DASTARDLY DADS FROM THE ARCHIVES (New York, New York - 1908)

This posting is a prequel to the one below. Nothing like a historical mystery to get the old juices going.

This particular article explains the "struggle" at Grand Central Station (eluded to in the post that follows) in a little more detail. Even one hundred years later, we can really feel this 11-year-old boy's panic and fear as he realizes that he's going to be returned to his custodial father, HENRY RUSSELL DROWNE, after running away from boarding school and contacting his mother. It's as if this boy were defending his very life. It really is heart wrenching--despite the sometimes flippant tone of the Times reporter. If anything, this article makes it very clear what a bullying jerk this father really was.

Notice that just six weeks after getting legal guardianship, this father had shipped this boy off to boarding school in Massachusetts and cut off all communication between the child and his mother. Not surprisingly, he didn't even have the courtesy of informing her of his decision before hand. Just like today, this custodial dad was obviously more interested in hurting the mother than raising a child.

Unfortunately, lawyers, judges, and the courts still collaborate with abusive dads to separate mothers and children in this way. And yet we still have children and mothers who resist.

I for one have nothing but admiration for this boy's tenacity in making his escape and trying to get free. And what a helluva great adventure story.

From the New York Times, February 12, 1908.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9B06E3D8173EE233A25751C1A9649C946997D6CF

STRUGGLE OVER BOY STIRS GRAND CENTRAL

Separated Parents of Russell Drowne, School Runaway, War Over Him in Crowd.

CHILD CLINGS TO MOTHER.

But Father, with the Court Back of Him, Wins--Boy Forced Into Cab and Taken Away.

Another exciting chapter was added yesterday afternoon to the volume of troubles which Mr. and Mrs. Henry Russell Drowne, formerly of 145 West Thirty-sixth street, have had over the custody of their 11-year-old Russell.

Since the couple has separated the boy has been given to the custody of his father. For a time yesterday's meeting was so lively that it looked as if it would not stop short of an encounter with the father, mother, boy, and a lawyer as principals.

The trouble occurred in the Grand Central station in the presence of hundreds of hurrying passengers. Just as Mrs. Drowne came through the gate from a New Haven train with the boy she was startled by a strange man stepping forward and latching him by the arm.

"I want this boy," said this man, attempting to pull him away from Mrs. Drowne. There was a short, sharp struggle in which the mother came off victor chiefly because little Russell valiantly fought off the man and clung desparately to his mother's protective arms.

At that moment, Mr. Drowne ran up to the group and demanded that Mrs. Drowne instantly surrender the boy to him. Hurrying passengers halted, and within a brief two minutes the four figures were in the centre of a throng.

"This is no place to create a scene," said Mrs. Drowne, "but at any cost I am determined to protect my boy."

At the suggestion of several station guards and gatemen the controversy was stopped temporarily, and Mrs. Drowne, with the boy still clinging to her, led the way to the women's room in the station. When the father and the man accompanying him were halted the controversy was renewed.

"If you will call a cab so that Russell may be properly protected, I will surrender him to you," Mrs. Drowne finally told the father.

Boy Fought Desperately.

"A car is plenty good enough for him," was the response.

But in the end Mrs. Drowne was triumphant and the party went outside. There the boy struggled and fought with a vigor beyond his years to escape his father. With fire in his eyes he struck out right and left and kicked and shouted vigorously. One of his fists landed on the lawyer's face and sent his glasses flying.

At that the struggling boy was picked up bodily and dumped in the cab. An instant later Drowne and his lawyer were in with him. The door slammed and the cab was driven away rapidly to the Drowne home in West Thirty-sixth street.

Mrs. Drowne was bringing the boy back from Natick, Mass. About six weeks ago Mr. Drowne was appointed legal guardian for the boy. Mrs. Drowne did not object seriously to this arrangement, so long as little Russell was kept at the father's home in Thirty-sixth street and she was permitted to see him at regular intervals.

Mrs. Drowne says that the boy was suffering from valvular trouble of the heart, and the family physician had advised that he be kept as quiet as possible and that she had so advised Mr. Drowne. But about two weeks ago, Mr. Drowne, without saying anything to the mother, sent the boy off to a boarding school at Newton, Mass. Mrs. Drowne says the boy was not allowed to communicate with her after that.

Little Russell became homesick and decided to run away from the school. During the last few days he braved many hardships to get back to New York and his mother.

Only two days after he reached the school he made a determined effort to run away, but was caught by one of the professors and taken back and his father notified. Drowne directed that a close watch be kept on the boy.

On Monday afternoon while all of the boys were coasting on a hill near the school, Russell saw his chance to escape. With Harold Harper of Boston, a chum, he coasted down the long hill, and then together they cut away and ran. They were gone for an hour before they were missed.

Runaways Trudged On.

The boys trudged along the railroad track toward New York. Finally the darkness came on, and they looked for some place to sleep. Cold and hungry, they spied a farmhouse at last and went up to it. They begged for food and permission to sleep in the barn. They were turned away without even a scrap of bread. They returned to the track again and plodded along pluckily until they saw the lights of a village in the distance. This gave them renewed courage, and they hurried on. Arriving at the village they found it was Natick, Mass., seventeen miles from where they had started. The first house they found had an inviting light, and it proved to be a telephone station. They told their troubles to the man in charge and asked his assistance.

"If you will only telephone to my mamma in New York she will pay for your trouble," said little Russell. The man shared his supper with them while he heard the account of their runaway. He called Mrs. Drowne on the long-distance telephone, and she directed that the boys be sent to a hotel and properly cared for.

"As soon as I got off the telephone message I knew that my boy wanted me, and I hastened to him," said Mrs. Drowne last night. "I hastened to the Grand Central Station, where I caught a midnight train for Framington and took a trolley for Natick. Russell and his friend were waiting for me. Poor boys! There was no hotel in the town, and they were compelled to sleep with their clothes on on a bench in the room where the telephone operator was, and they were pretty well worn out.

"Russell was overjoyed to see me, and I could see that he had suffered greatly. I talked to him and got him as quiet as possible, then suggested that I take him back to the school, but he insisted on coming to New York with me and I finally gave in. The little Harper boy wanted to come too, but of course, I would not let him. So I telephoned his father in Boston to come get him, which he did, and I put Russell on the train and brought him to New York.

Counsel for Drowne in Newark yesterday made application to Vice Chancellor Stevens to vacate the bond which the father gave some time ago to produce his son in court whenever he might be wanted, the understanding that his mother should be able to see her child at stated intervals. About six weeks ago, however, Drowne got an order from Judge Thomas, in the Surrogates Court here, placing the boy in his custody, and he seeks to be relieved of his responsibility to the New Jersey Court. The case will be argued in Newark in two weeks.