Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1915-12-29
A STORY
OF FACT
By RUTH GRAHAM

True. -
The adage ''Truth is stranger than fice
ton" arises from the fact that in the !
latter the author must introduce a GER
tain FEASIBILITY or he will be accused
of a lack O. the inventive faculty. Such
incidents as this one are seldom taken /
for motifs for stories because they are
too improbable.
The mother had not been gone long
before man came along, threw a sack |
over the girls head and ran away
with her. SThen the mother returned
she found her daughter gone and her /
boy crying.
The neighborhood was searched high
and low, the police were notified, and d
posse was organized to hunt for the
missing child. Weeks, months, years
passed, but the little girl remained IN
heard of by her parents. Her mother
never saw her again.
Evelyn-such was the child's name
was carried to unknown parts by the
man who kidnapped her, but why he
had taken her must remain a mystery,
for she was too young to understand
his object. After time he gave her
to a family who treated her well, but
she was finally taken to wild region
in Kansas and sold to persons there.
They kept tavern beside road along
which travellers passed at Intervals,
though in such a country guests were
few and far between.
One night a traveller stopped at the
house, ate his supper and was shown
70 III irrlo4 T-OIx-
| awakened by shrieks which grew faint
er and fainter, as if coming from some
one who was being Oyerpowered. The
| terror stricken child lay awake the
rest of the night. In the morning she
| was told that the travellers had gone
! on. After that for awhile the family
| purse seemed to have been replenished.
| Evelyn by this time was old enough
to know what was going on about her
and gradually came to realize that she
was living in den of robbers and
murderers. 1t was not always neces-
sary to kill their victims, but when it
was they did not hesitate to do so.
One day the child was standing at
the door crying. Three woodchoppers
came along and asked her what was
her trouble. She gave them her con-
! fidence, telling them how she had been
taken from her home and had finally
fallen into hands of those whose deeds
made her shudder. They took her
away with them, and on the infOrma-
ton she had given a posse was organ
lied, and the lair of the murderers was
raided. Some of them escaped, but
others were captured, tried and con-
victed
This sounds for all the world like a
fairy story of a little girl who was
held by an ogre and just before she
was about to be eaten up was rescued
by a WoOdchopper.
After this Evelyn was claimed by a
woman who said she was her mother.
Evelyn denied this, but, since she had
no home, went to live with the woman.
But she remained here only a year, at
the end Of which time the woman drove
her out to shift for herself.
The poor child was now twelve years
old and devoted herself to making her
own living. But all the while she new
er gave up hope that she would find
her parents and her brother The
brother meanwhile was growing to be
n man. He remembered his lost sister
and would have made efforts to find
her if he could have got any clew
| Unless a child is kidnapped for ransom
and the parents are called upon to pay
it there is little hope of it's restoration
No child of four years of age is capa-
bic of acting in it's own behalf.
Evelyn, when she came to a mar
riageable age, was courted and became
a wife. This was the end of her troubles.
for she lived happily with her husband.
Forty years passed. Evelyn was now
a woman over forty-four. The brother
from whom she was snatched was
nearly fifty. One day he took up a
newspaper and there, in a brief item,
read his sisters story. Recognizing it
as such, he at once wrote her.
Evelyn Immediately made prepare
tons to go to the brother from whom
she had been separated SO many years.
The parents had been long dead, and
this made her only the more eager to
join him.
One day cab was driven up to the
Aouoe W WHICH, Evelyn ndu JOufneyeQ.
Her brother was expecting her, but
was inside the house when she arrived.
Before she entered he heard her speak
to the cabman.
Mothers voice. he said. cit must
be Evelyn
Who can depict the feelings of this
brother and sister, who when torn
apart were little children, now united
on their approach to old age? Their
case was not that of a brother and a
sister separated by an ordinary cause
The brother had known the agony of
his mother at the loss of her child
while the sister had suffered untold
horrors, all the while knowing that
there were those who would protect
and cherish her If they could but find