The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1884-09-12

that two burglars had been killed whas III
bing q house in Bay Ridge; that one. NO. soV
died instantly, and that his comrade. 1onotsss
lived only long enough to confess the Sea-
of Charley Ross, and to solemnly swear AN
no one butthe dead man knew his whereahnns.'
and 80 it is to-day that the fate OF that Nsaaaa
sunny-faced, golden-haired boy Is stili wrann~@1
in a dark mystery,
The safety Of millions Of children bas ~
purchased, It seems too sadly true, by lha Ex
Of one, though the parents OF that ora w,
foudly cling TO the hope that their son wfgA .o sma
day appear among them A'
'"Tho hue and cry that rang this great Rensk
hc," said Nj, Ross, ''strangied this speclss =
crime in its birth. No one dreamad $500
what a hold a child of 4 years had on The hasrs
of a nation, and, though at the time NV e6Ni
was stolen there was no law by which his I'm
nappers could be punished, this and 4 nun6s.
Of other states haze since then made thu er4ns
of child stealing for the purpose of extorAos
punishable by twenty-five years Of snIIisss
imprisonment, with hard labor, and 4 Enc II
$3.50
81 have" continued Mr.. Ross, "examisas
personally into 700 cases Of bows suppnesaa 4
be my son since his disappearance hsvs
travelled thousands Of miles in pursuitof hin
and spent over $4,000 in trying to trace HMM
vain. In the first two years alone over thru
u " y HAtUF m
San Francisco, and even in England, Scotland
Cuba, Nova Scotia and Canada, were suD.
posed to be my child from the resemblance i
| his pictures or the mystery surrounding them
| have often thought of the extraofdinar
number, If girls are included, or childfsn
about whose existence and surroundings there
is something suspicious"
HAS this hunt for Charley ever resulted 4
the return of any lost children to ther
p~arents?"
Eyes, Of a number; for, though mine was
the first case on which a ransom had been
put, other children have been stolen 81
tramps to beg Tor them, and even ID
| some cases taken for personal revenge. The
most pitiful case | know was that Of N.as
Henry Lachmuller, of st Louis, who wa
stolen from his fathers garden by two raups
who had o woman with them, and wanted 1
child to beg. Mr.. Lachmuller offered large
rewards, and employed every available means
10 recover his child, travelling all over Europe.
and several times in this country advertising
his loss, but all in vain.
well, one day IreceiYed aletter from Ches.
ter, Ill, describing the tramps who had been
brutalin their treatmentof q child supposed 10
be Charley, and TO disguise him had thrown acids
into his face, badly ~disfguring him, dyed bis
hair and SCARED his poor little body Ny
brother James went on at once, and saw that
was not our lost lamb; but the publicity given
tbs case by the papers reached Mr. Lachmuler,
and, ON bare supposition of It's being his son,
he came on, and found, indeed, that II WAS
his child.
Strangely enough, though the ~yiIlaiaosa
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 a scream Of Joy. There has also been an
other class of cases in which, though the prop
er parents could not be found, the children
have been taken away from the wretches who
had them in charge and been properly taken
care of by the authorities
How do you account for this large NUM-
Der Of stray childreng"
ga great many of them can never be account
ed for. Some have left asylums or homes;
many are i~llegitimate, and quite a number be-
long to families in which domestic unhappiness
has prompted either the father or mother 2
take them away and keep them in concealmenk
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 70 get rid OF them. Children ara
not unfrequentiy found among Italian q gypsj
bands who cannot be accounted for.
Eyes" continued Mr.. Ross, in reply TO- ques'
| ton, dozens OF children have looked me 70
the face and said their name was Charley hoss
In fact that name has become the synonym @
a lost child, and it Is frequently given IN poor
houses and asylnms. Hardly a week paAsss
without letter or a clew of some sort beng
sent to me now, and, of course, the elalmsn,s
are frequent Why, . fortnight ago . Aips
tramp calling himself Charley Ross looked me
right in the eye and said he remembered ny
singing him to sleep with Moody and SanSey
hymns. never sang a tune in my life.
ID you believe your son Is living now
81 do not know what TO believe any more
than you do; but until / know he Is dead hss
II Fn.afhar and II 0halt xwafoh for tIa n0IltUE.
concluded Mr.. Ross, with emotion.
Six other lovely children played about w
Ross homestead, one OF thera a fairy girl bear
Ing a striking likeness to her lost brother, on
as | walked back through the shady lanes 7
the station / was struck by the fact that tnonei
ten summers lad fed since the cruel ROBBERY
not a child could be seen frolicking on ~