The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1875-10-07
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:. The Charley Ross Mystery.


The Charley Ross story, whichbyfhis1
time is looked upon by all the fathers
and mothers of the country as the most
beartless and terrible crime OF our era,
has unfolded, in theslow andluneertain
methods of the law, details of iniquity
that must make every readers blood
bofff freeze with horror and boil with
Indignation. The Fletters OF Athese kid
naopers are without doubt far ahead of
anv thing the imagination of Sue or
REYNOLDS fabricated for the special de-
light of their morbid readers. ltwould
be folly togo back to fiction for astound-
ing boidness, craft and mercenary ras-
calitv combined SO long as our courts
can present, us with such records as
these. No imaginary plot can equal in
defiant -viIlainy and successful mystery
This actual occurrence Mosher and his
confederates; worked against the most
fearful odds, and, so far as the fate of
Charley Rossis concerned, they fulfilled
their threat and won.y 1t was without
exception the most daring challenge
that rascality had ever made t. our au-
thorities. And our authorities had
every thing on their side. The boy for
aiIonq time must have been alive, must
have been carried by human means
from point to point and during that
time. while the attention OF the entire
American peopfe was called to his case,
while his features and general appear
ance were made familiar to- every
body by photographs and descriptions
circulated broadcast in circulars ana
newspapers, and. the police OF a dozen
cities were stinulatedl0tq the utmost
by offers of reward and the eagerness
of the public, while we may say y, OOo,-
600 of ewes were looking for the Lad and
! his abductors-these secure mlscreants
who carried him off were negotiating
with the parent through the pubhc
press. 1t seems incredible now, with
the advantage of telegraph and all the
/. skill that the police of the country at
fords, with the community itself turned
into an Argus-eyed watcher, htiIat this
one man could live and move and carry
son his deyilish plot as safe from discov,
ery as if he possessed one of those ma
lion charms that in olden times were
accredited to the human agents of Sa-
4 tan. We turn from the cruel story witt
modification at the inadequacy' of, our
methods of common protection, anc
with sorrow confess that in the stories
of real life the mystery and power anC
Romance are all with the Williams.
The trial of Westervelt in Philadel
phia for being an accomplish IN TIN
plot leaves very little doubt in the pub
lie mind of his relation to the principals
fBut the convictisn is forced upon ever.
thinking mind that from the very star
he played the deeper part by battling tn
police atthevery time he was supposed
to be aiding them. In word, one of tn
principal police agents was himself tn
confederate of Mosher. Two week
after the abduction of Charlie.
Ross, the police of New York ha
: satisfied themselves that Mosherl wa
the man. hldeed, this conclusion wa
reached from two widely-separate
starting points. PinkertOn's men ha
> struck the trail in one place and tn
men of the Central Office had crossed
in another.yf~Th -ean be no. dout
, now that if PinkertOn's men had ne
Ialso run across the path of the Ne
!. York detectives, and, to avoid squat
bleswith the Central Office, been Gale
, off, Mosher would have been capture
alive. The efforts to secure the kidnal
/, per and to discover the whereabouts
1 Charley Ross were from that time
I the present confined to thesexecution
l a. number of stock devices presented ft
all. cases alike by the formula of tt
Central Office.
Accident -maypone dayrsreyeal> Il
; story of Charley Ross, Nobody no
for a moment dreams that the polio
will unravel it. 1t is a mystery plantt
$ in the full glare Of the century, and
: which every mother and father in Chri
D tendon is Interested; mystery whlC
c is incompatible with the age, and all
: Ldisgraceful to our era and our civiiiz
ton. But it shows us how far superb
is ordinary craft devoted boldly to Il
:, Accomplishment of given purpose
Q the hobbling and misdirected intel
gence which we employ in the detecti'