The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1912-03-08

prepared TO leave.
On Monday, January IS, he stayed
home from school, as the records at
the Alger school show, and spent the
day in packing his belongings. Be
fore Lueders came home at night he
hid all evidences of his activities dur
ing the day. Tuesday he worked all
day packing. The clothing which
Lueders had bought for him, the gold
watch and fob, the books the many
other little gifts which the man had
lavished upon him-au these he
packed, any love in his heart for his
benefactor consumed by the fire of
his love for his mother, which, re-
strained for five months, now was re-
kindled anew.
Wednesday, while Lueders was at
work, Ralph hired a cartman to take
his effects to the Beach home on
Twenty-fourth street, paying him
with pocket money which Lueders
had given him. Under the front door
he slipped a note which read, q am
going away forever, Ralph
Lies in Storm All Night.
Lueders saw no light in the house
as he came up Cameron avenue
Wednesday evening AS he put the
key in the door, his heart beat fast
On the sill lay the note, as cruel as
it was brief. Lueders read it and fell
upon the porch.
Wednesday night ragged the worst
blizzard of the winter. All night long
Lueders lay on the porch, until the
snow drifted over him. In the morn
ing the neighbors found him and car
ried him into the house. Sheltered
by the house, he had escaped the bit
ing winds and his limbs had not
frozen, but his brain was numbed and
nothing can warm it into life again
but the fire of the boys affection.
Lueders did not go to work Thurs
day or Friday Saturday he went TO
the plant to draw his pay. The boss
had heard that Lueders had formerly
gone by the name of Huntzinger, that
Of his foster parents and suspicious
of a man who has two names he dis
charged him.
Lueders did not care. He cared for
nothing but the loss of his boy. For
the past week he has tried every
means to get Ralph back. He sends
him books, in the pages of which are
notes. He has written the Beach
family physician, asking him to try
to persuade Ralph to return. He has
written the neighbors in the vicinity
of the Beach home, making the same
request of them. Almost daily he
calls at the house, pleading with Mrs.
Beach, promising anything, every
thing, if he may have the boy back.
Calling sor Ralph.
Twice during the week he became
so i'll that his physician ordered him
to Harper hospital He stayed there
a few hours and then insisted upon
leaving. Friday morning he was taken
to that institution; Friday afternoon
he remained there; Friday evening he
returned home, to lie on his bed,
neither eating nor sleeping, but un-
ceasingly calling for his Ralph.
Wednesday, Alfred Lueders, Fred'S
cousin, the only other bearing the
famiIys name, came to Detroit from
Winlock, Wash, to settle up his Aunt
Bertha's estate. Fred did not recog-
nize him, although he visited Alfred
in Washington less than two years
ago and the two have corresponded
regularly.
81 don't know what to do" says AL
fred. 'My cousin will talk Of nothing
but this boy. Aunt Bertha's estate is
worth about $4,000, but I cannot get
him to discuss it. I can stay here
only a few days and if he doesn't get
better l must go back home with the
estate unsettled"
In New York city the estate of his
father, variously estimated at from
$4,000 to $4,000, is awaiting his
coming to claim it. He is the head Of
the family, but he cares nothing for
the money. His cousin has tried TO
show him that if he will listen to rea-
son and attend to these matters, he
will have enough money to assist Mrs.
Beach and Ralph will come back to
him. He will not listen.
"How can you bother me with all
this when my Ralph is away?" he
cries.
May Send Old Governess.
Meanwhile the attorneys in whose
charge the Lueders's property rests
| in New York are despairing of ever
bringing Lueders to settle it up. A
| few days ago Alfred Lueders received
word from New York that if they did
| not hear from his cousin within a
week they would send to him his old
governess. Miss Lucy Mott, who has
been in the Lueders family as conf
Dental servant for over half cen
tury. They think perhaps she can re-
call to Lueders his duty to his family
and to himself.
! All day yesterday Lueders, beaten
and broken in his battle with mother
love for a boys soul, tossed on his
bitter bed of defeat, tossing away his
wits. Physicians say that if the boy
is not returned to him within a few
davs he will be violently insane.
"Oh. my Ralph, come back to me
come back" he pleads piteously.
Secure in her victory, the mother
smiles upon her son, the son she has
won from the childless and lonely
man who loves him and is going maG
because he cannot have him.
In her breast is the primitive love
oe 4bo mother for her offspring a low,