New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1918-06-14
SHOWED HER life"
How City Police Captain Dealt
With Runaway Girl.
Brief Tour Sufficed to Make Her
Acquainted With New York, and
She Realized II Was Not All
That She Had Pictured.

How Minnie, tired of the prosaic life
In her little home town. ran away to
New York and how the New York po-
lice found her and returned her to her
'parents-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" Mlnnie'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 II picture Of modern
police methods rarely presented to the
public.
At half-past seven that same MORN
Ing, writes Miss Beckley, Minnie Bar
nell, lying awake and worried in a lit
tie room In an obscure New York hotel,
was an astonished girl when she heard
a sharp "%rat-tat-tat |" at her door and
a voice saying, Its all right, Minnie ;
I'm a friend with a message from
home" Minnie sat up and blinked.
A short white later she was looking
into the face of a stranger. mild Of
manner and kind Of eye. He was the
sort Of man Minnie had heard give
stereOpttcOn lectures in her home
church many a time-a man easy to
talk to. because you instinctively
trusted him and felt he would under
stand. Still-there vas a certain keen,
steady look In his brown eyes.
Minnie was angry. who are you.
anyhow she flung d%efiantly. "What
right have you to come herey"
my name is Willlams-Grant VIII.
liams. I'm from police headquarters"
Minnie's face flushed holly. You're
going to try to send me home" she
cried. swell, l won't go. You can
arrest me II you like, but l won't go
back. They've just sem for me out Of
meanness. Well. / Il be mean, too!
I've shaved 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 n chance
go with n musical show. I'm going
play the xylophone. l can carr
good money. l won't go home! And
what are you going to do about It."
SWELL" answered Williams, rubbing
his chin, II don't want to send you
home against your will. But your
mothers pretty sick. Suppose we have
ZONE breakfast first, and talk 1t over?
I'll wait for you downstairs"
After coffee and ham and eggs ut a
nearby restaurant, Minnie's sullen an
ger relaxed a little. She found herself
this man from headquarters
about her home and her work as ste
nOgrapher ut ten dollars a week, and
how tied down she was by reaso Of
her mothers invalidism and her ia
ther's %sternness. And how she longed
to see something"
Good! !" said Williams. "IIl show
you New York"
The girls eyes widened. The cap
ain slipped away a moment and wired
Jonas Barnell:
minnie found. Safe. Meet us at
Grand Central ut 4 p. m"
Then he started out with Minnie.
They rode on a street car to Battery
ark; visited the aquarium; walked up
he wOndrous canyon of Broadway;
Jaw Wall street and the stock ex-
and Trinity church dwarfed
lmOng the skyscrapers. They passed
he Singer tower and the Woodwork
building, the ancient post office and
he beautiful city hall. Newspaper
and the BOwery, dim and grim,
we're pointed Out-and Minnie forgot
Ter appointment with the musical show
manager.
With her unusual guide she took
mother street car that turned east on
Delaney street, revealing a seethlng
enement district the like Of which she
lad not pictured In her widest dreams.
he saw a single block where more peo-
lie lived than In her whole town. She
aw more poverty. o evidences of
.'rivatiOn and sorrow than she believed
sxisted In the world. let alone New
FORK, the city of millionaires.
They went uptown and took n dash
through Fifth avenue, skinned Forty
ecOnd street and glimpsed Broadway.
defiance had melted away. In
IS place IA the WEAKNESS of the
atisfled %sightseer. She declined posi-
lively to have luncheon. saying that
he preferred to have 1t on the train
ding home with her father.
Minnie was back home before mid
light, her mothers glad tears upon
er cheek, her shoulder warm from
er dads hard hug. She went to work
morning as usual. Her en-
lOyer never even knew she had been
way.
AT an expense Of exactly one dol
lr-breakfast and carfares," grinned
Williams, telling me the story
8 we sat I'm his office at headquarters,
Minnie Barnell was cured Of the
.session that made her wretched at
0mel It's amazing how easily the
uman mind unkinks itself as soon
s 1t has the least normal outlet. Min
lie wanted to see life New York
.epresented life to her"
With Time to Spare.