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Saturday, February 12, 2022

Story of North Carolina Boy Who Ran Away to Find a Friend, Feb. 12, 1922

Runaway Youth Wanted Friends. . . Welfare Officer Had Hard Time Keeping Him Until Good Home Was Found

That home is only a home to a boy when he is understood seems to be an established fact by a peculiar case just disposed of by Lucius Ranson, superintendent of public welfare. Mr. Ranson has been on pins and needles, so to speak, during his custody of a runaway boy, whom he has had charge of for several weeks.

Like the runaway boys in the dime novels, this boy for some reason had taken his departure from his paternal domicile via a freight train. Trusting to a lone sandwich to keep him going and to his luck for a bright future, the lad stayed on his box car quarters until the train pulled into the Queen City.

But here the narrative deviates from the usual fiction story and the all-too-soon ending of the journey comes when a Charlotte policeman nabbed him as he stepped from the car. Being of scant year, the youth was taken to Lucius Ranson in the juvenile detention quarters, where something about the solution of the case was attempted. The boy’s parents were at last found in a neighboring town, but owing to financial conditions they were unable to pay his passage home.

And in the meantime, despite precautions, the lad escaped from the city jail and in Eddie Polo fashioned hooked a passing freight en route North. But the police were even quicker than that, and it was only a few minutes before the police Ford overtook the freight in North Charlotte. The lad was again captured and brought back.

At this point Wade Thomas, of this city, had a conversation with Mr. Ranson in which he stated that the secret of a successful way to handle a boy was to understand him. He accordingly secured Mr. Ranson’s permission to take the boy home. He forthwith bought the lad some good clothes, gave him a decent bath and treated him to a bit of real civilization.

For the past 10 days the youth has been the most satisfied person in the world out at the home of Mr. Thomas. He has been given free rein, and the thought of now running away is as far from his mind as the desire to jump over the moon. He feels that at least he has found a friend who sympathizes with him.

But his golden dream must now come to an end, for his parents have demanded that he be sent back. Accordingly, Mr. Ranson was planning Saturday morning to send the youth back to his home on an 11 o’clock train. And it was a down-in-the-mouth youngster that looked at his ticket away from Charlotte.

“But I’m coming back to this city again,” he said. “This is the only time I’ve ever been happy in my life. Mr. Thomas sure knows how to treat a fellow.”

From The Charlotte News, Sunday, Feb. 12, 1922

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