The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-07-12
BOYS ONE ERROR.
Leland Lambert Didn't Mean to
Steal That Ford.
Intended to Take a Ride Out to
the Harvest Fields.
TELLS DREARY LIES STORY
All His Money Was Stolen on a
Visit to Topeka.
Looks Forward to an Education
at RefOrmatOry.
ELLIS DREARY LIES STORY

LELAND Lambert. an 1S-year-old
Farmer boy, son of a well-to-do Mis-
souri, farmer, today confessed to
crime for which the penalty is term
ia the state reformatory, a crime COM
nfttted because he followed the i'm
pulse of a moment.
sLambert is the boy who stole the
Ford belonging to Dr. w. H. Wedding
Monday morning and who was cap
tured in Dickinson county by the
sheriff of that county Monday after
noon. He was brought back to To-
peka by Harvey Parsons, chief of po-
lice and went through all the pre-
linninaries to a sentence today
He is just an ordinary country boy
away from home only once before
and then only for a week. He has
gone to school a little and worked
lot His father runs a threShing ma
chine and a sawmill near Browning,
Mo-, in addition to farming 200 acres
of Missouri land Their. has never
been a time when there was not plenty
to do around the Lambert place.
Last Friday the boy, who had been
running the engine at the sawmtll,
asked his father for money. There
was nothing doing. The boy wasn't of
age and he says the father didn't
think he needed any money. Saturday
noon the boy quit work and went to
the house. He told his mother he was
going to the harvest fields in western
Kansas and earn some money of his
own.
figure on getting there?" was asked.
To School i'll Topeka.
Il did have some money" he said.
Il sold a pig two weeks before for
SIS and Saturday 1 rode my wheel to
Browning and sold it to a cousin of
mine for $12. 1 bought ticket to
Kansas City and Sunday 1 bought a
ticket to Topeka"
i''Why to Topeka if you were going
to the harvest fieldS?"
The boy explained that he had cor
responded with the Santa Fe telegra pf
school here and INTENDED to stop and
find out about entering the school
later
After buying his ticket he still had
more than twenty dollars in a wallet
which was in his hip pocket. He went
to sleep on the train. He walked from
the Rock Island depot across to the
Chesterfield hotel and asked for &
room. 1t was then he discovered hi:
pocketbook and money were gone.
Lost His Money.
Il asked the clerk if he would trus
me for ROOM" said the boy, land h
said Certainly not. "
Lambert had no supper that eve
ming. He walked the streets al
through the lonely hours of the night
He knew no one. Once he sat dowI
in a doorway but saw a policeman
coming and walked again. In tn,
morning he had no breakfast.
1T was about o'clock" he said
when 1 saw a Ford car standing
by curb. Father has Ford and
know how to run it. 1 don't know
how 1 could do it. and 1 didn't thinl
of it's being stealing, but 1 jumped
into the car and drove away with II
! didn't intend to steal it. l though
] would drive it out into western
Kansas, where l could get work in TIL
harvest fields, write a note and leav
IT, telling where the car belonged an
leave it in the night. That's what
intended to do. 1 thought 1 would g
out around Scott City. A man VIII
worked for us once said there. wa
plenty of work out there during har
vest"
Lambert is one of several grow
children and he said none of ther
had ever been in trouble. He hest
tated long before consenting to havin
his parents notified.
Ready for Education.
.There is no USE" he SAID, "fathe
has told all of US boys that if we &c
into trouble Wen have to get out tn
best way we can. 1t would worry m
mother a lot 1 don't want her t
know 1 am in trouble. 1 wrote to he
from Kansas City and intended to Ii
her know where L was just as 500
as l found work"
The sheriff of Linn county, Missouri
was communicated with by Hugh Lal
inner, undersheriff. He gave the bo
good record around home. He state
that so far as he knew he had neve
been in trouble before. Today Lam
bert doesn't dread going to the RI
formatory.
'If they give boys an education o,
there like you say" he said, lit migl
be a good thing for me. I wouldn
get a chance to get any education
17or1e until a ftar 7 am