The New York herald., 1874-12-16
Charley Ross and HIS Abductors-The
Romance OF Crime.


circumstances of the Bay Ridge tragedy which
cannot fail to have q salutary effect on the
community and strike the criminal classes
with mysterious awe. When condign punish
ment overtakes deep guilt the public sense OF
| justice is satisfied but when the punish
ment is astonishing and unexpected, and the
sudden retributon which falls on one offence
in the very act of its commission, and which
might seem in excess of its turpitude, reveals
| another and darker crime, which shows that
the criminals had sinned up to the full
measure of the fearful penalty, reverent mind,
will recognize in so wonderful coincidence
the directing hand of Providence, and even
the most thoughtless will be awakened to
some dim sense of a moral government presid-
ing over human affairs.
The revelations extorted by approaching
death from the younger of the two Bay Ridge
burglars is one of the most noteworthy Incl
dents in the history of crime The pages OF
imaginative fiction present nothing more re-
markable than that voluntary confession and
its surroundings The thick darkness of the
last hours OF stormy December night en-
veloped the wounded burglar who lay upon
the spot where he had fallen, on lawn
drenched with the descending rain, his bowels
protruding from the effect Ct the terrible dis
charge OF buckshot which had torn away their
envelope and made it impossible to remove
him from the place where he had fallen. A
dim lantern, which served to render the sur
rounding darkness visible, disclosed one or
two individuals standing over the fatally
wounded man, who writhed in agonies COM
mon enough on fields OF battle but seldom en-
dured in any other scene of physical torment.
His first thought was the alleviation of
his physical suffering. He begged for whis
key, which was brought but, finding himself
unable to swallow it, he then begged tor
water which he drank, when it came, without
relief to his excruciating wretchedness. Then
fell upon him sense that his worthless,
miserable life was fast ebbing away, and the
pangs of conscience for few brief moments
became stronger than the torture of his
wounds, and forced him to unburden his mind
of guilty secret 'Its no use lying now,
said he; II helped to steal Charley Ross. "
| The terror Of death and fear of the just retri-
button which lies beyond unlocked his guilty
soul. This sudden awakening of dormant
| conscience in view of the near presence of the
'King of Terrors" is an impressive testimony
to the inextinguishable life of that moral sense
which our religion teaches US to believe will
survive even the blacklist career OF
crime and ratify the sentence of con-
demnahon passed upon the wicked
|
by his suddenly awakened conscience, in
view of immediate death, this hardened mis-
creant felt impelled to unburden his mind by
confession which is the striking feature of
this singular tragedy. The Identification of
the perpetrators OF this burglary with the
abductors of Charley Ross invests this re-
markable affair with the drapery and color Of
perhaps the darkest romance in the annals Of
human crime. It would be difficult to find
its parallel except in those works of imagina-
ton which address our sense of the marvellous
by fictitious occurrences which connect dread
ful crimes with appalling retribution.
This confession of Douglas is o valuable
clew to the discovery of the lost boy, unless
there is ground for suspecting that his wan
ing mind and wandering faculties made him
the sport of mental illusions There are solid
corroborative reasons for believing that his
memory was clear and that he bore
dying testimony to real occurrence.
The awful event which stared him
in the face is sufficient guaran-
tee that he practised no Intentional
deception. If what he stated was false it
must have been owing to the disordered con-
dition of his faculties and the hallucinations
of mind which had lost its regular action by
the undermining influence of physical de-
rangement. There is the strongest evidence
that this was not the case. In the first place,
the descriptions given by the Philadelphia
witnesses Of the abduction correspond mi
nutely with the appearance of Mosher, the
broken bridge of whose nose made identifca-
ton easy. Another statement Of the dying
burglar Douglas puts the truth of his state
ment beyond question. He said, "Inspector
Walling knows" which is indubitably con-
frmed by an incident which occurred on the
arrival at Bay Ridge Of the detective sent to
the scene of the tragedy by Walling. The
detective at once recognized the body Of
Mosher, who proved to be an old acquaint
ance of the New York police, and
described popularity of one of his
fingers, which was perfectly verified by pulling
OF the glove of the dead burglar 1t is impos-
slble to doubt, therefore, that the dying
Douglas told the truth. or that the real kid
nappers Of Charley Ross were these same
burglars shot in a raiuy December night as
they came out Of the house Of Judge Van
Brunt. ~.a-... ~,
This being certain the chances are greatly
improved of finding the lost boy and restoring
him to his afflicted parents. Something is to