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Show POLICE PLACE YOUNG HERMIT IN INSTITUTION Free, Easy Life Ends For Johnny X, Lonely S. L Youth Johnny X feels like a Robinson Crusoe on the desert Island of modern society. Only 14 years old, he likes to shift for himself, living off whatever what-ever fruits are in season in somebody's some-body's Ice box and stalking any game on th wing on back porches. He builds himself a hut under the stars and prefers to have no man Friday monkeying around. In pleassnt weather he'll sleep back of signboards. Once he built himself him-self a house on top of a building, coming and going by means of an adjacent telephone pole, as if he sought haven from th savages of th city's wilderness. ' loI!eInterfer The only trouble with this free and easy life is that the police are always Interfering. They've picked him up many times In the last two or three years, and only last September Sep-tember he was paroled from the Industrial school at Ogden. He was supposed to go to his father In Los Angeles, but that didn't last long. H soon was back at his old haunts. On occasion, he comes out of his seclusion long enough to do a little quiet panhandling, but he prefers pre-fers the solitary life. "I'll get along," he says, with wise eyes too wise for his years, eyes that should be laughing over boys' games instead of calculating how he's going to eat. Slipped Off Trala One time he was arrested In Pocatello and was placed under charge of the conductor to be returned re-turned to Salt Lake City, but he gav him the slip and dropped off the train between Salt Lake City and Ogden. On rainy nights, If he can bum a couple of nickels on the street, he will seek the shelter of a movie. If he can't bum anything, he'll try to snesk In. .If he can't sneak In well, there's always a handy signboard. But Johnny X- Isn't roaming the streets today. The police got him again and they took him to the boys' detention home Wednesday. A little confining for this freedom-loving freedom-loving lad, but at least he's out of the cold and rain and he can stick his feet tinder a well laden table. He might even make friends. If he gels back In the habit of talking. |