LONG, HARD STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE ENDS.
Morgan Thomas, a Physical Wreck, Seeks Shelter at Police Station.
A long, hard struggle for independence existence apparently ended last night. Morgan S. Thomas, a physical wreck since an explosion in a Sapulpa, Ok., coal mine years ago, adn for ten years a peddler of shoe strings, lost his home. Thomas went to the Walnut street police station at 9 o'clock. He asked to be locked up for the night and intimated that the poor house must be his shelter for the future.
Nearly everybody in Kansas City no doubt has seen Thomas standing on some corner, his head bent by paralysis, his right hand outstretched with his handful of shoe strings. he never ws known to beg and when a nickel or dime was dropped into his hat he invariably counted out the correct number of strings. So while beggars fattened on charity, Thomas was obliged to live on little or nothing, lodging at night with Owen Mallarky, a poverty stricken laborer, at Seventeenth and Campbell streets.
Mullarky donated the roof and bought provender when he had a job. He had health and two hands, so he was willing to do all he could. Lately, however, his health has been poor. He has lost his job. Yesterday he gave up trying to make both ends meet for Thomas and himself.
When Thomas went "home" at 6 o'clock he found the door locked and Mullarky gone. He took the hint.
The police said they would recommend Thomas to the county court today as deserving a home at the public expense.
