The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-05-15
Travelled 674 Miles Through
 Desert to Get Home.
BROKE ALL THE RECORDS
From" Was Put On Passenger Train And Sent t. Nevada, But He Came Back Lack Cat in
 Song.
From the New York World.

ordinary neighborhood cat and his name was Tom" For years the boys threw stones at him and the women chased him out of the backyards, kicked him OH the steps and threw water on him when he got too near the chickens. Now he is a hero. He is dressed up for his picture, with brushed fur, wearing q fancy collar. For Tom has broken all records in traveling. He has ecipsed the most re- markable of all the cats that ever "came back"
 rom" was placed on the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake train in this city Sunday evening, March %; the next afternoon he was ejected from the train at Calientos Nev. Twenty days later he appeared again in the familiar neighbor- hood in Salt Lake City, having gone total distance of 674 miles. He said, as plainly as any cat can talk, that The was glad to get back home.p
 Since Tom has thus distinguished him self 1t has been discovered that he is of noble birth. The blue blood of pedigreed naltese ancestors flows through his veins, according te experts on the feline tribe. While he was a neighborhood cat on St. Louis avenue in the northwest part of
 
 pariah, and if he had been able to say Lady, 1 was not always thus; l have seen better days" nobody would have believed him
 Ton" was first discovered in the St. Lcuis avenue neighborhood about four years ago. At that time he appeared to be some six months old. His was rest less disposition. He wandered from one lack yard to another, talking to the moon ir tones that made him decidedly un- popular among the would be slumbers. By practice he became an expert in dodg- ing. and thus managed to survive and thrive. He picked up an existence by waiting around the back doors, catching an occasional mouse O. knocking down bird or two from time to time. Thus for years he was a familiar figure in the row of workingmen's humble homes
 A Wanderer By Disposition.
 From" became big and fat. Several at tempts were made to persuade him into the domestic habit. But they failed. No warm rug before a fireplace nor quiet berth on rag-carpet under the cook-stove in the kitchen appealed to him. The "wanderlust" was in his veins. When night came he longed for the open air and the company of the stars.
 Mrs. c. M. Marshall, who lived in one
  tions to a moderate degree a little over a year ago, and he condescended to visit her regularly to be fed, but he refused to be domiciled to any greater degree. The family of John M West also claimed him. About six months ago he was formally adopted into the family sof Charles c. Jenhart, a machinist living at No. 532 St. Louis avenue.
 My little six-year-old boy, Willie. t...a. ~H~+ |. s.. e.. F said Mrs. Lenhart Mamma he said please let the kitty stay in here; he is so cold It was real cold outside and so I tried to fix a place for the cat by the fire. but just soon as Willie put him down I thought the cat would jump through the window. He would not stay inside at all. We gave him something to eat but we had to let him get outdoors again right away"
 From that time on Tom made the Lenhart backyards his headduarters going there from time to time for food. but persistently refusing to remain in the house.
 Turning Point in Career.
 Sunday, March 20. came the turning point in "Tome's" career. Before that time he had shown some regard for prop erty rights On this Sabbath day, how ever, telnpldllOn pfpNeu lOO SlTOlB TOT him. Jean Val Jean stole a loaf of bread From" stole a founder The fish was to have constituted a Lentenbreakfast for the Lenhart family. When Mrs Lenhart went to get it on this Sunday morning she found that it had disappeared and Tom" was seen shortly afterward at that peaceful stage which, in human life, would have been the coffee and cigars
 The cat was captured. He was brought .,fr ( ,,1, f.ta Lenhart, Mrs. Lenhart and Willie. The prisoners guilt was beyond question. The only problem was what the sentence should be. It was feared that, having once . made this misstep Tom would become an habitual criminal.
 In the back yard was an incubator filled with eggs. The time had almost arrived for the chickens to emerge from the shells It was felt to be certain that Tom would work great havoc among them should he remain at large after their arrival on the scene Willie and Mrs. Lenhart voted against the death pen atty. Tom" was captured and put into a sack. MT. Lenhart started out that Sunday evening to find some bloodless dis position for Tom" He offered the cat to T. c. Waltenspiel. his landlord but Waltenspiel had some pet birds and he feared for the result, Finally an inspira- 
 train on the Salt Lake route was about to leave the station. He took the sack with it's live contents, into one of the coaches Surreptitiously he raised the seat and deposited the cat hereunder. Then he got off the train
 The cat was next heard from in Cali entes, Nevada, 337 miles from Salt Lake. William F. Johnson, an employe of the construction company which is engaged in building the road says he saw the cat put off the train at that point.
 Dscovere.. and Released.
 "The cat got to making a big noise un- der the seat" he said, and another man lifted the seat before getting off and found the sack there. We took the sack out, opened it and the cat ran out. The last I saw of him he was going around the corner of building"
 For over hundred miles between Cali entes, Nevada, and Milford, Utah, the railroad runs across a desert Settle ments are few and far apart. Water Is scarce The principal vegetation is sage brush. This constituted the first stage the cats journey back Nobody knows how the animal traversed that distance, with so little chance to obtain food and water Nobody knows how, after leav- ing the town of Milford. he crossed the mountain ranges and the stretches of desert that reach nearly all the way to Nephi, PAS miles from Calientes. From Nephi to Salt Lake City, a distance of eighty-nine miles, althoukh part of the way is mountainous, the country is more thickly settled
 There are farms and villages. and it Is oogv n understand how Tom might have