St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1909-05-29
r BOY WHO
RAN AWAY
a story That Turned Out
the Other Way.

more.
Anyhow, he figured it that his folks,
namely his father and mother, were
handing it out to him pretty hard.
They declined to permit him to play
with the gang. They interfered with
him in lots of ways.
Consequently, after giving the mat.
ter due and proper thought the boy
decided that there was but M thing
for him to do, and that was to run
away.
Away from home, he felt he would
be able to indulge in his natural pro
pensities without let or hindrance.
Now, his most natural propensity,
as it seemed to him, was for the
robbing of trains-far western trains.
The boy had a profound feeling that
he was modelled, cut out, fashioned,
devised and intended by nature to be
the greatest robber of trains that ever
crawled over the tender of an engine
and put the engineer and fireman I'M
der a sawed off shotgun filed with
slugs.
He felt, too, that his folks would be
liable to thwart such an ambition on
his part were he to mention it to
them.
He figured, therefore, that in view
Of these considerations the only prop
er thing for him to do was to get his
few things together and beat 1t. He
had read many pieces Of fction-all
of the fiction, however, as he under.
stood, founded upon fact-which re-
lated how famous train robbers had
| started OF upon their distinguished
careers by running away from home
Just as he meant TO do, and HON some
thing always turned up pretty 0 to
put them iR a way OF achieving Q
mastery Of their chosen profession.
And SO the boy, working very So
cretly and deliberately, gathered to-
gether all his little possessions and
wrapped them up in 4 big silk NUT
der belonging to his father. There
wasn't much to be packed in the NUT.
Ter, but still he didn't elect to leave
his few little possessions behind, since
he was very certain that he would not
return to his boyhood home for many,
many years, il ever.
1t was a beautiful moonlit night
when he decided to make the jump.
He went to bed, or pretended to go to
bed, and waited for his parents and
groWn4up brothers and sisters to turn
in. Then with his little bundle slung
oyer his shoulder at the end of q stout
stick he softly stole down the stairs.
opened the front door n~oiseIessly, tip
toed out after closing the door, and,
reaching the front gate. turned to a
as he felt, upon the home of his youth
for the last, last time.
He made directly for the freight
depot at the other end of the town,
his idea being that, as he had often
read in connection with other runaway
heroes, he might be able to catch an
outgoing freight train. As there
wasn't any outgoing freight train that
night, daylight found him still hang
ing around the freight yard.
By this time he was pretty hungry.
and he thought of the usual ham and
eggs and hot mullins and things that
he'd been accustomed to eat for break
fast Somehow In the clear. sunny
light of morning it looked a heap more
difficult to get a start as a train rob
Der then It had seemed while he was
planning the great expedition. He
stood and watched the freight hands
making themselves some coffee on a
little stove in a signaling shack. and
his hunger became something fierce.
end be thought Of the nice clean table
cloth and
However, just a minute. Just n
minute.
Here is the spot where It is Gus.
tomary TO get in swift climacttc &C
ton.
It Is the usual thing to narrate how
the hungry WouId-be runaway boy who
hankeFed to be a train robber az.
Fled out In his desire as he thought
about the home grub. and how he be-
gan to Whlmper around tne freight
yard, and how two or three kindly.
grizzled freight yard hands asked him
what was chewin' on him, and how
they fRally got his story out OF him.
and how they sympathetically advised
him to beat It for home and paw and
NAV Just as fast as he could 70. and
how he, of course. hated TO go home,
because he didn't know how he was
going to square things for having re-.
manned out all night, but how, event
aally, he became so dad-bIasted hun
CRY that he had to Just nachully aban-
don all thought of becoming q train
robber, and how he skunk into the al
ley back Of his home after dark, and
how he got nailed by his dad as he
tried to nudge through the kitchen
door. and how his dad got out the old
trunk strap and whaIed him good and
and how that e~ternaIly killed
his ambition to become a train robber,
and
Well, and all Ike hathaway, q lot
Of It. always and infallibly Just ike
that.
But it didn't break that way 1t
all
This boy caught b freight right ont
Of town on the morning following his
running away from home, and after
some vicissitudes he finally fell in
the famous Bill Dalton gang, and
be became a ~fullfedged train robber
and a mighty dangerous specimen, and
after seven or eight years OF robbing
trains he was finally ~corralled some
where in the Panhandle Of Texas and