The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-05-27
LITTLE BOYS IN JAIL
YOUNGSTERS RAN AWAY FROM
 THEIR HOMES.
Frank McDugalI of Selma and Lewis Holmes of Pensacola Picked Up by Montgomery
 Police.

Two weazened little faces peeped out from the dark recesses of city prison cells last night as two bright eyed lit tie boys told pathetic stories, stories uf deep interest because of the human sor- row they reflected.
 Frank McDugall, 9 years old, of Selma. and Lewis Holmes, 12 years old, who says his home used to be in Pensa- cola, are the names given by the young sters who were picked up while loiter- ing about the union railway station by H. T. Ragland, plain clothes officer of the Montgomery police department. They are held a. police headquarters awaiting advices from their parents or relatives.
 Barefooted and coatless. without money, the little fellows when arrested told straightforward, manly stories of how they went out to battle with the world. The oldest boy, young Holmes, said his step-father had driven him from home and he had found life hard with relatives who took him it. He fell in with little McDugall at Selma, and the McDugall tot, whose parents had separated; according to his story, was willing to go out into the world to find his father, for whom his young . heart yearned.
 Thus 1t came about that these two children, with great sorrow in their little hearts, sympathizing one with the
 
 themselves vagrants in Montgomery.
 T was looking for my papa" said little McDugall stoutly, who, with re- markable precocity, insisted that the name should be spelled M-c-d-o-o-g-l-e My papa works on the railroad and he left Selma Wednesday. He never left me this way before, and I came to Montgomery with this other boy to And him. Mama?" he queried with wide-open eyes Mama, she lives in Birmingham. She and papa is parted. Papa, he used to drink, but he don't do that way now, and I love him. One night papa came home drunk and began to break the furniture. Mama had him arrested and then they parted"
 The face of the little fellow was clouded with gloom as he told, in his simple way, of the tragedy in his little life.
 'I've got brother" he continued, his face lighting up as though he thought 1t was necessary to narrate all of the family's history. But my brothers in the Reform School at East Lake," he added sadly, and I don't see him no more. My brother and some other boys broke into a 10-cent store in Bir- mingham and they sent him to the Re- form School"
 It was evident that this East Lake School has been a sort of fairy land in the dreams of the 9-year-old prisoner.
 They won't let you go there unless you steal something, will they?" he asked, naively. Well, ain't going to steal anything to get there" With this declaration of his honest resolution, the little fellow stuck his bare toes through the lower grating of the cell and wiggled them in an absent-minded childish fashion.
 Young Holmes wore a rather dejected but mock heroic demeanor. He was older than little McDugall and could afford to scorn the child by his side
 My fathers dead" said Holmes. My stepfather drank, and went to live with my cousin, Simmie Otis, at the section house farm this side of Pensacola. He wanted me to blow In the field too much, so left there. Do you chew tobacco?" he asked, abruptly breaking into the thread of his nara tive. "I do," he continued, without waiting for an answer. About two years ago I was thin and sickly. The doctor told me to chew the tobacco we were raising on the farm. I chewed iI and now I'm fat"
 Both of the boys said they would not go back to the homes they had left, but they preferred to stay in Montgomery if they could earn a livelihood here. They said they walked some distance from Selma. but finally boarded a freight train and were allowed to ride to Montgomery through the kindness of the conductor.
 The boys will be held until today Telegrams have been sent to Sims Otis. The police cannot locate the father of young McDugall.