/'///. AMI-:K/C,L\ JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
thinking, offered to work five cluvs for a suit of clothes the price set 1>\- Mr. The others hectored him and called
him a fool for working to get what was his by right, but when he walked uwuv with his new suit, the pride of honest ownership, and the immediate capitulation of many others, were the first suggestion towards the Republic's cure for pauperism.
The problem of crime was equally hard. Mr. George made rules against smoking, gambling, stealing, fighting, etc., but how to punish for violations was beyond his comprehension. He even tried the whip, but that failed. He then resorted to a vicarious dient, offering himself to be whipped, and compelling the culprit to do the whipping. This worked better, but crime still flourished. Finally, in 1894, he inaugurated a public trial of every alleged offender, the decision to be awarded by the town meeting. On the suggestion of the boys a jury of the best citi- zens was selected by Mr. George himself for such trials. At this time instead of corporal punishment he substituted fines of a graded number of hours' work. The stone pile was super- intended by an adult, one of the assistants, and when one day he was sick the boys proposed that in his place be appointed Banjo, a member of the " Park " gang, which \vas an offshoot of the famous " Why-ho " gang. Only necessity compelled Mr. George to accept this radical innovation, and that for but one dav. but its startling success was the first eye-opener on the pos- sibilities of self-government. Banjo got much better and harder work out of the boys than did the adult, for they could not deceive him, and on the other hand Banjo himself became the most self-respecting upholder of law and order in the entire com- munitv. He was retained permanently in office.
The summer of 1894 was full of many kinds of experiments, Mr. George knew that something was wrong and he was feeling for remedies. After the children went home he set to thinking. Three facts had impressed themselves upon him. First, the keen sense of justice and power of discrimination shown by the boys in all the trials by jurv ; second, their superior powers of admin- istration and discipline over their fellows compared with those
