Arizona republican., 1910-09-02
CLARENCE HENDRICKS
 IN ROLE OF HOBO
HE HAD A SHORT BUT LIVELY EXPERIENCE, AND UNINTEN- OF TROUBLE FOR HIS
 FRIENDS.
A Way ward Hobo Friend is Also
 Jailed no a Serious Charge.

1 An Fl Paso Dispatch to the Los | Angeles Times says the friends ot Clarence Hendricks. late of Phoenix | fear that he has been a victim of | foul play while en route from here | to his former home in Tennessee The facts are that there has been foul play all right but it is of a financial character and it is the friends of Hendricks who are the
 victims Hendricks is innocent of
 any wrong doing. except the follow
 ing of his own bad judgment. which
 has given him a lasts of the seamy
 side of life that may be good for him in the long run. But hls actions in unsucccssfully adopting d hobo career for few days threw a tempt ing bait to another lad who could not help but swallow it and is now in jail at Dalhart, Texas. charged by the federal authorities with rob ping the mail
 Clarence Hendricks is the brother of the wife of Nealy A. Pennington of this city and has been living with the Pennington family here for some time, MT Pennington being a rail way postal clerk. Recently Hendricks got the idea that he wanted to re- turn to his old home in tennessee. He is hardly more than a boy and inexperienced, but he thought his slender purse would take care of necessities while he used his wits to settle the matter of transporta- ton with the railroads. He made it all right as far as Tucson where he fell in with another lad about his own age who was more experienced in the arts of the hobo and more blunted in his ideas of right and wrong From what followed it is evident that Hendricks made a full confidant of his originating friend.
 Somewhere between Phoenix and Fl Paso. or while waiting in that city, Hendricks grew tired of riding the rods and wrote to Pennington for S4O which in due time was sent to him in Fl Paso Hendricks never received it but one day his hobo friend told him he had made raise and gave him & advising him to press onward toward Tennessee.
 On August 20 the hobo left for warding order in the Fl Paso office directing that Hendricks mail be sent to Dalhart. Texas. as the next stop. expecting all the time to get letter from Pennington.
 A few days later Pennington re ceived another letter assumed to be from Hendricks and asking that money be sent to him a; Dalhart. This letter was written in a scrawl and recited that the pencil was held in the left hand owing to the fact that he had injured his right hand in riding q brake beam on a train. Pennington being in doubt about the letter communicated with the boys friends in Tennessee as to the ad- visibility of sending more money and learned at once that young Hen dricks had reached there safe and sound and had not received the $40 sent to Fl Paso, Texas.
 The play was then very clear. In sending the check to Fl Paso Pen nington had waived identification thinking tC make it easy for his brOthNr-in-law. The hobo companion having doubtless been told by Hen dricks that he had sent for money. got Hendricks mail, cashed the check and the .S7 paid to Hendricks was d small part of the proceeds. Having sent Hendricks on to Dalhart and finding Pennington easy money, the hobo then devised the left handed letter telling that story to account for the unnatural penmanship. A number of letters, telegram and a package were delivered to the hobo at Fl Paso when he called for Hen dricks' mail.
 The postmaster at Dalhart was wired to arrest the hobo when he called for Hendricks mail there and has done SO Pennington is en route to Dalhart to inform the government officials of what he knows about the case. And the experience of young Hendricks. which was not pleasant one and made a lot of trouble for his friends as well as himself. has doubtless taught him a lesson that will be worth a good deal more than $40 to him in the end.