The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1914-11-11
Strange Mental Condition of
Colorado Newspaper Man.
Mysteriously He Left Prosper
Gus Business and Happy Home.
|AS A WANDERING PRINTER
He Tramped Over Kansas Try.
ing to Find Himself.
Now He's Home, but Memory
Won't Come Back.

LYONS. KAN. Nov. u.-Walking out
Of his Office in the middle OF q busy
day, leaving his family. friends ana
fortune, and wandering through three
states in search of some one who would
identity him and tell him who he was
is the strange story Of Frank L. Finch.
q well known newspaper man or Little
ton, Colo, who under the name OF +.
S. O'Dell was employed last winter as
expert linotype operator In the Office
of the Lyons Republican.
Finch, the publisher of the Arapahoe
Herald at Littleton. Colo. walked OUT
of his office one day last September,
telling the force he would be back IN
minute" He left happy home with q
wife and two lovely children. host OF
friends, a prosperous business ana
bank account, and completely disap-
peared.
Nation Wide Search.
A nationwide search was made for
him, led by his brother. Clarence O.
Finch, publisher of the Julesburg
(Colo.) News. and the sedgewick
(Colo) Sun. and a prominent member
Of the Colorado legislature. Advertise
ments were inserted in the leading pa
pers throughout the country. Life size
pictures OF him filled the front page
of the Denver dalies. But no word
was heard from him.
ance in response to a query for limo
type operator addressed to a Great
Bend paper. F. s. O'Dell arrived in
Lyons and went to work in the Repub-
lican office. He was careful work.
man and a valuable man about the
office. He was well educated. He had
Travelled from the Atlantic to the Pa
cific, from Vancouver to Florida. from
Edmonton, Canada, to the Panama
zone. from the Hawaiian Islands to the
Holy Land, and many were the tales
that he told of his travels.
He had held lucrative positions with
such papers as the st. Louis Globe
pert for the Mergenthaler Linotype Co.
At one time, as special war correspond
ent for the Globe-Democrat, he had
sent one dispatch from the Boer war
upon which the cable cost was Ell 800
(British) or nearly $1,000. He had the
happy faculty of making friends and
many did he make in Lyons. Also. he
seemed to have a wonderful memory.
He recognized his landlady at Lyons.
Mrs. f. E Baron, as having known
her in a hotel at Concordia some
twenty years ago. Sheridan PlOughe.
an old newspaper man Of Hutchinson,
he recognized as having worked for at
one time. One day when the United
States marshal, Dave Leahy. came into
the office. O'Dell called to the foreman
and told him. That's Dave Leahy. I've
been with him many times Once
while in a reminiscent frame of mind
he told F. E. HOyt, business manager
Of the Republican. that he had walked
out of one office in Colorado and never
gone back, and added, "I'n do the same
thing here some time when the spell
comes on me. but like to work in the
Republican office and have been with
you longer than I am in the habit OF
staying anywhere
Memory Flashes.
On November 8, he spent a very
nervous day. Something seemed to be
troubling him, and it was known that
he called his brother-in-law, George
Fowler, wealthy restaurant man OF
Kansas City, over the phone. and
| wanted to know how it happened that
he was so far from home. He wanted
to meet Fowler and agreed to go to
Kansas City Immediately. Fowler
thoughtlessly told him that his little
daughter had died two weeks after he