The Washington times., 1907-04-21
Kits Hammock PeO-
pie DWeU in Dir
est Poverty.
Newcomers Pros
perity Seemed to
Them Wealth.
Greed Caused Ab-
dUction of C0nfd-
ing ChiLd.>
By LOUIS A. MacMAHON.


Envy, diabOIical righteousness,
and greed for GOLD operated the
pitiless hands that so ruthlessly
tore bright-eyed little Horace Mar
win from the loving father on the
morning of March 4.
That the baby was kidnapped and
not swallowed up by the countless
boys, marshes, quagmires, and
sWamps around the farm has been
established beyond doubt.
Horace was carried OF by some
one acquainted with the lay of the
land at Bay Meadows farm, and the
financial standing of the owner.
The lad is being detained for en-
YtOus spite and whatever money
can be extOrted from the WeIl-nigh
distracted parent.
Twenty-Five or fifty miles is the
greatest distance the baby has ever
been taken from his fathers home.
Some time within the near future
the child viii be returned to Bay
Meadows, unless the little fellow
may have been killed by the Kid
naper or kidnapers, who realized
what a hornets nest they had
stirred up, and sought TO destroy
the only bit of evidence against
them.
Doctor Blames Neighbors.
These are the beliefs of DR.. Hor-
ace Newell Marvin, of Bay Mead
ows farm, eight miles from the
city of Dover, Del.
Although the heartstrings Of the
entire nation have been frightened
by the mysterious disappearance of
this fair-haired boy, and many
hundreds Of theories as to his
whereabouts advanced no ones
heart has been wTung like the sOT-
rowing fathers, and none is better
qualified to Judge the motive that
actuated the fiends who wrought
this devilish deed.
The aged, retired physician at
tributes his woe and sufferings TO
neighbOrs who had opportunity to
see his worldly goods and ascer-
tain that the laughing eyes, pink
cheeks and smiles of his three-years-
and-eIeven months-Old baby boy
were what he lived for. and the
only things that cOmforted him as
he descended the sIoping hill of life.
With this positive knowledge and the
widely circulated rumOr that Dr. Mar
vim was a millionaire. the ki9Eapers
snatched his child from a straw pile
where il was at play. and spirited it
away, to hold the little fellow for ran
som.
There can be no other solution of tn,s
seemingly impenetrable mystery. that
has attracted attention not only through
out the United States. but in England
and the continent of Europe. Never has
such interest been manifested in the
sudden disappearance of child. The
aggregate rewards offered for the de-
livery Of the Marvin child exceed by
far any ever offered in similar cases.
Country DesOlate.
The skein is a tangled one. and the
investigator scarcely knows where to
search for the end of the string. The
scene Of the kidnapping IS on that part
Of the coast of Delaware known as
Jones Neck, q narrow strip OF land
honeycombed with boys quagmires.
marshes, bitches, swamps, soggy fields
and wooded swamps- A more desolate
place could not be imagined The stock
is scrawny and starved out, the water
impure, houses ancient and diIapidated,
nd h- I,.,g-.rr-- ,F
stagnant pools standing in every fur
row.
Now and then one comes across a
small peach orchard. Rising up out of
the loamy. watersoaked soil, putting
forth their delicate pink blossoms, the
small fruit trees look but little like
the supporters of Delaware families, but
such they are. The peach industry is
the only one to which Delaware farm
ers devote much time and attention
Every tree is watched as q mother cares
for her babe. because the farmers are
solely dependent upon the crop for their
support
With undrained farms and starved
out earth, with but one industry to fol-
low and that a hazardous one. with
dreaded mosquitoes and fevers in sum-
mer and marrow-chilling blasts in win
ter. the lot Of the Delaware farmer is
anything but a happy one. Money is
scarce and everything that money buys
Is scarce among the farmers and fisher
men on Jones Neck.
Such are the conditions among which
Dr. Horace Marvin, eminent physician
from the West, settled last February,
because he feared the altitude and eli
tlate OF Sioux City, Iowa, would Kill
baby Horace, as it did the physicians
wife.
anyone who has ever visited Jones
Neek VIII tell you there are but two