$20,000 his son would be returned, but, that the parent need not search
for Charlie, as all efforts to find the abducted boy or his captors
would only be attended with failure; and it was stated that if this
amount was not paid, Charlie would be killed. The father answered this
and a long correspondence ensued, while the search was prosecuted in all
directions. Mr. Ross wanted the child delivered at the time the money
was paid, but to this the abductors refused to agree. It is stated that
more than $50,000 were expended to recover the child. At one time two
gentlemen were two days in Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York, with the
$20,000 ransom money to be given to the child-thieves, but they did not
appear. The search was continued, and the officers of the law were
looking up any and all evidence, until they had located the two men.
These were found Dec. 4, 1874, committing a burglary in the house of
Judge Van Brunt, Bay Ridge, L. I.; the burglary was discovered, the
burglars seen and shot by persons residing in an adjoining residence.
One of the men was killed instantly, the other lived several hours, and
confessed that he and his companion had abducted Charlie Ross, but that
the dead thief, Mosher by name, was the one who knew where the boy was
secreted. Walter Ross identified the burglars as the men who had enticed
him and Charlie into the buggy. There the case rested. No new fact has
been developed. The missing child has never been found. Many times have
children been reported who resembled Charlie, and Mr. Ross has traveled
far and near in his endless search, only to return sadly and report that
his boy was still missing. No case in recent years has excited such
universal sympathy as that of Charlie Ross.

THE BLUE LAWS ON SMOKING.--There were some very stringent laws in
Massachusetts against the use of tobacco in public, and while the
penalties were not so heavy, yet they were apparently rigidly enforced
for a time. We quote from a law passed in October, 1632, as follows:
"It is ordered that noe person shall take any tobacco publiquely,
under paine of punishment; also that every one shall pay 1_d._ for every
time hee is convicted of takeing tobacco in any place, and that any
Assistant shall have power to receave evidence and give order
for levyeing of it, as also to give order for the levyeing of the
officer's charge. This order to begin the 10th of November next."
In September, 1634, we discover another law on the same