St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1879-11-07
The Missing Child.

The search for the missing child of
Mr.. PlOOf, of West Jay, still continues.
Parties who were present at the legal
investigation have expressed the Opin-
ion that the child was kidnapped, with
the mothers consent. When Mrs. PlOof
was asked who the man was that was
in her house when the boy went to get
the sickle, she tried to evade the ques-
ton, but upon being pressed upon for
an answer broke down, and, sobbing,
said the boy was not telling the truth.
Nothing further could be ELECTED from
her. The boy insists that he saw a
man in Ploof7s house, and that he
never saw him before and as no one
remembers to have seen a man answer
ing the description that day, the plot
begins to thicken. This furnishes the
first tangible clue. Efforts are to be
made to trace this man. The authOri-
ties have offered a reward for the re-
covery of the child, dead or alive.-St.
Adams Messenger.
There is nothing reliable in regard to
the missing child. The reports are con-
hicting as well as absurd. Among them
is one that the child was carried away
by band of wandering beggars and
had been heard from in Hardwick an
other that she had been taken away by
her real father, the husband of the
mother not being the father, and still
another that she had been found dead.
Sleeping Lucy has reported, so it is
said, that the child was murdered and
buried. The above shows that nothing
definite is known of the matter.-Bdr-
ton Monitor.
LATER.
RIcHFoRD, VT. Nov. 3.-Intelligence
was received here last night from Hard
wick relative to the clue discovered at
that place last Wednesday. 1t seems
that Il day or two previous a man and
woman, accompanied by child, passed
through Hardwick village going south.
About a mile and half beyond they
stopped at a Mr.. Paine's house and
asked to be allowed to sit at the fire a
little while, as the child was suffering
from the whoOping cough. The action
of the man and woman while in the
house, and their treatment of the child
and its nOn-resemblance to them, led
Mr. Paine to believe that the child had
been stolen. After they went away,
which was in short time, Mr.. Paine
dove to the village and made inquiries
as to whether child was missing. As
no one knew of any such occurrence the
matter rested until Wednesday, when
news of the child being lost in West
Jay reached Hardwick. kilograms
were sent to this place, and parties
went there to investigate the matter
with the above result. The child which
stopped at Paine's answers to the de-
scription of the Ploof child fully, even
to the whooping cough.
In connection with this, another clue
which was accidentally discovered last
Friday may be of interest. The next
day after PlOOf's child disappeared,
wOrkmen ut Buck & Stevens saw mill,
between this place and East Richford,
observed man, woman and child pass
ing on foot. The action of the child
first attracted the attention of the men,
The man wanted to carry the child, a
little girl, but upon his approaching her
she would scream with apparent terror,
and gave every indication of being
very much afraid of the man and wo-
man. The men informed Mr.. Stevens
OF the circumstance, and suggested that
he stop them and inquire into the mat
ter. AT that time it was generally sup
posed the Ploof child was in the woods
of West JAY, and Mr.. Stevens refused
to Interfere. The child and her com
paniOns have been traced to Eden, and
there they disappeared and no further
trace can be found. 1t is quite prOba
BILE this last party is the same which
passed through Hardwick, and efforts
will be made to gain some knowledge
of them after they left that place. The
conviction is strong that the child is
Ploofs little girl, but how it came to be
in its present position is another part
of the general mysteriousness of the
whole affair.