Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1880-05-14
A IN. YORK ORFUN- IN THE
WEST.
He Declines 20 Grow up with
Detroit and Prefers 60 ''Fite
Enjuns."

One of the little lambs picked UP in
the streets OF New York by Whitelaw
Reid and sent west to find a'home was
adopted by a Detroit family about two
months ago, and ere this is published
MIR. Reid has received a big postal
card announcing hat his dear lamb
has gone west to fight Indians and
that he needn't mind about sending
on another to take his place. The
New York lamb was thirteen years
old. He said so at the depot on
his arrival, aud half an hour later
he reiterated the statement at the
house and added: And if you don't
believe it, then call me a liarl That's
the sort Of %spring-gun | am, and don't
YOU forget it." They didn't forget it.
He gave them no chance to. lie ate
with his fingers, wiped his mouth on
his sleeve, and gave the family TO
understand before supper was over
that he didn't come west to have his
hair combed or his face washed as a
regular business. On his first evening
he slipped out, had three fights and
stole a dog, and when hunted up he
was about to take his beer in a saloon.
The family expected to wrestle with
the boy for a while, and they didn't
sit down on him until it became a
painful necessity. During the first
week he stole s. in money, a gold
chain, a revolver and a pair of ear
rings, and he CO. drunk twice. When
reasoned with and asked to do better.
he took a fresh chew of plug tobacco
and replied. ooh, you Michigan folks
are too soft. If a Teller CAM have a
good time, what's the use of being an
orphan?" On Monday of the
second week he sold the fam
lily dog to a stranger for a
quarter, threw the saw and axe
into the alley, and when locked up in
a closet he tore a Sunday coat to
pieces. 1t was thought best to have
a policeman talk to him, and one was
called in. He put on his f%iercest look
and lectured the lamb for fifteen min
utos, but as soon as he stopped for
breath the young sinner replied
Now, see here, old buttons, you are
wasting timel | know my little gait,
| do, and if you think I've come to
a village like this to be bluffed by
anybody. you've missed your t%rain!'
He was taken to Sunday school by the
hand. He hadn't been there hall an
hour when he was taken out by the
collar. He seemed anxious to punch
the head of every good little boy with
in a half mile Of him, and he to d the
teacher Of his class that when she
could stuff Moses in the bulrushes
down him it would be after she had
bleached out her freckles. They
gave him a Sunday school book to
fit his case, but he fitted it to a crack
in 1.-THE sidewalk on his way home. When
moral suasion had no effect on the
wicked youth his guardian tried the
the rod. He was bigger than the boy.
and he walloped him, but within three
hours two of the nuts were taken off
his buggy and thrown away. There
was a second seance in the woodshed,
and before dark window-glass worth
IS was broken. That orphan was
faithfully and duly and persistently
wrestled with. He was coaxed and
Aattered. He was licked and reason
ed with. Ambition, gratitude, fear
and avarice were alike appealed to in
turn, but as he was the first day SO he
was TO the last. A few days ago he
was told that he would be sent to the
Reform School at Lansing il there was
any further trouble with him. That
night he stole So of the cook, a
butcher knife from the pantry, a pie
from the sideboard and departed the
house, leaving on his bed a note read
ing as follows: This town ar no
place for a N. York orfun. I'm goin'
out on the planes to fte Injuns. 1t
will be yuseless to ioller me, fur |
can't he took Alivelu