Runaways

The boys at Hotchkiss School (Lakeville, Conn.) trooped into their dining hall one night last fortnight and, after the sudden short hush for grace, fell to gobbling and talking in a cheery, noisy hum and clatter as usual. The polished brasses gleamed by the big fireplace over which a great white bust of Homer looks down his nose at the carven verse: Back of the Loaf is the snowy Flour, back of the Flour the Mill. Back of the Mill the Wheat and the Shower, the Sun and the Father's will. The boys gobbled and talked, and a master noted that two places were vacant. Down a back stair of West Dormitory and out onto the campus stole a tall gangling boy and a short, plump-cheeked boy--Henry Wetter Jr., 15, son of a Memphis, Tenn. stove manufacturer, and Phelps Newberry Jr., 15, son of a Detroit banker, grandson of onetime Senator and Secretary of the Navy Truman Handy Newberry. Apprehensively the two lugged five suitcases, noiselessly as possible lest some sharp-eared master hear and spring out to stop them. They were running away from school, out into the world where they would ship to sea as cabin boys! Wait until Hotchkiss heard about that! Students Wetter and Newberry were roommates. Student Newberry had some fame as a prankster. They were both tired of going out for sports under the hard-driving supervision of "Monnie" Monahan. However dignified and cultured ''The Duke" (Headmaster George Van Sant-voord) might be, they wanted no more of him. They were fed up with the classroom tyrannies. Besides, Students Wetter and Newberry were not doing well in their studies. With Students Wetter and Newberry roomed another boy: Henry Ford II, son of Edsel. They had told him their plan but he did not want to run away to sea. So they went alone, donning their loudest socks and most "collegiate" suits, taking between them $46 pocket money. They knew they would be missed at dinner, but once past the dining hall they were on their way to the railroad station by taxi. They persuaded the taximan they were students in good standing, entitled to a weekend but for reasons of their own leaving quietly. The taxi sped across the State line to Middleton, N. Y. The train pulled in and they clambered aboard. The whistle echoed excitingly through the dark hills. Phelps Newberry Jr. and Henry Wetter Jr. breathed easier when they reached Grand Central Station and found no policemen waiting for them. They went to a cheap Times Square hotel, the Bradley House, registered as "Norman Thompson" and "John Adams." Next day, clad in sweaters so they would not look too genteel, they traveled up & down the Hudson River waterfront as cocky and tough as could be. They walked what seemed like 30 miles but people did not seem to want cabin boys any more. Most of the sea captains chuckled roughly, told them to run along home. Nearest they came to getting jobs was when one line wanted mess boys. But they had to be British subjects. That night, Henry Wetter Jr. and Phelps Newberry Jr. visited dance halls. The dance hall people did not seem to realize they were Hotchkiss men. It cost 10-c- even for the briefest dance. You had to buy a lot of tickets at once, and there were funny charges for extra attention from the ''hostesses.'' Roommates Wetter and Newberry found their money dwindling. Next morning they tramped Sixth Avenue, looking in the cheap employment bureaus for jobs as dishwashers. There, too. they found nothing. Back at Hotchkiss the night they ran away Henry Ford II found a note when he returned to his room at 10 p. m.: "We know we've flunked and we're off to make our way in the world." Hotchkiss officials saw it. Meantime from Detroit, Banker Newberry had had a confidential police alarm sent out. The clerk in their hotel noticed the initials on the boys' bags did not correspond with the names they used, saw their pictures in the newspapers, and called the police. When a policeman came, Phelps Newberry attempted to bluff it out. but gave up after a while. They were arrested as wayward minors and held until their parents were notified. Soon a friend of Phelps Newberry Sr. called with an automobile and liveried chauffeur, to take Students Wetter and Newberry away with him until they could be sent to their respective homes.

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