it is clear that he cannot be on such intimate terms 
 with the boys as in the case of a Club helper. This 
 may very likely be a wise plan with the better class 
 boy who comes from a decent home, and whose 
 individual training is done by the parents, for his 
 main need is a sense of discipline and obedience. 
 It is a system, however, which is not adapted for 
 this reason to work among the poorest boys. True 
 it is that he also needs to learn obedience and duty, 
 but still more does he need the personal friend, who 
 will by his influence draw out of him his latent 
 powers and characteristics. That is a very broad 
 distinction between the work of a Club and that of 
 a Brigade. 
 
 The Scout movement is one that has attracted 
 a very large amount of public notice. There again,
 
 120 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 discipline is the main feature of the work. There 
 is no question at all that the movement has done 
 an immense amount of good, though I quite candidly 
 admit that I am not one of its ardent admirers who 
 see in it the solution of all our educational diffi- 
 culties. Like other organizations, it has its limita- 
 tions and weaknesses. I am anxious to draw 
 attention to one of these, not because I wish to pick 
 holes, but because I feel that if attention is drawn 
 to it, even by an unknown person like myself, it 
 may lead to reform. It is this. Any man may 
 start a troop of Scouts and receive recognition as 
 such so long as he shows a certain knowledge of 
 Scout-craft. It is quite obvious that all men are 
 not equally fit to take up a work of such an intensely 
 responsible character, involving the moral and 
 religious training of a boy. There is practically 
 no supervision of this side of the Scoutmaster's 
 work, and so there is a grave risk of positive harm 
 being done to the boys. I am saying this as one 
 who has actually had experience of such a disaster 
 taking place. It is most necessary that the Head- 
 quarters of the Scout movement should pay the 
 closest attention to this, and should, through their 
 commissioners or some other capable man in each 
 locality, take the greatest care about the choice of 
 Scoutmasters, and maintain the closest supervision 
 of their work. But even when that defect has been 
 remedied, it is open to question whether it will ever
 
 THE CLUB 121 
 
 really do much good in the slums. There is, for 
 instance, the practical difficulty about the expense 
 of the uniform and the Saturday afternoon visits 
 to the country. The boys cannot afford it, and it 
 is well known that a boy does not appreciate for 
 long what he gets for nothing. I have tried to 
 start patrols among the poorest street boys, and 
 have been fortunate in getting capable men to start 
 them. But, with one exception, they failed to arouse 
 any real keenness among the boys. I trust, however, 
 that I shall not be considered as being in the slightest 
 degree hostile. I am most fully conscious of the 
 value of the movement in raising the better class boy 
 to a high standard both of discipline and of intelli- 
 gence. 
 
 There is no doubt whatever in my mind that the 
 most efficient way of helping the genuine slum boy 
 and his pals is the Boys' Club, and it is this that I 
 propose to deal with in some considerable detail. 
 For there is extraordinary ignorance shown by 
 educated people as to the value and nature of a 
 Club, partly accounted for by the fact that they are 
 usually hidden away in the slums, and hold no 
 spectacular parades of boys in uniform. I am also 
 encouraged to do so, in the hope that my close 
 experience of such work for over eight years may 
 prove useful to others who are just beginning. 
 
 It is usually taken for granted that to run a Boys' 
 Club requires some quite unique faculty with which
 
 122 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 but few are endowed. One frequently sees in the 
 advertisements of vacant curacies in the Church 
 newspapers, that a man is required who is ' good 
 with boys ' and such like phrases. This is an entire 
 misconception, and it is a dangerous one too, for 
 many men are frightened at attempting the work 
 because they feel that they may not have got this 
 peculiar gift. I am ready to admit that certain 
 qualities are necessary, but they are qualities with 
 which most men are endowed to some extent, and 
 which can quite easily be developed. 
 
 (1) The first of these is a devotion to the boy 
 himself, involving a hatred of anything that is 
 likely to impede his development, and a willingness 
 to devote time, money and labour to meet his needs. 
 No mere interest or sense of duty can compensate 
 for the lack of that. Without it a man's work must 
 be cold and spasmodic. 
 
 (2) A sense of humour is the second requisite, 
 for the boy is one who enjoys some fun, and does not 
 understand a man who is unable to see a joke. 
 
 (3) A working boy has an extraordinary high 
 sense of justice, and a helper who shows favouritism 
 either in rewards or punishment will speedily lose 
 the confidence of the members of his Club. 
 
 (4) The management of a Club is not an easy 
 task, and there are many occasions on which it 
 appears useless to continue the work. The influence 
 of a Club, however, does not appear upon the surface,
 
 THE CLUB 123 
 
 and when failure seems stamped upon every effort, 
 it is often then that some hidden work is going on. 
 A helper must, therefore, treat depression and 
 dismay as evils to be suppressed, and go on quietly 
 and steadily with the work. 
 
 (5) A helper who loses his temper is doomed to 
 failure. Boys will submit his temper to severe 
 tests, and if he comes successfully through the ordeal 
 his influence is assured. I remember an occasion 
 when a young helper, who was left in charge for a 
 night, was locked up in a room by the boys. He said 
 and did nothing, but sat quite quietly reading a book. 
 This spoilt the fun, and after half an hour or so the 
 door was unlocked, and full apologies made. He 
 became an extraordinary power in the club as a result. 
 
 (6) The last characteristic of a good helper is the 
 ability to know what he wants, and then to get 
 others to do it for him. For while there can and 
 must be only one head of a Club, the boys will not 
 fully benefit unless they are given some definite 
 responsibility. It is not always easy to allocate 
 work to others and to watch them do it inefficiently. 
 But for their sake it is necessary, and a strong man 
 can afford to do it, so long as he knows what he 
 wants and is sure of his authority. To do every- 
 thing by oneself in a Club is a sign of weakness. 
 
 Such are the characteristics of the ideal helper 
 in a Boys' Club, and his work will be successful in 
 so far as he possesses them. No powers of organiza-
 
 124 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 tion, athletic ability or wealth will compensate for 
 the lack of them. But there are few, if any, men 
 who do not possess them to some extent, and who 
 could not develop them if they would. 
 
 We must now turn to the management and organi- 
 zation of the Club, and the first problem here is 
 the size of the Club. Those who work in Manchester 
 and London tell us that a Club of 300 to 400 is the 
 best, while a helper in Birmingham will be equally 
 clearly in favour of a small Club with not more than 
 thirty to fifty boys. I am lucky enough to have 
 had experiences of both kinds, and I am convinced 
 that the small club is undoubtedly the best. For a 
 small club makes it easier for the helpers to know 
 the boys individually, and renders it possible for 
 the helper to visit the boys at home, which is so 
 essential if the boy is to be fully understood. There 
 is no doubt that a large Club covers more ground, 
 and possibly may have a more direct influence upon 
 the district in which it is situated. But, it should 
 be remembered, the cost of a big Club and the 
 number of men required to run it will provide for 
 ten or fifteen small Clubs, so that there is little or 
 no gain there. 
 
 To my mind, however, the chief advantage of 
 the smaller Club lies in the fact that a helper in a 
 small Club can show initiative and adopt methods 
 peculiar to himself. As one of many helpers in a 
 big Club he cannot do this, for the Head of the Club
 
 THE CLUB 125 
 
 must be absolutely supreme. So he fails to make 
 full use of his own powers and abilities. I therefore 
 consider that the ideal size for a Club whose members 
 are under fourteen years of age, is from twenty-five 
 to thirty. The younger the boy is, the more need 
 is there for personal and individual attention. The 
 Club for those over fourteen can therefore be larger, 
 having a membership of fifty to sixty boys. 
 
 Then we come to the question as to the age when 
 a boy is admitted. Most Clubs only admit boys 
 when they have actually left school and gone to 
 work. Others start earlier, taking in boys of ten or 
 eleven on the ground that it is necessary to reach 
 the boy before he gains any independence as a 
 regular wage earner. I have had experience of 
 both kinds of Clubs, and I am positive that the latter 
 do the best work, provided that there is a separate 
 Club, though under the same auspices, into which 
 the boy can be drafted when he leaves school. This 
 is the plan which has been adopted by the Birming- 
 ham Street Children's Union. It has a large number 
 of Clubs for the younger boys scattered about the 
 city, and a few Senior Clubs in central places to 
 which the younger boys are drafted on reaching the 
 age of fourteen. The chief advantage to be gained 
 from taking the boy earlier is that he is then more 
 susceptible to personal influence. His character is 
 quite unformed, and what habits he may have 
 picked up have not got a hold upon him. If also
 
 126 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 he becomes a member of a Club early on in his life, 
 he will choose his ' chinas,' or personal friends, from 
 among the other members of the Club. If he does 
 not join a Club till later, it becomes necessary to 
 reach his friends, or break up his friendships, before 
 much permanent good can be done. 
 
 This system has its advantages in another direc- 
 tion. If there is a Senior Club, which is fed by 
 numerous Junior Clubs, opportunities are offered 
 for teaching the elder boys their definite responsi- 
 bility to the younger ones. They can spend a night 
 or two, for instance, in the Junior Club, helping to 
 organize the games, and in keeping discipline. 
 I shall deal with this more fully later on, and so I 
 pass on to describe one or two small matters of 
 organization. 
 
 The Junior Club can very well meet in some 
 schoolroom or other temporary place. The equip- 
 ment, which is very small, can be put away in a 
 small wooden box, for a pair of boxing gloves, a 
 small bagatelle board, and quieter games such as 
 draughts, ludo, snakes and ladders, halma, snap 
 and happy families are all that is required in the 
 way of equipment. The Senior Club ought to be 
 on a much bigger scale, and a separate building is 
 almost an essential. For here gymnastic apparatus 
 and a billiard table are almost essential. A canteen 
 for Saturday nights, a room for quiet games and 
 reading, are also needed.
 
 THE CLUB 127 
 
 A Club must have a football team, entered for 
 some league, with a regular ground to play on, if 
 it is to have a real influence upon the boy. For 
 that is his favourite game without doubt, and if no 
 provision is made for this by the Club, he will get 
 it in other less desirable ways, even if only by going 
 to watch a league match. Other clubs for swimming, 
 running, cricket, bicycling and country walks will 
 all help in making the Club the centre of the boy's 
 life. 
 
 The recreations of a Club need the most careful 
 thought and organization, for not only are they 
 uppermost in the boy's mind, but they can also 
 play such an important part in his training. It is 
 through them that he can be taught that all-impor- 
 tant lesson of playing for his side, and not for himself. 
 Having had to fend for himself through most of 
 his life, he very naturally has a strong tendency to 
 play for himself. One sees this very clearly in the 
 utter inability of the boy, at any rate in his younger 
 days, to learn the art of ' passing.' When also you 
 ask him about the result of any match he will pro- 
 bably tell you of how many goals he scored, before 
 he tells you the result of the match. This may 
 seem a small matter to some people, but I am quite 
 convinced that if he is allowed to show this spirit 
 in his games, he will also show it in the rest of his 
 life. Teach a boy to play for his side, and he will 
 then more easily grasp the duty of working for the
 
 128 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 Club, and from that learn the duties of a true 
 citizen. 
 
 But another weakness of the boy is his inability 
 to ' play the game.' He will loudly question the 
 referee's decision when it is against him, and is 
 perfectly ready to resort to any sharp practices by 
 which he can manage to win. I had a remarkable 
 proof of this only the other day. As Chairman of 
 the Council of Workers among boys in Birmingham, 
 which organizes football leagues and other com- 
 petitions, I had to adjudicate upon six protests from 
 different clubs against their opponents or the referees. 
 Only one of them was at all reasonable, while the 
 others would never have been made or even thought 
 of by Public School boys. It is therefore a primary 
 duty of the Club helper to insist upon his boys 
 playing a clean game and obeying the referee's 
 decision without question or discussion. ' To play 
 the game ' fairly and squarely is a lesson that is of 
 intense value throughout life, and a Club which fails 
 to teach it neglects one of its main duties to its 
 members. 
 
 A helper in a Club, however, cannot confine his 
 attention only to the organization of the games. 
 Countless duties occupy his time. Registers have 
 to be properly kept, lapsed members have to be 
 looked up, while the weekly subscription, camp 
 payments, and the savings bank will tax his business 
 capacity to the uttermost.
 
 THE CLUB 129 
 
 But above all and beyond all is the boy himself. 
 The organization of the Club is nothing as compared 
 to the training of the individual boy and the develop- 
 ment of his special capacities. This is the supreme 
 object of the Club, and upon it depends the whole 
 tone and spirit of the Club, and the permanence and 
 efficiency of the work. For this reason I want to 
 suggest sides of this work which need special care 
 and consideration because they are so often neglected. 
 
 It is necessary to understand the boy's surround- 
 ings and whole environment if the boy himself is 
 to be understood. The helper must visit that boy 
 in his home and obtain an insight into the kind of 
 influences to which he is subject there. The co- 
 operation of the parents, even though only passive, 
 will make the work of the helper infinitely easier, 
 and this cannot be secured if the helper neglects 
 to visit the home. A true friend of the boy will 
 never try to take upon himself the duties of a 
 parent ; rather will he strain every nerve to teach 
 the parents their responsibility to the son and be 
 content to supplement their work by being the 
 confidential friend and adviser. 
 
 He will also feel it to be a privilege to talk to the 
 individual boys alone on the deeper and serious 
 things of life. There is a fault to be checked, a 
 virtue to be encouraged, not in public before the 
 other boys, but alone on a walk or in a private 
 room. He will speak plainly to the boy about
 
 I 3 o TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 his body, he will tell him of his duty to his home 
 and to his Club, and he will often act as a sym- 
 pathetic listener to the boy's confidences about his 
 ambitions and his difficulties. To be allowed to 
 do that is a high privilege with enormous responsi- 
 bilities, and will far more than compensate for the 
 worries of petty details. 
 
 He should act in this capacity to the unpopular 
 and unattractive boy even more than to the others, 
 for it is so very easy for a helper to devote his 
 energies to the boys he feels drawn to. But he must 
 remember that he has a duty to all the boys ; and 
 that the quiet, uncouth youngster who is so un- 
 popular and who has but few friends, very probably 
 needs his help and confidence much more than the 
 others do. How often it is that the helper will find 
 under that uncouth and displeasing exterior much 
 undiluted goodness and virtue. The duty of a 
 helper is to dig for gold ; he must pierce below 
 appearances and find the true nature of the boy, 
 for all boys were made in the image of God, and in 
 all of them there is much that is noble and pure and 
 good. 
 
 The helper will often have another very difficult 
 duty forced upon him. A boy is not always wise 
 in the choice of his friends, and will choose as his 
 ' walking out pal ' one that has a bad influence upon 
 him. I remember a case of two boys, each of whom 
 was quite sound and sensible when alone. Together
 
 THE CLUB 131 
 
 they were ' impossible ' ! It was not the fault of either 
 of them ; the influence of each upon the other was 
 bad. Still worse, the boy may be thrown into com- 
 pany with one that is bad, and has a degrading 
 influence upon him. These friendships have to be 
 broken up. There are few, if any, more difficult 
 and delicate tasks than to warn a boy of his friends. 
 It is no use merely to tell him ' You ought not to 
 walk out with so and so ' ; reasons must be given 
 if the advice is to carry weight. Much time will 
 also be spent by a conscientious helper in breaking 
 up the inevitable cliques and sets which will form 
 in the Club, and which so often have a disastrous 
 effect upon the individual members. 
 
 In conclusion, we turn to the all-important matter 
 of discipline. For while the helper must first of all 
 be a friend to the boy, he cannot afford to allow 
 unruliness or disorder in the Club. The members 
 must be made to realize that rules have to be obeyed 
 and that obedience is a necessary virtue. No work 
 of any value can possibly be done if the members 
 are out of hand and disorderly, and so the helper 
 must combine friendship with authority. He may, 
 indeed, leave the details of discipline in other hands, 
 but it is his responsibility, and the final work must 
 lie with him. It is for him to decide whether he 
 intends to be an autocratic tyrant, or a constitutional 
 monarch. But he cannot allow democracy, which 
 in a Boys' Club spells confusion and disorder.
 
 132 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 With the younger boys he should, I think, be 
 absolutely autocratic. He may consult the wishes 
 of his boys, but he and he alone must make and 
 enforce the rules. Most helpers would say that this 
 should be so also with the elder boys, and there 
 are very few Clubs in which the boys have any real 
 power. I am, therefore, fully alive to the fact that 
 I am running counter to the views of many friends 
 and others, who have had more experience than I 
 have had, when I say that I am convinced that a 
 definite and distinct share of the government of 
 the Club should be given to the boys. There is 
 nothing to my mind which will develop a boy so 
 much as responsibility. No one with any intimate 
 knowledge of a Public School will question the value 
 of the monitorial system, for those who hold office 
 gain enormously from their experience, and very 
 often develop powers which were quite unexpected. 
 Why should not the same chance be given to the 
 working boy ? I am certain, from personal experi- 
 ence, that it is of equal value to them. Let me give 
 a description of what is done in this way in the 
 Senior Clubs of the Birmingham Street Children's 
 Union. Each of the Clubs has its own committee 
 of six to eight boys. The head of the Club nominates 
 half of them, the rest being elected by the members. 
 The chairman of this committee is one of the assistant 
 helpers, who is there to advise and guide the dis- 
 cussion, but has no vote or controlling power. The
 
 THE CLUB 133 
 
 committee is not merely advisory ; it has very 
 definite powers. It can make any rules about the 
 detailed management of the Club, and has the 
 power to suspend or otherwise punish any who break 
 these rules. 
 
 Further than this, each Senior Club can send two 
 representatives to a central council, which has the 
 power to fix camp and Club payments, to organize 
 competitions or parties, and to pass rules prohibiting 
 any game or practice in a Club. They have proved 
 themselves fully capable of doing efficient work, 
 although it would be absurd to say that all the 
 committees or councils were equally good. Some of 
 them make mistakes, but that is a universal failing, 
 and they are quick to recognize them when made. 
 
 The effect upon them and upon the whole tone of 
 the Club is quite remarkable. For the Club is no 
 longer regarded as a charitable effort of one or two 
 patrons to amuse them. They feel that it is their 
 duty to support it in every possible way, and that 
 the success of the Club largely depends upon their 
 efforts. The whole Union gains too, and a real 
 willingness to help in the work of the Union is 
 manifest. Let me take two examples. Soon after 
 the council was formed, the question of camp pay- 
 ments came up for settlement, and the matter was 
 left in their hands entirely. They promptly and 
 quite unanimously raised the fees by two shillings 
 all round. Another and even more striking proof
 
 134 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 lies in the fact that a few of the Clubs for Junior 
 boys are now entirely staffed and excellently managed 
 by the elder Senior boys. 
 
 I am convinced, therefore, that it is wise for the 
 Head of a Club to leave as much responsibility as 
 he possibly can to his boys. If he is doing his 
 personal work properly, he can rest assured of their 
 complete loyalty to his slightest wish. Not only 
 will the discipline of the Club be very fully main- 
 tained, but he will be free to do his own special 
 work, and will not have to interrupt a private talk 
 with a boy in order to stop a riot or a row. He will 
 also have the satisfaction of knowing that he is 
 giving the boys duties which will reveal their powers 
 as nothing else can do, and which will also develop 
 and train them for the life of a citizen and churchman. 
 
 The life of a Club helper is an eminently happy 
 one. Not only can he find real amusement among 
 the boys, but he has the satisfaction of seeing the 
 result of his work writ large upon the faces and 
 appearance of his boys. He will receive grateful 
 letters from old boys who have gone to other parts ; 
 and, best of all, such boys may return for a visit or 
 on furlough, and express in broken phrases their 
 gratitude for his help in previous years. I can 
 promise any man that as a helper in a Club he will 
 not only be giving valuable service, but that he 
 will also reap a full reward in the changed lives and 
 in the unstinted gratitude of his elder boys.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE SUMMER CAMP. 
 
 I MUST admit that it was not my original purpose 
 to write more than a few lines about that indis- 
 pensable part of Club life, the annual Summer 
 Camp. I felt that as Camp was really but an 
 extension of the Club life, its management was 
 necessarily on the same lines ; and also that sugges- 
 tions from one who had only seen one kind of 
 Camp were likely to be of little value to others. 
 Camp, even more than the Club, depends upon the 
 man at the head, and the methods he adopts must 
 be those of his own making. So that I wish it to 
 be understood quite clearly that I have only in mind 
 the Camp for which I was responsible, and that I do 
 not for one moment claim that the methods which 
 suited me are preferable to those adopted by others. 
 I have seen a Boys' Brigade Camp, a Scouts' Camp, 
 and a large London Club Camp, and they were all 
 extraordinarily good, though if I had tried to adopt 
 their methods, I should have made a desperate 
 mess of the whole business.
 
 I 3 6 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 The importance of these annual Summer Camps 
 is obvious to any who have watched their work. 
 A boy, who has spent fifty weeks of the year in a 
 squalid court and a foetid workshop, gains untold 
 benefit for his health from his week or fortnight in 
 the open air. The fresh air, the wholesome food, 
 the regular meals, and incessant exercise work 
 miracles with his health. 
 
 More than this, Camp affords a helper a unique 
 opportunity of knowing his boys intimately. 
 Whereas in Clubs he may only see his boys for fifteen 
 hours in the week, in Camp he is with them the 
 whole time under circumstances which will reveal 
 the boy as he really is. A clever boy may be able 
 to bluff his helper in a Club ; he cannot do so for 
 long in Camp. But not only in that way does the 
 helper get to know the boys. How many occasions 
 have I experienced when on an evening stroll by 
 the sea shore or along some quiet lane, a boy has 
 revealed to me his inner longings and secret diffi- 
 culties, which he would never do in the rush and 
 bustle of town life. 
 
 These two advantages alone would justify the 
 expense of Camp. But they are not the only ones. 
 For if the Club has any connection with a Public 
 School, the Camp gives a chance to the members of 
 that school to gain their first insight into social 
 work. I have had many Public School boys mixing 
 with the working boy in the Camp, eating with them,
 
 THE SUMMER CAMP 137 
 
 playing with them, and entering into the whole life 
 of Camp. They introduce an invaluable element 
 into Camp life, while they receive keen interest in 
 the work, bred by friendship with the actual working 
 boy. 
 
 To my mind, however, the chief advantages of 
 Camp life are the opportunities that are afforded 
 for developing in the boy a sense of responsibility, 
 and for teaching him what religion really means. 
 As, however, these two require more than a passing 
 treatment, I will leave them to the end. 
 
 The success of a Camp depends upon its smooth 
 working, so far as even the smallest detail is con- 
 cerned. I feel, therefore, it is the wisest course to 
 risk being dull and to go fuller into the details of 
 the organization that I found most useful. 
 
 The Site. I am sure that a Camp by the sea is 
 preferable both from the point of view of health 
 and as affording more interest to the boys. It is 
 not always wise, however, to be too close to the 
 sea, where the soil is apt to be too sandy to hold the 
 stakes securely, and too much exposed in case there 
 is a storm. How well do I remember the occasion 
 when, in a foolish moment, we decided to pitch a 
 Camp on a field adjoining the shore just outside 
 Barmouth. A gale got up, and in twelve hours two 
 big marquees and three smaller tents were flat upon 
 the ground ! It was a weary night that we spent 
 in a neighbouring mission room.
 
 138 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 The other considerations in the choice of a Camp 
 are the nearness of an adequate water supply and 
 the amount of room in the field itself for football 
 and other games. To have to leave Camp to get 
 a game of cricket or football is a very serious draw- 
 back. 
 
 The Plan of Camp. It is most important that 
 the tents should be arranged, so as to give a sense 
 of tidiness. It is difficult to make the boys keen 
 on keeping Camp clean, if the tents are pitched in 
 an offhand manner. Camp may teach invaluable 
 lessons in cleanliness and tidiness, and the pitching 
 of Camp should show the importance attached to it. 
 
 In the rough plan at the end J I give the arrange- 
 ments that I have found to meet requirements. 
 The only words of explanation that I would add are 
 that the mess tent must be close to the kitchen and 
 stores tent, that the office of the Head of the Camp 
 should be in a central position, and that the chapel 
 tent or tents should be at remote ends of Camp. 
 The Camp of which I have made the plan held 
 160 boys, and about twenty-five or thirty helpers. 
 Ten boys were allowed to each of the sixteen 
 bell tents in the top left-hand corner, the Prefects 
 and Magistrates sleeping in the two boat tents 
 near by. 
 
 Meals. The important features of the meals are 
 that they should be regular, simple and sufficient. 
 
 1 Appendix A.
 
 THE SUMMER CAMP 
 
 139 
 
 The menu, which proved quite satisfactory, was as 
 follows : 
 
 Breakfast 8.0 Porridge, with sugar or treacle, 
 and milk. 
 
 Tea. 
 
 Bread and butter. 
 
 Bread and jam. 
 Dinner i.o Stew or joint. 
 
 Plum duff, or rice and jam. 
 
 Bread. 
 
 Tea 5.30 Bread and butter. 
 
 Bread and jam. 
 Tea. 
 
 Supper. 
 
 9.0 Cocoa. 
 Biscuits. 
 
 The cooking has been done for us by police- 
 men, probation officers and others in a voluntary 
 capacity. 
 
 Orderly Work. This is a most important detail 
 in the organization of Camp, and the greatest care 
 is needed in seeing that each boy has an equal share 
 of work. 
 
 Our plan has been to put on two tents each day 
 to clean the vegetables and wait at meals (one boy 
 serving a tent), and another two tents to do the 
 washing up. This plan will give two days' work 
 each to fourteen tents. The boys in the other two
 
 I 4 o TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 tents are given special duties, which they do on each 
 
 day as follows : 
 
 Canteen Orderlies - -2 boys. 
 
 Games tent Orderlies - 2 boys. 
 
 (for issue of games) 
 
 Chapel Orderlies - 2 boys. 
 
 (for distributing and collecting 
 
 hymn-books, etc.) 
 
 Latrine Orderly - i boy. 
 Knives Orderlies - 3 boys- 
 Lamps Orderlies - 3 boys. 
 Writing tent Orderly i boy. 
 Magistrates' Orderly - i boy. 
 
 (for collecting culprits together) 
 
 Officers' Orderlies - - 4 boys. 
 
 The work of waiting on the Mess Orderlies, who 
 have their food after the others have finished, and 
 that of assisting the cook, is left to volunteers 
 arranged the previous evening. 
 
 In order to simplify the serving of meals, it has 
 been found a good plan to let the boys from each 
 tent occupy one side of a table with one orderly to 
 wait on it, and on no one else. This means that eight 
 tables to hold twenty boys each must be provided, 
 with three extra tables along one side for carving 
 and serving. I give a plan of the Mess Tent on the 
 following page.
 
 THE SUMMER CAMP 
 
 Cost. I have added as an Appendix * the cost, 
 with details, of the Birmingham Senior Boys' Camp 
 for 1913. 
 
 Clothes. In view of the fact that the boys' clothes 
 are not always of the best, and that a boy in rags 
 may feel uncomfortable, we provide each boy with 
 an outfit. On his arrival in Camp, he is given a 
 numbered bag, in which he finds a white linen hat, 
 a white flannel shirt, blue knickers and a pair of 
 sand shoes. Prefect, Magistrates, and Monitors are 
 provided with different coloured shirts to mark 
 their office. 
 
 Recreations. Most of the mornings in Camp are 
 taken up with inter-tent cricket competitions and 
 bathing. Cricket matches against teams of youthful 
 visitors to the seaside are arranged, while expeditions 
 for the day with a lunch of meat and jam sandwiches 
 prove very popular. Fishing, boating and walks 
 occupy the rest of the time until tea, after which a 
 football match is the usual and popular event. The 
 evening is the difficult time to provide for, as a 
 large amount of vocal talent is not always available. 
 
 1 Appendix B.
 
 142 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 But whist drives on a grand scale, mock trials, and 
 sometimes impromptu rag-time dancing can be 
 made to fill up the evenings. A bonfire sing-song, 
 when the whole Camp sits round the glowing embers 
 and indulges in the singing of popular choruses, makes 
 a most successful farewell entertainment at the end 
 of Camp. 
 
 Discipline. Camp, as I said above, offers a grand 
 opportunity for giving the elder boys some responsi- 
 bility, and I feel that some good purpose may be 
 served by describing the method adopted in the 
 Senior Camp of the Street Children's Union. Two 
 months before Camp, each of our eight Senior Clubs 
 is asked to elect a list of boys who shall be eligible 
 for some office, and from them the Head of the 
 Union chooses three Prefects and six Magistrates. 
 These nine boys (usually eighteen to twenty-one years 
 old) are responsible for choosing sixteen tent monitors 
 and a few Camp monitors with special duties. They 
 then draw up the rules of Camp and make suggestions 
 as to its organization, which are submitted to the 
 monitors, and must receive the approval of the 
 Head of the Union. 
 
 The Prefects are responsible for the general work 
 of Camp. One of them is in complete control 
 of the mess orderlies; another superintends the 
 washing-up orderlies ; while the third one is re- 
 sponsible for seeing that quiet time is kept both 
 morning and evening, and for seeing that lights are
 
 THE CAMP MAGISTRATES 
 
 A CHEERFUL GROUP 
 
 Facing p. 14:2
 
 THE SUMMER CAMP 143 
 
 out and silence is enforced at night time. Together 
 they are responsible for arranging sing-songs, ex- 
 peditions, anything, in fact, that requires attention. 
 They are hard at work for most of the day, and 
 seldom have an hour which they can call their own. 
 
 The Magistrates have charge of the discipline of 
 Camp. Every morning they meet at the Magistrates' 
 Court, with an Oxford man as their chairman, to 
 help to collect evidence and to announce the verdict, 
 when all boys who have broken any rule or otherwise 
 done wrong are brought before them. They can 
 punish the offender by giving him extra orderly 
 work, by confining him to Camp and by making 
 him dig a pit. In more serious cases, they may 
 order a boy to be thrashed or sent home, but in these 
 cases they must ask the permission of the Head of 
 the Camp before the verdict is announced. In all 
 cases the boy may appeal to the Head Missioner 
 against the verdict, a right that has only been used 
 five times in four years. It is quite extraordinary 
 how impartial and unbiassed their opinions are. 
 Popular boys usually fare worse, while the insigni- 
 ficant youngster who is for ever making a nuisance 
 of himself gets off with a straight lecture on his 
 behaviour. The really extraordinary part is the 
 good spirit in which the punishments are taken. 
 No grudge whatever is borne by a boy against the 
 Magistrates, even when serious punishments are 
 given. The boys trust their decisions as being fair.
 
 144 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 There is a tent monitor in charge of each tent, 
 who is responsible for keeping order and for seeing 
 that it is made neat and tidy every morning. 
 
 Camp monitors have different duties, and are in 
 charge of the special orderlies which I have named 
 above. 
 
 That is a brief sketch of our system, and it has 
 worked amazingly well. Not only is the discipline 
 extraordinarily good, but each Club is keenly 
 anxious to have a representative among the Prefects 
 and Magistrates. 
 
 It is often said that if responsibility is given to 
 a working boy, it tends to make him ' put on side.' 
 This has never happened in my experience. Rather 
 does it inspire the boy to work for the Union on 
 his return home even harder than before, and it 
 most certainly develops in him a sense of responsi- 
 bility, self-respect, and a willingness to serve. 
 
 Religious Work. There is no time when it is 
 easier to instil into the boys a healthy religious spirit. 
 Each morning and evening family prayers are held 
 in the chapel tent, while on Sundays these give way 
 to more formal services. Celebrations of the Holy 
 Communion are also held on two or three mornings 
 each week. 
 
 It is impossible to over-estimate the value of a 
 tent, which is fitted up as a chapel, with an altar 
 holding a cross, flowers and candlesticks, and which 
 is exclusively used for services and family prayers.
 
 THE SUMMER CAMP 145 
 
 Reverence is the basis of true religion, and it is 
 quite amazing how even the wildest street boy 
 learns instinctively to bare his head and keep 
 absolute silence in the chapel tent. It is impossible 
 to teach this important lesson if the services are held 
 in the same place as where meals are served, or 
 where concerts are held, whereas I am confident 
 that in the chapel tent many boys have learnt the 
 meaning of a real religious reverence. Many boys, 
 too, are communicants, and to join with fifty or sixty 
 rough working lads in receiving the Blessed Sacra- 
 ment is an unequalled joy and encouragement to 
 both boys and helpers. 
 
 Even that, however, is not all. Every morning 
 and evening one of the Prefects standing among the 
 tents blows a whistle and tells the boys to kneel up 
 on their beds. He leads the boys in saying the 
 Lord's Prayer, after which silence is strictly kept 
 for a minute or more. Now I do not for a moment 
 say that all the boys do intelligently or sincerely 
 pray. A large number do, while even if there are some 
 who do not do so, it is, at any rate, a silent recogni- 
 tion of the Fatherhood of God which cannot but have 
 an influence, and which will result in real prayer. 
 
 Add to all this the addresses in the chapel tent, 
 and, above all, the silent influence of the character 
 of a helper whom the boy trusts and knows, and 
 there is in a camp a deep and real religious influence 
 of far-reaching effect.
 
 CHAPTER XT. 
 
 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 
 
 WE now turn to the urgent question of how it is 
 possible to give such a boy, as I have tried to de- 
 scribe, a real grip of the Christian truths. For the 
 presentation of Christianity to a working boy in 
 such a manner that he can understand and appreciate 
 its claims upon his life is a problem of intense 
 difficulty. For the methods which can be, and are, 
 adopted must vary according to the abilities and 
 limitations of the teacher. A method that will 
 suit one will not suit another, while working lads 
 are of very different types. 
 
 I have no intention of suggesting any specific 
 plans, for each helper must work out his own methods. 
 My purpose is only to suggest certain main principles 
 upon which I believe all methods should be based. 
 Let us leave out of the question those few boys who 
 have been brought up in Christian homes and whose 
 whole training has been directed towards turning 
 them into Christians. There are such boys, and 
 we thank God for them. But the boy we have to
 
 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION 147 
 
 deal with is full of animal spirits. Except for a 
 mere smattering of religious knowledge crammed 
 down his throat in school, he knows nothing and 
 cares still less about Christianity. What, however, 
 is his general attitude towards religion ? What are 
 his characteristics in this respect ? 
 
 It is doubtless difficult to sum him up with his 
 many-sided interests, but I should like to point out 
 three important characteristics which are to be 
 found in any boy, though not at definite ages or in 
 definite forms, as some would have us think. 
 
 (i) In the first place, I am sure that the average 
 boy has an intense hatred of unreality. He will do 
 nothing unless he has a definite object in doing it. 
 We all know, for instance, how difficult it is to get 
 boys to play a game keenly unless there is a definite 
 honour to be gained by beating some old rival or 
 in playing for some competition. ' What's the 
 good of it ? ' is the question that our average boy 
 always puts to himself, unconsciously perhaps, and 
 sometimes without deep thought as to an answer. 
 The good in it must be obvious, for if he does not 
 see any point in a thing immediately, he has not 
 that tactful way of pretending to be interested 
 which some of his elders have. If he is bored, he 
 will show it in no unmistakable manner. 
 
 This is especially noticeable in a boy's attitude 
 towards religion. He has been sent to Sunday 
 School while he was young, it is true, and he may
 
 148 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 have been interested, but the good to be got out 
 of Sunday School was not, in the majority of cases, 
 to learn, but simply that he might get a prize or 
 a treat and avoid any risk of trouble from his 
 mother for being in the way while she was cooking 
 the Sunday dinner. Fishing in a neighbouring 
 canal offers a much pleasanter occupation than 
 sitting in a Church. 
 
 Religion, as it has been usually presented to him, 
 is out of relation to his needs, and so he does not 
 see much good to be got out of it. 
 
 (2) My second point follows on from this. He has 
 frequently been told that one good thing to be 
 obtained from religion is that it makes him good. 
 Now this does really appeal to a boy. In his heart of 
 hearts the English boy has a secret liking for truthful- 
 ness, unselfishness and sincerity. Such virtues he 
 knows and appreciates. 
 
 But he asks himself, ' Does religion make people 
 honest, and unselfish ? ' ' Are all people who go 
 to church sincere ? ' Unfortunately a negative 
 answer is too often forced upon him by his experience. 
 He knows Mr. Smith, for instance, who goes to 
 Church because he hopes the parson will pay his 
 rent ; Mr. Brown, who lives in a shop up the street, 
 always goes to the neighbouring chapel, but he is 
 chiefly known for his surliness behind the counter ; 
 his elder brother works for Mr. Jones, who is a 
 sidesman at the Church, but all he knows about
 
 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION 149 
 
 that gentleman is that he is utterly inconsiderate 
 of those who work for him. On the other hand, 
 living in the same court is Mrs. Robinson, who has 
 never been to Church, but who is always ready to 
 lend a helping hand at home when things are going 
 badly, and who doesn't make a row when the ball, 
 with which he is playing with a pal, goes through 
 her window. 
 
 The time comes when he leaves school and is 
 plunged into factory life, and there he finds two very 
 different types of men. In the first place there is 
 the efficient workman, the leader in any movement 
 towards the betterment of the other men in the 
 shop, but far too often an atheist and agnostic. 
 Honest and sober in character, he is giving time and 
 thought to the trade union or some other kindred 
 organization. He takes an interest in, and trouble 
 with, the boy, who immediately responds and makes 
 him his hero to be imitated and followed. There 
 is, on the other hand, the man with a far-away look 
 in his face, who is but a second-rate workman, 
 who disappears immediately seven o'clock comes 
 round, and who distrusts the bright and headstrong 
 youngster who is so frightfully cheeky and full of 
 ribald jokes. That man goes to the Church, 
 wears a black coat on Sundays, and looks extremely 
 pious. He compares the two in his boyish way, and 
 finds the advantage is distinctly in favour of the non- 
 church goer, and so he decides ' no religion for me.'
 
 i 5 o TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 (3) But, thirdly, I am convinced that boys are 
 by nature hero- worshippers. ' The children of the 
 poor follow where they are led,' for a working boy 
 is easily led by one who in some way excels himself. 
 The boy will follow anywhere his hero leads, whether 
 to prison or to church. Not only will he follow 
 him, but in his boyish way he is ready to do anything 
 to help his hero. For the only means he has of 
 showing his devotion is that of active service, in 
 doing some tangible and definite job in aid of his 
 leader. 
 
 With this estimate of the boy's point of view in 
 mind, I am of opinion that there are three principles 
 upon which the religious instruction should be based. 
 
 In the first place, I should say that the teaching 
 we give must be positive rather than negative. A 
 boy's nature rebels instinctively against rules and 
 regulations. If he is told not to do a thing, quite 
 naturally his one ambition is to do the forbidden 
 thing. Now where so much of Christian teaching 
 has failed, is hi the fact that men have too often 
 tried to teach him what he ought not to do ; that 
 a Christian boy must not gamble or swear or lie 
 or steal. Now this is of course perfectly true, but 
 it appears to me that it is not wise to start on this. 
 We want to show him first of all what Christianity 
 is. The boy, I have said, is a hero-worshipper. 
 Let us take advantage of that, and in the person of 
 Christ, give him a hero to follow. Our teaching
 
 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION 151 
 
 should be directed to placing before the boy the 
 plain story of who Christ was, where He lived, what 
 He did, what purpose He had in all His life, how He 
 founded the Church to carry out His purpose, 
 how it is possible to meet Him in prayer and through 
 the Sacraments, and what He expects from men 
 and boys as an expression of their devotion to Him. 
 Boys too often think of religion as being a code of 
 rules, and as Christ as the Author of that code. Let 
 us rid him of that idea, and fire his imagination, 
 show him what the Kingdom of Heaven stands for 
 to-day ; how that, when the Kingdom is established, 
 his mother will not have to work for practically no 
 pay, and his father will not then spend all the 
 family's money at the public house. Let us tell 
 the boy too of how St. Stephen, St. Paul, St. Peter 
 and other martyrs gave up their lives for the exten- 
 sion of this Kingdom, and he will readily admit 
 that religion has a reasonable claim upon his time 
 and devotion. This is a much harder task than a 
 mere negative instruction. But it is worth doing, 
 because a boy will then avoid evil of his own free 
 will, and not because you have told him. It is 
 necessary, therefore, that we should aim at positive, 
 rather than negative instruction, at firing a boy's 
 imagination by the ideal of the Kingdom of Heaven 
 and its Sovereign Christ, rather than at telling him 
 of the awful things that await him if he does 
 wrong.
 
 152 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 I would suggest further that our religious instruc- 
 tion must be personal ; if the Christianity taught 
 is to be permanent and is to effect the boy's everyday 
 life, it must be given by a person to a person, and 
 not by a teacher impersonally to a class. It is 
 for this reason that the person, whom the boy 
 knows and meets in other things besides the Bible 
 Class or Sunday School, is the one to teach him 
 effectually. We are often told that it requires a 
 skilled man to teach a boy. I quite agree that 
 it does take skill to teach a boy religion, but if by 
 a skilled man is meant one who has gained a diploma 
 in education or one who is a theologian, I entirely 
 disagree. These things may be important, but the 
 real skill needed is in knowing the boy to be taught. 
 A man may be a splendid teacher, as regards getting 
 the knowledge into a boy's head, and he may be a 
 deep theologian, but he will not, therefore, neces- 
 sarily be able to teach a boy to be a Christian in 
 conduct. 
 
 For it is essential for him to have a knowledge of 
 the boy to be taught, his peculiarity of temperament, 
 his home, his relations, his own special difficulties, 
 his interests and his amusements. In a class he 
 must be able to put his teaching into relation with 
 the boy's life, and such teaching must be backed up 
 by individual explanation. Club helpers, therefore, 
 have no right to delegate this duty to someone else. 
 They know the boy ; they have the requisite skill
 
 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION 153 
 
 to teach him, not possessed perhaps by anyone else. 
 It is a difficulty that some Club helpers, either from 
 youth or an unwillingness to speak about such 
 things, feel quite unable to give this instruction. 
 Such men should ask the neighbouring Clergy to 
 come into the Club, so that they may get to know 
 the boys in their ordinary interests. If the Clergy 
 say they cannot do this, then let them get someone 
 to help in the Club who is willing to teach. But, 
 however it is arranged, let it be a matter of first 
 importance that the teacher is one who knows him 
 personally, and is one whom the boy looks to as 
 friend and elder brother. 
 
 Now I come to the third principle, and that is, 
 that he should place before the boy the active 
 rather than the passive side of the Christian life. 
 As I have tried to point out, a boy will naturally 
 try to do something for the person whom he has 
 made his hero. If then, we place before a boy the 
 person of Christ, he will quite naturally desire to 
 do something for Him. 
 
 So many of our organizations for boys are quite 
 content if they turn out passive Christians ; if 
 their boys attend Sunday Schools and Bible Classes 
 and are regular in their religious duties. But 
 it appears to me that this is not sufficient. We 
 have more than enough respectable Christians. 
 We want to-day, more than ever, young men and 
 boys who are active Christians. To effect this we
 
 I 5 4 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 must teach the working boy that the Church of 
 Christ does not exist either to enforce an ethical 
 code, or to provide amusements with a little religion 
 thrown in, but that it was founded by Christ to 
 afford boys as well as adults the opportunities, the 
 motive, and the power, to assist in the extension of 
 the Kingdom of Heaven. I am quite confident 
 that it is that side of religion which appeals to the 
 boy. He must find an outlet for his boundless 
 energy and keenness. Is it not possible and wise 
 to give him an outlet where the energy may be used 
 for the extension of Christ's Kingdom ? This is 
 not mere theory. In spite of various objections 
 and though one meets with failures, my experience 
 has convinced me that the best way to deepen and 
 make permanent a boy's religion is to give him 
 something to do. But it may be asked, ' What can 
 I give my boys to (do ? ' They can be given odd 
 jobs to do in the Club ; arrangements can be made 
 for some boys to do all the cleaning and repairs 
 so as to save money. Others can be turned on to 
 look after the younger boys ; to look up boys who 
 are drifting from the Club. They can be taught 
 to pray for others, and they should be made to 
 understand that their membership of the Club 
 involves the responsibility of seeing that their 
 example upon other boys is clean and true. If a 
 boy feels, for instance, that he has some share in 
 Christ's work, then he will see a point in praying.
 
 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION 155 
 
 He will realize the necessity of obtaining some 
 power outside himself to enable him to accomplish 
 the work allotted to him. Whatever method is 
 used, it is of vital importance that the boys be 
 taught that the extension of Christ's Kingdom must 
 be their aim, and that to do that they must get 
 the power through prayer and in the Sacraments. 
 
 These principles which I have suggested make it 
 absolutely necessary that the instruction should 
 be strictly denominational. A mere vague unde- 
 nominationalism has nothing solid or real about it 
 which the boy can grasp, for it tells of no definite 
 Church to serve, nor can it suggest any clear lines 
 along which that service can be rendered or the 
 power obtained. It is, therefore, essential that any 
 Bible Class or other effort should be in close connec- 
 tion with some denomination, and that it should be 
 taken by a member of it. I have known many 
 Bible Classes or boys' Sunday services in connection 
 with Clubs which have failed to inculcate a deep 
 and real devotion because of their neglect of this 
 important feature. 
 
 This does not prevent a Club from extending its 
 membership to boys of all denominations. At any 
 rate, it has been no difficulty in the Birmingham 
 Street Children's Union, where every boy is treated 
 so far as his religious training is concerned as a 
 member of a definite denomination. The younger 
 boys are sent to their different Sunday Schools,
 
 156 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 while with the elder ones, though there is no actual 
 religious test, they are encouraged to attend their 
 own place of worship. We have both boys and 
 helpers who are Churchmen, Roman Catholics and 
 Nonconformists. 
 
 The actual detailed methods as to service and 
 classes I cannot discuss fully, for, as I have said 
 before, the man must make his own method. 
 
 I am quite clear in my own mind that a Bible Class 
 ought not to take the place of a service, even if the 
 latter is held in a Club. For it is so very important 
 that the boy should be taught that duty of reverence 
 through some form of worship. A Club will, of 
 course, gain enormously if it has a chapel, but 
 failing this, the greatest care should be taken as 
 to silence, behaviour, and reverent demeanour. 
 Nothing perhaps does more harm than any laxity 
 in this direction. 
 
 While Club services of a simple nature are most 
 valuable, they should only be treated as the pre- 
 liminary steps to attendance at Church. The elder 
 boys, at least, should be strongly urged to go at any 
 rate once on a Sunday in addition to the Bible Class 
 or Club service, and it is a great help in this direction 
 if special pews can be reserved for the members of 
 the Clubs. 
 
 One last word on that which must be the most 
 essential feature of all our religious work in con- 
 nection with the Church. Nothing can possibly
 
 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION 157 
 
 take the place of our Lord's own service. I am 
 more than ever convinced that it is the Celebration 
 of the Holy Communion which makes the strongest 
 appeal to the working boy. It seems a truism to 
 say so, but yet there are countless club managers 
 who undervalue the importance of the Confirmation 
 class and the Holy Communion service. Nothing 
 could be more fatal. Many arrange for a monthly 
 corporate Celebration, and I quite agree that such 
 a definite attendance should be strongly urged. But 
 there is. the danger lest the boys only go on that 
 Sunday, and ignore it altogether on the other 
 Sundays. This is a great mistake, as regular 
 attendance means more to the boy than any one can 
 adequately express. It is but a small thing, I know, 
 but the self-sacrifice to the boy involved in getting 
 up by 8 a.m. on a Sunday morning, instead of staying 
 in bed till the usual hour of twelve or one, is of value 
 in itself. 
 
 In it the boy finds what he needs, the opportunity 
 of worshipping in a very close way his Divine Master 
 and Leader, and also that divinely appointed means 
 by which he receives the force, power and inspiration 
 for a life dedicated to his Master's service. 
 
 Naturally, therefore, the Confirmation class will 
 take a prominent place in the winter's work. I am 
 quite clear that, save in very exceptional circum- 
 stances, classes should be taken by a clergyman, 
 if only to emphasize the distinction between it and
 
 158 TRAINING OF A WORKING BOY 
 
 the ordinary Club Bible Class. I am, on the whole, 
 in favour of one large class, rather than a few 
 smaller ones, as the boys are helped if they realize 
 that there are others with them, while it gives the 
 man who takes it a chance of infusing the same 
 kind of spirit among all the boys. It is hardly 
 necessary to say that together with this class there 
 must go the regular weekly individual talk and 
 preparation, which are so absolutely indispensable. 
 
 The working boy has a deeply religious spirit, 
 however hidden it may be, and willingly responds 
 to a call to service and devotion. It is a deep 
 responsibility lying upon each helper to interpret 
 that call in language that the boy can understand, 
 and through instruction, and still more by influence, 
 to teach him true devotion to, and loyal whole- 
 hearted service of, his Lord and Saviour, Jesus 
 Christ.
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 
 o o o o 
 
 12 16 2O 24 
 
 11 15 19 23 
 
 O O O O 
 
 10 14 18 22 
 
 O O O O 
 
 9 13 17 21 
 
 czu 
 
 31 32 33 34 35 
 
 JJpal 
 Posts 
 
 Goal 
 Posts" 
 
 Latrines 
 
 KEY TO THE PLAN OF CAMP. 
 
 USE OF TENT. SIZE. 
 
 1. Roman Catholic Chapel 
 
 tent ... 16' by 16'. 
 
 2. Writing tent - - 20' by 16'. 
 3-5. Helpers' tents - - Bell tents. 
 
 6. Magistrates' court - 12' by 12'. 
 
 7. Magistrates' tent - - Boat tent. 
 
 8. Prefects' tent - - Boat tent. 
 9-24. Boys' tents - - Bell tents. 
 
 25. Officers' tent - - Boat tent. 
 
 26 and 27. Officers' tents - Bell tents. 
 
 28. Ambulance tent - - Bell tent. 
 
 29. Officers' tent - - Boat tent. 
 
 30. Head of Camp's office - 16' by 16'. 
 
 USE OF TENT. 
 31. Officers' tent 
 32-34. Officers' tents. 
 
 35. Adjutant's office 
 
 36. Kitchen 
 
 37. Stores tent - 
 
 38. Cooks' tent - 
 
 39. Mess tent 
 
 40. Canteen 
 
 41. Games tent - 
 
 42. Officers' tent 
 
 43. Chapel tent - 
 
 SIZE. 
 
 Boat tent. 
 Bell tents. 
 Boat tent. 
 Wooden 
 
 erection. 
 20' by 1 6'. 
 Boat tent. 
 60' by 40'. 
 1 6' by 1 6'. 
 Bel] tent. 
 Bell tent. 
 45' by 25'.
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 COST OF ARTICLES, FOOD, ETC., REQUIRED 
 FOR A SUMMER CAMP. 
 
 The cost of each article is given, except in certain instances 
 where the total cost only is available, incurred in a camp 
 which was attended for a week by 180 boys and officers, 
 of whom no stayed for a fortnight 
 
 EQUIPMENT (including carriage to and from camp, erection and 
 demolition, and services of two men for the whole time), 
 i 60/40 tent (marked 39 in plan) - at 6 10 o each. 
 
 1 45/25 tent (marked 43 in plan) - ,, 4 10 o ,, 
 
 2 20/16 tents (marked 37 and 2 
 
 in plan) - - ,, i 10 o ,, 
 
 3 16/16 tents (marked i, 30 and 
 
 40 in plan) ,, o 10 o ,, 
 24 Bell tents (marked 3-5, 9-24, 
 
 26-28, 32-34, 41-42 in plan) ,, o 10 o ,, 
 7 Double Boat tents (marked 7, 8, 
 
 25. 29, 31, 35, 38 in plan) - 150,, 
 
 i 12/12 tent (marked 6 in plan) - ,, 0150,, 
 
 3 Boilers - ,, o 15 o ,, 
 
 i Range - - ,, i 10 o ,, 
 
 i Kitchen shelter (marked 36 in 
 
 plan) - 200,, 
 
 Tabling and seating for 180 - - 6d. per head. 
 
 12 Square tables - o i o each. 
 
 360 Blankets - tt 007^,, 
 
 180 Bed cases - -,,005 
 
 180 Pillow cases - ... o o i
 
 APPENDIX B 161 
 
 EQUIPMENT continued. 
 
 1 80 Waterproof ground sheets at ^o o 4 each. 
 
 6 Six gallon tubs - ,, 036,, 
 
 45 Wall lamps - - ,, o o 6 
 
 40 Buckets - - - ,, o o 6 ,, 
 
 i Water tank - - - - o 10 o 
 
 Brooms, and sundry fittings - ,, 500 
 
 Straw for beds and pillows - ,, 2 18 o 
 
 FOOD. 
 
 Beef at yjd. per lb., 
 Mutton at 7jd. per lb., 
 
 Suet at 8d. per lb., 
 
 - Contract Prices. 
 
 Bread at 5jd. per loaf, 
 Flour at 1/8 per stone, 
 CLOTHES. 
 
 Shoes at about 1/6 each (if contract prices are secured). 
 Knickers at - - 18/6 doz. 
 
 Shirts at - - 159 Life about 3 
 
 Hats at- - - 6/6 Renewals, say 10 per 
 
 . annum. 
 
 Bathing slips at 4;- or 5;- ,, ) 
 
 PERMANENT EQUIPMENT. 
 
 Knives, forks, spoons, plates, plate racks, mugs, urns, 
 cooking utensils, etc., etc., can be bought wholesale 
 and cost distributed over about three years. 
 
 TOTAL COST OF OTHER REQUIREMENTS. 
 
 Mineral waters 6 10 o 
 
 Canteen supplies (contract prices) - 1350 
 
 Milk - 3 15 o 
 
 Grocery (contract prices for each article) 30 o o 
 Vegetables - 4 10 o 
 
 Coal and wood i 10 o 
 
 Hire of piano and harmonium T 15 o
 
 U 
 X 
 
 ON 
 
 M 
 
 O 
 
 O 
 8 
 
 Q OD 
 
 s > 
 
 H-l O 
 
 o 
 
 < O 
 
 w 
 
 PQ 
 
 W 
 
 >-H 
 H 
 
 s i : 
 I ! ' 
 
 
 
 | 
 B 
 
 D^HOSHO 
 
 I tlfiifl 
 
 f ** o s + _y *s o 
 
 ^ 
 
 i 
 
 ?*>*:?>> 
 
 ! c .5 S = 
 
 ^|=-sS| 
 
 3 8 =-s'rt i 
 
 t- 1 1 a. * u, a. o 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 51 
 
 dfj? 
 
 
 -a "8 
 
 ill
 
 INDEX 
 
 After Care Committees, 80, 
 
 83, 107, 108. 
 Apprenticeship, 76. 
 
 Barbers' Shops, 58, 59. 
 
 Bible Classes, 153, 156. 
 
 Birmingham Council of 
 Workers among Boys, 
 47, 128. 
 
 Birmingham Jewellers' As- 
 sociation, 30. 
 
 Birmingham Street Chil- 
 dren's Union, 96, 125, 
 
 132, 155- 
 Blind Alley Employment, 70, 
 
 72, 
 
 Borstal Committee, 94. 
 Boys' Brigade, 118, 119. 
 
 Camp, Importance, 136. 
 Site, 137. 
 Plan, 138. 
 Meals, 138. 
 Orderly Work, 139. 
 
 Camp, Cost, 141. 
 
 Clothes, 142. 
 
 Discipline, 142-144. 
 
 Religious Instruction, 144. 
 Certified Schools, 97. 
 
 After Care, 100, 101, 107. 
 
 Discipline, 98. 
 Child Employment, Extent, 
 
 55- 
 
 Necessity, 66. 
 
 Limitation, 59, 65, 68. 
 Children's Police Court, 89, 
 
 90, 91. 
 Church Lads' Brigade, 118, 
 
 119. 
 
 Cinemas, 49. 
 Civics, Teaching of, 116. 
 Clothing, 21. 
 Clubs, Age of Admission, 125. 
 
 Discipline, 131. 
 
 Helpers, 121-3. 
 
 Size, 124. 
 Confirmation, 157. 
 Courts, 13. 
 Cricket, 48, 127. 
 
 Earnings, 72, 77, 78.
 
 164 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Emigration, 108. 
 Employers, Responsibility of 
 
 47. 75. 84. Io8 - 
 Employment, Choice of, 69, 
 
 77. 78. 
 
 Monotony of, 73. 
 Change of, 8 1, 83. 
 Employment of Children 
 
 Act, 68. 
 
 Errand boys, 57, 71. 
 Esprit de corps, 34, 127. 
 Evening Classes, 38, 39, 75. 
 
 Fines, 91, 95. 
 Food, 21, 36, 57. 
 Football, 43, 48, 127. 
 
 Competitions, 47. 
 
 Schools League, 34, 45. 
 
 Professional Matches, 48. 
 Furnished Apartments, 12. 
 
 Gambling, 50, 63, 73. 
 Golf Caddies, 83-86. 
 
 H 
 
 Hard Labour, 93. 
 
 Health, 37, 52, 60, 74, 78, 88, 
 
 136. 
 Helpers, 9, 35, 36, 37, 40, 45, 
 
 54. 79. 83, 94, 106, 113, 
 
 129-31, 134. 
 
 History, Teaching of, 26. 
 Holiday School, 52. 
 Home, Change, 15, 16, 17. 
 Influence, 3, 7, 10, 14, 16, 
 
 22, 31. 7i. 78, 87, 97, 
 
 104, 129. 
 
 Home Nature, u, 12. 
 Publicity, 15. 
 
 Immorality, 51, 73. 
 Investigators, 112. 
 
 Labour Exchange, 80, no. 
 Libraries, Free, 25. 
 Literature, 25. 
 Loungers, Influence of, 64, 
 105. 
 
 M 
 
 Magistrates, 90. 
 Managers of Schools, 35. 
 Meals, Provision of, 36. 
 Medical Inspection, 37, 79. 
 Monotony of Labour, 73. 
 Music Halls, 50, 73. 
 
 O 
 
 Offenders, Juvenile, 91. 
 Cause of Offence, 87, 88. 
 Responsibility of Parents, 
 
 87, 95, 97- 
 
 Old Scholars Clubs, 34. 
 Open Spaces, 44, 45, 46. 
 Organized Games, 45, 51. 
 
 Play Grounds, 44. 
 Probation, 92, 93, 95, 96. 
 Public School Missions, no, 
 
 114, 115, 136. 
 Punishment, Corporal, 31, 
 
 95. 99-
 
 INDEX. 
 
 165 
 
 R 
 
 Religious Instruction, 40, 41. 
 
 Schools, Age of leaving, 38, 
 
 39- 
 
 Buildings, 23. 
 
 Discipline, 31. 
 
 Inspection, 27. 
 
 Managers, 35. 
 
 Religious Education, 40, 
 41. 
 
 Size of Classes, 29. 
 
 Subjects, 24. 
 Scouts, 1 1 8, 120, 121. 
 Self Government, 132. 
 Settlements, 110-113. 
 Street, Influence of, 4, 7, 43, 
 67. 
 
 Street Trading, 50, 59-65, 71. 
 Recommendations of 
 
 Special Committee, 65. 
 Sunday Schools, 147. 
 Sweated Home Work, 57. 
 Swimming, 46, 49, 127. 
 
 Teachers, 27, 32, 33, 40, 79, 
 99- 
 
 Voluntary Schools, 36, 40, 
 41. 
 
 W 
 
 Women Labour, 16. 
 
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