The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1913-03-26
WOMAN WAS STOLEN
BEAUTIFUL Wife OF A YOUNG
MAN KIDNAPPED
IS TAKEN FROM A Train

IS TAKEN FROM A Train
The Details of the Abduction is Re-
vealed by Mrs. il. Laidlaw, a
Prominent Suffrage Leader and
the Wife of Wealthy New York
Banker.
Mrs. James Lees La'c:,a", promi-
nent suffrage leader and wife Ct tue
wealthy New York banker, recently
made public the fact that the young
and beautiful wife of prosperous
New York business man, living in
New Jersey, had been stolen from a
train on which she was committing
and carried into white slavery by her
captors.
Mrs. Laidlaw declared that this is
merely one instance out of 1900 or
100 cases where girls and young
women of good families We're stolen
last year from trains between New
York and Chicago by traders in
white slaves, and that in all, upward
of $4,000 American women are kid
mapped this way every year.
in her home Mrs. Laidlaw told the
details of the young wife's abduction
to a reporter. She said: about
eight months ago this young woman,
both wife and mother, was kid
mapped by white slavers. But, be-
cause of the husbands foolish and
false conception of the disgrace at
tached to the affair, ne has always
refused to appeal either to newspa-
pers or police for help in finding her.
Ashamed of the publicity that
would follow such an appeal, the hus-
band has made his friends who know
the details Of the case promise never
to reveal his name or residence. He
feels now that he would rather die
without knowing the horrible details
of his wife's life in the hands Of her
captors than be apprised of them
now.
"In addition, for the sake Of his
child, he wants no word printed OF
| the affair that would enable his
child's relatives or instructors or
friends in later life to tell anything
about the way the mother was stolen
and sold into life of terrible in
fanny" Mrs. Laidlaw went on to tell
how the abduction was managed:
The husband had asked his wife to
meet him in the city one evening to
20 to the theatre. She was not at
the railway terminal when he arrived
there, but he learned from the con-
ductor that she had been aboard the
regular train and that two men Of
foreign appearance had boarded the
train at the same station. These men
had seated themselves Immediately
behind her. They had insisted on
paying her fare despite her protests,
assuring the conductor the woman
| was MT rational and was in their
| custody.
When the train reached the ter
minal, where the husband should
have been had he not been delayed,
the conductor saw the two men hur-
rying the woman away, and that was
the last seen of her. Thether she
was too frightened to make an out
cry or had been beguiled into tenn
porary acquiescence by a clever story,
neither the conductor nor the hus-
band knows.
"Not long ago woman was stolen
from a ferry boat between New York
and New Jersey in much the same
manner as this young New Jersey
wife" said Mrs. Laidlaw. "And only
because she was able to escape after
four weeks of degradation have her
friends ever learned what became Of
her.
"t Rochester girl, who was kid
mapped between her home and Muf-
falo, fell into the hands OF the pro-
baton society there one day, after
she had been arrested, and after her
health had been restored, she was
restored to the home she had never
expected to see again, and which had
never received one word as to the
cause of her disappearance.
"And now to right these condl-
tons, what? Not the minimum wage
scale, not economic adjustment OF
that sort. Because most Of these
women have been stolen from their
homes and forced to live in such
places until their senses are so dull
ed that they have lost all sense OF
where they came from or where they
would again be received.
"Precocity in young girls does not
account for one-thousandth the num-
Der of women who go wrong; the or
dinary commonly accepted causes for
a young girls misstep and subse-
uuent life are far from the truth.
"Before these terrible evils can be
remedied the city's civic corruption
must be remedied. There can be no
safety for women in New York unless
there is a decent city government.
What progress can be made against
white slavers, with their agents eV-
erywhere in every walk OF life and
station of life, as long as prominent
officeholders, politicians. judges
magistrates, and the police not only
countenance, but actually make mon
ev ont of the traffic in women"
Associate Justice C. A. Woods, OF
the State Supreme Court, stands
oood chance of heiug appOinted a |