re inclined to run
away or fight, but the men fondle and pet them, and after awhile they do
not seem to care. Some of them have told me that they get as much pleasure
out of the affair as the jocker does. Even little fellows under 10 have
told me this, and I have known them to willfully tempt their jockers to
intercourse. What the pleasure consists in I cannot say. The youngsters
themselves describe it as a delightful tickling sensation in the parts
involved, and this is possibly all that it amounts to among the smallest
lads. Those who have passed the age of puberty seem to be satisfied in
pretty much the same way that the men are. Among the men the practice is
decidedly one of passion. The majority of them prefer a prushun to a
woman, and nothing is more severely judged than rape. One often reads in
the newspapers that a woman has been assaulted by a tramp, but the
perverted tramp is never the guilty party.

I believe, however, that there are a few hoboes who have taken to boys
because women are so scarce "on the road." For every woman in hoboland
there are a hundred men. That this disproportion has something to do with
the popularity of boys is made clear by the following case: In a gaol,
where I was confined for a month during my life in vagabondage, I got
acquainted with a tramp who had the reputation of being a "sod"
(sodomist). One day a woman came to the gaol to see her husband, who was
awaiting trial. One of the prisoners said he had known her before she was
married and had lived with her. The tramp was soon to be discharged, and
he inquired where the woman lived. On learning that she was still
approachable, he looked her up immediately after his release, and
succeeded in staying with her for nearly a month. He told me later that he
enjoyed his life with her much more than his intercourse with boys. I
asked him why he went with boys at all, and he replied: "'Cause there
ain't women enough. If I can't get them I've got to have the other."

It is in gaols that one sees the worst side of this perversion. In the
daytime the prisoners are let out into a long hall, and can do much as
they please; at night they are shut up, two and even four in a cell. If
there are any boys in the crowd, they are made use of by all who care to
have them. If they refuse to submit, they are gagged and held down. The
sheriff seldom knows what goes on, and for the boys to say anything to him
would be suicidal. There is a criminal ignoranc