The Statesman called them “young imps,” and “hoodlums” in a story in September 1874 about teenaged boys and girls who had been seen stealing peaches and plums from a local orchard; they ran away before they could be caught.

Three weeks later, another story about juvenile delinquency was headlined: “Parents Ought to Look After Their Boys.” Six boys had hitched a ride to Kelly’s Hot Springs on the back of a stagecoach that made regular trips to the resort. After a swim, they were found by the driver of the coach, shivering with cold and with no way to make a fire. He took pity on them and brought them back to town at 2 a.m.

Such incidents might be excused as youthful pranks, but other, more serious offenses were reported regularly. In March 1875, “There are some impudent boys who live down ‘Lovers Lane’ who need attending to. They seem to take delight in beating the smaller boys, throwing iced snowballs into the windows of residences along Grove Street, and in insulting ladies who object to their conduct.”

The following month, the paper said there were “Hoodlums on the Rampage,” and listed their latest offenses. “What object could these hoodlums have in laying profane hands upon the sacred steps that lead to a church, of stealing gates, of barricading streets, of filling wells with everything they could lay hands on. Where, oh where, does our stalwart Marshal keep himself while these things are going on?”

In 1876, a Baptist Church “Sociable” was disrupted by “hoodlums present who spoiled it for others,” and after another social event, the Statesman observed, “There were just one dozen too many young Americans around the door of Good Templars Hall, the night of the party.”

A more explicit condemnation of allowing boys to be on the streets after dark was published in January 1879: “Among the habits which I have observed as tending most surely to ruin, I know of none more prominent than that of parents permitting their sons to be on the streets after nightfall. It is ruinous to their morals in all instances. They acquire, under cover of the night, an unhealthful and excited state of mind, bad language and practically criminal sentiments, a heedless and riotous bearing; indeed, it is in the street after nightfall that boys principally acquire the education for and the capacity of becoming dissolute, criminal men.”

(Were this short sermon set to music, in the style of Meredith Willson’s “The Music Man,” we think the refrain might be “We’ve got trouble, my friends, right here in Boise City, trouble, trouble, trouble!”)

Another Statesman story that month headlined “Dangerous Pranks” told of some young rascals who had dropped a lighted firecracker into the mail slot at the post office, setting the contents afire. “Luckily Mr. Post and his assistant, Mr. Beachy, were present and heard the noise; they promptly opened the box and prevented serious damage. Mr. Post went out on the street as soon as possible and caught the principal actor, to whom he administered a mild, but it is to be hoped an effective lesson.”

A touch of irony aimed at parents who might read the article followed: “Of course, the boys who thus roam the streets at night and play these tricks are poor orphan lads, without mother or father to look after them.”

In April 1880, the Statesman suggested the adoption of a city ordinance that would keep “children of a certain age off the streets at night,” similar to ones recently adopted in California. “No surer plan for raising hoodlums can be adopted than to let them run and play on the streets after nightfall. They mix up with all the bad boys and bad men and learn mischief and crime without reserve or restraint.”

It took six years to persuade the city council to act on the Statesman’s recommendation, but on June 5, 1886, under “Offenses against City Government,” new sections of the ordinances were adopted establishing:

- A curfew for children under 16 of 8 p.m. in winter and 9 p.m. in summer, unless accompanied by a parent.

- Banning anyone under 18 from frequenting a saloon.

- A fine of $5 on the parent of any child found guilty of such offenses.

- Making it the duty of the chief of police and his officers to enforce the new ordinances.

Arthur Hart writes this column on Idaho history for the Idaho Statesman each Sunday. Email histnart@mindspring.com.