Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1896-04-23

/c,.s-yssl'soN the police office
|' will show, says
Willamsport Grit,
II will probably
surprise Night Captain Worrall and
his force Of patrolmen to learn that one
night IN December last they entertained
n woman ledger who wore the habili-
ments OF a man, slept on the floor in
The tramps' bunk room and gave her
name as mana sailor, by the way,
Just on little voyage inland for the
benefit of "hls health"
AS the story goes this woman was Of
medium stature, spoke with an Irish
brogue and was not averse to wearing
a sandy moustache On her feminine lip
when 1t became necessary to make her
disguise more complete than did just
the dress Of man. However, because
Of the multiplicity of dodgers who wan
der nightly into the city hall the off,
GERS cannot recall this particular in
divIdual who called on the evening of
Dec. 10, registering as follows Thomas
Mccarthy, aged 4G, sailor, Philadel-
phia."
According to tho narrative printed
In the Ohio newspaper, referred to
above, this Thomas Mccarthy" was
not Thomas Mccarthy at all, but Mrs.
Philip Whalen, whose mission 1t was to
find her son, who had left home be-
cause Of his stepfather's i'll treatment
and for whom the mother worried I'M
til she could no longer restrain her
self and she then started out to find her
boy. The story declares that the poor
woman's life had been made miserable
by her worthless husband, who wanted
to live without work, expecting his
wife and stepson-the latter aged 10
years-to earn the livelihood Because
the young man objected to this, Whalen
became abusive and drove the boy
from home Before marrying Whalen
his wife was a Mrs Mccarthy, and
II was happy life thai she and her
first husband led. Their only boy had
been christened Thomast after his
father, and he was the JOY of the house
hold. When Mccarthy died he cheered
his wife by saying that she yet had
the lad to help her. Two years after
ward Mrs. Mccarthy married Philip
Whalen, at Cleveland. AS stated mat
ters in the new household were far
from pleasant, and in the latter part of
November last young Tom ran away to
escape the wrath of his stepfather and
to seek his fortune in the wide, wide
world. Two weeks later Tom wrote
from Pittsburg, saying that he was
working his way eastward. Before
leaving Cleveland he had been en-
ployed in rolling mill, and his moth
err calculated that he would naturally
drift into cities and towns where this
sort Of industry was in operation.
Yearning for her boy made Mrs
Whalen sick at heart. She thought
more of the lad than she did Of her
husband, and thus 1t was that she de-
clded to find her boy. She was fearless,
physically strong and possessed an en-
durance Of steel, which, backed by the
Celtic determination to win, Mrs.
Whalen quickly laid her plans for ex-
ecution. Downing a suit of her hus-
bands clothes, she made herself into
robust-looking man." then without
bidding her husband adieu, much less
telling him Of her queer mission, Mrs.
Whalen went off on her search for
Thomas Naturally enough, when it
came to choosing a name for her new
self, she decided upon the cognomen
which was then the name Of her boy,
and had been that Of his father before
him-Thomas Mccarthy.
For more than two months Mrs.
Whalen, with her falsetto voice, and
her hair cut short, wandered about cen
trail and southeastern Pennsylvania in
search Of her boy. She was Altered"
OF nothing and knew how to steal a
ride on a freight train just as we'll as
the tourist" Of ten years experience
But the best part of the story is that
she succeeded in doing just what she
started out to do-she found her son
Tommy. She found him three weeks
ago in Bethlehem, where he was en-
ployed as helper in livery stable.
But the reunited pair did not go back
to Cleveland and Whalen. They are
now located in a town in northeast
Ohio, and Mrs. Whalen declares that
she will get divorce from her hus-
band, then she ard Tommy can live
together in peace. She still has the
suit Of clothes that accompanied her
on her trip through Pennsylvania for
her boy.