STOLEN BY GIPSIES.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2770, 31 January 1895, Page 3

STOLEN BY GIPSIES.

About fourteen years ago much exciiement was aroused in Bristol by the mysterious disappearance of the seven-year-old daughter of Mr and Mrs Lewis, people of good position, who resided at Clifton Downs. The little girl was last seen by her playmates on the Downs, but from that place all trace was lost. The worst was feared, but, as a matter of fact, the child had been taken by gipsies, who, for what her clothes would fetch, enticed her away. They took some of her clothes, and left her by the roadside some distance from Bristol. While she was crying a lady and gentleman came along in a carriage. The gentleman stopped the carriage, and, the child being unable to give her name or address, beyond stating that she was called Ruth, the lady, whose name was Clark, took her home, and, hearing nothing of the hue and cry that was raised, made the little girl one of the family. Ruth Clark was taken to New York, and given a good education, but amid luxury she never forgot her parents, whose only child she was. Finally, the girl resolved to return to England, and by revealing her history to the Mayor of Clinton she got a passage to Bristol. She found, however, that her parents had gone away, and she could get no tidings of them. Her money being almost exhausted, she sought a place as a general servant, and was engaged by Mrs Seager at Bethoven House, Hartford, and subsequently by Laing, of The Crescent, Sidcup. The girl’s story became known; renewed efforts to find the parents were made on the girl’s behalf, with the result that she has just been restored to her father, who was found at Cardiff. The mother died about two years ago of a broken heart at the very time the daughter was in Bristol trying to find her.