Bristol news. [volume] (Bristol, Va. & Tenn.) 1867-189?, 1874-07-21
THE PHILADELPHIA OUT
RAGE.
A Child Stolen, and $4,000 De
manded as a Ramon.

III the DrOad daylSnt III the
most beautiful and second greatest
city of America a bright little boy
Of respectable parents has been
stolen, and as yet, all attempts at
recovery have failed. This crime,
in the quiet and orderly city of the
Quakers, is the most monstrous one
OF the day. The N. Y. World has
tie following on the subject.-ED.
News.
1t is a crime, too, of good elabora-
tion. There must be Il carriage and
fleet horses and an accOmplice. We
see thet the Williams who have carried
away Mr.. Ross's little boy had been
on the road watching for several days.
They had gained the confidence of the
children, (fOr there were two, though
but one was taken,) by giving them
toys and taking them pleasant drives.
The stealthy step of crime had long
followed the boy who at last fell the
victim. Victim of what? We may
well shudder in answering the ques-
ton. 1t Is crime in some aspects
worse than murder-fOr it is a crime
of torture to the child tto say nothing
of the parents,) by terror and seclu-
sion and perhaps stripes, to end, if
there be fear of detection, in murder at
last. Fiction has painted all this in
other lands and times. Now and here
we have the reality close TO our doors.
for Germantown, with its beautiful
neighborhoOd, is not far off, and it is
quite within the range of possibility
that the poor child is uOW secrcted in
some New York slum or tenement
house waiting till the $4,000 ransom
shall he paid, or, failing that, a bloody
doom is executed. There is no use of
mincing matters. These are the pos
sibilities and alternatives.
Ii is this matter of ransom which
gives this case less personal bat far
higher interest. We read that the
parents of this child are in some in
credible way in negotiation with the
criminals. and have agreed to pay the
large sum we have named if the child
be returned. Whether the formula is
to be observed, of mo questions ask
ed " we have no means of knowing
Here we pause on grave question of
public morals Is such a compl omise.
be the inducement what it may, con-
sistent with that public policy which
becomes q law, operative on every
citizen, and especially on every one in
official function. Far be it from US to
Judge austeTely the agOniZed father
and mother who would strip them
selves of everything provided their
little one be restored to them. Right
or wrong they have our Sympathy
But does the rule which as a matter
of human infirmity applies to them,
affect those i'm public trust-the officers
of Justice? We think not, and yet it
is perfectly obvious that without the
consent of those in authority, such a
compromise cannot be conSummated.
The $40, 900 cannot be paid not one
cent of it-withOutt the concurrence of
the police, 1t must be so arranged
(this the criminals will insist on)-
that they run no risk in receiving the
money. If the parents are negotiating
without the assent of the authorities,
which is scarcely probable, they are
committing a well-defined crime, and !
it must be an Intellectual one if the au-
thorities do their duty. Wretched as
from all accounts is the police of our !
sister city, it must be worse shan any |
one in:agines if, excluded from any |
share of it, they allow this to go on |
without interference. Hence is it, we |
believe-for the sake OF the poor pa
rents we fear, for that of public juctice |
we hope-this dreadful negotiation |
may fail. We confess we cannot COM
prehend the impunity of this broad
daylight crime. Heaven knows we /
have had here in New York undetect-
ed crimes enough, but the victims
have always been of the dead, who can
tell no tales, and they have generally
been done in darkness. But this, as
we have said, was not only done in
broad-day, and in thickly populated
neighborhood-fo it is, as we under
stand. one of the beaut ful villas closely
adjacent but the carriage and the men
i'm il were seen and are accurately de-
scribed. Police, we believe. patrol the
roads whence the child was playing
and whence he was stolen. We are
not advised how soon the little fellow
was missed, but it could not have
been long, for his companion came
hack to tell OF the abduction
Railroads with stationhouses and
turnpikes with gates must be all
around that vicinage, yet we read OF
no pursuit, no general alarm, no scour-
ing the country by mounted police,
no levy en- mdsse of the neighbors.
The kindnappers drove away without
let or hindrance. No arrests were at
or made, and the great and
police machinery of city of