Los Angeles herald., 1908-09-01
Her LONG LOST BOY
RESTORED BY COURT
TO MOTHERS ARMS
Twelve-Year-OId Lad Was introduced
to Haunts of Vice to Teach
Him a Salutary
Lesson

Dangling his legs over the edge Of the
| tall witness chair in Judge Hutton's
department of the superior court yes
terday, Thomas C. Potter, IL years old
whose whereabouts and well-being nave
been worrying his parents, deputy
sheriffs, Juvenile officers and ever
| judges of the superior court, told the
story of his boyhood troubles.
| The boys parents were divorced III
Colorado several years ago and both
have remarked. In October last year
when the father failed to provide FOL
the boys support, the Colorado court
ordered him restored to his mother, but
the night preceding the day on which
| this order was made the father TOOK
| his son from Cripple Creek and brought
him to Los Angeles.
Since then the mother has been carry
ing on a diligent search for the boy,
and it was not until the middle OF July
that she learned of his whereabouts.
She came to Los Angeles, only to hnd
that Thomas had left his fathers home.
Father wanted me to stay In every
night and study two hours at a time,
said Thomas. 1T didn't make any diff
ference whether or not l had my les
sons perfectly. If couldn't do e. sum
in long division he and my stepmother
would call be a blockhead and say l
didn't want to learn. My stepmother
didn't care much whether / learned
anything or not; she just acted that
way out of meanness. Father whipped
me twice, once for playing hockey put
he was always telling me he was going
to punish me for something or other.
| Then Tom ran away to Pomona. He
prevailed on Mrs. Myra Myers of that
place to take him into her home, and
| she learning his fathers name, COM
municated with the latter.
'I telephoned the boys father" said
Mrs. Myers, but he said Tom had run
away and he didn't want him. He then
promised to come down next day, but
when he did come he refused to take
Tom back. The boy, he said, had cost
him $1,000 year for four years, and he
| threatened to send him to Whittier.
Tom begged his father to take him
back and wanted to kiss him, but the
father told him to get out of his sight.
Instructlng by Example
"Mr. Potter told me also that, while
| he did not want the boy himself, he
would spend his last dollar to prevent
Toms mother getting him. He said he
| had taken the boy into the worst place
he could find in Salt Lake City for the
purpose of showing him vice in its
| lowest forms, in order that ne might
steer clear of it.s
Tom told me his father and step
mother didn't like him and that he was
on the point of taking carbolic acid
when he left home. He had sold his
bicycle for 81, and his story was so
pitiful / took him into my home, de-
| termining to keep him until his own
| mother, to whom he said he had writ
| ten, could come from Colorado. l don't
! like stepmothers myself"
| Toms fear of his father appeared to
| be so great that he even called upon
Mayor Frank p. Fiery of Pomona and
| told him he believed his father was
going to run him out of the state. The
mayor telephoned the facts to Judge
James. who already had made an order
| for the boys appearance in court.
| Potter and the boys mother, now
Mrs. Emma Marshall, also told their
stories. Thomas bore up brayely, with
| out any evidence of emotion until the
court ordered him returned to the Gus
| tody of his mother. Then he rushed
into her arms with cry of gladness.
The two will return Immediately to
| Colorado.