According to neighborhood legend, when the younger Radley boy was in his teens he became acquainted with some of the Cunninghams from Old Sarum, an enormous and confusing tribe domiciled in the northern part of the county, and they formed the nearest thing to a gang ever seen in Maycomb. They did little, but enough to be discussed by the town and publicly warned from three pulpits: they hung around the barbershop; they rode the bus to Abbottsville on Sundays and went to the picture show; they attended dances at the county’s riverside gambling hell, the Dew-Drop Inn & Fishing Camp; they experimented with stumphole whiskey. Nobody in Maycomb had nerve enough to tell Mr. Radley that his boy was in with the wrong crowd.
One night, in an excessive spurt of high spirits, the boys backed around the square in a borrowed flivver, resisted arrest by Maycomb’s ancient beadle, Mr. Conner, and locked him in the courthouse outhouse. The town decided something had to be done; Mr. Conner said he knew who each and every one of them was, and he was bound and determined they wouldn’t get away with it, so the boys came before the probate judge on charges of disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace, assault and battery, and using abusive and profane language in the presence and hearing of a female.
The judge asked Mr. Conner why he included the last charge; Mr. Conner said they cussed so loud he was sure every lady in Maycomb heard them. The judge decided to send the boys to the state industrial school, where boys were sometimes sent for no other reason than to provide them with food and decent shelter: it was no prison and it was no disgrace. Mr. Radley thought it was. If the judge released Arthur, Mr. Radley would see to it that Arthur gave no further trouble. Knowing that Mr. Radley’s word was his bond, the judge was glad to do so.
The other boys attended the industrial school and received the best secondary education to be had in the state; one of them eventually worked his way through engineering school at Auburn. The doors of the Radley house were closed on week days as well as Sundays, and Mr. Radley’s boy was not seen again for fifteen years.
But there came a day, barely within Jem’s memory, when Boo Radley was heard from and was seen by several people, but not by Jem. He said Atticus never talked much about the Radleys: when Jem would question him Atticus’s only answer was for him to mind his own business and let the Radleys mind theirs, they had a right to; but when it happened, Jem said Atticus shook his head and said, “Mm, mm, mm.”
詞匯學習
spurt? (a sudden increase in speed, effort, activity or emotion for a short period of time)
原句：in an excessive?spurt?of high spirits 在一種極度興奮的狀態下
domiciled??adj.指定支付地點的,定居的
flivver n. 廉價小汽車
probate
原句：the?probate?judge
battery [U] 毆打罪
assault and battery 毆打和侵犯人身罪
profane? ?adj.不敬(神)的,好咒罵的/褻瀆的,不圣潔的
cuss?vi. 亂罵；咒罵/ vt. 咒罵
see to 負責, 注意, 照料
原句：Mr. Radley would see to it that Arthur gave no further trouble.
Mr. Radley 先生會負責Arthur 不會再搗亂。
?become acquainted with 認識了某人
the picture show? 這里是指“電影”
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stumphole whiskey?
原文 ：they experimented with stumphole whiskey 他們品嘗私酒
樹干上由于自然作用而形成的洞叫做stump hole,有stump hole whisky這么一說，指的是過去外國私釀酒是犯法的，有的農民私釀whisky，然后怕被政府抓了，所以把酒藏在樹洞里
美國禁酒令
從1920年1月17日凌晨0時，美國憲法第18號修正案——禁酒法案（又稱“伏爾斯泰得法案”）正式生效。 根據這項法律規定，凡是制造、售賣乃至于運輸酒精含量超過0.5%以上的飲料皆屬違法。自己在家里喝酒不算犯法，但與朋友共飲或舉行酒宴則屬違法，最高可被罰款1000美元及監禁半年。 21歲以上的人才能買到酒，并需要出示年齡證明，而且只能到限定的地方購買。
走私和地下交易成為黑幫勢力的溫床
正規市場被禁止，帶來的結果是黑市的興起。走私、地下交易一時間成了一本萬利的買賣，當時許多有組織的犯罪集團都是依靠這些非法生意得來的利潤建立起來的。而這些黑幫組織依靠日漸強大的勢力，把私酒生意變得越來越龐大。最有名的芝加哥黑幫老大艾爾?卡彭，就是在這一時期開始崛起的，據說他每日販酒所得利潤就高達5000美元。美劇大西洋帝國就是講述這一階段的故事。
不得不廢止的禁酒令
禁酒令發展到后期，變得越來越荒唐，原本想要通過禁酒提升國民的健康水平，卻有越來越多的人因為喝品質低劣的私釀酒進了醫院；本意是為了降低犯罪率，卻成了有組織犯罪的誘因；想要控制貪腐，卻令更多的官員在這段時間主動或是被動地與黑幫勾結……各種各樣的現象使得禁酒令的廢止變得迫在眉睫。
