Weekly Trinity journal., 1879-12-27

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parents are poor-they resort 10 many
curious fctions 70 account for their SEEM
ing prosperity.
The Lynn mystery, as the newspapers
called it. revealed such revelations il re-
gard to the number of women who had
within short time mysteriously disap-
peared from their relatives and friends,
as shocked most persons. On the 9Th Of
wharf on the Saugus river, in Lynn, saw
what they supposed TO be a "chunk Of
wood +" resting on cake of ice stranded
on the flats near by. One OF them, on
going to secure it forAfre wood, found it
to be an old trunk heavily corded. 1t
was drawn ashore, opened, and proved to
contain the body of young woman,
whose face had been purposely disfgured
to prevent recognition. A vast amount
OF time and skill were expended in pur-
suing the Investigations not only by pO-
lice officers who were eager to win a rep
utation, but by newspaper reporters, who
in these latter days, often do better police
work than the regular members of the
force. In the meantime it came to the
notice of the police that no fewer than
fifty girls of about the same age had mys-
teriously disappeared within short time,
and an effort was made to identity them
with the remains found in the trunk.
A Boston detective OF long experience
says that there are probably 1000 girls
in Boston to day whose place of living
and whose mode of life are unknown to
their parents and friends.
The number OF boys who disappear
from their homes in the course of year,
and are reported to the police as lost, i.
quite astonishing. A large proportion
are runaways and a large proportion ol
the runaways are doubtless prompted to
set up in business for themselves by the
cheap novels, whose heroes almost nva-
fiably throw off the parental control a a
very early age, and run away to certain
fame ard fortune. In the ten years from
1861 to 1871, 66,S09 lost children, mostly
boys, came into the hands of the New
York police, and we're sent either to their
homes or to public institutions. The po-
lice estimate that there are at least 10, 600
children under IA years of age adrift in
the streets of New York, four-fiths OF
them being confirmed vagrants which,
us Macaulay suggested, we may be breed
ing in our large cities 10 destroy the mod .,
ern civilization.
Some twenty years ago when Ameri-
can sailing ships dotted every sen, great
many Of the boys who ran away from
their country homes in New England
made their way to Boston, filled with tho
inspiring purpose of going to sea. The
sailing vessel has been largely superse-
ded in these latter days b. the steamship;
and the novelist does not find it possible
to fra the Imagination OF youth by TAX
ing deck hand or a stoker for his hero.
But there is still room for adventure in
parts Of the world remote from modern
civilization as this little story (given now
for the first time) will show:
Some twenty five or thirty years age, a
boy ran away from his home IN the vicin-
lty Of Boston, and went to sea. about
year ago the State Department at Wash
ington received from the American Con
sui at Sidney, New South Wales, com
munication stating that an American had
died recently in New Caledonia, leaving
some property ard one child, little girl
about seven years of age, who had been
placed under the charge OF the Sisters of
Charity, until the relatives, if there were
any in this country, could be commune
Gated with. As the name given was once
common in Nantucket, the oldest inhab~
tant Of the place was consulted He rec
objected that the son of a Nantucket FAM
lily, living near Boston in the year mem
toned, had run away to sea but he bore
a different name from the one given in
the Consul's letter. The name given TO
the child, however, was tho maiden name
of the rGnaway's mother and it was
found on examination chat the name of
the deceased was the baptismal name of
the boy who ran away.
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