The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-04-14
TOMMY WANDERS
 ID STRANGE LANDS
Three-Year-0Id Has Day of
 Awful TribuIationS
IS RESCUED IN WOODLAWN
Picanlnny Goes From Birmingham to Suburb Has Many Strange Experi- ences in the Course of
 Long Journey.

"Mammy's little plccaninny." poor lit- tie child, stood in the middle of the street rubbing her dirty eyes, while tears streaked down in little rivulets between the dirty banks of his black cheeks
 Dust covered Mammy's chile from head to heel. Even the kinky hair had lost it's ietty color. His nose was bleeding freely, and one knee was skinned. Further than this, three toes on each foot had the ap- pearance of being stumped. In fact, he stood on one leg, and held the other in his hand. Barefooted, in the cold aft ernoon air, he was indeed an object of pity.
 Little Tommy Tompkins, 3 years old, w15 a traveller of wide repute, the boldest of the bold. for a whole day.
 Tommy was found yesterday afternoon at dark on the corner of Sixtieth street and Second avenue Woodlawn, by Chief of Police Gray of that place. and turned over to one of his racial compatriots for safelSeeping. He telephoned to Birmns- ham police headquarters and found there that little Tommy had been missing since morning from Avenue r and Fifteenth street, Birmingham, and that "mammy'' was tearing up all the wells and looking into all the dtches in Jefferson county.
 Forty-five blocks, or four miles. is pretty good travelling for child three years old, and one could not have be- lleved it had not the stumped toes va liantly testified to the verlty of his jour ney. He started from home at about ! o'clock, on an exploration tour proba- bly, in search of the north pole.
 Along the sidewalk he padded his ca noe enjoying the scenes on the sign boards and chuckling to himself At Twentieth street he got right in the path of dray but by d miracle the horse straddled him and the wagon passed over without his knowing the difference.
 So the explorer continued, like the brave Peary, unwilling 10 give up block after block, taking in everything. At First avenue and Twenty seventh street an engine protruded itself like an iceberg in his way. And he started to crawl through the drive wheels, but wss rescued by Il doughty fagman.
 At Sloss furnace he stopped long enough to stick his head in coke oven and get part of the hair singed off As he passed the Avondale cotton mills, some of the governors s mill boys cast unfriend- ly eyes upon his two-feet-six and one of the raseals planted a rock beside his head, where it grew and sprouted.
 The marshal of Avondale threatened to arrest the poor boy for street tax, but relented with compassion when Tommy said he wasn't in favor of Greatar Rr- mngham. Finally. as the sun had passed the meridian. the little pilgrim came to the boundaries of Woodlawn Here he paused, knowing that he was about to enter that bourne from which few re- turn. then bravely stepped forward with out fear
 The temperature dropped and his feet were nearly freezing. With his heart in his mouth he walked the icy sidewalk. feeling sure that he had found the north pole. Approaching Ffty-hfth street. his feet nearly refused to move, but on sec ond investigation he found that to be merely the magnetic pole, and he was still far from the coveted goal.
 At the next corner the Gate City car struck him, but was not going fast enough to do anything but rub the skin from his shin. On reaching Sixticth street, and seeing East Lake far away over the hill his strength gave way, he broke down, sobbing and was picked up by the officer
 Nanny was notified and went thither quickly, wrapped up her darling wounds and comforted him in her arms.