Dayton daily empire. [volume] (Dayton [Ohio]) 1850-1865, 1865-02-02
The Manlnc,s Frenlk.

| lfrom the Cairo Democm j
! An incident occurred on Monday night last
which has but few equals in truthfulness and
novely. The details were given us yesterday
! by gentleman who was cognizant OF The cir.
tumslances nud who vouches for their au
lhenticity, and we give them to the public
only suppressing the names of the parties
concerned and that Of our informant.
| On Monday evening two gentlemen, whom
We will call Mr. Jones and Mr. Smith, ar
! rived per steamer from Evansville. Each
was accompanied by his wife and little
child The offspring of Mr.. Jones was n
bright boy Of one year, aud that of Mr. Smith
q beautiful girl aged about fourteen months
As the parties were going north on the two
o'clock A, NJ. train they concluded to remain
IN the depot rather than involve the expense
of rooms and lodging at the hotel, and conse-
quently took their chances in the common
room at the passenger house. As was nat
ural, after a short time the two children fell
asleep, and were comfortably slowed away
upon beds hastily improvised from shawls and
blankets, in different sections Of the apart
rnent where they rested soundly after their
hard days journey, After the children had
been cared for, Mr.. Jones proposed 10 Mr.
Smith that they, in company with their re-
spective wives, should 60 out and get some
supper, but to this the ladies objected on
account Of the children To leave them
would be out of the question Just then an
| elderly lady who had also come down upon
the boat, stepped forward and kindly voiun-
teered to mind the little ones during the pa
rents absence, which offer, after little de-
bate, was accepted, and the gentlemen and
| ladies started off,
No sooner had the fond parents LEFT the
room, however than the strange lady, who
proved to be "a maniac, conceived and execu-
ted plan to give each family trouble. Di-
vesting each OF the children, of its outer gar
ments, she put that OF one upon the other,
and then changing their localities awaited
the return of the parents. Mr. and Mrs
Smith, came back at length, then each of the
fond mothers unsuspectingly took charge of
the Offering of the other remaining in blissful
ignorance OF the real state of affairs until
the next morning. Mr.. Jones bought tickets
Tor Anna and Mr.. Smith did the same for ST.
Louis Mr. Smith took n sleeping car bnt
Mr Jones did not On arriving at Anna
Mrs. Jones discovered that her boy had
been stolen, and that fts place had heen sub
sttuted by child OF the opposite sex, and
Immediately a hullabulio was raised. Mrs
Jpnes went Into the Mysteries, and Jones
Inshed frantcalIy to the telegraph Office to
have Smith and his wife arrested at Centraa
for Kidnapping, which order was obeved up
on the arrival of the train. asa.
The next train that passed Anna took Jones
on board who was intent only upon recover
iagtJones, Jr. We will not attempt to de.
scribe his feeling en route,-lhat must be left
to the imagination Of the reader II is ouite
at,a a.. l.. II
arrived, aud in the sitting room OF the hotel
The iniurlated Jones encountered the infu-
rated Smith, and scene ensued which
battles description, Jones accused Smith
of attempting to steal his son, and
Smith upbraided Jones with endeayoripp to
play trick upon him. Meantime the gentle
Mrs, Smith, with Mrs. Jones baby in her arms
sought TO quell the angry storm of words that
Wps waged between them. Each of the gen
tifmen was the others accnser and each iully
believed the other to be a double-dyed'seoun.
del. Jones clutehed eagerly at his scion.
and Smith as resolutely refused 10 allow him
10 touch il, until his own precious daughter
was restored to his parental arms Then
from words the gentlemen came To blows, |
when the bystanders interfered and tho bellir
erents were separated 1i
Jones was hustled off to the other end of
the building, and Smith remained with his
wife and Jones lady, and it was impossible to
get from either, in their excited state of mind, |
Anything like satisfactory explaAation Of
the cause ofthe contest. ID. IUI
How the matter would have terminated il !
is impossible to tell, had not a soldier who
happened to be paesent, and who also had
seen the changing of apparel by the mad wo
man in the Cairo depot revealed what he |
knew Of the eanse, which revelation happily
led to a satisfactory explanation between the |
gentlemen and the next southern bound
train took them and the junior Jones back 10
Apna, where his juvenile habiliments we're
exchanged, where Smith recovered his daugh. |
ter, where all laughed heartily over the
affair, and where Jones and Smith, leaving
the two hopefuls in care of good Mrs Jones,
spent the time until the next train came
along in sampling the stmulants Of the good
town Of Anna fl,i" tt
MORAL-Neyer leave your children in the
care of a stranger.