The Mena weekly star., 1920-08-12
OPERATION SVED
 BOY FROM CRIME
zsnormal Mentality, Coupled With Rawer of Youth. Resulted in Acts Planned With Ingenuity and De-
 tail of Master Criminal.
fBy Tnternationai News servlco.l

eBy International News servicol
 Denver. Aug. 9.-Believed to have Asen saved from life of crime by the removal of part of an enlarged thyroid xlsnd in his throat, Maurice Alterson, Danyer's ten-year-old runaway" Is speedily recovering his physical strength and 1t is confidently hoped aF Avenile court officers, the mental zusse ordinarily developed in youths ag his age.
 Maurice has been considered in- aorrigible. and bis many escapades 1e4 Juvenile Court Judge Ben Lindsey ia direct an examination into his mentality in the belief that the boys habit of running away was due to some psychopathic cause rather than any inherent badness
 Mental experts declared that Maur- fre had the brain of a man past his mna3oriiy, despite his ten years.
 Maurice, the incorrigible, fell asleep nj Sa Joseph's hospital amid the daz- zing expanse of strange white. tables and the mystifying fumes of ether. When he awoke several hours later &is form of mentality had been re- &uced eleven years and the world has Aeen relieved of a potential master criminal, according to the medical ex- ports
 Previous to the operation Matrices menty-one-year-old mentality, co-ordi- aRted by the judgment and will power mf boy of ten years, resulted in his getting into all sorts of trouble. The mischief that he perpetrated, guided NA.sa ala frA xxrar nf knckfve than any that could be devised Ay an ordinary boy.
 Young Alterson is motherless. His father. New York Hebrew, came to Denver seeking health. He placed Maurice in a home as the only means af having him cared for and having Ais wild tendencies curbed.
 Running away was Maurice's chief accomplishment. and he effected his escapes in every case with a fineness and intricacy of detail that made his apprehension almost impossible and which showed him to be calculating and extremely accurate thinker.
 Several weeks ago Maurice attract sd much attention when, after one of Afs numerous escapes from the deten- eion home, he was caught in Texas and brought back to Denver. Tais eas his sixth escape in as many months. When captured, Maurice was EDnnd to have made a map of his pro posed travels, including routes from Denver to Fort Worth and El Paso, Tex. and to Los Angeles Cal, and various sections of Montana. After a taste of the ''wild and woollyv Mau- rice planned to go to New York City. Several veteran railroad men pro- anunced this man one of the finest zsute maps that they ever saw, de- @laring that an experienced railroad man. travelling the same route, could ARrdly improve upon Matrices work. The map was made entirely from knowledge found in railroad time kahles.
 if was this map that prompted Judge Lindsey in having an examina- kion of the boy made by medical ex- aerts, who later declared that he had A mentality eleven years in advance af his physical age Following the op- aration for the removal of part of zae enlarged gland, 1t was announced that the over-deyelopment of this gland was responsible for the boys mantality maturing out of all propor- k6an to his moral and physical being. H Is said that the operation was en- ksreIy successful, and it is expected that in the future Maurice will be just Rn ordinary youngster with young ster's capacity for mischief, without the desire to be a runaway"