BREAKS UP BOYS' GANG.
In the Juvenile Court Yesterday
Judge McCune Lectured the
Father When He Objected
to the Decision.
Seven little boys, from 9 to 12 years of age, charged with being the "Sixteenth Street Gang," train hoppers and coal thieves, were before Judge McCune, of the juvenile court, yesterday afternoon.
"The boys sit on the rails of the Belt line tracks," said James H. Knapp, of the Knapp & Coumbe Construction Company, a witness, "and try to scare the engineer of the approaching trains. When the engine is within a few feet of them, they jump up like frogs and get off the track. If the engineer sticks his head out of the cab to talk to them, they make finger signs at him."
There were other witnesses against the boys -- three truancy officers and W. K. Miller, flagman for the Belt line at Sixteenth street. They said that the boys made a practice of stealing coal and hopping on trains.
"I pointed out to the boys," Miller told the court, "the place where a boy was killed last year jumping on a train. It wasn't ten feet from where these boys repeat the practice. But they only laughed at me.
"They sit up on the cars and kick the coal off. Then they get down, pick it up, and haul it away in little wagons. The gang has two wagons."
The seven boys before the court were; Willie Eft, 10 years old; Martin Eft, 9 years old, both of 1511 College avenue; Henning Broman, 12 years old, of 3113 East Sixteenth street; Harry Wright, 11 years old, of 3208 East Sixteenth street, Edward Blickhan, 11 years old, and Harris Blickhan, 10 years old, both of 1612 College avenue; Earl Frizzell, 12 years old, of 3208 East Sixteenth street.
All of the boys, with the exception of Earl Frizzell, admitted that they hopped on trains and stole coal. The Blickhan boys took the coal home and the other s sold it for 15 cents a wagon load, they said. Willie Eft and Henning Broman owned the two wagons.
Edward J. Blickhan, father of the Blickhan boys, appeared to defend his offspring, but he did more harm than good. He told the court that they had been sick with tonsillitis for two weeks and could not go to school. He denied all knowledge of their bringing coal home, but the court stated that he preferred to believe the boys' own statement that they had brought coal home and put it in the box by the kitchen stove. When the Blickhan boys were rounded up by the truancy officers last Thursday their hair hung over their shoulders and they were so ragged that Miller told the officers that he thought they were orphans. Yesterday afternoon they wore new suits and had their hair clipped short.
Judge McCune turned Earl Frizzell loose, as he had been with the "gang" only one day, ordered a home in the country found for Willie Eft and released the other boys with the understanding that they attend school and quit playing among the railway yards.
When Blickhan protested against the court holding his boys, Judge McCune said:
"You don't care if your boys get killed playing in the yards, so long as they fill your coal box. I don't want to hear another word from you. You have violated the law yourself."
Henry Eft, 13 years old, a brother of Willie and Martin, now has a reform school sentence hanging over him and is at work.
