The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-02-23
WHO is SHE?
wichita Girl Captured by Gypsies Four Years
Ago Now on Her Way Home.

A dispatch from Milan, Tenn, to Tues
days Globe Democrat, recounts most
wonderful story about a former resident
of this county. which, if true, rivals the
| dark ages for cruelty.
Yesterday young woman arrived at the
railway station at Milan and presented
such evidence of distress and related such
pathetic story that the people waiting
there for the arrival of u train made up a
purse and purchased her ticket and she
is now on her way to Wichita to be re-
| stored to her parents and friends who have
| mourned her loss for more than four years.
AS she related the story it was III the
summer of 1888 that she resided with her
| parents on farm near this city; that she
| was young school girl and had her head
| filed with romantic ideas, when band of
Gypsies camped at the roadside near her
fathers farm and she became engaged in
| conversation with them. They had good
wagons and camp equipments and one
man called 1.-THE Duke related to her the
| great enjoyment of travelling that way and
| camping out. He told her they were going
| to Pittsburg, Kan, and as she had a young
lady cousin residing there she decided to
| tide that far with the Gpysies and make
her a visit
Without notifying any of her friends
she left with them, when instead of going
towards Pittsburg they turned south and
went through the Territory to Texas BY
| the time they had reached there she had
learned to her sorrow that Gypsy life
was anything but pleasure to her. She
| says that she was made to lie, steal and
| tell fortunes and the least refusal SO to do
brought her curses and blows. When she
found the kind Of life she was
compelled to live with them she deter
mined to escape; so, one night, while they
were stopping in Texas, she took horse
and started. She had ridden twelve miles
when she was captured and taken back to
the camp, when she was most unmerci-
fully whipped.
Since that time she has been continu-
ousIy watched and every burden that the
Imagination of the Gypsies could devise
has been put upon her, until her health
has been broken and she is coming home a
physical wreck. At no time has she been
allowed to communicate with her friends
and although she constantly watched for
an opportunity to escape, it never present
ed itself until day before yesterday.
From Texas the Gypsies went to Louis
lana and from there to the coast Of Maine,
returning to the southern states only last
fall. During all this time she mas been
forced traveller of thousands of miles and
has begged, earned and stolen many
dollars and much property for her cap
tors. She can recount many wonderful
experiences and has become thoroughly
informed Of the methods, crimes and
secrets of these travelling criminals.
When the band reached a point about
twenty miles from Milan, Tenn, she
managed to escape from the camp while
they were all asleep, and being wholly I'M
acquainted with the country only reached
the town by an accident. She suffered
many hardships on the way and was
about exhausted when she got to the rail-
way station. Willing hands ministered
to her immediate wants and there she
heard the first kind words that had
reached her ears since she left the home
of her parents more than four years ago.