The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1878-11-30


But DIR. Spencer's feeling, toward Minnie.
was very different from that which ho felt
for her father. When he met her, going to
and from school, he had always taken pains
to speak kindly to her; later, he offered her
free access to his library; invited her often
into his garden where the flowers were bloom
ing, and would talk to her of their botanic
qualities, and of the language which they
are said to speak to the humaa- heart. But
strange to say, to any feeling Of friendship
which she might learn ts cherish for DR..
Spencer, at the start, her fatber had serious
ly interposed as a barrier.
And now it becopes necessary to take the
reader back to a D sriod beyond where this
narrative commeslces.
DR.. spencer's own life had been over
shadowed by the deepest sorrow-a shadow
under wiS-~Sealth and its enjoyments had
fallen lifeless and boonless.
lie had been thrice married. His first
partner lived less than year, and died of
quick consumption, so called After brief
period, he concluded to enter wedlock again,
relative of his first wife. Strange, to be sure,
she was seized with the same lnalady of
which her friend and predecessor had been
swept away, and in about the same length
of time after her wedding was placed to rest
by her side in the village cemetery. So
nearly alike did the two wives die that the
fact elected much social comment.
DR.. Spencer took the matter seriously to
heart, also, and for ten years remained in
wdowerhood. In the meantime worldly
fortune in every other way had smiled upon
him.
He now met at Saratoga the handsome
and accomplished daughter ofa merchant of
Belfast, Ireland. After short courtship,al-
though there was great disparagcment in
their ages, he lead her to the altar. Fate
smiled more propitiously upon this union
than it had upon the other two,and in about
a year or more she dispelled all the darkness
from his pathway, by presenting with kiss,
"a girl, when he hoped for a boy, but as
thousands of hopeful fathers have done he
accepted the situation without murmur.
But in a few brief months, as though the
hand of fate was against him, the saddest
calamity of them ali transpired.
One afternoon while he was absent in
Philadelphia, on business, Mary Kerns, the
nursery girl rushed into the house to her
mistress, breathless with fear and excite
ment, and when able to speak, related that
while she was riding the baby out in its car
riage on the highway, beyond the village, a
man in mask had came suddenly from the
bush, passed an etherzed sponge to her
mouth she grew insensible, and when she
recovered, it was to find the carriage empty
and tho child gone.
The news sent thrill to the young moth
er's heart, but hoping that it might prove
only joke played upon the girl, she dis
patched her household to investigate the
matter, It proved as the girl had said. The
child. wa5 gone. ,.,. ...:..
Tho 1ows was carried to the mining COM
pany's office, from thence was heralded tc
DR.. Spencer in the most startling form. Work
was suspended at the mines and the men
sent to scorr the mountains and valleys in
every direction.
) The doctor, after putting thousands o
policemen on their guard and hundreds o
detectives on the alert, hurried home. 1
was night when he reached there and befor'
a word had been told him, the hundreds o
moving lights on the mountains told hin
, that the search for the child was still in pro
, gress. He found his wife prostrated ant
8 delerious, and the whole village in Juror
, of excitement,
| The doctor wes a firm, strong-willed man
G Troubles and disasters did not PROSTATE him
D He encouraged the local search which tn
t villagers were making but spent the nigh
in going from point to point, in publishin
rewards, in different forms, for the return G
the child and no questions asked; for tn
4 arrest and conviction of the abduCtors, in til
! aggregate amounting to large fortune.
t. When, on the next afternoon, the scare
st locally had proven hopeless, and the matte
% settled down to q real loss, another discoN
+ cry was made ;-during the night some on
e had robbed Mrs. Spencer of about 800
d worth of diamond jewelry, and about 500
,e in each, and what was equally singular,
ot was now noted that the maid Mary Kerl
N was missing. But she had engaged in Il
search, and it might be that she was lost
; the mountain, and would return soon. b
!, this theory very soon was questioned al
=, popular suspicion centered upon her as Il
~, culprit in the whole matter. There was on
=, one person who believed otherwise. Nj
ro Spencer had brought Mary from Belfa
"a with her. She would not possibly belle
ID her guilty of so henious an outrage.
lie Detectives however, do not take mu
he stock in sentimentality, when a large rewa
ly is offered for the conviction of somebody
", a crime, and they saw at glance that
re Mary Kerns could be found it would, wi
,ar popular opinion against her,be an easy mi
ial ter to convict her of both the abduction a
sh theft. And all other searches after clues NJ
Or ceased. -,
re- 1t took a month to find the maid, and u
ul- she was found in disreputable establi:
,k ment in New York City. She was arrest
ng and under the popular excitement viii
civ the detectives aud the press had broul
down upon her, she was ushered before
eat Courts for trial. -r
DR.. The chain ofeyidence which the detecti
lad had linked together was complete. In
be- midst of popular clamor against the girls
his was able to make no defense. When put
wv the stand to testify in her own case, one
lgh the many questions asked by the prosecut
ac- attorney was;
la Now tell usy did you not academia
/ of kill the child and deposi. its body in so
i'm, secret recess or cavern in the mountain p
lad The question was objected to and ru
ysi- out, but it had done its mischief with
, al iury and the pub1ip