(This Footnote to History article was printed on page 1 in the December 18, 1949 edition of the Akron Beacon Journal, and is reprinted word-for-word below.)

FIND BOY WHO TOOK TEACHER’S ORDERS

Don’t Come Back—He Didn’t!

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Nine-year-old Philip Cook, who ran away from home because he couldn’t find a schoolbook, was found safe late yesterday in a public library.

He readily admitted his identity to police who had been scouring the city for the child since he was reported missing late Thursday.

Philip said he “knew everyone was looking for me,” but that he stayed away from home because he feared his father would punish him for losing the hook.

The father, Floyd Cook, said it was just a “silly notion.”

WHEN PHILIP failed to return home Thursday. Cook learned that a teacher at the parochial school where the boy attends fourth grade told Philip:

“Don’t you come back until you bring your book.”

The boy told officers he spent two nights in the closet of an apartment building almost directly across the street from his own North Minneapolis home.

“I stayed there because it was warm,” he said. “No one noticed me.”

Saturday, he told police, he went, downtown to the restaurant where his mother works as a waitress.

“I waited for her to come out,” he said, “but she didn’t come. So I went to the library to keep warm “

The weather, mild for the past 48 hours, began turning colder Saturday. The temperature was in the high 20’s.

A policeman found Philip in the library on his routine rounds. He took the boy to headquarters whole the family was united.

Both parents embraced Philip warmly and Mrs. Cook cried.

“Don’t you ever do that again, honey,” she said.