Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-03-20
MOTIVES OF KIDNAPERS.
WHY CHILDREN ARE SO OFTEN
 STOLEN FROM THEIR HOMES.

ment Which Prompts Them to the Com mission of the Crime-Celebrated Cases, Including That of Charley Ross. Why are children stolen? Not many
 of them are kidnapped in the hope of pc cunlary reward. Cases of this sort, such as the Charley Ross abduction, are rare. Revenge may be the motive in exception
 al instances, but usually it turns out that the parents of the stolen child were ut terly unknown tp the abductors. That the Incentive is pure love for children | and the desire to have a child is dis
 proved by the fact that nine times in ten
 the stolen one is wofully abused and maltreated. Probably the most satisfac-
 tory explanation is that certain people are affected by peculiar mental de- engagement which prompts them to the commission of the crime without malice aforethought. It is, in fact, child klep- tomania, although this peculiar phase ot mania has not been dignified with a scientific name of its own in the book. NOT OFTEN FOR LOVE.
 eiilo tuSOIS ldllS SllOTC when we think of the numerous cases in which. without apparent motive, two or three persons unite to do the stealing. They cannot each be afflicted simultaneously
 to such an extent.
 That child stolen by partially insane person should be inhumanly treated is no cause for wonder; it naturally follows that any one with so distorted a sense of right and wrong, necessarily without a moiety of love or feeling, would not be capable of tenderness or even considera- ton.
 ln 1915 child named Lambert was stolen from her parents in Baltimore by young woman, apparently sane, purely because she wanted it to keep She was arrested a few days later, and the child was found mangled and bleeding, and almost dead. The evidence showed that the child had been maltreated '.because it wouldn't walk fast enough"
 Of course, there are many cases when the abduction is due to abnormal love and yearning, pure and simple. A we'll known judge the other day said: Hast summer l sent my family to England. My little girl, years old, being too young to stand the trip, was placed in the care of a friend of mine, whose family consists of a wife and one child. When the folks came back in the autumn went to get the child, but do you think he was willing to give hey ep? Not much. He said: I've had this child six months now. and 1 don't propose to part with her. You have large family, and can just as we'll spare that little girl as not. Now, if you go to law about it and re- cover the child, as I suppose you can, I shall regard you as unworthy of respect and will never speak to you as long as I
 live This from friend of years stand ing! He was ill earnest, too. I ulti- mately got the child, but my friend and are strangers yet"
 NOT YET FORGOTTEN.
 Any mention of child stealing always recalls the Charley Ross case. So ceie- brated was the affair that now, sixteen years after, it has not to great degree faded out of the popular mind, though perhaps the details have.
 Christian K. Ross lived in a handsome dwelling, isolated by large yard. in Germantown, Philadelphia suburb. One July afternoon all of the family hap pened to be absent save two young broth CTS, aged f and s years. They were play ing together in the front street when two men drove up in a covered wagon. One of the men jumped out and addressed the little boys, offered them candy, and finally pursuaded them to take ride. After driving short distance the elder brother was given some money and sent on an errand for more candy. He re- turned in a few minutes, but the wagon had disappeared, and Charley Ross has not been seen to this day. The crime was committed to extort ransom for the re- turn of the child, but the abductors' fear of capture was so great that no agree ment between them and the father was ever successfully carried out. The search for the missing child was pursued un- ceasingly and thoroughly. Prominent Philadelphians interested themselves in the matter, and seemingly no stone was left unturned. Countless trips were made to Europe, every gypsy camp in the world l was searched; the identity of over 400 l children was investigated, but without | avail Two men were fatally shot while committing burglary on Long Island the following year, and while dying con- fessed that they had stolen the child, but did not divulge it's whereabouts.
 A third conspirator was subsequently, | convicted of complicity and sentenced to a long term in prison, protesting his in- nocence and denying all knowledge of the affair. It is the popular theory that the abductors, at last finding themselves close pressed, murdered the child. MT. Ross is living down at Germantown, a worn out, heart broken old man, but still hoping on that some day. somehow, the little fellow will come bafk-little no longer, but to his loving memory the same sunny faced, golden haired boy of sixteen years ago.
 Three years before the disappearance of the Ross boy Freddie Leib, pretty little child of 5 years, was stolen in about the same manner at Quincy, Ills. He was