The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1875-10-21
HE KNEW THE R0ss FAMILY.
A LudIerOHs TneIdent-fhe Wax Fig
Hres or the Ross Family In Clreus
as Seen BIZ Mr. Ross.

A LudIeFOHs TncIdent-fhe Wax Fig
Hrez or the Ross Family In Circus
as Seen By Hr. Ross.
The Philadelphia Times says: Ssit
Charley Ross father to Times re.
porter yesterday: when / was NJ
in Canada for the first time, six ol
seven months ago, working out 8
clue, one of my friends there told me
that Coles circus had been along not
long before with a wax figure of Char.
ley Ross, and that they had distribute
ed circulars setting forth that the
toys parents had offered 5000 re-
ward for his recovery, that the ladies
Of Philadelphia would give S, ,OOt
more, and that Cole himself would
add 5000. THIS circular created 8
great deal of excitement throughout
the country, and hundreds Of people
| fioeked in from miles around to see
the figure-people who ordinarily
would not go near circus. tried to
get my friend to send me one OF the
circulars (he said he had one in his
house, he thonght) but he hasn't done
| it, and gue5s he has overlooked it.
Well, at any rate, l got another clue
that required my presence in Canada,
and few weeks ago went up again.
had friend with me, and when we
got to little town In the interior,
where we were to change cars, we had
two hours to wait for the next train.
Almost the first thing we saw In the
town was q fence posted over with
CIRQUE bills. --Oa,t teu -. ti.4 nam q
Of the circus, for the owner Is 3 very
clever fellow, and I don't want to
MAKE him feel bad. On one of the
bills was the huge cut OF boy, label
ed Charley Ross. and the small bills
advertised wax figures of Charley
ROss and the whole Ross family. or
course, | was interested at once, and
proposed that we should go down and
see it, though hadn't been inside q
circus tent for eighteen years before.
When we got to the circus and bought
our tickets, the first thing we saw in
the menagerie tent was q big cage
divided into two parts. In the first
part, nearest the entrance, was a woe
11temperate Family the other part
was labeled The Ross Family A
beautiful little boy in wax stood on
the top of asmall round table. He was
about the size of Charlie, but didn't
look anything at all like him. His fea-
lures were entirely too sharp,
for Charley had full, round
face. Mrs. Ross, who sat Ia the back
ground, was gorgeo4sly dressed in the
very latest fashion /; but she wore a
bright green dress and the real Mrs.
Ross hasn't worn anything but black
for long time. They had me stand
ing there just behind Charley, finely
dressed, but nothing like me at all.
The figure had large moustache and
no beard, where you can see that I
have no mOustache at all, but q full
beard. Besides these they had num-
Der Of children seated on stools, aud
the only figure that looked anything
like any of - was little girl, that
really looked very much like my little
girl. My friend and looked at it a
while very much amused, and then we
agreed TO listen to the comments that
were made.
80 he stood at one end OF the cage
and / at the other, and we listened.
But l am not going to tell you what
we heard said. There was u crowd in
front of the cage all the time-ten
times as many persons as there were
by any of the other cages. After we
got tired of this we started to find the
agent of the circus. He was in a little
tent alongside, and we went III. I
asked him whether that was q good
figure of Charley Ross he had there.
'Oh, yes,1 he replied, lit couldn't be |
better it's taken from life.' I asked |
him q good many more questions
about it, and while We were TALKING
to hear the proprietor's
name mentioned behind me, so I !
turned around and asked him whether
the figure was an exact representation
Of Charley Ross.
"tOh, yes, ne answered, Il bad that |
made under my own supervision, and !
knew that it's perfect. ~
"Where did you get the picture of
the boy ?" 1 asked him. I..I-.
"'Oh, got it from his father my
SELF be replied, without any hesita-
ton. Pm very intimate with the
Ross family-gO to their house every
time I visit Philadelphia. Those are
exact likenesses OF the whole family
And he gave me an excellent reason |
for having been at my house, which |
was very plausible, bat then knew |
be bad never been here.
tsiI know the family so weli,' be |
that rve offered 50, 900 re-
ward for the return of the boy, on my |
own account, and PH pay it, too,
every cent ofit.' -
"I talked with him for nearly half /
an hour" Mr.. Ross went on, "asking |
him all sorts of questions, and he
gave me very plausible answers to all |
Of them. All the time I could hardly |
keep from laughing IN his face; /; and |
after q while, in spite of the winks |
my friend gave me to keep quiet, / |
asked him whether he thought I look
ed anything like the figure of Mr..
Ross" "Oh, DO he said, you don't |
look anything like him, stall, Why,
have you ever been mistaken for
him 2n
"Yes," 1 told him az have been
taken for him very often. am
Charley Ross's father"
'Well, sir" Mr.. Ross continued, |
laughing quietly, she was the worst
man 1 ever saw in my
life. He stood there for two or three |
and couldn't say a word.
After while he put his hands on his
hips and said .----
i'Good Lord, Mr.. Ross, you don't
say SO !"
"Then, after awhile, he took hold of
both of my hands and held on to
them warmly. You don't tell me
you're the father Of that boy I? Well,
well, well, I'm glad to see you, and 1
mean it, every word of it, about that
s., 600 reward, and nothing would
please me better than to have a
chance to pay it. But / really did
meet you once, Mr.. Ross, I was intro
duced to you ia the Mayors office In
Philadelphia And / rather think
ne was, Mr.. Ross answered, paren-
"WeII, for some time lie was so
he didn't know what to say.
But to relieve him, asked him to
tell me, eandidly, where he got that
wax figure of Charley.
why, I sent my son down TO
your store in Philadelphia, he replied,
and he got it Of you
ST told i'm guessed not, and he
called his son up. The boy aekuOw-
ledged that be had gone to the store
and asked my brother for one of
Charley's photographs, but that my
brother had refused to give it, and he
bought one outside. Then / asked
him where he got the rest Of the fami-
" ----, a-.----
Well, said he, as you're Mr..
Ross, I won't mind telling you, but
wouldn't tell anybody else. You see,
we used to have an intemperate fami-
ly and q temperate family. SO we let
the intemperate family stand and
just changed the label OF the other
from The Temperate Family to the
Ross Family, and put the figure of
Charly in front. That's the way We
fixed it.D rat-
T was little taken back my self at
this, but the man evidently sympa-
thized deeply with me, and at the
sama time he had an eve onen tn