Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-12-27
AFTER A CHILD.

AFTER A CHILD.
A Remarkable and Successful Chase from
Pitts0urg to the Indian Territory.
From the Kansas City Times.]
About ten days since the newspapers
told Of the kidnapping Of four year-old
child named Maggie Pickett, from her
home at Latroba, Westmoreland county,
Pa, by man and woman supposed to
be John Burnes and wife. Last evening
the little child was at the Union depot in
this city, in charge of her uncles, John
and Enoch Davis, and the story Of her
recovery reads like romance, the two
young men having followed her over
1900 miles, and at point only
a few miles from the Indian Ter
ritOry line she was overtaken AID released
from the clutches of her kidnapers. The
child, who is a beautiful little girl not
quite four years of age, was born and
raised at LatrOba, her parents being
well-to-do people of the middle class, and
her beauty was known from one end of
the town to the other, being of that
order which made people stop in the
streets and ask who she was. 1t Is sup
posed that this was the cause of the alb
duction, her kidnapers hoping that a
large reward would be offered for her re-
turn, not, however, by her parents, who
were poor, but by the city or state. The
child was stolen on the afternoon of Fri
day. December 9, by man thought to be
John Burnes, coal miner, and his cred
tied wife. A late train took them to
Pittsburg and there the trail was
lost for time. Two young
men, uncles of the girl, how
ever, went to Pittsburg, and at that
point column after column was written
about the case, and at last it was ascer-
tanned that man and woman with a
golden haired child had purchased two
| tickets for Kansas City via Chicago
on Monday, December IL, and
thither the two uncles fastened. The
trail was easily followed by the baggage
checks of the two trunks belonging to
Burns and wife, and at Chicago the cou-
pie came to Kansas City over the Chicago
| & Alton road, and stopped at the Valley
house, situated on Ninth street, between
Hickory and Mulberry. The two uncles,
John and Enoch Davis, reached Kansas
| City last Friday morning, and at once
searched the registers of all West Kansas
hotels, and at the Valley house were
found the names of John Burns, wife
and child, and the girls IN the house
remembered the beauty of the child.
But they had gone, and not until late
that afternoon was it discovered that
John Burnes had purchased the tickets
for Wichita via the Atchison, Topeka &
Santa Fee road. The same night found
the two uncles bound for the same point,
only thirty six hours behind the stolen
child, and the chase became most excit-
ing. At Wichita it was found the par
ties had gone to Arkansas City, and when
the pursuers reached that point on Sun
day last the discovery was made that Bur-
mes had hired pair of horses with a
driver, and was making for the Indian
Territory. The Davis boys did the same
thing, aud after hard drive the first
carriage was overtaken and the
child taken from her abductors. The
little one, when she saw her uucles,
held out her arms and begged to be
taken from 'sthis bad, nasty woman" and
cried and cried for her mamma The
two Davis boys were without arms of any
kind at the time OF the meeting, and af-
ter recovering the child, they allowed the
two abductors to escape and then drove
back to Wellington, where Monday night
they took the train on the Kansas City,
Lawrence g. Southern Kansas road for
Kansas City. On the train yesterday the
child was the recipient. of great attention
from the ladies in the cars as the story Of
her abduction and recovery became
known to everyone, and the two men
who, like sleuth- hounds, followed
Burnes over 1900 miles, were
also congratulated upon their sagac-
ity. In all its bearings the case is one
of the most remarkable on record, as the
child when first stolen was so closely
Swallowed that not even trace could be
discovered of her hiding or prison place.
And then the long chase from Pittsburg,
Pa, to the Indian Territory line, south
to Arkansas City, was clever piece of
detective work. When the party reached
Wellington on Monday telegram was
sent to little Maggie Pikketts parents at
Latroba, telling of her recovery, and last
night a telegram was received by John
Davis, at the Union depot, in those
words:
God be praised. Hurry home with our
child.
The two men and the child left last
evening for st. Louis via the Missouri
Pacific road, where they will take Van
dalia train for Pittsburg