The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1918-06-21
SHOWED IIII||I 1 HER life"
How City Police Captain Dealt
With Runaway Girl.
Brief Tour Sufficed to Make Her
Acquainted With New York, and
She Realized It Was Not All
That She Had Pictured.

How Minnie, tired of the prOsaiC Ire
In her little home town. ran away to
New York and how the New York po-
lice found her and returned her to her
Darents--is one of the Incidents de-
scribed by Zoe Beckley in an article in
the Peoples Home Journal on "New
York--the Port OF Missing Girls and
Boys" Minn;e's parents had wired
the New York police, and Capt. Grant
Williams of the missing persons bu
reau, by methods the police keep Sc
cret, had located Minnie. The rest of
the incident gives Il picture of modern
police methods rarely presented to the
public.
At half-past seven that same morn
ing. writes Miss BccIllcy, Minnie Bar
nell, lying awake and worried in "a lit
tie room in an obscure New York hotel,
was an nstonished girl when she heard
sharp 'rat-tat-tat!" at her door and
voice saying, ITS all right, Minnie;
I'm friend with II message from
homc.' Minnie sat up and blinkcd.
A short white later she was looking
into, the face of stranger, mild of
sort of man Minnie had heard give
stereopticon lectures in her home
church many Il tme-a man easy to
talk to, because you instinctively
trusted him and felt he would under
stand. Still--there was a certain keen,
steady look in his brown eyes.
Minnie was angry. "Who are you,
Il Iot
right have YOU to come hereY'
my name is Wiliams-Grant Will
llams. I'm from police headquarters"
Minnie's face flushed hotly. you're
going to try to send me home!" she
cried. "Well, won't go. You can
arrest me II you like, but won't go
back. They've just sent for me out Of
mennhess. Well, | can he mean, too
I've slayed all I'm going TO. I've never
seen anything or been anywhere or
done anything in my life but work and
slave and sit home. Now I've chance
| tO gn with IL musical show I'm going
to play the XylOphone. I can earn
! good money. ! won't go home! And
what are you going to do about it?"
"WelI," answered Williams, rubbing
his chin. II don't want to send you
home against your will. But your
mothers pretty sick. Suppose we have
some breakfast first, and talk it over?
Ill wait for you downstairs"
After coffee and ham and eggs at n
nearby restaurant. Minnics sullen an
ger relaxed little. She found herself
telling This man from headquarters
about her home and her work as ste
nOgrnphpr Mt ten dollars n week, and
how tied down she was by reason of
her mothers invalidism and her IA
theirs sternness. And how she longed
ITO see something"
.Good"' said Williams. "Tll show
you New York"
The girls eyes widened. The cap
tain slipped away moment and wired
Jonas Barnell:
minnie found. Safe. Meet us at
Grand Central 1T p. M
Then he started out with Minnie.
They rode on II street car to Battery
park; visited the aquarium; walked up
The WondrOus canyon of Broadway (;
saw Wall street and the stock eX-
change, and Trinity church dwarfed
among the skyscrapcrs. They passed
the Singer tower and the Woolworth
building, the ancient post Office and
the beautiful city hall. Newspaper
row and the Bowery, dim and grim,
were pointed Out--and Minnie forgot
her appointment with the musical show
manager.
With her unusual guide she took
another street car that turned east on
Delaney street, revealing secthng
tenement district the like OF which she
had not pictured in her widest dreams
She saw single block where more peo-
pie lived than In her whole town. She
saw more poverty, more evidences of
priyation and sorrow than she believed
existed in the world, lei alone New
York, the city of millionaires.
They went uptown and took n dash
through Fifth avenue, SKINNED Forty
second street and glimpsed Broadway
Minnie's defiance had melted away. IN
its place was the wcarincss of the
satisfied sightsecr. She declined posi-
lively to have luncheon, saying thai
she preferred to have II on the train
going home with her father.
Minnie wns back home before mid
night, her mothers glad tears upon
her cheek, her shoulder warm from
her dads hard hug. She went to work
Monday morning as usual. Her em
ployer never even knew she had beer
away.
AT an expense of exactly one dol
: lar--breakfast and cnrfares.' grlnnet
Captain Williams, telling me the stcr!
MS we sat in his Office at headquarters
"Minnie Bnrnell was cured of th,
obsessiop that mace her wretched a
home! It's amazing how easily tl,'
human mind unkinks itself us sooi
rs /, has the least normal outlet. Min
Q ME wanted 10 sec life New YOrl
Z represented life TO her.