New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-09-03
nomination. Is he willing to go before the
Saratoga Convention on @ record like thisf
THE ROSS CASE AGAIN.


The trial Of Westervelt IN Philadelphia as
accessory to the abduction OF Charley Ross
has, as our readers will note. at last brought
out the inside history Of the affair. In spite
of the persistence of reporters and the excite
ment and curiosity that ragged through the
country for year, the most important facts
of the case were given for the first time this
week to the public. BY these it appears that
at the very time the police of this city and
Philadelphia were pushing the case, urged by
duty and tho reward of $4,000, to arrest the
kdnappers, Mr.. Ross was in constant receipt
of letters from them, by which it would seem
no was withheld from giving entire confidence
to the police by the threats that if he did so the
child would be killed, or, as they expressed
it, utterly annihilated."
This "job," as undertaken by MOsher, was
apparently but the opening move of regular
business of kidnapping, and regarded by him
very much in the light of an advertisements
He cOOlly states that the boy would be
promptly restored on the payment OF the
ransom, in order that the parents of children
kidnapped in future might see that he dealt
on the square; also that the child would be
killed on the first attempt to set detectives on
his track, to prove to the public that he was
not to be trihed with. 1t was not to be won
dered at that Mr.. Ross was influenced by
these threats, and that much OF the reticence
shown by him to the public and the police,
for which he was so cruelty blamed and mis-
Judged, was caused by the fear of the murder
of bis child.
No story in fiction is more pathetic or
dramatic than that of this father going out
day after day, carrying the ransom for his
child in box, or little leather satchel, as di-
rected by the robbers, patrolling the business
streets of Philadelphia, or making frultless
journeys to this city and back, hoping each
moment to meet the agent who was to receive
the money and return the boy. No father can
read the recital without placing himself I'M
consciously in the place of this man, leaving
the mother of the child waiting at home while
he goes about with the money, to meet
the stranger who was TO approach him,
or the flag which was to be waved from
the station and so on day after day and month
after month, until mind and body gave way,
and he sank beneath tie burden of hope de-
ferred. The case remains one of the most re-
markable, even in its present state, OF any on
the criminal records The mother still sits
waiting and watching for her boy: the kid
nappers are known and all their habits and
haunts. Not only the police but the people of
the whole country, were reused to the closest
and most vigilant searchs and yet the where
abouts of the child, even the fact OF his life
or death, remains an inscrutable mystery. Still
worse is the fact that Westervelt and his
wife, in all human probability, do know
the fate of the boy; they were, perhaps,
cognIzant of all Mosher's dealings with him
up to the time of the attack on Judge Van
Brunts house, yes under the law it will be
almost impossible to compel the attendance OF
witnesses who can prove this, and quite
impossible to compel in any way confession
from the prisoner. The case as it stands takes
side with the miserable Bissinger suicide and
murder last week, one of those terrible social
wrongs for which law and the regular course
of justice offer no means of redress.