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Show BUILT ON CONCERTINA PLAN. oa lira, and than. In a spasm of terror, race away with bar rhlldran from tha reaulta of bar carelessness? Ahd if ao, at wbat .psychological moment waa bar raaaon destroyed j at algbt of the flames, or whan aha found heraelf alone In tha wooda with har children? Or did aha fee! tha approaching return of the dreaded malady, and, fearing for the future of har rhildran without her care and oversight, apirlt tham away? And, if ao, where did aha leave them? hoBM fit Llghtkscpcr Measures Six Feet Inches In His Stockings. HOLDS MID WOMAN Six Like the towering pines that fringe the North Carolina coast, uKn which he was born, in sight of dreaded llatr teraa Fsblus Evans Simpson, tha assistant keeper of Laczaretlo lighthouse, at the entrance to Baltimore - harbor, can lay claim to be the tallest llgbtkeeper in the Fifth lighthouse district it not level with the tallest in the service from Maine to Klo Grande. IIs is only S3 years old and is built When he on the concertina plan. rises from a sitting posture uue wonders bow much more remains to be unfolded before he is straightened out. lie is six feet six Inches In his stocking feet. His parents were reared alongside , and he routes of a family that the haa figured in the annals of the lighthouse service. Alpheut W. Simpson, father of the young man, was keeper of North river light station, and his uncle, Fablus Kvans Simpson, Is now In charge of the exhibit of tbe lighthouse board at the Jamestown exposition. Another uncle, A. J. Simpson, la keeper of Southwest Point light, all In North ('arollua. Young Simpson says be will stick to the business, believing he has Inherited an ambition for the service In which bia family haa figured fur many years. He could not furnish a full length picture of himself, lie said be tried to get a photographer in North Carolina to take all of him, bnt the artist said be could only do It in sections, and then paste them together, which, he thought, would give an Idea of his To do so client's losering figure. tbe photographer wanted to charge extra for the second section, and the picture wax not taken. May Hava Sent Children Away. Some few Brocktonitea believe that because the air had been full of rumors regarding unhapplneaa In tha Hall home she really did arrange to have some one come with a red automobile and take her rhildren where they might be cared for. But auch reasoning doea not satisfy the majority of those who have worked on the rase. The majority believe that tbe woman, in horror at the malady which waa slowly creeping upon her, took her children to some lonely spot and killed them, then with the cunning of the madwom-- 1 an, hid them beyond all finding. Perhaps the torn hands came from dlg-- I ground that ahe ging in the might hide the silent little forma. Perhaps the scratches on her throat came not from her own fingers, but from the tiny hands fighting for their lives. And who shall say at what la stant reason was dethroned, or what act of her own or another swept like la sharp knife through the tottering brain and left it a blank? Perhaps Mrs. Ball knows where the children are, and, with demoniac cunning, refuses to let the father claim bis own flesh and blood. Perhaps, if she would, she could lead the searching parties to the very spot where the silent forms are buried. PRANKS" PLAYED IN YOUTH. Perhaps her mind was never a blank. and medical But history, otherwise, Children of Oter Days Wera Not as gives her the benefit of the doubt Good as Supposed. came from all over New England to EnFamous 8tories. Brockton Resembles The Join In the search. Don't do ax I do; do as I say to Who does not recall Julian Haw terprise offered a reward of $100 for ix the advli-which nearly all do, or Maidead Archibald of the the recovery children, thorne's great story, x cnuM give to their children parent malson, whose hero, from brain the pranks of a father and shock, reverted every seven years to for, verily, In the telling wniml very much mother bethe mental state of seven years worse than 0f which the modfore, recalling in minutest detail every- ern child isanything capable. when this pething that had happened Hoie & re a few stories which a cerculiar psychological and mental parWoods Thoroughly fiearched. doctor tells to his tain And him? overtaken had poor Every inch of tho frozen woods oxysm little daughter who, by (iigniticii very rememinto which tho woman and her chil- Archibald, when he was 28, In astonishment, die lixtens the way, was when he on the that bered over. nfght dren had disappeared was raked entirely, but recounts to her The Avon reservoir, beyond the woods, 21 he had faiddi-- his bride of an hour approveswith a disapproving pride, if friends of none the where in a merry around all dungeon, was dragged. Farinera a Is such thing possible, la the whole And while her, Brockton neglected their affairs In wedding guests might affair. cake wine and went her to he the bring to unearth efforts their frantic We certainly must have been rathbodies of the two little ones. The po- fiom tlie wedding feast. And as he had children, my sister and I,1 lice matron of Brockton was sent to went down the winding stairs the er the gentleman the other day prefaced touched had of him, time hand setting In the hope the asylum at Taunton that talking, 'woman to woman, she might obtain some clew from the demented mother. But she came home with word that her attempt had failed. Mrs. Ball's mind wss a blank. Then' came a day when some children playing In the woods near the suburb of Holbrook, five miles from the Ball home, came upon some Jure nlle raiment a boy's blouse, two union suits and a little girl's under skirt These were partially but not completely identified by the distractbe was not up ed father, for man-likon the details of the family wardrobe. And then, while searching parties raked and scraped the woodland In which these garments had been found, tho father received word that his wife seemed to he quite rational .again. I I half-froze- n -- to-da- y j Mass. "I opened my Brockton. cloak and look the children under It, one on each side. From that time till 1 woke up everything is a blank. Twenty-fiv- e trembling words, spoken by a disheveled, shaking woman, yet behind them lies the tragedy dis-of a wrecked home, the remarkable appearance of two human beings as if the ground had opened to swallow them, and a mystery which has baffled the keenest detective minds of New England. A mother calling at the schoolhouse door for her boy and girl, three figures disappearing Into the woods, a great storm cloak flung open to shelter two small forms a blank of 24 hours, and then a disheveled, quivering mother-forbeing hurried to an Insane asylum. What happened during that period of mental death? And where are the children? On Monday, December 2, soon after nine oclock, Mrs. Mary R. C. Ball, wife of John Ball, left her home at 26 Holbrook avenue, and walked hurriedly to the Wlnthrop school, where her children were engaged in their studies. Mary Grace Ball, aged nine, and Thomas Ball, aged seven, were excused by their teachers at the request of their mother, who was apparently quite composed and natural In her They put on their warm bearing. coats and toques and mittens and trotted down the schoolyard path, one on either side of the tall, cloaked figure. . Children Went Joyfully. Joyous anticipations were aroused Christmas In their childish minds. was at hand. Perhaps they were going shopping! Perhaps they were going to the woods to gather evergreens! As to whore they really went, directly from the schoolhouse, opinions differ. This may have been because Brockton had something else to think about during the next few hours. The Ball home on Holbrook avenue was in flames. There was a (ire to be put out and to be discussed, and It was so unfortunate that It happened while Mrs. Ball waa away shopping! However, since the tragedy has become the sole topic of conversation In the little manufacturing city of Brockton, one man recalls that he saw the mother and her children to-- . gether about 2:30 oclock that afternoon. Two children, who knew the Ball family well, claim to have seen the mother 'without the children on Brockton street at 4:30 of that eventful Monday afternoon. But the one tangible piece of evidence is that Mrs. Ball, unaccompanied by her children, stopped at a lunch cart for a mouthful of food at Avon, a little town just north of Brockton, on Tuesday evening, December 3. tater that night she was found by a nearby farmer, A. L. Pinto, in his barn and was ordered away. The children were not with her. Pinto did not know who she was and took her for some poor, drunken wretch. Instinct Led Woman Home. Two nights later, on Thursday, December 6, Mrs. Ball staggered into the home of Mrs. Baxter, who lived opposite the Ball home in Brockton. The Baxters were terrified by the figure which stumbled across their threshold. Her clothes were In disorder. Her fingers were grimy and torn as though she had been digging la the frozen earth. Across her throat were great bloody scratches. All reason had fled. Her eyes were wild, her speech Incoherent The next morning a raving maniac, Mary Ball was taken to the asylum for the Insane at Taunton, Mass. But where were the children? Tbe distracted father asked It. The excited neighbors echoed hla question. The county officials considered It Uiair duty to find out Detectives ARM NET TO CATCH HER. MRS. TOWNSEND OF DODGE, NEB, GETS HELPMEETS CONFUSED WHEN TALKING OF THEM. New York. Tbe young and beaut! fill wife of James Graff swung froia the fire escape at their apartment the other afternoon In a mad effort to commit suicide. She was caught by a negro maid, who held the lnsans LOSES BUT FIVE BY DEATH woman far above tbe heads of an excited crowd that assembled in lh stt cot. below, until men conld snatch the blankets from horses standing Men and Two Spouses Were Colorado near by, and catch the woman in the One Now Lives in Cripple Creek Improvised Jumping net. Advertised for Last y Mrs. Graff deveioited signs of One. insanity and drove her husband from the apartment, lie was standing Zoover. on the sidewalk Neb. Joseph Omaha, in front of the house Charles K. Ewing, John J. 8ults. O. 11 when Mrs. Graff appeared on the fire Scott, Philip Muomaw, Charles Hitchcock, D. C. lilgford, George W. Smith, Henry Straw, Jesse latman, Thomas Blrchell, Edgar Fenton, Charles Hen shy, A. W. Townsend. Mrs. A. W. Townsend of Dodge, Neb., has been married to 14 men within the last 43 years. Above Is a complete list of their names in the order In which she Her marriage to married them. Townsend, a wealthy retired farmer, has Just been celebrated. Mrs. Townsend became the wife of Joseph Zoover, a Colorado miner, when she was 13 years old, and before she was 14 site was a mother and a widow. Before she waa 15 ahe was married to Ewing, and before site was of age she hud had several husbands and was the mother of a number of tem-IKirar- rhildren. - n years old, and Is a and by no means woman. Ail but five of her 14 husbands arc living. All hilt two of the 14 served In the civil war. Zoover, Suits, Seott, Blgford and Smith are dead. Ewing lives in Cripple Creek, Col.; Mooniaw in Salt tak. City, Hitchcock in Oakland, Cal.; Straw, tanian and Blrchell in Council Bluffs, Fenton in Seattle, and Henahy in Dayton, O. Mrs. Townsend has had so many husbands that she sometimes experiences difliculty in rcralljng tho names of some of Ihem. When sho talks of them she occasionally gets them confused and haa to stop and think to get them straight In her mind. Their faces he cannot always recall, either, nor can she alwuys recall clearly Just what She is now 58 d She Had 14 Husbands. sort of men some of ihem were him hack seven year and blotting out In telling of those pranka played la I remember on one occa-bloall memory of what had happened bis yenth. we broke and up a dinner party by between hia fourteenth birthday And ao it happened sending a plate warmer clanging down bis twenty-firs- t the steps. Another time we succeedthat when, with hla twenty-eight- h came memorlex of the ed in ripping open every feather pi! birthday, In the house and playing snow-antwenty-firs- t he remembered his bride j low ttwm with the feathers before the went to take her the cake and I and behold! there, 'neath the body caught us. I stood at the top l,f showered down the ,talr wedding veil, lay the bones and the fpat hers while the other children held had hla retainers whom of her dust umbrellas over themselves down sought for weary months. be11"' Then there la Sir Gilbert Parker's But the best thing we ever did The Right of Way," the tale of the was when my sister and I decided we young lawyer who, struck on the head, wanted to collect some money. I got brain his roamed among the loggers, an organ and she took a plate and we a blank, until another and an equally went out to collect the shekels. Ws great shock restored reaeon. And to must have found the job very pleas-w- e day Booth Tlrkington is contributings becaim got out into the sub- Guest of Qu. to Everybody's in The and . tirbs, . then somebody recognized anifi nay .a story on prec tho crest on the plate my sister was n strick mind a brilliant of line, CWTJrng and took ug home Then then restored In both Instances by there was the time" shock. And Judging by all the stories told, And If the allenlste now studying these children of some years ago were shock Mrs. Ball's case decide that by no means good as gold, who alalone will restore her reason and pro- ways did as they were told," and two vide the key to the mystery of the nothing else. lost children, will the law permit them to apply the teat, to administer Medical Advice. tbe shock? Lady Patient Doctor,' what do you do when you burn your mouth with If you are looking for happiness, hot coffee? side why not try to look on tho bright Duetor Swear. of things? any-win- . j Shock May Restart Reason. Her present condition in nowise resembles her former unfortunate state. Then she was violent and noisy. Now her mind Is simply a blank. And Dr. Goss, superintendent of the asylum, who has been studying her case, believes that unless her brain receives some terrible shock her memory will never be restored. Her recollections of what happened between the time she took her children under the shelter of her rloak and reason resumed Its sway in a ward of the asylum will be aroused only by a shock as great as the one which robbed her of reason. And what shock was that? This la tbe question which Is baffling physlclana, detectives and relatives of the unhappy family. Did Mrs. Ball accidentally set her ; escape and started to climb over tho railing, at the same time announcing her intention of killing herself. Susan Claw, her negro maid, clambered out after her, and managed lo gras her right arm, Just as she was about to drop. The n egress, braced against the railing hung on with all her strength, and screamed at the top of her voice. Mrs. Chat-leYlohl, who lives In the next flat, which opens uon the same fire escne, opened her front window, looked out, and then hastened to assist the maid. The two women held Mrs. Graff, who squirmed and twisted and fought with desperate energy. Tho husband, rendered helpless from fright, rsu about almluMly ona the sidewalk, while others prepared to catch the struggling woman. When they dropped Mrs. Graff lo the blankets below, Mrs. Vlohl dropped on the fire escape In a dead faint J, to the Taunton asylum he bur rt Strength. This Hobo Will Visit Lincoln Park, N. Mother's Memory Gone. d The Negress Hung On with All Her STRUCK A HORNET'8 NEST. e, So AT DIZZY HEIGHT MAID CLINGS TO MISTRESS UNTIL MEN IN STREET BELOW GET I ried alone. Unaccompanied by hysterical women or keen-eyedetectives, he hoped that lx a quiet, heart-to-heatalk with his wifb he might obtain some clew to the whereabouts of his children. I took my children under my cloak. They were cold and crying. The rest is a blank." Behind that moment if motherly Instinct when she stretched out the protection of arms and woolen folds to envelop her shivering children, Mrs. Ball's memory cannot go. Sometimes she gropes wildly for facts, and says a woman In a red automobile took the children away. But always she realizes that the children are gone, that none can find them, and that behind the veil of her clouded mind lie the farts which she cannot reach. Grave physicians and alienists have visited this woman, striving to decide whether it is a lapse of memory pure and simple, or a return of the mental malady from which she suffered four years ago. At that time she waa confined to the asylum because, on the death of her youngest child, she bad develojied a curious homicidal mania, brought on by excessive grief. But as time cured the wound her mental equilibrium was restored, and she returned to her home, whore apparently she was devoted to tbe two retraining children. BY men- tally, morally and spiritually. "Of rourse I know the names of al! my husbands when I stop to think," laid Mrs. Townsend. "It Is true, however, that I do get them confused in my mind occasionally. Within a short time 1 was married to and separated from a good many men. With some of them I lived but a few month b. It is thosp with whomin I lived so short u time that 1 sometimes rannnt recall readily. Some of my husbands 1 remember very, very dlstlnctlv, and can tell you all about them." For more than 40 years this remarkable woman made tier home In Council Bluffs, where she Is well known. Most of her numerous marriages were celebrated there. Her old neighbors In Council Bluffs have a good word lo ay for her In despite of her peculiar views on marriage and the extraordinary matrimonial record ahe has established. The men living In Council Bluffs who were formerly her husbands speak not nnklndly of her, either. Her children have opposed her marrying so frequently, but they say she Is a woman of good heart and she has always been good to them. As for Mrs. Townsend herself, she rays the explanation of her 14 marriages Ilea In tho fart that she has n very affectionate nature and rannnt live happily alone, and to the further fact that every woman needs a husband to support her. She advertised fur a husband after her separation from her thirteenth husband, and In this way became acquainted with and finally the wife of Townsend. Townsend is 65 years old, bale and hearty, prepossessing in appearance and address, and is held in the warmest regard by all who know him. H? has lived In and near Dodge for many years, and no man In the community , Is more td and honored than he. Vownsend says It is easy 4(h for any woman to capture the husbaad she sets her heart upon If she t t manage righL No More. Lincoln Park, N. J. Slung by hornets, chewed up by a farm dog and then horsewiiipiied, a tramp was triply punished for stealing peaches and chasing two young women through the Snyder orchard. They don't like tramps here. This one did not even have a chance to shake tbe dust of the place from his person. It was shaken from him by a young farmer, William Jackson, who said afterward that he grenily enjoyed the task. Miss Cariotta Snyder, daughter and heiress of the snug Snyder fortune, was the first to discover the tramp. She waa wandering through her father's orchard with her friend, Mias Esther Burrldgc.of Brooklyn, when they espied the man in ono of the finest jieach trees filling a bag with the fruit. That fellow is stealing my fathers peaches!" cried Miss Snyder, and then ahe sternly ordered the tramp to leave the place. I'll steal you, too, for you are the finest peach In the orchard," declared the tramp, as he descended from the tree and ran toward the girls. They screamed and fled, with the tramp In hot pursuit. In their flight (lie girls ran past a tree, on a lower limb of which was a large hornet's nest, and Miss Snyder, with a sudden inspiration, shook the limb vigorously and then ran on faster than ever. The angry insects swarmed out Just as the tramp reached the tree. His chase of the girls ended right there, and while he was fleeing from and fighting them off. the hornet Tign," the Snyder dog, arrived and gave battle. He would have killed the tramp, who had been bitten in a dozen places and stung In something less than a thousand more, when young Jackson arrived and pulled the dog off. Then he led the tramp none too gently lo a railroad siding, and leaning him against a freight car, soundly horsewhipped him. Mr. Tramp was forced to board a train, from which a brakeman promised to kick him 40 miles farther on. Last Kiss in Coffin Savee Life. Aspen, Col. Just before the coffin lid was to be fastened the mother of John Classic, aged 18, pressed the last kiss on his brow and saw a taint twitch of his eyelids. She screamed for help. Physicians soon restored him to consciousness and are hopeful of a complete restoration to health. , |