Year: 1874

The Philadelphia Kidnapping excites great and absorbing interest in the breasts of all fathers and mothers who may be brought to suffer in & similar way. A most remarkable case of ab- duction of two children occurred about twenty years since in Oswego.

 A man and his wife came over from Canada and purchased small dwell ling on the outskirts of the village, the man plying his trade, which was that of tailor, in hired shop not far dis tant. The couple were childless, but the woman spoke to her neighbors of the prospect of having two children of her husbands brother, who had died in England, and would send the chill dren to this country when good chance offered. Accordingly, the man shut up his shop suddenly one day, saying he had heard of the arrival of his brothers children at New York and was going to fetch them. In due time he returned with the children, boy of four and a girl of two years of age. The little girl was pretty and fair, and was the favorite !; the boy was inclined to play truant, and was kept closely at home. This propensity to leave home grew upon him, and one night at dark he call at gentleman's house and beg ged piteously that he would go home with him and make peace with his uncle for staying out so late.

 When between seven and eight years of age he strayed to the depot, and secreting himself in car was taken to Syracuse, where the great State Agri- cultural Fair was being held. He fol- lowed the crowd to the fair grounds, and while running about with childish eagerness to view the strange sights was accosted by lady who asked him his name, his residence, and every par icular of his life, and at last told him she was convinced he was her son, and that she should take him back to Oswe- go and claim him of the man who pre- tended to be his uncle.

 As soon as the lady demanded the child, the pretended uncle fled to Canada, and his frightened wife, being assured she should not be arrested if she gave truthful account of the ab- duction, confessed her husband s crime. The children were both stolen. The man had gone over to Hoboken while in New York, and seeing the little girl neglected by her nurse, snatched her up and ran on board ferry boat just on the point of starting. He took her on street car in New York, went on board the Hudson river boat and pro- ceeded to Albany. Going up State street he saw the boy, who at that early age had run away from home, and with promises of candy and fruit induced him to go with him to the cars of the Central railroad which were just going out. Thus he secured the children, which he easily palmed off as the orphans of his brother. The distracted parents who had lost their child three years before at Hoboken had given her up as lost, as there seemed no doubt that she had fallen into the water, and great search had been made for her body. Their joy at finding their little girl again was unbounded. The parties are all now living. The mother of the boy, being 8 widow, and this her only son, had never given up the search. Knowing his propensity to stray, she naturally supposed he was safe somewhere, and never tired in the great object of her life, looking for her child. She always attended great gatherings of people, circuses, shows, fairs, etc, in the hope she would find him, until at last strange chance threw him into her hands.