The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1874-01-03
The Fate OF Mr.. 4 Kceier..
lsy telegraph /. 81 The New York Trlbune.1


that Mr.. Keller went overheard.
HAVANA, December 3l.--N0 Satisfactory
replies have been received to tho tele-
gram and letters Of the agent OF ihe
New York Associated Press lnQuiring
as to the whereabouts Of Mr.. Ralph
keeler. 1t is known conclusiyely that
he embarked on the steamship Cieniuegos
at Santiago dc Cuba. The captaiu OF the
tfenfuegos saw him on the deck Of that
vessel at midnight, and in the morning he
had disappeared. 1t Is now considered GER
| tain that he was lost overheard. Captain.
General Jovellar has ordered u strict In.
ouiry into the circumstances OF his disap-
| peaEance.
rus ADVENTURES OF THE TRIBUNE's LOST COR
REsroNpEST--A WANDERING LIFE.
from the Boston Daily Advertiser, 3o.h.]
The arrival of the United States steamer
.mniata from Santiago de Cuba leaves little
room for doubt but that Mr.. Ralph Keller.
| the special correspondent Of the 1Tloune,
| has met bis death by falling overheard from
the steamer which left that place about the
| llth instant for MaEzanilio, as he was seen
| to 90 on board in the morning, and was re-
ported missing by the captain next morn
| ing. What little there is known about
! Ralph keclcr's early life has been furnished
| by himself in his "Vagabond Adventures"
| published by J. r. OSgood & Co. in 1870.
| 1t is evident that his carly home was
not pleasant one. lie was born
in Ohio, and at the mature age
of eleven years took solemn vow
that he would have nothing more to do with
| the people of his home circle in Buffalo, or
with any what's ever OF bis relatives, some
OF whom had placed him there, and he ran
away, leaving ut night, with nothing save
what he had upon his back. He soon got a
| lob "A stewards assistant on the steamer
| Diamond, which he had to give up because
| his relatives had tracked him. lie then
shpped as cabin-boy in the Baltic at $40
month. Which he never got. Alter dodgluS
ABOUT the lake cities and twice narrowly
escaping falling into the hands Of bis re'a-
| t;yrS. he GOT Illcc as kcr-boy on the North
| crn lndili!a. Here he remained through the
s2ason. and made enough to allow him 10
90 10 school. This, however, be left
| within Il month or two, in order to
| hare more time 10 devote to negro Min
>:re!sr. His talents ii this direction got him
a place as trslin-boy on The Michigan South.
crn and Northern Indiana railroad. and i'll
! the following Summcr an engagement with
Johnny Booker'S negro MINISTRIES as jig
| dalcrr ut five dollars q week and all
expenses paid. The company burSted
at Pittsburgh week after it left Toledo,
but soon after reGrganized. with Keeler as
| eEd-mau With the tamborine. lie subSe-
| aucnily filed an engagement with Mike
| Mitchell, and afterwards with Dr. Spalding,
| as liz and wench-dancer with his floating
| palace show, where the work was so severe
| that he became Disguised with negro min
strel>y. and made up his mind to go back to
| his books. St. Fincent's College, ut Cape
Gilardcau, charmed him with its beautiful
exterior, and boldly going 10 the president
| he stated his wishes, and six months later
started back there from Galveston. The
river was frozen aud the journey by land so
expensive that he had but thirty dollars left
when he reached there. The good president,
Father s. V. Ryan, since made Roman Cath.
Ole bishop of Buffalo, did not turn him
away. and there lie spent sixteen happy
months, after which he went to Toledo and
rot situation in the poSt-office. He had
| been there but few months when the idea
| Of going to Europe seized him, and
he started with 1S1 dollars in bis
rocket. He went from Toledo to New York
as Il cattle-drover, bought steerage ticket
| to London. and reached the English capital
during tue Worlds Fair in 1867. He went
| thence to Paris, and almost Immediately left
the French capital for Ieidelberg-his CAPT.
| tai of eighty dollars would not stand long
soiourn in Paris. Here he became student
of the famous Karl Rupert University, and
| while there made pedestrian tours through
| italy, the Tyrol, Switzerland, Belgium, and
| France, ways in the dress Of a HandWcrks-
buSche When he got back to Heidelberg,
at Christmas. be had reached the erd of his
1881. He had written to innumerable Ameri.
can newspapers, but heard nothing at all
until that Christmas, when he received S25
from an American paper to which, he says,
he had written twenty letters Of news and
| twenty-five of duns. a subsequent letter
containing fifty dollars made Heidel-
berg too small to hold him, and
he started down the Rhine. He went through
Belgium and Holland, and 4 few months
later turned up in an obscure garnet in the
Quarter Latin. In Paris he met George
| alfred Townsend, who suggested that he
try some English magazine. His cash capi-
tai then consisted Of twenty-five francs and
four sous. His article was accepted and he
went to Florence, where be lived all winter
on the proceeds. lie then sent another arti-
Gle, which was respectfully declined. He
sent the rejected manuscript to less pre-
tentious periodical in Edinburgh, and started
| for Leghorn. There he found an American
captain who consented to take him home
! and let him owe him fifty dollars. Luckily
enough, when he reached Boston without
cent in his pocket he found letter which had
been forwarded containing draft on Lon.
| don for the almost.forgotten article which be
had sent to Edinburgh in sheer desperation.
| This enabled him to pay for bis passage and
reach Toledo, his starting-place, after an alb
sence of little over two years and an ex-
pense of little over three hundred dollars.
Keller was then twenty-five years OF age.
He seems to have disappeared from the no.
tice of the public Tor some time until the
early part of 1869, when be sent to the At
laaiic his sketch "Three Years Negro
Minstrel" This was published in July.
Six months later he sent GA Tour OF Eu-
rope for One Hundred and Eighty.one
| Dollars" and received for the article
| more than half as much as the whole
| trip cost him. This was printed in july,
and he presented himself at the Office for
employment about that time. For the rest
| OF the year he wrote reviews for the At
| laat.'c and revised the proofs. In January,
| 1876, Ecery Saturday became an illustrated
| periodical, and Dir. Keller started on tourin
search oil the picturesque on the Mississippi.
He was accompanied by Mr.. A. r. Waud,
and the enterprise was unprecedented in
| the annals of periodicals. The first Of the
series appeared in the issue for May Goth,
| and they were published, with hardly a
| single hiatus, until November 18th,
during which every principal city