BLACK HAND LETTER A JOKE.
Boy Wanted to Keep Father Home
for Dinner July 4.
Dr. E. R. Tenney, police surgeon of Kansas City, Kas., yesterday received a letter purporting to come form the "Black Hand" Society. Unlike the ordinary threatening letters, no demand was made for money . The letter was mailed in Kansas City, Kas., and was signed with the regulation black hand and gruesome skull and crossbones. After warning the police surgeon of the dreadful fate in store for him in the event of his failure to observe the wishes of the society, he was commanded to stay at his home during the entire day of July 4, and on no occasion to venture outside of his own yard.
After consulting with the chief of police, Dr. Tenney concluded that the letter was meant as a practical joke. Later in the day it developed that the letter had been written by his son, Clifford, 11 years old. The boy had planned for a Fourth of July dinner to be given as a surprise for his father. Fearing from a conversation which he overheard that his father would not be at home, Clifford adopted heroic methods in an effort to detain him. Dr. Tenney will eat dinner at home on July 4.
