ABSTRACT
On 6 October 1943, a pillow fight broke out in the Shelter of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, a temporary home for neglected and delinquent children aged two through sixteen, on Fifth Avenue at 105th Street. At about 10 o’clock that night, the rough-housing had escalated; sixty or so children were hurling furniture about and, in the words of the New York Times the next day, causing a “general wild disorder.” 1 The “resident custodians” called the police, who carted some of the children off to jail.
