Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 January 1875 — Lost Children. [ARTICLE]

Lost Children.

In the course of a year more than 2.000 cases of lost children are reported to the police. A portion of these, of course, do not require an extensive hunt, but the children return in a few days, are found with friends or have merely gone to lodging-houses. Many of these cases, however, fife never brought to light; what becomes of the children is never known; and yet, in a majority of instances, they are held in families in the city, perhaps no more than a half-hour’s walk from their own homes. Not a few recoveries are made independently of the efforts of the detectives, by mere accident, or through .the agency of some one of the many institutions which are devoted to the rescue of poor and orphan children from the wretchedness of their lot. It does not always appear when these mysteries are solved that the lost children have been abducted. Soifie of them, with the hope of better fortune, which actuates many older people in rash changes, have deserted their homes and sought shelter wherever they might, professing, perhaps, that they were without friends or that they had been driven away from their homes bv brutal parents, or that they dare not go' home because they have not been able to earn anything. They are shrewd enough to adopt strange names by which they are known among their stew acquaintance. It often happens that they find better homes than they left, and, either of their own inclination or through the influence of those who hold them, they keep their secret, live a false life, and become as dead to their own parents. Among the every-day occurrences of this nature some are of marked interest, but are often not made known to any outside a small circle of friends.

A case or more than usual interest, of which the full circumstances have not before been made public, was exposed by a simple question from an officer of one of the largest charitable institutions in the bity. A girl of about eleven years was brought to the institution, over a year ago, by a woman who professed to be her mother. Her story was that her husband had quarreled with her and was very brutal; that she feared he would kill or injure the girl, in his rage, and she had brought her there to .save -her from his anger. She. was referred to the court for the directions of the Judge, who, after hearing the case, recommended that the child be left at the institution for a time at least. She was there about six months, during which time she gave no intimation that the woman who brought her there was not her mother. It was noticed, however, that she was a girl of refinement in her manners and habits and suspicion was thus aroused that she had not always lived in the family of a vender. On the day she was to be sent to a Western home she was taken aside and informed that she was believed to have deceived them ' regarding her previous life, although they then had no clew to her true history. She seemed at first somewhat frightened but finally said to her questioner that if he would protect her she would tell him the truth. She had kept her secret because those from whom she had come to the institution had threatened terrible punishment if she should tell, and she had not rid herself of the notion that they could by some means fulfill their threats. She now, however, told her story. She was the daughter of a dressmaker up-town, whose name she gave and residence. Her mother sent her out one afternoon to buy some buttons; she missed her Way and walked about until dusk, when she spoke to a man who was fastening his horse by the sidewalk, and asked if lie would take her home. He told her to wait a minute; meanwhile he went into the house, near them, and returning shortly after led her in and said he would take her home after dinner. Later in the evening lie told her she must stay all night, which she did. In the morning he tftfd her that they had a baby which she must take care of; that he should not take her where she said was her home; that her name was not what she had called it, but Jennie Meesler, and that she was his little girl whom he lost when very young. Having heard her story, the Superintendent sought out the girl’s mother at the address she had given him, found her, and heard her sad account of nei lost gijl. She was informed that she could probably learn important facts about her girl by going with him. This she did, and there followed the joyous recognition and the restoration of the.daughter to her mother and home. During the year that had intervened every effort had been made by this lady that she and her friends could devise; but all the work of detectives had been unsuccessful, not the slightest clew having been obtained. To avoid notoriety no action was taken against the abductor of the child, who went unpunished. Another recent case in which one of the asylums "was the channel through which light entered was that of a girl under twelve years of age. She was taken to the institution by a lady from the east side of the city, with whom she had lived several months. She was an orphan, hut no papers of guardianship could be shown. Previously she had lived in Brooklyn, and the people there with whom she had been could furnish no papers. The Court advised that she be placed in the institution. She reI mained here several months and was | then sent to Illinois to a home as an | orphan child. Nothing occurred of note I for many months, when, something going wrong in her Western home, she wrote to her own parents, who were | still alive knd mourning their girl as lost. ! For some reason never learned she had | kept her false name and repeated her I false history until then, but all the time knowing - that her parents were living. Upon receiving her letter her father immediately went to Illinois and she returned with him. He had made con- ; stant efforts to learn her whereabouts, and her description .had been furnished the police by the institution—as in all capes where there is any doubt about the applicant—hat all to no avail.