KIDNAPPED BOY MYSTERY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 59, 18 May 1907, Page 4

KIDNAPPED BOY MYSTERY.

PORTSMOUTH CLUE THAT FAILED. • WORLD-WIDE SEARCH. London, March 25. Tliu world-wide search which is being made for the lost son of Mr Henry Marvin, a wealthy retired physician, of Dover, Delamare, United States, has been focusscd during the last three days at Portsmouth. The boy was kidnapped from his home nearly three weeks ago. The object of the kidnappers was evidently ransom, for two days after he .vanished a threatening letter was received by his father demanding a large sum of money for his restoration. Meanwhile strenuous efforts had been made to trace the missing boy, and the publicity given to the case apparently frightened the kidnappers, for, although efforts were made to get into communication with the writer of the letter, uo reply was received, and nothing has been heard of the boy since. The disappearance aroused the greatest stir in America. The Delaware Legislature voted £IOOO towards the cost of the search, and there is hardly a newspaper in the United States which has not published a portrait of the missing boy. CI IKMI.ST'S ADVENTURE. On Wednesday last information reached the Portsmouth police which led them to believe that they were on the right track of the boy whose disappearance has proved so great a mystery. Mr Philips, a chemist at the Admiralty labority at Portsmouth dockyard, was waiting for the boat at the Harbor Station when he noticed two men dressed like Americans and a small boy. His alien!ion was drawn to the trio by the strange behaviour of the child, who repeatedly asked the men in anxious tones, ••When arc you going to take me to my father';" The following day Mr Philips read an account of the disappearance of little Horace Marvin. The description of the lost child tallied in almost every particular with the child he had seen, and he communicated with the local police.

Scotland Yard and the American Embassy in London were informed, and the information was (prickly passed to Pinkerton's Agency, whose detectives had already been engaged in searching for the boy in this country. During the last three days over 200 detectives have been at vork on the mystery. Hot although they succeeded on Saturday in finding the boy and the two men seen by Mr Phillips, it was only to discover that he was not young Maviu, but the son of English parents. PRESIDENT KOOSEVELT HELPS IN THE SEARCH. New York, March 2.'). The disappearance of Horace Marvin, the four-year-old son of Dr H. N. Marvin, who is believed to have been kidnapped from his home at Dover, Delaware, still remains a mystery, in spite of the fact that a hue and cry has been raised in eery part of the United States. It is just How weeks to-day since the '•hild was seen playing upon a straw slack in his father's farmyard, but since I hen he lias completely vanished, and nothing has been seen or heard of him.

A mysterious sloop was seen sailhi" up the Delaware river soon after the child-was missed, anil it is supposed that Ihe kidnappers selected this means of heaving their captive away. The local police searched the district aigh and low without avail, hut have now ceased their efforts. The Delaware Legislature, whose members knew the little golden-haired boy well, promptly passed a Pill offering a reward of IMOII for his discovery. The yellow newspapers soon increased the amount to IMiIOO.

This 1,.,1 il„. I'inkcrtoii detectives to Infill investigations. For three days a batch of (In. cleverest detectives were at work in the district, but after sifting i'very chic they withdrew. Since IlK'ii there has hecn no official search, ami Dr Marvin appealed to President Hooscvclt. He went as far as the President can go in (jiving permission for all post offices in the United Stales to lie placarded with pictures of the missing child, with a statement of the circumstances under which he was lost.

A State detective at Wilmington, lH a . mere, has received an anonymous letter from Canada, in which the writer claims to have the child in his possession, and demanding a ransom of C-lOuO.

The disappearance of Horace Alarvii had a parallel in the seventies, when a little hoy uained Charlie Boss was kidnapped in broad daylight in the. streetsof Philadelphia. His father, who was an immensely wealthy man, ottered .CJOOO reward for his discovery, but he hits never been heard of from that day to this. When nil oilier methods failed the missing boy's father resorted to the expedient of gigantic posters displayed on the hoardings: -Where is Charlie, Ross?" This sentence soon became a catch phrase throughout the United States. For years after the disappearance al! manner of people came to Mr Eoss claiming to be his son. After inquiring into u long succession of the cases and finding the men to be imposters, Mr Ross finally refused to see any more, and gave up all hope of ever seeing his sou again.