Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1890-05-17
THE LOST MAIDEN.
No Clue to Maria Wendle's
Whereabouts.
A MIDNIGHT STATION INCIDENT.

The Female Passenger an Operator Tells
About-Result of the Fathers Trip to
Indianapolis = Discovery of a Letter
That Is significant-FruitlessD Dragging
of the River-Suspicion That wendIe
Knows More Than He Tells.
OAKLAND, Ills, May 1.-THE mystery
surrounding the disappearance of Maria
Wendle, who was missed from the resi-
dence of j. L. Brown a week ago last
night, IS no nearer solution than it was
when the search for the lost girl began.
Her father and the lawyers who went to
indianapolis on the search for her re-
turned yesterday, and, although the law
yers clyim to have discovered clue, Mr..
Wendle states positively that he has failed
absolutely to find any trace of his daugh-
ter there. He went to Indianapolis last
week on the theory that the girl who had
embarked on the midnight train at New
man Friday, May g. was his daughter, but
now he is not positive that it was she.
The Night Operators Story.
The night operator at Newman says that
at midnight on the sth young man and
ticket for Indianapolis, the young man
who came with her keeping himself from
sight as much as possible He did not get
on the train with the girl Miss Wendle
had two aunts at indianapolis, both of
whom were seen by the father, but the
girl had not been seen by them All
the hotels and large boarding houses at
indianapolis We're visited, but the search
81
upon which the girl from Newman rode to
/ Indianapolis on the night train of the Sth
was found and his description tallies with
that of Miss Wendle
Suspicious Conduct on the Cars.
He described the dress she wore and also
the hat Further than this, he stated
that the girl was very uneasy on board the
cars and acted as though she was afraid of
something. At times she was crying.
During Wendle's absence a party of
| neighbors have been dragging the river.
The stream is only two miles from the
Brown residence, and while many of the
neighbors believe that the girl was forci-
bly, abducted, there are not a few who be
lieve that she for some unknown reason
had drowned herself. The work of drag
ging the river progressed all day, but
nothing has been found
Telltsle Letter Discovered.
Since the girls effects have been exam
| ined letter has been found which throws
light on the case 1t bears no date, nor is
II signed. 1t appears to have been writ
ten in hasty manner on page of diary
book. The letter advises the girl 10 have
| courage, and not be Respondent, as every
thing would come out all right 1t also
! has become known that the girl had been
| receiving letters through the Newman
postoffice under an assumed name This
fact was sscertained from young lady OF
the neighborhood, who was an intimate
friend of the missing girl
Wendle Acts strangely.
The neighbors have a suspicion that Mr.
| Wendle knows more about the where
abouts of the girl than he is at the presen,
| time willing to say His wife Thursday
told her sister, so the latter says, that Mr.
Wendle had found out where his daugh
ter was but refused to tell the mother.
Mr.. Wendle, when asked for information
becomes very reticent and apparently an
noyed. In one or two instances. il is said
ne has threatened his interrogators with
bodily injury.
The Lawyer Lets SOM thing Out
One of the lawyers who accompanied
Mr.. Wendle to indianapolis is more com
Inunicative than the latter, however. II,
says that the girls whereabouts ar,
known, and that she will be produced al
the proper time, and that a wealthy per
son will figure prominently in the latel
developments of the case much to his sor
row