"Let's Kill Somebody"

That young children are uncivilized and not always noble savages, every parent knows. Children love to wreak imaginary destruction. Rarely enough to be notable, the destruction is sometimes actual. A tragic case, reported in New York City last week:

The third-grade teachers of Harlem's drab, grey brick P.S. 119 took their children into the school yard for recess. One teacher played the piano while five little circles of Negro girls danced gaily. But nine-year-old Margaret Patton had a skin rash and sat alone on a bench. She was a well-behaved youngster -- so well-behaved that she sometimes tattled to the teachers about other girls.

Into the yard came two sixth-grade girls, 11 and 13 years old, wearing black Halloween masks. One of them grabbed Margaret's arm, the other plunged into her chest a two-edge, two-inch blade. Margaret fell silently and the attackers fled. The teachers hustled the children indoors. A few minutes later, Margaret Patton died.

The police found the killers in a nearby areaway, throwing into the bonfire their knives, masks and some stolen report cards. One was booked for homicide, the other for juvenile delinquency. The sociological background:

P:Madeline Kirkland, 11, who did the stabbing, has a 26-year-old mother, separated from her husband. Some neighbors say that a girl should not have a baby when she is 15; others say that Madeline has been spoiled.

P:Eileen Foster, 13, is also the child of separated parents. Her mother works as an apartment superintendent. In her home reporters saw evidence of alcoholism.

Deportment: B. Madeline and Eileen had often been mischievous nuisances. Once Margaret Patton tattled when one of the girls stole money from her mother's apartment. The older girls began feuding with Margaret and her brother, William, who threw a bottle which cut Madeline. Last autumn the older girls' teacher began giving them as much special attention as was possible in the busy public-school life. The girls, too, made an effort, got As in deportment. This term they had slipped back to Bs, but the teacher still had hopes for them.

One day Madeline and Eileen came late to school, saw some report cards unguarded in an office. They stole the cards to learn their marks. Margaret Patton saw the theft, reported it, and was overheard by Madeline and Eileen. Said Madeline: ''Let's kill somebody so we'll be sent away to a home; my parents don't treat me right."

Harlem's Magistrate Robert F. Mahoney declared: "I had a 14-year-old boy before me on a first-degree murder charge last week. Now an eleven-year-old girl. What is it all coming to?"

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