If rock ton. Mass.—“I opened my J
cloak and took the children under it, ,
«te on each side. From that time till ,
I woke up everything is a blank."
Twenty-five trembling words, spok- 1
en by a disheveled, shaking woman. ;
yet behind them lies the tragedy of
a wrecked home, the remarkable dis- i
appearance of two human beings as if
the ground had opened to swallow
them, and a mystery which has baf
fled the keenest detective minds of j
New England.
A mother calling at the schoolhouse ;
door for her boy and girl, three fig
ures 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-form being hurried to an in
sane asylum.
What happened during that period i
of mental death?
I
Ami where are the children.
On Monday, December 2, soon after
nine o'clock. Mrs. Mary R. C. Rail,
wife of John Hall, left her home at
2*> Holbrook avenue, and walked hur- |
riedly to the Winthrop school, where
her children were engaged in their
studies. | Mary Grace Hall, aged nine,
and Thomas Hall, aged seven, were ex 1
fused by their teachers at the request
of their mother, who was apparently
quite composed and natural in her
hearing. They put on their warm
coats and toques and mittens and trot- ,
ted down the schoolyard path, one on
either side of the tall, cloaked figure, j
Children Went Joyfully.
Joyous anticipations were aroused !
in their childish minds. Christmas
was at hand. Perhaps they were go
ing shopping! Perhaps they were go
ing to the woods to gather evergreens! j
As to where they really went, directly '
from the schoolhouse, opinions differ, j
This may have been because Brockton j
bat! something else to think aJiout j
during the next few hours. The Ball
home on Holbrook avenue was in
flames. There was a fire to be put out
and to be discussed, and it was so un- j
fortunate that it happened while Mrs.
Ball was away shopping!
However, since the tragedy has be
come 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 2:20 o'clock that after
noon. Two children, who knew the
Ball family well, claim to have seen
the mother without the children on
Brockton street, at 4:20 of that event
ful Monday afternoon.
But the one tangible piece of evi
dence is that Mrs. Ball, unaccompanied
by her children, stopped at a lunch
cart for a mouthful of food at Avon. I
a little town just north of Brockton,
on Tuesday evening, December 3.
Latev 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 j
some poor, drunken wretch.
Instinct Led Woman Home.
Two nights later, on Thursday. De
cember 5. Mrs. Ball staggered into the
home of Mrs. Baxter, who lived di
rectly 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
in 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 Hall was taken to the asylum
for the insane at Taunton, Mass.
Hut where were the children?
The distracted father asked it. The
excited neighbors echoed his question.
The county officials considered it
their duty to find out. Detectives
came from all over New England to
join in the search. The Hrockton En
terprise offered a reward of $100 for
the recovery of the children, dead or
alive. Hrockton citizens raised $400
more, and more detectives, profes
sional and amateur, flocked to the
scene.
Woods Thoroughly Searched.
Every inch of the frozen woods
into which the woman and her chil
dren had disappeared was raked over.
The Avon reservoir, beyond the woods,
was dragged. Farmers all around
Brockton neglected their affairs in
their frantic efforts to unearth the
bodies of the two little ones. The po
lice matron of Brockton was sent to
the asylum at Taunton in the hope
that talking, woman to woman, she
might obtain some clew from the de
mented mother. But she came home
with ward that her attempt had failed.
Mrs. Ball's mind was a blank.
Then came a day when some chil
dren playing in the woods near the
suburb of Holbrook, five miles from
the Ball home, came upon some juve
nile raiment—a boy's blouse, two
union suits and a little girl's under
skirt. These were partially but not
completely identified by the distract
ed father, for man-like, he was not up
on the details of the family wardrobe.
And then, while searching parties
raked and scraped the woodland in
which these garments had been found,
the father received word that his wife
seemed to be quite rational again.
Mother's Memory Gone.
So to the Taunton asylum he hur
ried alone. Unaccompanied by hys
terical women or keen-eyed detectives,
he hoped that in a quiet, heart-to
heart talk with his wife he might ob
tain some clew to the whereabouts of
his children.
"I took tnv’ children under my cloak.
They were cold and crying. The rest
is a blank.”
Behind that moment of motherly In
stinct when she stretched out the pro
tection 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 (he
children away. But always she real
izes that the children are gone, that
none can find them, and that behind
the veil of her clouded mind lie the
facts 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 was con
fined to the asylum because, on the
death of her youngest child, she had
developed a curious homicidal mania,
brought on by excessive grief. But as
time cured the wound her mental
equilibrium was restored, and she re
turned to her home, where apparently
she was devoted to the two remaining
children.
Shock May Restore Reason.
Her present condition in nowise re
sembles 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, be
lieves 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 shel
ter of her cloak 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 rea
son.
And what shock was that?
This is the question which is baf
fling physicians, detectives and rela
tives of the unhappy family.
Did Mrs. Ball accidentally set her
house on lire, and then, in a spasm of
terror, race away with her children
from the results of her carelessness?
And if so, at what psychological
moment was her reason destroyed —
at sight of the flames, or when she
found herself alone in the woods with
her children?
Or did she feel the approaching re
turn ol' the dreaded malady, and, fear
ing for the future of her children with
out her care and oversight, spirit them
away? And, if so, where did she
leave them?
May Have Sent Children Away.
Some few Brocktonites believe that
because the air had been full of
rumors regarding unhappiness in the
Ball home she really did arrange to
have some one eonte with a red auto
mobile and take her children where
they might he cared for.
But such reasoning does not satisfy
the majority of those who have
worked on the ease. The majority
believe that the woman, in horror at
the malady which was slowly creep
ing upon her, took her children to
some lonely spot and killed them,
then with the cunning of the madwom
an, hid them beyond all finding. Per
haps the torn hands came from dig
ging in the half-frozen ground that she
might hide the silent little forms.
Perhaps the scratches on her throat
came not from her own fingers, but
from the tiny hands fighting for their
oxysm had overtaken him? And poor
Archibald, when he was 28, remem
bered that on the night when he was
21 he had hidden his bride of an hour
in a dungeon, where none of the"merry
wedding guests might find her, while
he went to bring her wine and cake
from the wedding feast. And as lie
■went, down the winding stairs the
hand of time had touched him. setting
him back seven years and blotting out
all memory of what had happened
between his fourteenth birthday and
his twenty-first. And so it happened
that when, with his twenty-eighth
birthday, came memories of the
twenty-first, he remembered his bride
and went to take her the cake and the
wine, and behold! there, ’neath the
wedding veil, lay the bones and the
dust of her whom his retainers had
sought for weary months.
Then there is Sir Gilbert Parker's
' The Right of Way," the tale of the
young lawyer who, struck on the head,
roamed among the loggers, his brain
a blank, until another and an equally
great shock restored reason. And to
day Booth Tarkington is contributing
lo Everybody’s in "The Guest of Ques
nay ’ a story on precisely the same
line, of a brilliant mind stricken and
then restored in both instances by
shock.
And ir the alienists now studying
Mrs. Balls case decide that shock
alone will restore her reason and pro
vide the key to the mystery of the two
lost children, will the law permit
them lo apply the test, to administer
the shock?
BUILT ON CONCERTINA PLAN.
Lightkeeper Measures Six Feet Six
Inches in His Stockings.
Like the towering pines that fringe
the North Carolina coast, upon which
he was born, in sight of dreaded llat
teras, Fabius Evans Simpson, the as
sistant keeper of Lazzaretto light
house, at the entrance to Baltimore
harbor, can lay claim to he the tallest
lightkeeper in the Fifth lighthouse dis
trict, if not level with the tallest in
the service from Maine to Rio Grande.
He is only 23 years old and is built
on the concertina plan. When he
rises from a sitting posture one won
ders how much more remains to he
unfolded before he is straightened out.
He is six feet six inches in his stock
ing feet.
His parents were reared alongside
the sea, and he conies of a family that
has figured in the annals of the light
house service. Alpheus W. Simpson,
lives. And who shall say al what in
stant reason was dethroned, or what
act of her own or another swept like
a sharp knife through the tottering
brain and left it a blank'.’
Perhaps Mrs. Hall knows today
where the children are, ami, with
demoniac cunning, refuses to let the
father claim ills own flesh and blood
Perhaps, if she would, she could lead
the searching parties to the very spot
where the silent forms are burled
Perhaps her mind was never a blank.
Hut history, medical anti otherwise,
gives her the benefit of the doubt.
Resembles Famous Stories.
Who does not recall Julian Haw
thorne’s great story, ''Archibald Mai
maison," whose hero, from bruin
shock, revdrted every seven years to
the mental state of seven years be
fore, recalling In minutest detail every
thing that had happened when this pe
culiar psychological and mental par
I lather of the young man. was keeper
of North river light station, and his
uncle. Kahilis Evans Simpson, is now
in charge of the exhibit of the light
house board at the Jamestown expo
sition. Another uncle. A. J. Simpson.
Is keeper of Southwest Point light, all
in North Carolina. Young Simpson
says he will stick to the business, be
lieving he has inherited an ambition
for the service in which his family has
figured for many years.
lie could not furnish a full length
picture of himself. He said he tried
to get a photographer in North Caro
lina to take all of him. but the artist
said lie could only do it in sections,
mid then paste them together, which,
lie thought, would give an idea of his
client's towering figure. To do so
the photographer wanted to charge
extra for the second section, and the
picture was not taken.
A light heart lives long.—Shakes
peare.
scooaooooeceoecocosoQoccoeooaosaosososoososooooeoooco!
Looked Like Clear Case.
LOOKED LIKE CLEAR CASE.
Appearances Very Much Against In
nocent Man.
“It's an imposition for a woman to
ask her husband to do errands for her
in the stores," said the subdued look
ing man. “I never fail to get in
wrong, somehow, whenever I get
something for my wife. The other
day I had a bad five minutes on her
account. She had given a teaspoon
to me. one of our wedding presents
it was, to get engraved. I shoved it
into my side pocket and thought I
would wait till I went out to lunch
and turn it over to a jewreler friend
of mine down near where I eat. I had
my luncheon first, and forgot about
the spoon. While the lady cashier
was getting my change I pulled a
i sooooooeoooooooaooooooooooc
handkerchief out of my side pocket
and that infernal spoon fell to the
floor with a big rattle. 1 could hear
people near me saying, 'Funny a de
cent duck like that would try to get
away with a spoon.’ Of course I
squared it with the cashier all right
by simply showing her the spoon, but
I've always been ashamed to go back
and take a chance on meeting some
of the same crowd there again.”
A Lively Squirrel.
An old negro who lives in tho conn
eoaeocsososocdoscoossesosa
j try came into town ati.l saw an elec
tric fan for the first time in his life.
| The whirling object at once attracted
his attention, and. after intently gaz
ing at it for several minutes, showing
all the while the greatest astonish
ment and curiosity, he turned to tho
proprietor of tho shop and said: “Say.
boss, dat suttenly is a lively squirrel
you got In dis yeah cage. Hut he's
shorely goin' to bus' his heart cf he
keep on makin' dent resolutions so
fas'.''—Harper’s.
|" IN THE PUBLIC EYE J
HANDLED GOTHAM PANIC
William A. Nash, president of the Corn Ex
change bank, probably did as much as any man
in New York to put a stop to the recent panic.
J. Pierpont Morgan alone excepted. When the -
flurry came on he was made chairman of the
clearing house committee, and it fail mainly to
him to pass upon 'the securities offered by banks
in need of assistance, to decide which should be
aided and which suspended. • He >■ as regarded by
the other hankers as the balance wheel of the
Wall street situation. • Nor is this his first ex
perience of a panic, for in 190:: he was one of
live men who, as executive committee of the
clearing house, had that, panic in charge. Hi*
sound common sense, his-keen business meth
ods and his far-sighted-mental vision in each;
case saved him from making any very grave
blunders, and he came through both ordeals with flying colors.
Mr. Nash commenced life as messenger boy in the bank of which he is
now president, lie won his advancement step by step, through his ■“•wn
efforts, and 25 years from the day he entered the bank he was its president,
it then had a capital of $1,000,000; now it has $8,000,000. He was the father
of the branch system and the Corn Exchange was the first hank to open
branches when the law was passed authorizing it to do so.' To-day it has
22 branches and minor depositories throughout the city of New York.
Mr. Nash holds the idea that hard work, no matter how intelligent, will
never raise a man very much above his fellows, unless it is combined with
the power of thinking for one's self and aiding his superiors with sugges
tions. A man who can do this can practically dictate his own terms in the
banking world.
CHANCELLOR MAY RESIGN
Chancellor von Bnelow, finding that it re
quires a man of 'more than the average attain
ments it: fill the shoes of the late Prince Bis
marck and to conduct the affairs of the German
empire, is said to be on the point of retiring to
private life. His tincompromising attitude to
wards the socialists, who are rapidly gaining in
strength, has been the means of blocking many of
the emperor's schemes and has caused the ut
most difficulty in his getting the money he wants
for an immense army. He has'won for hinrself
the hostility of some of the court favorites, be
cause he has denounced their scandalous be
havior, and he has even made enemies in the
kaiser's own household by his opposition to the
marriage of the crown prince to the beautiful
Cecilie. because she was the daughter of a Rus
sian grand duchess whose escapades were the talk of all Europe. All this
has reminded Germany that Von Buelow was not so very impeccable himself
when he was a young man. and that his marriage to the lovely Princess
C'amporeale was achieved only after she had run away from Count Charles
von Doenhoff, her rich but aged husband.
The princess found the rambling old Roman palace lonely with only
her husband, a man old enough to be her grandfather, for company, and she
was attracted by the young attache of the German embassy.
Without any pretense at secrecy the princess left her husband and fled
from Rome with her young lover. That of course terminated Von Ruelow's
connection with the embassy, and few people would have giveu much for
his chances of advancement in diplomatic life. The appealing charm of his
wife, even then little more than a child, her rare beauty and their fidelity,
coupled with Von Ruelow's own undoubted talents, kept him in the imperial
favor, and he was sent from one embassy to another until he returned to
Rome as German ambassador.
Roman society conveniently forgot the elopement, and Von Buelow hav
ing married the lady when her husband had divorced her 11 years after the
elopement, they were received into the most exclusive circles. The incident
is now being recalled in Berlin society, however, and strong pressure is
being brought to bear upon the emperor to induce him to dismiss his chan
cellor.
EX-SENATOR’S PLIGHT
Warner Miller, formerly United States sena
tor from New York and once prominent in Re
publican politics as leader of the “Half breeds."
has failed as a result of the Martinique- disaster
seveial years ago, "bankrupted by the acts of
Clod and William Nelson Cromwell," as one of
his friends expressed it.
He did not own a foot of land in Martinique,
nor did he have a dollar invested there, yet the
terrible explosion of natural forces that blew off
the top of the mountain, wiped a city from the
face of the ear'h. laid waste the fields and caused
much destruction among the.shipping caused liis ■
ruin years later. Beeply interested in the Nica
ragua canal project. Miller had invested much of
his money in if. The United States had virtually
decided to undertake the work. ■ Miller stood to
make a fortune, then came the disaster,, which brought with it the fear of
similar outbreaks in Nicaragua. The Panama canal peopie had meantime
come to their senses and were preparing.to make an equitable bargain. The
Nicaragua canal project was dropped and Milieu was deeply involved. rTo
meet his obligations he disinised of his-pulp mill and lumber'holdings and
pinned his faith lo the Sierra Consolidated Gold Mining Co., a West Virginia
corporation. He held about one-third of its total stock of $3,000,000, hoping
to recover his standing through that, but the mines never became producing
properties, although he held on for 12 years, and in the end it came to crash,
bringing Miller down with it.
Miller first came into prominent notice when Senator Roscoe Conkling
and Thomas C. Platt resigned their seats in the senate, to appeal to the peo
ple for their indorsement. They failed to receive the indorsement they
sought, and .Miller became senator to succeed Conkling. He never did any
thing remarkable in the senate, and retired almost as obscure a personage
as when he entered.
TROUBLE IN INDIA
Lord Elgin, secretary of state of the colonies,
is accused by the British press of being respon
sible for the latest ferment in the Transvaal bv
allowing the colonial legislature to treat British
Indians as criminals and send them to jail if thev
refuse to register their finger prints and other
marks of identification. Many of the. proud-spirit
ed high caste Indians have gone to jail rather
than submit to such an indignity, and in a few
days their “martyrdom” will be known all over
India.
Just as the stories sent home by Indian resi
dents of the Transvaal before the Boer war of
the powerlessness of the British there brought
on several uprisings and two rather serious wars
on the northwest frontier, so the story of the
treatment of these Indians now mav lie iho
of still more serious troubles.
Lord Elgin is said to have explained that he was forced to consent to
the registration law of the Transvaal on threat of a rebellion, but if he
yielded to such a threat he shows himself to be a much weaker man than
he was ten years ago when he was viceroy of India. The frontier was then
in a disturbed state and the Afghans, stirred up by Russia, were committing
outrages. Lord Elgin took upon himself the responsibility of sending an
army to bring the disturbers to terms, which he did in short order
Lord Elgin, although a Scotch nobleman and a descendant of an uncle
of King Robert the Hruce, was born at Monkland? near Montreal while his
father was governor general of Canada. The latter died in Canada when the
present Lord Elgin was a iad of 14. The family had been in the llritish din
lomatic service for generations, and the name was known aii over the east
