KIDNAPPED BY GIPSIES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1529, 11 April 1887, Page 2

KIDNAPPED BY GIPSIES.

The lnafc papera from Home contain a moat carious account of a dear case of childstealing by gipsies. Wainatoad Plata, on the botderß of Bpping Poreßt m Eases, haa always heon a favorite holiday reaort of L >ndoQerß, and m August 1884 a little boy, 10^ years old, Darned Frederick Ruaaall, (he son of parents m a respectable position at Fulham, went with some frienda to speud the bank holiday. Ab he did not return at night, and hia companions could not give any account of how they had missed him, aearch waa made for him under the belief that he had lost himself m the woods or met with aome accident, Months paßaed away, however, and at last bla parents gave up all hopo of ever Beeiog him sgain. They never did S9O him again until the Bth of January, 1837, when his father met him with a band of gipsies at a place called the Freemaaona'-road, somewhere m (ha outikirta of London, and took possession of him. The boy had actually been beguiled away from hia party at Wanatead Flats by a g'pay woman named Louisa Gumbroll and her reputed husband, and carried off m a van. His adventures daring his captivity were quite thrilling. Nobody ever yat waa able to explain satisfactorily why gipsies steal children, and certainly their object m this caae !b a oomplete mystery. . It was not a matter of adopting a child for love, for they always treated little Freddy Rusaell very unkindly. Yet they do not seem to have had any idea of matting money by him. They did nothing with him, m fact, except to take him about with them hupping m Kent, horae couping , and carrying on questionable gameß at the races at Ascot, Hampton, and Epsom and wandering about the oountry, picking up a living a* best they could. Toe frightened lad escaped from them once, but fell into the hands of another band of gipiios, who acting on some peculiar code of honesty, took him back to his original captore. One day they returned to Wanstead Flats, and Freddy, rt cognising tha oountry, slipped away and walked to London and on to Fulham, begging on the road. He made for hia home, but only to find it occupied by strangers from whom he could get co news of his parents He then got employ meat from a greengrocer at Fulham and shortly afterwards met a Mr Elgar, a rataaioanry, who interested himself m him, and got him admitted into De Bamardo'a Home for Friendless Bjyj at Stepney Causeway. Here he might have been expected to be safe ; bat it was not ax De B irn^rdo's boys were allowed occasionally to go out m partieß, and one day when Freddy wag strolling about with a number of his matea near the East India Dooktoad, whom should he see but the gipsy woimin, Louisa ! She immediately selzad him, scolded him for running away, and carried him off and put him once more m the van. Next doy the band left London and wont to Green Lanes, Tottenham. Here Louisa and her mother had a quarrel, and the mother got a policeman and pointod out Freddy as a stolen child ; bun Louiaa denied it, and i the policeman went away. The next morning farther police inquiriea ware in- ' atituted, but the family quarrel had been made up, and Freddy was hidden under the bed m the van, both women swearing thero waa no child there. After that he might have remained Kith the gipsies ail his life if Mr I?us3ell had not met them y pure chance and recognised his son. The whole story would be quite incredible if it were not perfeotly true. It throws a atrange light on the accuracy of many passages In Dickens' works, for example, whioh have been condomned as unnatural, improbable, nnd meaningless. The persistency, of Louiaa m capturing and recapturing F.eddy Ruiseli affords a striking counter-pat t to the narrative of Nauoy and Oliver Twist j and of the two, perhaps, the adventures of Freddy are the more bewildering and una< omntable.