The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-07-17

one, though the parents Of that one still fondly
cling to the hope that their son will some day
appear among them.
Said Mr.. Ross: ssThe hue and cry that rang
through this great republic strangledt this species
of crime at its birth. No one dreamed before
what a hold child Of four years had on the
heart of q nation, and thought at the time my
child was stolen there was no law by which his
kdnapers could be punished. This and a mum
Der of other States have since then made the
crime Of child stealing, for the purpose of extor
ton, punishable by twenty five years of solitary
confinement, with hard labor and fine Of
$15 0O0
II have,p continaed Mr.. Ross, Examined
personally into over seven hundred cases of boys
supposed to be my son since his disappearance;
have travelled thousands of miles In pursuit of
him, and spent over $780, 600 in trying to trace
him, in vain. In the first two years alone over
three hundred children scattered from Maine to
San Francisco, and even in England, Scotland,
-IJuSc, Nova Scotia and Canada, were supposed
to be my child from the resemblance to his PIC
lures or the mystery surrounding them have
often thought of the extraordinary number, u
girls are included, of children about whose ex-
istence anS surroundings there is semetnsag
suspicious
Has this hunt To- Charlie ever resulted ID =
the Letnrn of any lost chns y ny, tba
Yes, of number; for thons llrho y % a4t ~
first case on which ransom had ben put other
enlldren have been stolen by tramps to bes
them, and even in some cases taken for personal
revenge. The most pitiful case know of was
that Of little HenGy Lachmuller, of st Louis,
VINO was stolen from his fathers garden by two
tramps-who had woman with them who wanted
child to beg. DIR. Lachmufter offered large re-
wards, and employed every available means to
recover his child, travelling all over Europe and
several times in this country, advertising his
loss but in vain
We'll, one day received letter from Ches-
ter, ILL.,, describing the tramps, who had been
brutal f IN their treatment Of child supposed to
pc CnarlIe, and to disguise him had thrown acids
IN his face, badly disfgureng him, dyed his
hair. and SCARED his poor little body. My
brother James went on at once, and saw that it
was not our lost lamb; but the publicity given
the case by the papers reached Mr.. Lachmuller,
and on the bare suppositien of it's being his son
ne came on and found, indeed, that it was his
child
Strangely enough, though the vilainous
treatment he had been subjected to had made
the Boy forget even his name and the place
where he came from. he recognized his father
with scream of JOY There have also been
anothersclass of cases, in which, though the
proper parents could not be found, the children
have been taken away from the wretches who
had them IN charge and properly taken care Of
by the authorities"
How do you account for this large number
. of stray childrenP
"A great many of them never can be &C.
counted tor Some7have left asyluns or homes;
many are Legitimate and quite number be
long to families in which domestic unhap-
piness he's prompted either the father or
mother to take them away and keep them
In CONSIGNMENT. There are also instances where
the children have been purposely put on trains
and deserted. or where they have run away from
guardians, glad to get rid of them. Children are
not unfrequently found among italian or gypsy
bands who cannot be accounted for.
Yes, continued Mr. Ross, in reply to ques
ton, dozens of children have looked me in the
face and said their name was Charlie Ross. In
fact, that name has become the synonym of
lost child, and it is frequently given to chill
dren in poor houses and asylums. HardlE
a week passes without letter or a clew
OF some sort being sent to me now,
and of course the claimants are frequent
Why fortnight ago little tramp, calling
himself Charlie Ross hooked me right in the eye,
and said he remembered me singing him to sleep
with Moody and Sankey's hymns. 1 never sang
a TUNE in my life.
DO you believe your son is living nowY
Il do not know what to believe any more than
You do; but until know he is dead, his mother
ssad shall watch for his coming concluded Mr..
Ross, with emotion.
Six other lovely children played about the
Ross homestead. of them a fairy girl, bear
ing striking likeness to her lost brother, but as
i walked back through the shady lanes to the
station was struck by the fact that, though
ten summers had fed since the cruel robbery,
not child could be seen froiicking on the high
vysat