Omaha daily bee., 1896-02-05
TOO LATE TO SAVE THE BOY
Attorney and Sheriff After a Reform sohoo
Candidate. ,rg
SHERIFF AKIN HAD AN HOUR THE START
Home of Mrs. waldo Of Shenandoah
One of Mourning from Many
Causes-Her Mother Dead
and Her boy in Jail.

While Judge Thornell was making an
order yesterday morning committing J. d.
Waldo, a Shenandoah boy, to the reform
school at Eldora, Attorney Ferguson of
Shenandoah was on his way to Council
Bluffs with an arrangement by which he
hoped to save the lad from the state in
stitution and to send him to a home which
had been provided for him in Missouri.
The case is a peculiar one in many re-
spects. The father of the boy is dead, his
mother Is almost insane from grief and
trouble Of various kinds while the boys
grandmother lies dead in his mothers home
at Shenandoah. Attorney Ferguson came
prepared to take the boy back in time to
attend his grandmother's funeral, but found
that Sheriff Lew Akin of Page county had
started on his way to Edora with young
Waldo few minutes before the arrival of
Mr.. Ferguson in this city. The law in the
case is peculiar and there is no way of re-
calling the order of Judge Thornell, and the
only way the boy can be taken from the re-
form school is through an appeal to the
chief executive of the state, and this will
probably be done.
Attorney Ferguson recites state Of facts
calculated to enlist sympathy in favor of
the boy. The father of the boy died several
years ago and the young lad who is now IA
years of age, has never had an opportunity
for education or the proper kind Of home
training. He has been accused of a great
many minor thefts, and is undoubtedly guilty
of them, and has, perhaps, the attorney says,
been encouraged in his career OF thievery.
The neighbors have come to look upon the
lad as a terror, and have been trying for
some time to have him sent to the reform
school. Mrs. Waldo, the mother of the boy
is weak woman, in poor health and hyster-
ical, and has been really unable to give the
lad any kind of home training Mrs. Waldo's
father and mother have been living with her.
and yesterday her mother died. The fact
that her boy was in Jail in Council Bluffs
and her mother dead threw Mrs. Waldo into
an hysterical ft and she is now in precari-
Gus condition.
Some time ago the boy was arrested for the
larceny of a set of harness and was found
guilty by Justice Carter Of Shenandoah and
sent to this city as a proper subject for the
reform school, The neighbors who had been
sufferers from the boys raids urged the SEN
fencing Of the boy to the reform school.
The nearly crazed mother appealed to At
torney Ferguson, and he began an effort to
have a home provided for the, boy. He saw
several uncles of the lad. who are well-to-do
people, at Shenandoah, and made arrange
ments to have the boy and his mother sent
to farm in Missouri. He supposed that
such course would be adopted by Judge
Thornell and telephoned on Monday to have
the case go over until today. Judge
Thornel waited until this morning, and as
Mr.. Ferguson had not arrived he made an
order sending the young boy to the reform
school at Eldora in charge of Sheriff Akin
of Page county. An hour later Mr.. Ferguson
arrived and found his boy gone. Mr..
Ferguson had notice Of appeal entered to
the judges order and left last night for
Des Moines to lay the matter before Gov
ernor Drake IL 'E..j a+- 5li