The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1874-10-17
CHARLEY Ross'PARENTs.
The Mother Helpless and Sorrow
Stricken, and the Father Crazed by
His LOss and the Cruel ISLANDERS Of
the GOasiD4 !

the Gossips. Il
From n. Y. Worlds Philadelphia Letter.
1t seems as though the Ross abduction
case, terrible as it was in itsef, and much
as it has shocked and panied the people
of the whole country, must continue to
add to its horror one calamity after an
other. When the lost child was. stolen
the mother, already in delicate health,
Was cast upon bed of sickness, from
which it was feared she would never
arise. And then came the scandals, fly
ing thick and fast, gathering force and
ugliness as they pass from mouth to
mouth. At first the tongue ofcalumny
was satisfied to devote itself to the father,
charging upon him more moral
slips and foiblcs than any one man
could well be guilty of in an average
lifetime,
Not only was Mr. Ross assailed as a
was attacked in the most cruel manner.
Soon rumor had spent its malicious
coinage upon the father and turned
with renewed vigor on the helpless,
sorrow-stricken mother. Nobody pro-
claimed these things from the house-toPs
nor the public forum; but the shocking
charges passed from one gossiper to all
other always under admonition of
secrecy until the circle was complete.
There was hardlya man, woman, or
child in this city who had not heard ut
least half a dozen of these stories. Re-
spectacle newspapers turned n dca fear
to them, but at last sensation-mongers
caught, told, and spread them before
the world. Atthat time the family shrank
from conflict with these mud-throwcrS,
and the caiumniators were allowed to go
without molestation. =.
At last resolved to improve upon the
lines of more prctentions newspapers
in larger cities, the Reading EGgle de-
livers itself Of a choice morsel. This
article was manufactured with such par
titularity ofdetail, and was so calculat-
ed to impress q stranger to the family
with its plausibility that Mr.. Ross, in
Justice to himself and family, took steps
to prove the writer of that article or his
informant an infamous calculator.
The public is familiar with the pre-
liminary proceedings Of this case, now
pending before the Courts. 1t will be
remembered that Mr. and Mrs. Ross, as
well as Mr.. Lewis, the brother of the
latter, denied under oath all the i'm
putations against the family, and cleared
themselves fully in the eyes of the public.
But the calumniator had done his work
fearfully and Enthusiastically. For
several weeks it was plain to be seen
that Mr.. Ross was in a rapid decline.
Your correspondent saw him frequently,
and saw with regret that anguish was
weighing HIM down. He become de-
iected, melancholy, morbid. Soon he
was confined to his bed, where he now
lies. That is not all; he lies there be-
reft of reason; crszed with grief. lie
knows nothing, remembers nothing but
the loss of his boy and all the trouble
that has followed in its train. AT first
it was thought that he had typhoid
fever, but there is no fever there,
nothing but shattered frame and men
tai imbecility. lie does not know his
wife, and in the worst paroXySms OF ms
grief drives her from him. Shortly
before reason entirely left him he sad:
IL can bear the loss of my property ana
the loss of Charleyzcvcn that Coo
helms me to bcar--but this Islander and
calnmny against my wife and myself
that, is what breaks ME down. a. .~.'