Year: 1879

are attributed to foul play, or to a weak
or criminal desire 10 escape the obliga
tions to ones lily or to society, are
prompted by the cunning of insanity can
not be known. The number of myste-
rious disappearances coming under the
notice of the police in the course of a
single year is almost startling. In Bos-
ton alone last year there were 555 cases
of missing persons reported to the police,
of which one. third were females.


An old police officer recently acquaint.
ed the writer with remarkable case
which came under his notice some years
age, the sequel Of which has never before
been made public. One day, he said, a
man pretty we'll on in years, came into
the police headquarters, and asked to
have she officer take down description
%! his wife and children, who had disap-
peared from their honfe. The man told
his story in such a SIMPLE, unaffected
way that he made deep impression up
on those who heard it. He lived in a
small town in Connecticut, and had been
married FIVE or six years to a woman con-
siderably younger than himself, and by
whom he lad had two children. On re-.
turning from his daily business, few
nights before, he found his home desert
ed; wife and children had evidently gene
out, dressed in their best Clothes, leaving
TO word of explanation. The next day
no learned that they had been seen in the
railway station at the next village, and
that they had taken the train going East.
That was all he knew about it. He and
his wife, he said, had got on pretty well
together. lie was perhaps too old to be
much society for her, but she never com
planned. ..-.....


The police gave good deal of atten>
tlon to the case, rs ii was peculiar one,
and they had feeling of sympathy for
the man who had suffered such a terrible
loss. The wife and children were traced
to town short distance from Portland,
Ne. There woman and two children.
answering to the description given by the
police, were seen by the local station
master to leave through train and walk
off in the direction Of the village. 1t was
just at dusk, and showing heavily at the
time. The road led along the banks Of
the river. Passing out of the station
masters sight into the storm, they we're
seen no more. The inquiries OF the po-
lice never got beyond that. Those who
had been at work upon the case settled
down to the belief that the woman had
left home during fit Of temporary in
ssnity; that the storm she encountered
on leaving the cars increased the confu-
sion of her mind, and that she had either
thrown her children and herself into the
river, or had wandered out Of the road
and fallen in with them.


One evening after this conclusion had
been reached, n officer who had worked
on the case was asked by a young lady at
his house to tell her an interesting police
case. He told her The story Of the desert
ed husband. The young woman after
wards married, and went to live in
Western city. Some years passed, when,
on meeting the officer again, she remind
ed him OF the story he had told her, and
asked if anything had been heard of the
wife and children. He said the case re-
mained as profound mystery as ever.


/" Now," she said, ~ will go on with
the story where you ended. The woman
got off the train at B-for the purpose of
misleading those who might search for
her. She had through tickets to Port
land and, after going some distance to-
wards the village sho retraced her steps.
Eludlng observation at the railway station
she got on way-train that came along
presently, and proceeded to Portland.
There shc was met by man, who took
her TO the Grand Trunk Railway, and the
next train bore them to city in the Far
West, where they found home which
had been carefully prepared for them.


How did | learn all that? Well, soon
after | settled in--I formed a very
pleasant acluaintance with the lady who
lived next door-a quiet, attractive wom-
an, who seemed TO be uncommonly hap-
py in her married life. One day, when
her husband was absent she was taken
very i'll. | was sent for and while in
the fear of death, she told me her story.
When she was IL school girl she became
engaged to the mar she now lived with.
He went away TO seek his fortune, and
not long after she heard he had married
Then, in her despair she married man
old enough to be her father. After she
had been married some three years she
heard that her early love had been true
to her. She wrote imploringly to him to
forgive her. A correspondence had fol
lowed, and by-and- by she was wrought
up to tho point Of leaving her husband. ..
All the details of the elopement had been
arranged by letter and, when she joined
ner lover in Portland, she saw him for
the first time after separation Of ten
years.


A great many cases of mysterious dis
appearance are never reported to the po-
lice, or made public in any way except
through accident.


Hundreds of girls go every year from
the British Provinces, and from Maine
ana New Hampshire, to the large manu-
featuring towns to work iE the mills, or
To the cities to serve as domestios or to
tend store" In most cases they have
neither friends nor relatives in the places
where they 90 to work no one to warn
them OF the character of their associates
or TO bold them in check if they are in
clined to go astray.


GirIe disapnaar snddon1,. m, 4 ....-,.