The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1915-10-23

conceded 10 - the .s1uekiest boy IN
the world was told today by Hamp-
ton @. Silcox, Z well-known Philadel-
phia detective, who led the search
for the chiId's parents.
Joseph MacGrsgor Mitcheson, an
attorney, directed the search for the
boy In this city and throughout the
nation, excepting In New York. Silcox
was engaged last January. and 1t was
his report but q few weeks ago that
led to the adoption Of the child yes
terday.
Though the boy was found in Sep
tember.' said the detective. cit was
not until late In December that some
one with q seemingly unlimited for
tune started campaign to find his
parents. / was engaged in January,
with instructions to stop at no ex-
pense to learn something of the chifi's
parents. Where the money came
from. nor no ono else, excepting
the two attorneys. knew.
Never was such an effort made in
the search for any one in the annals
OF American police. We had the COM
plete cooperation Of the combined po-
lice forces Of the entire United States;
the Federal postal service was work
ing with us In every state In the ma
ton; every school teacher within
rounding States aided us, and articles
sent out by us were published in every
paper large and small Of which there
Is any record
Thousands Of Inquiries
Thousands Of letters poured into
our offices. Hundreds OF them were
written by people who believed the
child might be theirs. Others wanted
to adopt him, while scores offered us
a 3N%{% q g. A..- -
search. OF course, the search CEN
tered about Philadelphia, as II was
here that the child said he lived He
mentioned s. or ga Rroad ct~~~.
When II was learned that these ad.
dresses could not be correct. we con-
Quoted systematic canvass Of Broad
Street from end to end and all al
joining streets within Ave blocks OF
BROAD on either side. Then we did
result.
Failing here. We obtained the
names Of every town or city In the
United States in which there was
Broad or a Sixth Street We hal
list of about one thousand places. and
our men went over them with dne-
tooth combs. We had circulars print
ed. giving the story Of the boys dis
covery. his description and photo
graphs of him taken in six different
positions. These circulars were post
ei In every school Of every ;iescrip-
ton throughout the eastern part Of
the country Six thousand were put
out in Philadelphia alone In the hope
that some child might recognize the
mysterious Austin McCleary' as a
playmate.
'In the meantime We had run out
any clues that were furnished by the
clothes the boy wore when found. We
decided that the child had been pur-
posely CARRIED in rags to help conceal
his Identity. We traced his clothes,
shoes. hat. etc. to the manufacturers.
men. However. there were hundreds
Of retailers handling the goods. and
nothing resulted.
Strong Clue That Failed.
We had almost given up the case.
noninx. Cal. The police there be-
lieved that Austin McCleary' was in
reality the sor OF a railroad man who
had once lived there. People in the
town even Identified the photographs
Rut---the railroad man was missing.
We traced him from California across
the continent and back to have him
tell us. with smiles that none OF hts
children was missing. One OF them
did look something like Austin Nc
Cleary.
Detective Silcox predicted that since
Mr. and Mrs. Shepard have adopted
the child many will make their APP
pearance as the young heirs real pa