Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1858-08-31
From the N Y. Tribune, Goth aug
A Singular Disappearance.

One OF those painful and mysterious incloeIG
which occasionally occur ir large cities, anu D,
comparison make fiction tame, occurred mere
bout month since, and as yet the strlctest solu
tiny and the most anxious search excited Dy th'
hope of reward on the one hand, and lmpehe'
on the other by the warmest family aiiectloh
have been unable to lay hold upon the slightes
clue to its solution. The case has been referred
to in one or two of our morning contemporaries
but with want of careful detail, and an apsenc
of names which tail to attract to it that attention
which might possibly lead TO some discovery
hope for which alone can render to those con
cerned q publication OF the facts at all deslraole
We will supply this omission in the hope throug
such means the cause of public safety may
served, and some aid be rendered to oereaVe
family who mourn now for one lost as wllhou
hope.
Many Of our readers will probably rememoe
Col. Crane of the United States Army, VINO, wv
or three years since was in command OF Tue gar
rison at Old Point Comfort in Virginia, wher
his health, undermined by previous severe ser
vice in Mexico and elsewhere, gave way AM
compelled him to seek retirement ana rest. H
came TO the North, and went to reside WIN
son at Staten Island, where he soon atter, aoou
two years since, died With this son lie lett
widow and daughter, the latter the wife
Capt. Brennan OF the United States Army, now
stationed at Key West MIS-. Brennan has one
young child, who resided with herat her broth
er's at Staten Island.
On the Goth of July Mrs. Crane, with her sol
and daughter, Mrs. Brennan, came to town
aud when they parted to go upon their severa
errands or visits, it was understood that they
would meet again on the boat, at O'CLOCK
The mother and son were punctual to that ap
pointment, but the daughter was not The two
former returned TO the Island, not doubling, o
course, that tie third, Mrs. Brennan, was acct
deDtally left behind, or necessarily delayed by
some engagement, and that she would take the
next boa at IL o'clock but that boat arri
we'd without her; nor did she appear to her now
watchful friends when the last boat by which
she could reach home on that day arrived, at
o'clock.
So unaccountable an absence naturally crea
ted some anxiety, and that anxiety grew into a.
larm. and then into despair, when they learned
the next day, that she actually left the house
of friend the afternoon before to go to the o.
clock boat but that she was afterward seen in
Broadway, apparently on her way TO the boat Of
5 10 o'clock, since which time the most digent
search by her friends and by the police has com
pletey failed to discover even the slightest trace
of her. 1t is useless to suggest any of the many
causes which may have induced her to diappear
or compelled her disappearance, 50 utterly ant
without leaving sign behind her; on this poin
the imagination may be unaided. But this only
should be said-that there is nothing we are as
sured, in the relations of Mrs. Brennan to hel
family or her friends, nothing in her worldly cir
cumstances, nothing in her character, nothing il
her state of mind or state health, that admits to-
moment the possibility Of q secret departure
or prolonged absence to be voluntary acts on he
part. She was happy in pleasant and retired
home where an aged mother and young children
REQUIRED her constant and effectonate care, ant
the unvarying cheerfulness and untiring devo
ton which she gave to these daily duties forbi'
the supposition that she could have consciousl.
and deliberately abandoned them. We are left
then, to the widest conjecture as to what CA
have happened to lady unassumng, modest, il
the sad and sober garb of mourniDgweeds, bu
notunattractve, and in the prime of womanhood
on so public thoroughfare as Broadway in tn
broad daylight of q Summer afternoon. w
doubt if the police of London or Paris woul'
have let such a question be unsolved for thirt.
days.