This delightful slice of life from the early days of the automobile appeared on page 10 of the Minneapolis Morning Tribune.

Baby and His Cart
Puts Traffic in Maze

Three-Year-Old Boy in Mid-
dle of Street at Seventh
and Hennepin.

Everybody but the Policeman
Sees Him, and There’s a
Reason for That.

Waif So Small the Traffic
Man Almost Stepped on
Him Unawares.

 
A little 3-year-old boy, with a two-wheeled cart with red and black trimmings, held up traffic at Seventh street and Hennepin avenue yesterday, and tied up street cars and switched automobiles into a double line that couldn’t get past the corner.
 
Then he was taken up by the traffic policeman, turned over to another and turned loose in the corridor of the Central station jail, where he played horse with his cart, running up and down the tiled floor to the encouraging cheers of a score of prisoners waiting to be taken to the workhouse.
 
 
  The runaway boy wore a decidedly guilty expression.
When they left to go up the river they waved farewells to the child.
 
Almost Stepped on Him.
 
Patrolman Murray, stationed at Seventh street and Hennepin avenue, had blown his whistle for two automobiles to go out Hennepin avenue. The automobilists started, then stopped. Murray beckoned impatiently to them and called to them to hurry. He blew his whistle. The autos didn’t move an inch. A street car stopped.
 
Murray couldn’t understand why they stopped. He blew on his whistle for the traffic on Seventh street to pass. It started. One auto got across. The next got half way and stuck in a line of wagons, street cars and autos. The policeman’s whistle blew again and again.
 
“Say, untangle this mess and get that kid away,” shouted one autoist to Murray, backing out to the line.
 
“What kid?” asked the policeman.
 
“The one behind you.”
 
There Was the Cause.
 
Murray turned. A brown-eyed boy in blue rompers and a red sweater stood behind him right in the street where a street car passes every 45 seconds and scores of autos weave in and out.
 
Murray picked him up in his arms, took hold of the cart and went to the curbing. He put the boy down and told him to wait for him. He went back to the corner and untangled the lines of traffic and sent them on their way. Patrolman Brennan appeared. Murray took him over to the boy. Brennan took him to the police matron.
 
J. Skall, who manages a store at 110 Hennepin avenue, claimed the boy as his son yesterday afternoon. He said the lad had run away from the store wheeling the cart.