of fence rail when I arrived
and possibly prevented some broken bones. "Kaiser" was nearly twelve;
he too had been in a reform school--he liked it and would have been
glad to stay as long as they wanted him--for he had three meals a day
and he had never had such "luck" outside. "Whitey" was a little
Swedish boy whose mother worked in a cigar factory. "Kaiser" and
"Whitey" had a "dug-out" and they spent more nights together in it
than they spent in their huts.

"Fritz," the oldest boy, began his career in the open by stealing his
father's revolver; and, jumping on the first grocery wagon he found
handy, he left town. Of course he was brought back and "sent up" for a
year. "Franz," the absent one, was Ano's brother, and the toughest boy
in the community.

These brief outlines describe the guests of my birthday party.

"When ye make a feast call the poor" was stretched a little to cover
this aggregation--stretched as to the character of those invited. A
blessing was asked, of course--by the host and repeated by the
guests. Of things to eat there was enough and to spare. After dinner
each one was to contribute something to the entertainment.

"Beginning here on my left with 'Whitey,'" I said, "I want each boy to
tell us what he would like to be when he becomes a man." Whitey
without hesitation said:

"A organ-man wid a monkey."

"Why?"

"'Cause."

Eddy said he would like to be a butcher, and as a reason gave: "Plenty
ov beef to eat."

"Kaiser" preferred to be a "Reformatory boss."

"Ano," the cripple, said he would like to be a minister. When pressed
for a reason he said, "That's what m' father says--dey ain't got
notin' to do!"

In the midst of this social quiz a loud noise was heard outside.
"Bang! Bang!! Bang!!!" The timbers of the hut shivered, the guests
made a rush to the back door. I was there first and found Franz, the
missing guest, his arms smeared with blood, his ragged jacket covered
with hair of some sort and in his hand a bloody stiletto.

He rushed past me into the hut, got to the table and exclaimed: "Gee
whiz! der ain't a ---- scrap left!"

"Look here, Franz," I said, "I want to know what you've been up to?"

"Ye do, hey? Ye look skeered, too, don't yer--hey?"

"Never mind how I look; tell me at once what you've been up to!"

"Ha, ha, ha!" he laughed, "d'ye tink I kilt some ol' sucker for 'is
money--hey? Ha, ha! Well, I hain't, see? I've bin skinnin' a dead hoss
an brot ye d' skin for