The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-08-14
What Will Become of Small Pick
aninny.
COLORED SOLDIERS BABY
LEFT WITH SWEETHEART, BUT
RELATIVE DEMANDS HIM.
Little Leonard Ole, Child of Ser
geant Ole of the Twenty-fcurth is
the Bone of Contention Between
Two Colored Women-Is Safe and
Happy Here.

Wee Leonard Ole is as jolly a little
pickaninny as ever tucked his kinky
head into a watermelon. Far away in
Manila, fighting under the flag. is wee
Leonard's father. Sergeant Henry L.
Ole, company A, Twenty-fourth in
fantry. In New Haven. Conn, almost
half as far away in the other direction
| is Leonard's only other relative in all
the world. Mrs. Nelson a. Carey, a sis
ter of his dead mother.
In a pleasant home on East Second
South street in this city Leonard lives.
He never troubles his 5-year-old head
over his paucity of relations, for he is
happy and well fed and well cared for
! here and he is with the only person in
the world he loveS-father and aunt
not excepted-a Mrs. Robinson, widow
of trooper in the Tenth cavalry, and
former sweetheart of Leonard's
father.
Now comes 4 peremptory letter from
the distant aunt addressed TO Chief
Hilton, asking that Leonard, young as
he is and happy as he is with his fos-
ter mother. be sent east Immediately,
that he may be in proper hands. The
letter advises that the little lad be
tagged with his aunt's address. en-
trusted with a basket of luncheon, and
then forwarded east. depending upon
the kindheartedness of conductors and
brakemen TO see that he traverses those
weary thousands of miles in safety.
Foster Mother Protests.
But Mrs. Robinson objects. and I'M
less something more definite comes
from Leonard's aunt, small Leonard
will remain in Salt Lake. Mrs. Robin
son thinks she has better claim upon
Leonard than has Mrs. Carey and she
vows she will keep him and bring him
up as her own boy unless Mrs. Carey
chooses to obtain possession of him by
process of law. And surely the equity
of the matter is all on Mrs. Robin
sons side.
Sergeant Ole is big, broad-shoul-
dered, stalwart fellow, and last year
before he went to Cuba he left his !
little motherless boy with his deceased |
wife's sister, Mrs. Carey. at Leaven- /
Ole met and loved Mrs. Robinson, and /
later when he was at Tampa she Wis |
tied him there. When Sergeant Ole re- 1
turned from the war and was once |
more at Fort Douglas, seemingly set J
tied for years to come, he fixed up a |
little home up near the reservation and /
sent for Mrs. Robinson to come to him |
and be married. He told her to bring |
little Leonard with her when she came, /
and he wrote his sister at Leaven-
worth to give the child up to Mrs. |
In course of time Mrs. Robinson and |
Leonard arrived and soon were settled 1
in the tiny but cozy home. But then
came trouble, for Sergeant Ole forgot |
his pledged word, forgot the many let
tiers he had written protesting his love .
and promising marriage, and he re-
fused to marry the woman who had /
come such a distance for love of him
to make him a home.
Father Goes a-Soldiering.
Then came orders for service in the
Idaho mining strike and Sergeant Ole
went away with a company for two
months in the north. A brief week Of
rest they were allowed at Salt Lake
on their return and then they We're
away again, this time with far-off
Manila their destination. When A
company went away Mrs. Robinson
and Leonard We're at the station to bid
Sergeant Ole farewell. Just before the
train pulled out the departing soldier
called his boy to him and give him d
round shining silver dollar. That was
mis- only parting gift, the only provision
ne made for the boys support during
mis- absence in Manila.
What shall do with the child now
hat you are going away for so long?"
tSheu MIS-. fhODluSOH WIeH lHey part
I'd.
II don't give a damn. Keep him if
you want him. was the heartless reply.
And Mrs. Robinson has taken the
nan at his word and she proposes
through thick and thin to keep pos
session of the boy. For in the long
months that Leonard has lived with her
lie has twined his little chubby fists ,
Iround her heart and she loves him
or his own merry, jolly little self as
veil as for the memory of his father, !
low so far away.
Chief Hilton says he will not inter ,
ere, for like all who know the circum- ,,
tances of the case. he believes Mrs. ,
has the right of it, and he re- e.,
uses to take Leonard from the home }
rhere he is now so contented and ,
Apply to send him alone and unpro- ,
ected $500 miles across the continent :
o woman he knows nothing of and a c
ONE where Leonard might suffer neg c
ect and sorrow and perhaps even want.