The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1878-04-12
CHARLEY ROSS.
The story of His Abduction, AS Told by
His Father at fremont Temple.


From the Boston Herald.l
About 600 people assembled at Ire
mont Temple last night to hear Mr..
Christian X. Ross tell the story of the
abduction of his little boy from his
home at Germantown, suburb of Phil
adelphia, on the lst day of July, 1874
There we're on the platform Lieut.. Gov.
Knight, several members of the Gov
errors Council, the Clerk of the Massa-
chusetts Senate, and many other gentle
men well known in public and private
life. Mr.. Ross was introduced by the
Hon. j. b. ID. Cogswell, of Yarmouth.
The speaker stepped forward, and, after
the applause with which he was received
had somewhat subsidized, said: "Ladies
and gentlemen, l don't presume to come
before you as a lecturer; that is not my
forte; my sole and only object is to state
plainly, simply and clearly to you the
leading facts OF case that is nearest to
my heart. There are certain events be-
longing to persons and families that as
sumo such an enlarged sphere and be-
come of such deep interest as to excite
public attention, and the case of the
abduction of my boy was case of this
kind. The letters exchanged between
the parties in this case" said he, "show
that the business was to have been made
permanent had the attempt to extort
money from me been successful. / re-
fused to compound the crime, and my
own home has been desolated. I think
my refusal to compound the crime by
paying the villains the sum of money
they demanded, $4,000. has made tine
children of other people much safer than
they otherwise would have been for
the popular outcry that ensued, when
the fact of the abduction of my little
boy became known, showed the Ednap-
pers that their lives would not be safe a
minute if they were arrested" Mr..
Ross then went ON to relate the
facts connected with the abduc-
ton, occasionally reading ex-
tracts from letters received from
the villains to show that the men really
had the child in their possession, and that
up to the time the reward of $40, 900 was
offered by the citizens of Philadelphia,
for the return of the boy and the arrest
of the abductors, they were, if not in the
city, very near it, and that the offering
of the reward and the renewed activity
among the officers that Immediately fol-
lowed had the effect of driving them
from the city and out of the State. He
also read letters showing that the men
Mosher and Douglass, who were killed
at Bay Ridge, l.. l., while attempting
to commit burglary, were, without
doubt, the men who kidnapped the boy.
Their death he regarded as an unfort-
innate circumstance, because they would
have been very soon arrested, and then
they might have revealed the boys
whereabouts. AS the lecturer related
the many journeys made by him in the
vain attempt to recover the child, it was
very evident that he had the full sym
patty of his auditors. He spoke, during
the lecture, of an attempt that was to
have been made by the same men to alb
duct little grandson of Commodore
Vanderbilt, and then compel his par.
ents to pay large sum as ransom.
Had the attempt been successful, he had
information from the men themselves
that his little boy would have been killed
in order to show the parents of Other
little ones what to expect in case theil
children were stolen and the ransom de-
manded was not forthcoming. The in
situations that have been thrown on
regarding the disappearance to the eff
feet that he or his family knew WHERE
the child was were referred to, and Mr.
Ross announced his determination t.
prosecute the search as long as Goc
gave him strength so to do. In conclu
sion he announced that he would speal
in the same place on Friday night @
this week, upon the pleasing incident
that have occurred during his lon
search.