The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-06-05
ONE TOUCH OF NATURE.

ONE TOUCH OF NATURE.
In no recent event of purely Individual
concern has such universal interest been
manifested as in the kidnapping and
subsequent recovery Of little Marion
Clark, of New York. The parents of the
child occupied no such prominence in So
cial life as would occasion any general
interest whatever in their affairs. But in
the loss of their child the sympathies of
every parent who read the story went
out to them, generously and without re-
serve. 1t was another wonderful illustra-
ton of the profound wisdom of the
Shakespearian sentiment, that lone touch
Of nature makes the whole world kin"
The touching story of the disappear
ance and vain search continued for years
for the child Charley Ross had all the
accompaniment of the ceaseless quest
of the child's parents, continued amid
numberless disa ppointments. and prose-
cuted with all the resources of wealth
unsparingly expended. The disappear
ance Of the Clark child and the brief
search which resulted in its recovery had
none Of the features which concentrated
public sympathy and interest on the
Ross case. Yet from one end Of the land
TO the other in the brief span of but a
few days the parents of that child be-
came known and pitied. And when the
child was finally recovered, the universal
feeling of joy found expression through
the strange abandonment which marked
the conduct of the people In the vicinity
Of the Clark home The dispatches relate
that those returning with the baby had
to struggle through huge crowds which
blocked the approaches to the house,
whose cheers resounded throughout the
neighborhood, and whose enthusiasm
was such as for time to endanger the
safety of the child thus happily rescued.
Nothing short Of the subsequent appear
ance Of the child in It's mothers arms
at the window of their home sufficed to
put an end to the remarkable public
demonstration.
There is great deal in such touching
expression Of public sentiment as this to
strengthen ones faith in the goodness
and sincerity of the human heart. Such
spontaneous outbreak Of popular SYM
pathy reveals the instinct of the masses
of the people leading them unerringly to
the true conception Of all in human possess
sion that is worthiest of love and affec-
| ton. The material fortunes of the Clark
family might have shrunk and vanished
into nothing in the presence of these same
sympathizers, and the event would not
have occasioned more than a mere pass
ing expression Of regret. But the fellow
feeling which makes us all wondrous
kind found expression as that mother
stood before those to whom she was but
stranger with her child in her arms.
and each heart in that vast throng re-
sponded to the tender feelings Of love
| of the mother for her offspring.
The state Of society which produces
such, an occurrence is clean and whole
some to the core. The mass of the COM
mon people in it remain unpolluted by
the selfshness and crime which daily
struggle for an advantage which neither
justice nor the law says they shall have.
| Tomorrow the Clark household will be as
| any other to those who surged and Shout
| dered each other to express their joy at
| the child's recovery; but there will re-
main, as there was before, latent in tho
| great throbbing heart of the multitude
the same boundless well-spring of pity
and love toward those whom aff1iction
has touched.
| 1t would be idle to speak of the WAYS
| in which such crimes as that of the adj
| duction of that child could be prevented.
They are the most cowardly of all crimes
| against the Individual; and, as there are
those in the world so lost to human SYM
| pathy as to commit them, so such there
| always will be. And the man or woman
who is base or cowardly enough to con-
| ceive and execute such deed is not to
be driven from it by fear of. greater or
less severe punishment. Society has It's
: own means Of protection against such