Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1872-03-22
child steaIing-Ourious Instances.

Child Btealing-Curf0us Instances.
From the New York Sunday world.l
That reminds me of an incident that
happened two years ago. A Mrs. H.,
IN Thirty-fourth street, sent her little lad,
ten years old, down to his fathers office
one evening by the Third-avenue rail
road. he was bright lad and an only
son. About midnight the father came
home. He had not seen him. Then be-
gan the customary search, the telegraph
ing, and hiring of policemen, ard the
advertising-all without the least sue
cess. One, two years passed away; and
then came letter to Mr.. H pur-
porting to be written by his son in Lon
don, and asking him to send f20O, for
God sake, to save him from being sent
to Australia. 1t was the opinion Of the
police authorities that he was in the city;
that in fact he had never been out Of 1t.
And so, indeed, it proved. But what a
grave admission is this to makel Does
it not suggest to the thoughtful mind a
night, whose darkness almost impenetra-
BILE to such official eyes as we have, needs
exploring for our own safety2 A very
dense darkness 10 that which can cover
a child for years from the search of
parents and tolerably intelligent police
force, with money and all the machinery
of law at its command.
A little girl was stolen year ago out
of a hallway in upper Madison avenue
in the evening. Report was made Of
the case and there it ended. / don't
think she was recovered. But some
time after the disappearance the mother
saw, or declared she saw, her daughter
from an omnibus window on Broadway,
and made frenzied and useless descent
from the stage, and ran headlong in the
direction the child had taken. There is
something distinctly sad in the idea of
parent firmly convinced that its child is
in the hands of eyil-disposed persons
in the same city who cannot be reached.
This child-stealing business belongs
by tradition to the gipsies, and that re-
minds me that there are quite number
of them in this country, and those who
come here, singularly enough, seem to
lose their gregarious habits. This free
atmosphere is wonderful solvent, and
it affects the criminal no less than the
laboring classes. What was going to
say about the gipsies relates only to a
case of child-stealing that occurred in
1868 on Long Island, near Jamaica. A
boy about eight years old was missed on
Monday night just as the family was
about retiring. A New York photo
grapher-I think it was Kurtz-had
been on the grounds that afternoon
making pictures of the place, and the
children had been playing croquet at the
time. He came the next morning and
took another picture of the same
view. But the boy was not found.
They had three city detectives out
there, but nothing was done ex-
cept to invent theories, until one
day young lady, niece of the family, |
brought home the finished picture of the
grounds from Kurtz's. Almost as soon
as it arrived, somebody in the house, and |
| dare say it was one Of the children,
discovered on the bark of large tree |
that occupied the foreground, three hier-
oglyphics that puzzled them. They
were Gipsy marks. Reference to the
tree itself was made, but they were al
most obliterated then with the summer
parasitic growth. Nobody at the time
thought much about it. But it occurred
to the niece, day or two afterwards,
that she would mention it to one of the
officers. The first question he asked her
was if the artist had taken more than
one picture, and when she told him he
had and on different days, that worthy
official instantly replied, Then we
must find the other picture" Neither
Of them had the slightest suspicion how
closely they were treading upon the do
main of Wilkie Collins They went to
he photographers, and with some diff
Guilty found the negative of the first
picture. There were no marks upon the
rec. "Hap' exclaimed the officer,
we've got the boy" II was obvious
he symbols had been made between
Monday afternoon and Tuesday morn
ng, and at that time the lad was missed.
rhe clue thus given was successfully
worked. The boy was overhauled by
leputy sheriff of Boone county, two
months aftsFWerd. /,
have seen their Gypsy marks in the
.ity, and pointed out only last summer
sentence written on the rocks at the
seRTel Park.