Danny now told Jim to place the watch he had stolen upon the tin plate, which he did.  Kansas Shorty picked it up and estimated its value at not less than one hundred dollars, and then praised Jim for having upon his first raid proven himself to be a first-class road kid, and that the “gang” was proud to call him a pal.  When Jim was out of hearing Danny received much praise for having turned an honest boy into a beggar and a thief by the same methods that he had been taught by his jocker and other road kids.

So quickly had these rum-soaked, heartless monsters converted an absolutely harmless lad into a criminal, that Jim pleaded with Kansas Shorty to permit him to try unassisted to peddle needle cases.  He was not accorded this privilege, but was sent out with a boy nicknamed “Snippy”.  This boy had a most repulsive looking sore upon his arm, reaching from the wrist four inches upward.  His graft consisted of visiting offices located in the business district and showing to persons this noisome sore, and then handing them the begging letter his jocker had faked for him, he collected alms, while at the same time he contorted his face as if suffering agony from his “disease”.

When they returned to the hangout at the end of his working hours at 2 p.m., as the afternoon mails made charity calls of this class unprofitable, Jim was given his third lesson by a lad who went by the hobo name of “Spanish John.”

On the preceding evening John and Jim had played catch ball in the hallway and the way John chased after a ball he had failed to catch caused Jim to greatly admire the boy’s agility.

But this morning John certainly looked for all the world as if he had passed through a long war.  He upheld his body by means of a pair of crutches and his face was all furrowed as if he were suffering agony, while his left foot was drawn high above the ground just as if a cannon ball had made its acquaintance, and it was with such a sad voice that he called to Jim to follow him, that Jim felt so sorry for John he forgot to ask him what had happened to him since both chased the elusive ball in the hallway.

Spanish John had a sore upon his left leg just like Snippy had upon his arm, and he used this sore, assisted by small cards called “duckets”, upon which an “appeal” was printed, to swindle honest and well meaning people out of money.  Proprietors of stores and shops were his favorites.  When supper time approached and while upon their way back to the plingers’ quarters, after they had left the business section, John handed his crutches to Jim to carry, and told the astounded lad, who supposed John had actually been crippled, that limping with crutches was a “most tiresome job.”

Everyone of the road kids had been trained by his jocker to become a specialist in some particular brand of the begging game.  One of them had around his arm a plaster of Paris casting, that during his begging trips would be filled with cotton upon which a few drops of carbolic acid or some other “medicinally” smelling liquid had been poured, to give the “phoney” broken-arm trick a cloak of respectability.  When not at “work” the “dummy” was shoved far above the boy’s elbow and tied so that it did not interfere with his playing “tag”, and other boyish games.