OCR Text |
Show FATHER AND SON TO MEET AFTER Ml' YEARS i EACH HAD BELIEVED THE OTHER WAS DEAD. Perusal of Chicago Paper Mentioning Boy's Name to Result n v Happy Reunion. , .San Francisco, May 17. By the perusal of a Chicago newspaper three weeks old, which had been carelessly thrown aside in the Alia hotel of this city, J. H. Thornton, cousin of Chas. H. Thornton, who was cVporation counsel during Carter Harrison's first term as. mayor of Chicago, has found his only child. and James Leslie Thornton of Chicago, who has believed believ-ed himself fatherless, has found his father. They have not 6een each other oth-er since 1893, when the son was only five years old. In 1892. Thornton, according to his I story, was granted a divorce and the j custody of the boy whom he put in charge of his grandmother. Thoru-! Thoru-! ton then became chef of Hankins Brothers' gambling house and later, with the opening of the World's Fair, he occupied the same position with the White Horse Inn. According to the atory told here by Thornton, it was at this time that his visits to his son became few on account of the nature of his work, and he asserts that between two of his visits, the grandmother died and his divorced wife took possession of his son. The father then began a five years' search for his son, but finally gave up in despair, de-spair, and came west where he has wandered from camp to camp in the mining districts of the Pacific coast. On his return to this city a short time ago, he picked up a Chicago paper pa-per which contained a Yline, 111.. 'dispatch in which it was stated that in a conteet for the estate of an older old-er sister of Thornton's former wife, the son was one of the heirs. ' ' Thornton enclosed the clippiug, with a request to the chief of police of Chicago to locate his lost son, and In reply, he received a message from tho boy himself who expressed, a wish to meet his . father. The happy fther will leave at once for Chicago to meet his eon. |