MAKING BAD BOYS GOOD

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 36, 11 August 1923, Page 14

MAKING BAD BOYS GOOD

A NEW THEORY OF SONG.

Making bad boys good through music, transforming former member* of tough gangs into docile and refined youths, curing the habit of stealing, curbing violent tempers, and revolutionising the mental make-up of boys hwo thought nothing of pulling a knife and slashing the face of a comrade when in a rage, these are some of the achievements of Miss Matha Scott, of Hull House, Chicago, reported in the " New York American." " Sing and you'll be good," is the theory of Miss Scott, and she carries her theory into actual practice with auout 125 boys a week. They are mostly Italians, and come from families^many of them, where they are beaten if they don't bring home enough from selling papers or shining shoes.,.An idea pf the type of boys that come under the spell of Miss' Scott's " music cure for evil "' may be gained from a recent survey made within a radius of four blocks of Hull House. It was found there were twenty-six clnbs or gangs, with a membership of 800 boys and men, who met in basements and the back rooms of stores, the breeding places of bandits. These boys, beaten at home, came to Hull House bearing grudges toward the world in general; others were of the sullen type, and most ol them possessed tempers typical of the Italian. " When I started this work," said Miss Scott, " they just yelled their heads! off;-they could not sing. Their voices were' pitched too low. My aim was to get,'these boys to sing high notes, which denote^ joy, and keep them from the loir note's, which typify grief. I make no attempt to teach them to sing for singing's sake, or with the idea of Incoming musicians. It is for the effect music'has upon the emotions. I want them to feel music—to get the inspiration for good that comes through the vibrations of music ,upon tie senses. The soft melody of the ballads and the high soprano notes have effect for goad upon their dispositions as wall as their morality. It is remarkable what a change conjes over these boys after a few songs. It seems to change their entire mental ,make-up and attitude towards life."