Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-12-05
STORIES OF THE MISSING.
A Brief Chapter of Mysterious Disap-
pearanceS- to Mortal
Eye.
Famous Cases Of the Past Recalled
Poe and the Mystery of
Mary Rogers.

y
Sudden disappearances of individuals al
ways suggest two possible explanations,
crime or mental abstraction The crime
may have been committed upon or by the
individual. The distressed woman who
rushes into police headquarters with the
story that her husband went to work the
other day and hash t been seen or heard of
since, may find that the dear departed was
merely drunk and disorderly, was arrested.
gave feigned name to the justice and is
serving out few days in Jail But the
case may be worse than that. it may be
murder, it may be suicide. Skeletons
found In mines, IN coal-pits. In dismal
wells, In quarries, In waste lands, in plow-
ed fields, just below the surface of the soil
imply so many social mysteries which pro-
foundry agitated some circle of friends and
relatives, or haply created some wide
spread excitement. The story of Eugene
Aram is a famous instance in point.
Daniel Clarke, a shoemaker of Knares-
borough disappeared suddenly in Febru-
airy, 1745, and ON no reasonable hypothesis
could his absence be accounted for. Thir-
teen years afterwards, when the disappear
ance had been well nigh forgotten, the
discovery of some human remains In a
cave near Knaresborough and suspicious
aroused by the words of one Houseman,
Aram's accomphce, brought the affair
again into public notice, resulting in the
apprehension of Aram and his eventful
conviction and execution. But the mys-
terry may be solved too late to bring the
offenders to justice. Thus only last May
the skeleton of man was unearthed in
New Haven by workmen employed in ex-
cavating a cellar. Then it was remem-
bered that years before this land was the
site of the Wayside Inn, kept by Mark
Travers. About 1862 travelling peddlar
named Francis Thomas was known to have
entered the inn, but was never seen after
wards by anybody. No doubt the remains
were his murdered body.
The disappearance of Mary Rogers, the
pretty New York cigar girl, was one of the
sensations of our grandfathers times and
furnished Poe with the plot for one of his
most ingenious stories, 1.-The Mystery of
Marie Roget for he transferred the
locale from New York to Paris-a story.
indeed, so ingenious that it took the clues
which had proved useless in the hands of
the New York detectives and worked out
what eventually proved to be the true So
luton. Poe laid great stress upon the
length of time body can remain in the
water before it comes to the surface, and
In fact at the very time he wrote Marie S
body was lying at the bottom of the Hud-
son river. Poe's conclusion was that the
girl had been murdered by her lever
Several years afterwards the confessions of
two people established not only the truth
of the conclusion, but also of nearly all the
Incidental details. People sometimes dis
appear through diseased vanity which
amounts to partial insanity. They love to
startle their neighbors. 1t matters little
to them that the means are undignifed,
that they occasion pain and sorrow and
modification to their kindred. In the
early part of 1868. all England was thrown
into turmoil by the mysterious disappear
ance of the Rev. Mr.. Spoke, brother of
the explorer He had come down to Lon
don to visit relative, he had walked out
of the house to purchase hat and was to
return to dinner at seven. He never re-
turned. The hat which he had purchased
came home in due course. The hat which
he had been wearing was found by a
laborer in the Bird Cage walk and handed
over by MIN TO the ponce. Days and weeks
passed without word from the missing.
The Saturday Review and other papers
took up the case and abused the detective
force for their ineficiency At last it was
discovered that the reverend gentleman had
simply been in hiding in order that he
might sport with public curiosity and
crafty his vanity by becoming for a few
days the subject of general conversation
Shortly after this discovery he was placed
in private asylum. 1t was said that he
was suffering from the delusion that his
family did not like him. If he had
endeared himself to them by his ridiculous
escapade, they cordially deserved to be put
into strait waist-coats.
There is tradition at Oxford College
dot -tI.la,at laal-;,.x. E..--...I =