The Topeka state journal., 1909-03-23

folds of the cloak and told him to say
| something to the cheering hundreds.
The boy turned his face upward, but
he could not speak. The tears coursed
down his cheeks Again the crowd
| cheered and the boy was lifted from
| the platform by his father and return
ed to his room.
| Whitla refused to see any one in his
room until after he had personally
thanked the Mahoney and Ramsey
| boys who brought Willie to the hotel.
He made each of them a substantial
gift.
lWhitla received the newspaper men
later. Willie told his story, as best he
lcould. He could not remember every
place he had been, but gave an idea of
bis travels so that it would be possible
for the police to cover a part of the
trail made by the kidnapers.
Tells His Story.
Papa said the boy, in a tone of
childish prattle, 81 have been buggy
riding, been on cars and in a nice big
white house that looked like a hospital.
have been treated nice and had lots of
good things to eat. One man with
black mustache came to the school and
told my teacher that you wanted me. 1
got in a buggy with him. On the way
down he asked me to address a letter
to you. did so and dropped it into
mail boz.
we went from SHARON TO warren.
The man, who was the same one who
brought me to the car line, was nice to
me. Gee, he was good.
when we got to place the man said
was Warren, the man left the buggy
in the road. Then we got on an cleo
trio car.
"On an electric car I slept much of
the way to the place where we were
going.
when we got to town that the man
called Newcastle they took n:e to big
building and turned me over to a swo-,
man She was good to me. The hospi-
tai, or whatever the building was, was
a clean place. There was a man there
who looked like doctor; and had
Whiskers, short grey whiskers.
THE people in the hospital told me
that 1 must do just what they told me
to do. If I did not obey them, they said
they would take me to place called the
pest house, where folks that have small
pox have to go. When 1 thought there
was any chance of having to go to the
pest house did not do a thing that /
shouldn't have done.
"On Saturday night I was taken away
from the hospital and / think we went
to a town called Ashtabula. We trav-
eled in a buggy and on foot. Early in
the morning we went back to the hos
pital. 1 heard one of the men say:
There will be nothing doing tonight,
guess
Had Good Time.
ST might have been right here in |
Cleveland, though, papa for some of
the town saw tonight on the car look |
ed like the place we went to Saturday. |
They told me all along that 1 was just |
taking a little vacation. 1 was not go
ing to be hurt they told me. So acted |
nice and had a good time playing around |
the hospital. l knew l would get back |
home all right and just supposed Mr.. |
Jones was one of my friends who was
treating me nice because you wanted |
fn fTna hot
The boy told the story slowly. At
times he stopped and kissed and |
hugged the father His father sat as
if in trance. The music of his boys
voice seemed to charm him. A min
ute after the lad finished his narrative,
and the detectives were standing
around admiring him the father said:
willie, 1 am happier tonight than 1
have ever been before in my whole
life"
WhitIa handed the boy to Detective
Perkins and reaching into grip pro-
duced a little night dress. the gown
the boy was kidnapped. The father
has always been determined that his
child should have good nights rest
after being found. So in the sight
of the detectives, Whitla stripped the
little sweater, pants, stockings, shoes
and underclothing, the same ones that
the boy wore when he was kid
naped, from off the child's form, and
rOD1nE him IN the night gown pre-
pared him for bed. He was asleep in
a few minutes.
At conference with Captain Shat
tue of the Cleveland police force, Il
Whitla said that he believed that his
boy had been drugged after being II
taken from school by the kidnapers. II
He came to the conclusion, he said,
because of the fact that the boy was
unable to tell a fair consecutive story II
of his capture ana trip to the lair of
the kidnapers as far as Warren. The
fact that Willie fell asleep on the car
between Warren and the place the lad
believes was Newcastle is considered
further evidence of drugging.
Although Cleveland police believe
the agent who met Whitla in the east
end candy store is party to the kid
naping plot, Whitla refuses to agree
with them. He says he thinks q
woman merely acted as an inter-
mediary in order to aid in the safe
return of the boy. He asked the po-
lice not to arrest the woman, although |
he has fair idea of her identity. |
WhitIa gave little encouragem to
the police who wanted to start their |
search Immediately. He said: II