The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-12-13
STORY ON BENT MURDOCH.
Kansas Editor Suspected of Being Alb
ductor of Miss Cropsey.

A story that is highly humorous to
the multitude of friends of Bent Muir
dock in Kansas has just broken loose
in the New York papers, 1t is that Mr..
Murdock has abducted a beautiful
young heiress fl ON her palace home in
North Carolina.
Just think of that!
T. B. Murdoclz, editor. fisherman, can
dldate for congress, abductor!
The story is doubtless annoying to
the veteran Kansas editor but it is so
absolutely ridiculous that it seems like
a bit of rare humor to the majority of
people.
Bent Murdoch. who has been running
the Ell Dorado Republican since some
time away back before the memory OF
man, and who has been a Kansas editor
since prehistoric ages, is one of the most
respected and able editors in Kansas.
That is what makes the story so r1dfc-
ulous.9
1t all grew out of Mr. Murdocks re-
cent visit east, during which he stopped
for a few hours at the Fifth Avenue
same trip that Mr.. Murdock walked
over the White House guards and called
on President Roosevelt.
About the time that Mr.. Murdock
went east Miss Ellen Cropsey diSap-
peared from her home in North Caro-
lima. Miss Cropsey is doubtless an es
timable young woman, who perhaps
worked in a millinery store when she
was at home, but by the time the story
reached New York she was meta
morphosed into an heiress of great
beauty. Detectives claimed to have
traced her to the Fifth Avenue hotel in
New York About the same time Mr.
Murdock registered there, and the New
York reporters promptly pounced on
him as the wicked ogre who had abb
Quoted the North Carolina heiress, but
they got no further than the theory.
They did not find either Mr.. Murdock
or the girl. That did not interfere with
the story, however. In fact. it made it
all the better. for it gave them a chance
to exercise their great imagination for
news" as Colonel Jeltz would say, and
they did it in good shape.
Concerning the story Mr.. Murdock
says:
II was in New York the week before
Thanksgiving. 1 was there a part of
two days. and registered at the Fifth
Avenue as II. B. MurdOck, Kansas /
registered the same way in Washing
ton, Philadelphia and Baltimore, and
was with relatives and friends in all
the towns-n ostly women. / saw the
president, called on Ryan and Brewer,
and met Long, Scott, Curtis and Bill
Rice and spoke to them. 1 ate Thanks
giving dinner with about fourteen wo-
men and three men, all relatives in
at the Waldorf-AStoria and met two
women relatives, called at half a dozen
places in the city, and had two women
friends of long ago, to lunch with me
at the Fifth Avenue. After this I took
the train and came home. At least
three New York papers printed long
stories after I left in which l was set
down a criminal and the abductor
of some North Carolina woman. God
forbid. I have women of my own.
behaved myself like a gentleman, was
fairly well dressed, paid my bills, spoke
to few people other than relatives, and
took my drinks in quietness. Why all
this should be raised is beyond my
comprehension. 1 suppose now, how
hot hA Tor .are. rrrf11 Eelr
the matter up where New York left
off"
There is nothing in the Cropsey stories
the New York papers printed them.
1t is not even certain that Miss Cropsey
was abducted. 1t is not settled beyond
cavil that there is a Miss Cropsey.