OCR Text |
Show TjGHtl -Art of DissppG3,rin2f MP4 1 1 JIT JlT ww-- n Watlcinu Burr Tho Mysterious Tichhqmo Casc-merc Sdmo of,-the Lost AiIj Foimd I I 1 TT 'J ha has dono nothing else, Dr. Cook " fyct ycrformcd the most rcmavkablc J fi iiicarih feat of our generation. QahilHx 'o break through a cordon JlS'cW York reporters and drop, for s ii a period, completely out of human oit a lime when he was as much in ivf "' limelight as fhq president himself h hist when the mind's eye of the on-Wl, on-Wl, 'civilized world was holding a very jfild image of his features, has been f fcat almost as wonderful as would )m hoeu his inuch-braggod-of flwcov-, IlFnf the "boreal center." iCttJir last previous mystery of.d.sap-Xncc-onc which as yet remains mi-fed mi-fed was that of Lcong Liug, the LcV who is alleged. to have mur-fd mur-fd the unfortunate ElsioSigel, grand-'cut!i grand-'cut!i or of Mai. Gen. Franz igel, and 'o, 3 -c packed 'her body into the trunk riwfi -in it was found last summer in a over a New York chop ssucy house. ?.R!C now been more than seven months fc,n.C this oriental disappearance and in ha to of tho act that his photograph lian complete descript ion have been pub- I ed hroadcast in the newspapers. and ? J $n tho hands of nverj- police onicml loaJ the civilized world his eclipse from, oyiiSRicht of man remains as complete as i S the world had swallowed him ,1 f$it Leong Line u running start 00w days before the public bceamenc-oWfeiiitcd bceamenc-oWfeiiitcd with his crime or his pli3'siog-thoflnv pli3'siog-thoflnv and his detection was rendered un-u un-u Uallv difliciilt by the inability of our V Wd To readily distinguish one oriental ,laJtn given type from mother. Hqh" we should attempt to recall all of resa mvsterious disappearances of tue 'asak year we would srtn have several ior fcpaper pages full aid no space lctt n tlr the reallv rcmarkaHc eases ot other nrnfars. T read the other day that m a ctju- over 35,000 pcopc had been re-thefrted re-thefrted missing in LondJii and that only rcllf of I hem, or l.o03 had been ao-fbuntcd ao-fbuntcd for; and it is rot unsafe to say ioafcat a like proportion of New lork s n, rpulation is annually bst to sight with-tJ with-tJ stho span of a twelvi-month. p"ij t Is Lost Grand Puko Here? jaa frhc most looked r of all of the u"i )ted disanpearers of past years is the uti nstrian Grand Duke Johann Salvator, Girt bo, after falling intc disfavor at court liff contracting a mo;ganatie marriage thiith Ludmilln Stube, a pretty Aricn-twee Aricn-twee comic opera siiger, niysloriously cl jappearod with he in 1SD0. Early ill fit vear he bought ?u England a .big doo in, tho Santa Maririla. in which he ;nd d his beloved saiid away as plain aMtfr. and Mrs. JoliuOrth." They put cdlffc for South Amend, touched at Mon-gitf'ideo Mon-gitf'ideo and July 11 sailed thence for wpilile. This departuri from Montevideo levkp the last authenjc nows the world i sm had of the mystsrious pair. Some viMppors of the Soufa seas believe that cl-Sauta Murgaritawas wTcckcd while Iridring to round thcHorn. while others otita been suro thatfchey havo seen her Totted and sailing rider another name, thdformor soldier uncr the archduke has i "Wjonf essed ' ' to ba-jng met the couple oxmIjos Angeles andto having accertcd tojji'ibe to keep silot as to the meeting, o tplo various othei authorities "idcu-listiprl "idcu-listiprl ,J .Tohann Sahilor as Admiral Ya-prtgata, Ya-prtgata, hero of tho Shino-Japanese war, CorUthe' commander of troops while in l.hel Chilean rovolutJn of the early 90s; IciaJft ranchman in ,-vgentina and as the bidder of a "2sct Though t, sect in Tacoma. In June, 1007, he was "positively "posi-tively seen" in Loudon, whilo last Bummer Bum-mer his uo'stcry was " solved ;' by a Chicago newspaper which devoted tho cutiro front page to tho story of a machinist ma-chinist working in a shop at Plaincvillc, Ohio, who "confessed" that he was tho lost grand duke and that ho had come to America after his belovod Ludmilla had been killed by the eruption of IJouut Pelcc. "Wherever Johann Salvator may bo, his cousin, IVanz Joseph of Austria, believes him to be still alive, lie latoly issued an edict that tho largo estate, which awaits the runaway in Austria be held intact until 1917. Two Vanished Naval Officers. Tho mysterious disappoafanco of two of our naval officers troubled the publiu for three years prior to the vanishing of tho archduke. February 17, 1887, Lieutenant Lieu-tenant Edward W. I?emey, a brother of former Judge Advocate General Wil- i am B. "Remey and of Bear Admiral George C. "Romev, walked down the gang plank of tW steamship iioanoke to bo swallowed into I ho mazes of New-York New-York City, and never heard of more. Had he been a man of irregular habits there might have been some suspicion as to the cause of his disappearance, but he was a sober, highly esteemed and popular officer, with an"irrenroach-ablc an"irrenroach-ablc record. Detectives the world over have searched for hiui without avail. Our other vauishing naval officer was ex-Passed Assistant Engineer liichard 31. Buel, sou of Rev. Samuel Buel, then dean of the General Theological seminary sem-inary in New York. The younger Buel had served iu the Civil war with distinction, dis-tinction, and was a woll-kuown figure iu both naval and engineering circles. December 20, 1SS9, ho started from New York for Boston, but has never been heard of since, in spite of diligent dili-gent elTorts which his family and friends have mado to locate him. Like Homey, he was a man whoso personal habits would preclude tho usual theories which spring up iu such cases. Charley . Ross Still Sought. What has remained our most perplexing per-plexing disappearance mystery- directly preceded theso cases. Jt was tho vanishing van-ishing of Charley Boss, 3ouugest of the live children of Christian K. Boss. a well-to-do resident of Gcrmautown, Philadelphia. Charley, then four, and Valicr, his six-year-old brother, disappeared dis-appeared from 1 ho sidowalk near their homo July 3, 1S74. After their parents pa-rents had spread the alunn "Walter was returned tho samo night by a man who had found him crying (in a street corner in Kensington. Walter told his pnrcuts that several days before be-fore two strange men had given "candy to Charley and li tin. These men had returned to the neighborhood July 1, in a wagon, and yvhon tho children asked them if they had a 113 firecrackers for tho coming Fourth they had invited the youngsters to jump in nud drive to a fireworks store. In Kensington Walter wns given a quarter to go into a storo and buy tho firecrackers, but when ho emerged from the shop he found that the wagon had gone with Charley and the two strangers in it. Charley has novcr returned to this day, although his mother, now a gray-haired gray-haired old lad', still waits for him in the Gcrmautown mansion. During the days following his kidnaping his father received anonymous letters demanding $20,000 ransom and threatening the child's "annihilation1' if a police trap were set when I ho ransom was called for. After exhausting the ingenuity of the police, the father, through newspaper news-paper "personals." arranged various meeting places where the transaction could be effected, but each tinio the kidnapers were scared awa3. Then the father made 200 loug jouriiC3's to run down false clues, and his vain search cost him in nil $60,000. The following December Mosher and Douglas, two burglars, were fatalh' woifudod while robbing ihc house of Judge Van Brunt, at Fort Hamilton, D. L. and Douglas, while dying, whispered: "Mosbcr and T slolo Chnrloy Ross." nut when asked where the bo3 was he but gasped: "Moshcr knows all about the child. Ask him." But Moshcr had alrcuVy gone to that realm from which no traveler returns, aud he had taken with him the kev to the mystcr3' of Charley Boss. Last spring (ho mother investfgatod one more elii' that given b3' one William G. lister of McKces Bocks, near Pittsburg, who claimed that he was her long-lost bo3'. His sloiy was that he had been reared 03' a familv in Shamokin, Pa., and that his so-called parents had refused to make denial when ho accused thorn of concealing him from his reai parents. The next great disappearance 1113'Htcrv prior to that of Charley Boss was the Tichborno case. Sir Edward Tichbomo, with an income of $100,000, had as heir his nephew, James, with two sous, Boger nnd Alfred. Boger, who was born in 182!), fell in love with his cousin Kate, Sir Edward's daughter, and the old knight, gave Roger two years in which to reform beforo giving him an answer. So Boger, who was a dissipated young army ollicor of twenty-three, put out for South America, where he wandered for a 3-ear or so in au unhappy franio of mind. Then in the early fifties Sir Edward died leaving his baronetcy and vast fortune (.0 Boger's father, James Tichbornc, and Boger, as the elder son, now became direct lieir to both. Learn ing of this, he sailod from Bio Janeiro in the ship Bella for New York, from whence ho was to cross at once to England. Eng-land. But the Bella never came to port. Boger Tichbornc 's mother, like Char-lcjr Char-lcjr Boss,' would never believe that ho was dead. Even after her husband had died aud her younger son had fallen heir to the estates she had a "strong presentiment" that Boger would 0110 da3' return. She continued to advertise for him and in 1S66 an Australian detective de-tective agency presented to her a niau claiming to be her long-missing son. His stoiy was that he had lived in Australia for thirteen years under the assumed name of Thomas Castro. Lad3r Tichbornc appeared to recognize him at once, welcomed him as her son and advised ad-vised him to assert his rights. Relatives Rela-tives and old famil servants also identified iden-tified (he claimant. Then Lady Tichbornc Tich-bornc died in 1S6S and the case later went to trial. Alfred, the 3rounger brother, now holding the title, brought witnesses to prove that the claimant, was one Or(on, son of a London butcher, while the alleged al-leged Boger put on the stand sailors who declared that the had taken him from the wreck of the Bella. He also. displ.'13'ed a birthmark and wound such as Roger had had. but he lost his case. ' ' Li was arrested, tried and sentenced to fourteen 3-cars for rorjury. butwas set free after ten .yours. After a -lecture tour in America m 1S8G he .beeamo penniless pen-niless and fried to sell a "confession" to a New York newspaper for $10,000. This was afterward disposed of iu England Eng-land and he died in 130S, niany people-still people-still belioving him to be tho real .Roger Tichbornc who had devised tho "confession" "con-fession" as a hoax to raise needed moncv. His cofiiu plate was engraved "Sir'Bogor Charles Tichbornc." Then in 1007 au aged man, just before his death in the Kings Count.y hospital, Brooktyn, made a statement that he was the rightful Roger Tiehborne, that he had returned to England from South America in JS56, but had been spirited o.ut of (he countiy with the threat that he would bo assassinated if he ever returned re-turned to claim his title aud estates. And to this da3' thcro aro peoplo here and in England who do not believe that tho puzzling Tichborno case has 3'ct been justty settled. Quite as conflicting havo been the clues offered to explain the fate of Theodosia Burr Alston, who, on Janu-ur3- 8L, 1SI2, sailed from Charleston on the ship Patriot, bound for New York, where she was to meet her father. Aaron Burr, the former vice-president of the United States. Her little son, Aaron Burr Alston, had just died, and she was hastening to her father for consolation. But tho Patriot, like the Bella, never came to Port. Whether she was wrecked b3' the elements, sunk 1)3 the British or looted b.3' pirates people speculated at the time. But the most persistent, rumor was that she had been captured b.y pirates aud her crew and passengers held in prison for ransom. This, however, how-ever, Aaron "Burr stoutty denied. "All the prisons in the world couldn "f keep Theodosia from her father," said he. lie maintained that (lie Patriot had been wrecked, 3'ct not a scrap of wreckage ever washed up on shore, nor did a 113- passing ship ever observe her in distress. Forty 3'cars after her disappearance two men about to be executed in Norfolk Nor-folk confessed that 1 licy aud other shore pirates had lured the Patriot onto the rocks 11 1: Naghead, N. C, aUd after 1M. blindfolding all on board had made fhom "walk the plank." But that Mrs. Alston shared this fate was considered con-sidered doubtful by lnan.v, who look into account her wealth and her ability to pay a heavy ransom to pirates. Some, who believed that she was held captive because of her renowned re-nowned beaufy, maintained that she was later taken to Alexandria, where she died at an inn and was buried in what has since become fauioiisr as the "Grave of the Fomalo Strango'r!j A few years ago a new clue was ivcu by a portrait greatly rcscmbliug Mrs. Alston, which was found in a North Carolina house and which was alleged to have been found during the war of 1S12 iu a in3'S(orious ship wlu'ch came ashore, fulty rigged, iu a Carolina inlet. in-let. This vessel, so tho story goes, contained silks and other valuables besides be-sides the portrait, but uot a human soul. If this ship were fho Patriot, - jJrvffo Dc town. T,c3cxEcM.wr. .w c&xtef ojy. both the pirate and shipwreck h'pothescs would seem to be eliminated, elimi-nated, as pirates would uot leave such valuable loot as silks, while a storm would not desfrov- the passengers and leave the boat intact. Grim Testimony of Three Skeletons. Upon what has befallen some disappearing disap-pearing personages though probably none of those mentioned above several grewsome discoveries of recent times have thrown their light. The other da.v. in Richmond, Va., workmen demolishing de-molishing an old building in a once fashiouablo section of the city came upon up-on a scaled dungeon, ten i'eet below the street level. Breaking through a .brieked-over trap door, tliCA- entered this prison, lindiug two connecting chambers each containing a skeleton, one that of a man, crouching in a corner, and the other that of a 3'ouiig woman, tying at full length. The adjacent houses dated back to the forties aud had been used succes-sivety succes-sivety as a. fashionable dwelling, hotel, club, hospital and tenement, but to which one of theso periods the skeletons skele-tons belonged no one can as .yet determine. de-termine. That they were alivb when imprisoned is evidenced by the discovery discov-ery of cooking utensils fou'ud with their bones. But their imprisouer took care that their cries should not reach tho outside air, as the careful scaling of their dungeons shows. Thev seem to have been doomed to die together per-haps per-haps Ivy a jealous husband or jealous lover, who knows? Out of the lives of tlieir loved ones they once "mysterious-Jy "mysterious-Jy disappeared," and perhaps their van-islung van-islung was chronicled at the time. . A similarly uncanny discovery, made 1 in Newark, N. J. only a month before, was that of the charred skeleton of a woman, m tho long-closed attic of an abandoned insane asvlum. This woman who had cvidontly been burned while to'ing (0 escape perhaps fpvt3- years ago was missed and griovM for bv some one near and dear to her, aud at the timo she was doubtless Jiornhled in tue public, prints as having1 invstcriou3-ly invstcriou3-ly vanished. Men of Mystery. A "man of mystery" died hist year in the Owen oount3" poor farm at. S"pcu-cer, S"pcu-cer, lud. ,A.bout ten years before he had become stranded in t he vicinity. He was a man of culture- and to tho poor-house poor-house authorities ho related his travels and confided that he had "benborn in New York and been graduated at tho Ohio Weslu3'an university. "Spud mv body to a medical college." was tho onl will aud testament of this man, who hud long ago beeu missed and grieved after 13' somo poor buffering soul who loved him. A.nd lalcty there appeared in San Diego, Cal., an artist und musician who could remember onl.y that he had lost his sweetheart and six close ml a tives by death; that tho sorrow had wrecked his health and that ho had been taken to a sanitarium, where his hair turned white, though he was buu thirty-five. He was known as "Al-frod "Al-frod Lawrence," but his real namo ho could remember no better than that of his home town, or even biSfhome state. lie, too, has mysteriousty disappeared from somewhere. And how strangety are some of these lost ones found. In October. 1809, iH Prof. Mark W. Harrington, once a 'jH brilliant meteorologist and former chief of the L'nitcd States weather bureau, kissed. his wife and child good-bye. at their home In Mount Vernon and said that he was going to New York. 'H For ten years thereafter Mis. Harring-ton Harring-ton vainly searched for her die-Languished die-Languished husband, onty to find him some months ago entered as "John Doe No. S," in an asylum afc Morris Plains, where he was being treated for loss of memory. Ycuts ago the son of Boborfc IT. Burnhain, a wealthy ranchraaa-of 1?tm, Nov.' weut to New York plentifully supplied with money with which to IH seek his fortune in Wall street. For a jM time he led a gay life, then ho lost his jH all, and to keep from starving found iH a job as waiter. Shame now inter- jH rupted his letters home aud ho became IH lost to his mother. Then his futher IH died, leaving a fortimc, of which ho jH was ignorant. But last summer that 'jH good lad.y. while in New York, went jjH for afternoon tea fo tho Hotel Astor, iH and through a strange fling of fortune jH her son was assigned to her table. Of courso he was forgiven at once and JH his fortune was restored to him. Yes had this chance meeting not occurred iH ho would .still belong to that vast 'H throng the- " nysteriousty disap- |