The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1884-09-12

I have often thought Of the extraordinary
number, If girls are included, q children
about whose existence ands urroundings tnere
.sHas this hunt for Charley eng resulted N
the return Of any lost childreQ 70 tneir
eyes. Of anumber; for, though mine was
the frst case on which a ransom had been
put, other children have been stolen y
tfamps to beg for them, and even q IN
SOM cases taken for personal revenge a y
most pitifnl case j know was that .. lleae
Henry Lachmuller, of St Louis, VINO was
stolen from his fathers garden by two tramps,
who had q woman with them, and wanted .
child to beg. MI. fachmuller offered large
rewards, and employed every available means
t. recover his child, travelling all over Luiupe,
and several times in this country advertising
his loss, but all in vain.
ter. nj. describing the tramps who had Deen
brutalin their treatment of . child supposed 70
be Charley. and to disguise him had thrown acids
into his face, badly d%isfguring him, DYED ms
hair and SCARED his poor little poay. NY
brother James went on at once, and saw maj
was not our lost lamb; but tho publicity given
the case bv the papers reached Mr.. Iachmuller,
and. on bare superstition of it's being ms son,
he came on, and found, indeed, thatlt was
his child. -
HStrangely enough, though the villainous
treatment he had been subjected 10 nad mace
the boy forget even his name and the place
where he came from, he recognized his father
with a scream of JOY. There has also peen an
other class of cases in which, though the prop
or parents could not be found, the children
have been taken away from the Wretches VINO
had them in charge and been properly taken
care of by tho authorities"
How do you account for this larSe nuli-
Der of stray children"
ttAgreat many of them can never be account
ed for. Some have left asylums OF homes;
many are illegitimate, and quite q number be-
long to families in which domestic ~unhapPlness
has prompted either the father or mother 70
take them away and keep them in c~oncealment
There are also instances where the children
have been purposely put on trains and desert-
ed, or where they have run away from guard
ians glad to get rid OF them. Children arc
not unfrequently found among Italian OF gypsy
bands who cannot be accounted for.
"Yes,' continued Mr.. Ross, i nreply to ques-
tion, dozens of children have looked me in
the face and said their name was Charley Ross.
In fact that name has become the synonym OF
a lost child, and it is frequently given in poor
houses and asylums. Hardly o week passes
without = letter or q clew of some sort beng
sent to mo now and, of course, the claimants
are frequent Why, a fortnight ago q little
tramp calling himself Charley Ross looked me
right in the eye and said he remembered my
singing him to sleep with Moody and Sankey
hymns. l never sang a tune in my life.
EDO you believe Your son is living now?"
81 do not know what to believe any moro
than you do; but until / know he ia dead his
mother and l shall watch for his coming.
concluded Mr.. Ross, with emotion.
Six other lovely children played about the
Ross homestead, one of them q fairy girl bear
Ing a striking likeness to her lost brother, but
as l walked back through the shady lanes to
the station I was struck by the fact that, though
ten summers had fled since the cruel robbery,
not a child could be seen f%rolicking on the
HIGHWAYS