Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Harold Delmore, 4, from Livingston, Mont., embarked on an excellent adventure with the goal of seeing the “ocean and the ships.”

Unfortunately, he did so without parents or chaperones. He snuck onto a train at Livingston and then ran free, up and down the passenger cars.

The kid, in a Buster Brown suit and a bowl haircut, tweaked the noses of sleeping passengers and leaned too far out windows. The annoyed conductor decided to have a talk with his parents.

“Where’s your daddy, boy?” he asked.

Harold pointed to a sleeping passenger. The conductor woke up the startled passenger, who denied knowing the kid.

A lengthy interrogation ensued. Harold clammed up but finally admitted he had run away from Livingston. So Harold was escorted off the train in Spokane and taken to the juvenile detention home to await the arrival of his parents.

But Harold’s excellent adventure was not over.

He slipped out of juvenile detention and was found a few hours later, hanging out with a crowd of newsboys.

His parents planned to give him a good spanking when they arrived, but Harold said, “Pshaw, it won’t hurt long.”