The Dickinson press., 1884-09-06
The STORY OF CHARLEY Ross.

1he Tragedy Of the Hearth and the Bro.
ken Hearts Around It. A Sensation OF
Ten Years Ago Revived for The New
Generation.
Philadelphia letter to the Cincinnati Enquirer.
stood for q long time before q picture yes.
terday, the l~ife-size portrait of a lovely laugh
ing child. The face was that of o boy OF 4
years, fair and dlmpled, with a little rosy
mouth just made for kissing, large, clear
brown eyes, through which q happy little soul
shone brightly, and soft, tlaxen curls shad-
ng q broad, white brow, and falling about a
round white neck.
'That is Charley, my little Charley" said the
master of the house sadly, and, looking from
his rewor nervous face to the cherub vision
on the wall, for the first time an understanding
ofthe tragedy of Charley Ross dawned upon
and those to whom the tiny hero of a mourn
full tale has been but a newspaper myth 1 am
going to take up tho freshest threads of a we'll
known story, as related to ME by Mr.. Ross in
view of the green lane where his little son was
stolen from him.
The house itself is situated at the end of q
broad and beautiful place in Germantown
called East Washington lane. On both sides of
it are handsome, substantial mansions of gray
granite, such as Pennsylvanians love, and
built far back from the road in the midst of
| spreading lawns, sprinkled with beds of gay
flowers. More peaceful and beautiful sur
roundings one could hardly find, and a
miniature farm of a few acres. now dotted
with sweet-smelling hay-coeks, next to Mr..
Ross place, even suggested the country
The house of Mr.. Ross is a spacious double
one, built of stone and surmounted bya cupola.
1t stands on the summit of o great slope, and,
with its broad piazza covered with climbing
honeysuckles and roses, its huge basket of
plants and ferns, and its friendly elms and
oaks, looks a secure and pleasant retreat from
noise and turmoil, the dust and confusion of
the world.
thoroughly the great hedge of fir trees at the
foot of tho lawn cut off the view of the street.
eyes" said Mr.. Ross, 'Too thoroughly, FORT
helped the wretches who stole my children to
escape with them. Ten years ago tho LIST of
July" he continued, ''my little Charley, just 4
in the road with his brother Walter, two years
older than himself. While they were frolick-
ing about two men came along in n wagon
drawn by one horse. 1t seems they had seen
the children before and given them candy.
That day they invited the boys to get in for a
WAY ANS PAoAAohA6 WYNN ttuNl
candy. They, fearlng nothing, complied, and
were seen, as W. found later, by somo of the
%neighbors.
''When I got homo at 8 o'clock to toa, Mrs.
Ross and my eldest daughter beng at Atlantic
City for their health, the children had not re-
turned. The neigborhooa was secured in vain,
and at s o'clock, on my way to the central Office
to telegraph the police stations, we met Walter
returning home with MI. Peacock, a friend of
the family who had found him crying bitterly
on q street cornerin the northern part of Phila-
delphia, just seven miles from homo.
''The boy was nearly paralyzed with fright,
but managed to relate how these men promised
to take them to Aunt Susie's to buy, sweets and
fi~recrackers; that they had lifted him out of
the wagon and sent him into a shop to get them
with Charley. The police thought the men
o a drunken frolic, and when sobered would
be alarmed at what they had done, and turn
Charley adrift
''The theory proved false On the Sd of
July we advertised for hlm with q reward, and
the next day VIC received an anonymous letter
i'll disguised writing, the first of a series of
twenty-three. which said the child was safe,
but that no living power could discover him,
and his father would have to pay q big cent to
get him back. The next letter demanded q ran
som of $4,000, from which sunni the %lidnappers
never abated a dot, with the alternative OF put
ting the child to death"
1t is impossible in o letter to describe tho
methods used for the recovery of the child and
the capture of his %jailers, who demanded that
the money should be paid in advance of the re-
pending 10000 photographs of little Charley
were distributed throughout tho land, and tons
of posters, handbills and Autographs sown
broadcast. The citizens of Philadelphia Of
fered a reward of $50, coo for the kidnappers,
nopart, and other large sums were offered from
public and private sources, while the pressure
put on Mr.. Ross not to jeopardize tho safety of
every child in the land by paying the ransom
was tremendous.
The police force and detective bureaus of tho
whole country engaged i'll the search, and in
Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey every
river boat and saloon, every Clubhouse, stable
and place of i%ll-reputc, every hotel and lodging
house, tramp quarters, burglars haunt, barn,
mill, ferry and deserted hut was searched, and
defpE oq go a fRrbpn nila'0 T ana post pape ofiia IN and ndli al
the letter-boxes were watched, detectives
watched every train that left or entered the
city. Human ingenuity wore itself threadbare
in attempts to, recover the stolen boy.
Fraud, too, found q festival in this new form
of domestic calamity, and Mr.. Ross received
thousands of letters from spiritualists, clair
voyants and mediums, and even from black
mailers of all sorts, including ~convicts in Jail
and murdcrers awaiting their doom, profess
ing knowledge Of the abductors.
1ucu Ci]liC ~ uOSg u lloSc WIG CTeIUlO0S
called anonymous letters, always the work, as
Superintendent Wallng says, of creatures who
have all the willingness but not the courage of
murder" These letters were to the police,
suggesting that Mr.. Ross stole his own child;
that if his fine garden were dug up its bones
MI. Ross etc. One newspaper boldly printed
an article embedding these Suggestions, was
sued for libel, severely reprimanded by the
court, and obliged to pay heavy damages.
The uproar the country was in over this
turned ~ detective, thoroughly hl,'" alarmed m thu the
kidnappers, and they deserted plan after
plan proposed to Mr.. Ross for the exchange,
so afraid were they of being intrapped. In
the history of civilization there has never been
o crime like this, nor ono that rs thoroughly
bafled detectives.
One plan proposed by the abductors, and
which involved almost fatal consequence to
Mr.. Ross, was that he should put the money
into a valise, start from Philadelphia at night,
go on to New York and thence to Albany, riding
car, and the instant he saw a torch held up by
a man waving o handkerchief lie was to throw
the valise on the track, with the warning that
if the train was stopped tho child's throat
would be cut
MI. Ross went through this frightful ordeal.
standing on his feet the entire distance, every
nerve on an intense strain, with the fear Of
missing the signal, which was looked for in
vain. His own description of this heart rend-
ing journey is thrilling, but, coming after
terminated in u severe illness, which decided
his wife and family to run the risk of paying
tho ransom in advance, in the faint hope that
the boy would be returned; but though all
their directions were followed, the child-thioves
on who's track the police now were, failed to
appear, and q lull ensued for several weeks.
Then the public were electrified at hearing
that two burglars had been killed while rob-
bling q house in Bay Ridge; that one, Mosher,
died instantly, and that his comrade, Douglass,