The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-07-23
Boy LeaUes Home; Mother
 Seeking to Locate Him
By MIGNON HALL

is Just crying fer you
 Ever since you went away from home and didn't even say EOodby tho whole world has gone bInck for her. Her heart is just breaking.
 She sits and vFOrriess and she goes to the door a hundred times . day to see if you are coming. She tells the other children that maybe yOu'u he in tomOrrowJ and her thoughts and her prayers are rushing after You--f0IlOwing---4OlI you ali over the vOrId.
 Why don't you come bacIkf
 She Is praying that nothing may happen to you. For you know a A. year old boy might get sick, and she wouldn't be there to nurse you. You might even die-and strangers never can give you a mothers and fathers care. /
 Afraid for You
 She is so afraid, too. you might fall into bad company. Some boys your age have been led to do things that have wrecked their whole lives.
 
 boy. She loves you because you are. But how easy 1t Is to make aoquaint- ances that might not be the right sort!
 The house is so lonesome without your whistling. The girls miss you and your dog. Gee, you know how 1t Is when somebody's gonel And things can't so as well with you away. It makes 1t harder on others, too, because you always did your 1hare around the dairy.
 Lots of things have happened since you left. There would be so much to talk about if you came back! Aren't you homesick. too, for the big old woods and the trees and the birds singing at Edgewood? And nights so fine at home! Land, there aren't many better places to live, even if shrimp fishing in other states does sound like it was lots more fun.
 The last time you were seen was in Birmingham with the hired man, Jim Loung. But If he persuaded you to go off, or you thought by hear ing him talk inst the world was so much grander elsewhere, lots of folks who have tried 1t will tell you it has a great many more hard, cruel knocks for you than 1t ever has love.
 Hard on Little Mother
 Your mother wants you to see things and have advantages. But isn't it cruel to ask her to do with out seeing or even knowing where your are? Why. she nursed you. had all the care of you when you were
 YAw AE nv~ln 4 over you when you hurt yourseifi
 You couldn't mistreat her now, could you?
 And do you know what she's doncf Sick as she is--and you know how frightfully sick she has been--asld so frail and thin, she took the train and went all down Into Florida, hoping hoping she might run across you there. She didn't know whether she would find you alone or with the hired man who quit the dairy the day previous to your leaving at night. She walked and walked and walked until her feet were sore-and her body so weary!
 The man has dark hair. brown eyes, Is six feet or more tall. thin faced and wears blue overalls, He appears very much preoccupied. and some times when 8 person speaks to him, he doesn't speak. He talks like foreigner and said he had served in the Canadian army. His description has been turned over to authorities so that if he knows any thing about you, something can be learned to make poor little mother bit happier.
 She talks about you all the time your straightforward way of talk ing and acting; says at was unlike you to run away. Every minute she can see your brown eyes, your sun burned, sandy hair, your little boy ish figure that made you look like you weren't more than 12 years old, and every one of the thousand freckles.
 Just Thoughtless
 She isn't afraid you can't get q job. You were always a good worker. There are mighty few people who wouldn't hire you if they needed a boy. But don't you think there is priettier nicer way to go7 God says children should love and con slider their parents.
 But os course it was just thought lessnessi You didn't really mean 10 hurt anybody, did you7 So won't you stop doing itY Won't you sit down this minute and write to your mother. Mrs William J. Mathis, Route 8. box 69. Birmingham, Ala, and tell her you are sorry and that you're coming right on back as fast as the train or your legs will bring you? Later. when you get to be a man, the old world will be out there