A Runaway's Return
A Parkland father reunites with his son after spotting his face in a newspaper report about a train sabotage arrest in Ballard.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Reports from Seattle yesterday gave an account of three young loggers arrested at Ballard for throwing a switch on the Great Northern tracks before an incoming train was due. The young fellows had fought with a section foreman and his crew near Interbay and it is supposed they opened the switch for revenge. Among them was 16-year-old Matthew Noren, whose parents reside at Parkland. Last November, Matthew ran away from home, coming to Tacoma, after which no trace of him could be found. Yesterday, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer published an account of the arrest and the boy's picture, which happened to fall into the hands of the father at Parkland. He brought the clipping to police headquarters this morning to confirm he had finally found his boy, and left on the interurban train for Ballard.
“The father... brought the clipping to the police headquarters this morning to let them know that he had at last found his boy.”
Before the digital age, a runaway child’s fate often rested on the chance of a newspaper photo crossing a parent's path. This story highlights the precarious life of teenage migrants in the Pacific Northwest at the turn of the century.
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