The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1894-12-09
SEARCH FOR A FAITH r.
STRANGE STORY OF TIE LIFE OF A
YOUNG ACTOR.
Take, when Child From His Luxurious
London Home, He Passed fenra OF
Misery In Western Mining Camps.

young actor, VINO recently appeared
| In New York city Is the hero, the victim,
| or the subject, as one may look at IL,
| of a life story that may safely be cailed
stranger than fiction. Ii IL story worth
| telling, says the New York Times, and in
| the telling the young man VIII be called
| Burton, though that Is not his name
| indeed, he Gees not know MS real NAME
| and probably never viii.
The first impression that II irton has OF
| life, he thinks, must have been gained
| in London, as he remembers the dense
| fogs, the frowning gloom OF the tene-
ment in which he lived. the immense,
iostling crowds and the tnmstakaDle
COG khey accent. Those with whom ne
lived were a man and woman, Doth Oh
whom were fashioned largely after the
Bill skies pattern, ,Nancy's Iedeeming
qualities having no part in the woman
| nature any more than in the mans. These
people lived somehow by their wits, al
all events without labor, in miserable
shabby lodging, where they both were
intoxicated great part or the time anu
where they used 10 beat the child WIN
| out mercy. 3 practice from which they
never deSfsted so long as he HFed WIN
them.
Even as far back as this-Burton be-
lieves himself now 10 be in the early
twentieS-he remembers distinctly that
q handsome sum Of money was received
every month from a distance, which he
soon learned TO know was from some
mysterious source in payment for his
Keeping. This money never failed TO
come at the appointed time. He Temem-
bers that at that time other and greater
sums of money were kept tied up In bags,
and thrown carelessly into heap OF
rags which always occupied one corner
Of the room, and that many persons OF
| their own station often visited his Keep
ers singly or in groups. These people
were always referred 10 as THE gang.
BROUGHT TO THIS COUNTRY.
The young mans next impressions are
those of being at sea. His keepers chang
ed their names as soon as they took pas
sage. and always did so whenever they
changed their place Of residence. The
two were frequently in close consultd-
ton with a stranger whom they address
ed as Captain Hall. They were some
what less cruel TO the child on snip
| board, because the opportunity for de-
Dauchery were less. Burton feels sure
| that they came 10 New York, that they
lived in an old tumbled-down lodging
| house i'm the Bowery, and where the beat
ings he had escaped on shipboard were
made up with interest. After the Bowery
lodging house there followed long period
Of travel. until San Francisco was reach
| ed. In san FRANCISCO, inc yOuIS man IL
members, their operations, whatever they
We're seemed 10 be carried on on larger
| and more active scale a larger gang APP
peared and a certain Sam Ford, the
| lyrical western desperate whom Burton
! has long believed to have been the ia
nous Jesse JAIME, was frequently closet
| ed with them.
The man and woman now began TO be
! known as Mr. and Mrs. Martin, and the
| xtsa. iug 10
! address them as father and mother. Mrs.
| Martin who was a bold, handsome wo-
| man, row aspired to the dignity OF house
| keeping, and a house was secured and
| furnished much after the manner utilized
! in camp life. Retreat soon became neces-
sary and was speedily executed several
! hours after an important robbery had
| been committed in the city. The boy,
| who had been left alone asleep in the
| house, was roughly reused at the dead
! of night and hurried away in the dark
ness with the Martins and Fords. From
! this point these people pushed their way
| through the mining camps OF California,
| often travelling on horseback at night
i and always maintaining the utmost Sc
crecy as TO their proceedings. on the
| long. hard Journeys made through the
! mountains on horseback. Mrs. Martin,
| who was an intrepid horsewoman, always
| rode ahead and picked the trail, inva-
| riably carrying the boy behind her, and
| frequently, when partially intoxicated,
| threatening to throw him down into the
deep canon, as they passed along the
| narrow edge OF pTecipice. These wan
| derings soon drew to an end I'm the re-
mote cabins Of the mOOnshiners. or Illicit
| whskey distilleTs, which were scattered
| at intervals through the mountains. In
these huts. where they joined actively
In the work of the moonshiners, no at
l..
child
CARE.sED ny AN ENGII>H BEAUTY.
At length when the vicious Industries
of California, and later those Of Montana,
were exhausted, the mining camps OF
Colorado were sought as a suitable field
for operations. The adventurers were
quartered in cabin at the mining camp
of Alma when there suddenly appea red
a young Englishman and his beautiful
wife who came in the guise of visitors
and remained over night al the house
hold. The boy, who was always known
as Edward, was by this time grown into
q handsome little lad He remembers
distinctly that when the young English
woman arrived she gathered him to her
bosom and wept over him, calling him by
the most endearing names and retiring TO
rest with him still held closely to her
breast, but never by one word dropping
even the slightest clew TO his identity.
on the following morning before the
boy awoke, the visitors had gone and on
his bed lay velvet knickerbockers, braided
Jackets, and dainty silk waists, compris-
ing in all a wardrobe so complete that it
lasted him for several years Young Bur
ton has always held the opinion that the
English woman was his mother, although
nothing as ever been learned to verify
this superstition.
In the winter following the episode of
the Ensishwomans visit. when the snow
lay SO deep on the mountains that travel
ing in those regions was a serious and
difficult matter the Martin woman took
the boy on snow shoes TO a solitary hut
in Mosquito Gulch, telling him that she
was obliged to leave him alone there for
a time. Opening the door she thrust him
in. and without further word Of parting
or explanation, locked the door on the
outside and departed The young man
found the cabin well stocked with wood,
flour and bacon, which his severe train
ing had early taught him how TO convert
into food and warmth.
AS the weeks dragged by-six of them
passed on which the boy kept accurate
account by means Of marks on the bricks
! Of the hearthstone-he realized vaguely.
child though he was, that the terrible
solitude Of his situation was almost driv-
ing him mad. Regularly every night
came mountain lion roaring dlsmaly
outside the cabin, and for this visit tho
| child soon learned 10 look with longing
| for when the lion came be had. at least
| some slight sense of earthly companion
| snip. Great mountain rats also crime