The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-10-15
STRANGE CASE OF MR.. BRADLEY
Forsaking Home and Comfort, Late in
Life, for Hard Incognito.

From the Kansas City Star.
The strange disappearance of Milton
Bradley from his home at Ell Dorado,
Kan, three years ago, was a local sem
sation of the hour. His confession Of
identity and his death at Parsons this
week revive the interest In the old story,
though they do not solve the mystery OF
his disappearance.
Bradley was prominent man in But
Ter county. He was wealthy, owning
several farms, and when elected county
treasurer moved to Ell Dorado, the county
seat, where he lived and served two or
three terms. When he left the farm he
developed great passion for
fishing. He, with State Sena-
tor Murdoch and Nj. M. Muir
dock of the Wichita Eagle, and four or
five cronies in the little country town
were on the Walnut all the time fishing
for bass, which are found abundantly in
the clear green rock -bOttomed river.
One day Bradley hitcned
up his covered spring wagon, put a small
tent and some cooking utensils in the
wagon, with his fishing pole, shotgun,
and rations, and started for a three
weeks outing trip. After he left the
bridge across the Walnut at FL Dorado he
was never seen there again. The very
ravines of the Walnut might have swal-
| lowed him up, so far as any clue as to his
whereabouts was concerned. He was a
prominent Odd Fellow, and that organi-
| zation spcnt several thousand dollars try
ing to find him. The flint hills. d" twenty
miles east of Eel Dorado-a wild stretch
of country wherein there is dead mans
| gulch' and all sorts of cairns and gulleys
were searched. The Walnut river was
| dragged for his body But wagon, gun,
| tent, man and dog were completely OBJ
| liberated, 1t seemed.
| The newspapers contained detailed
| descriptions of the lost man. A wander
| ing man was found in Arkansas-the
usual Arkansas wild man of the woods
but he was not identified as Bradley by
the searching party from FL Dorado that
| freed the crazy man near Bentonville.
! Another wild man turned up in Arizona.
| The county commissioners of Butler
| county sent Mrs. Bradley down there
with the sheriff, but the trip was useless.
| Every little while photographs of some
strange man would appear at FL Dorado
to be identified as Bradley, but none of
them Tailed.
AS the months wore by into years the
matter was dropped, and Bradley was
| given up for dead. His estate was
| probnted, and, though he held thousands
| of dollars in trust for others, every cent
was accounted for and no one suffered the
| loss of penny His son and daughter
|
as such the community accepted him.
As such he was to his former life, after
he left the bridge on the Walnut. From
that moment he began another existence.
| He went TO Parsons, where he began life
anew as a farm hand. He was then a man
of nearly 90 years, but manual labor,
though he had not been used to it for
twelve years, did not discourage him.
He did not breathe of his identity, of his
social position and his political influence
in Butler county, but persisted in his new
life He read the story of his own disap-
pearance, of the search for him, of the
mistakes OF his friends, of the grief of his
wife and children, and was silent.
A few moments before he died he re-
vealed himself to his new-found friends.
| But he did not explain his departure.
| That was his secret, and. being always
silent man, he died with it unspoken.
His wife has identified the remains, and
| they will De inferred in the bleak little
| graveyard on the wind-swept hill over
! looking tho little town where his success
in life was attained and where the peo-
| pie who knew him wonder and surmise
and gossip about the cause of the
strange deed which marked his latter
| DAYS