CHRISTIAN RECEIVED THE KIDNAPPERS’ INSTRUCTIONS AT 4:00 P.M. on July 30. Earlier that morning, Officer Kaercher of the Pottsville police had sent a telegram to Philadelphia Police headquarters. “I have the child and the parties; what shall I do with them?”
Police Chief Jones and Joseph Lewis made immediate arrangements to travel by train to Hamburg. By 11:45 A.M., the Associated Press received word that Christian Ross was en route to Hamburg to identify Charley. Within hours, thousands of Philadelphians read in the afternoon papers that Charley had been found. The Inquirer later reported, “not since the close of the [Civil] war has any piece of news awakened so much interest.” Hundreds gathered around the news bulletin boards on Chestnut Street, waiting for confirmation of Charley’s homecoming.
Track repairs delayed the train carrying Joseph Lewis and Chief Jones. By the time they arrived in Hamburg at 2:15 P.M., a crowd greeted them. The men pushed their way to the station platform, where police had surrounded the gypsy tribe. Joseph Lewis looked at the child and saw how clearly he resembled the Native American woman who held him. A short dispatch was sent to Philadelphia. “The child is not Charley Ross.” The crowds on Chestnut Street turned away.
Meanwhile, police detectives read the kidnappers’ latest letter and called an emergency meeting of the advisers. The city leaders approved Christian’s departure on the midnight train. He would follow the kidnappers’ directions and carry a white valise. Instead of holding $20,000, though, the suitcase would contain a note demanding two conditions: the kidnappers needed to simultaneously exchange Charley for the money, and they needed to agree on a more intimate method of communication than newspaper personals offered.
At midnight, an undercover officer and Frank Lewis sat in the rear car of a train pulling away from the West Philadelphia depot. Christian stood behind them, outside on the train’s rear platform. He held the white valise and grasped the railing. For five hours, Christian scanned the passing landscape. He looked for hiding places and the kidnappers’ designated signal: a man waving a white flag and either ringing a bell or holding a torch. Because the trip had been scheduled so quickly, Christian had been unable to change out of his work clothes into more suitable night wear before making his outdoor trek. He shivered as the train moved through New Jersey mists, particularly when it passed through swampland. Underneath the full moon, Christian realized any parties watching could see him as well as he could see them. Later, he would write, “This of course kept up a painful flutter of anxiety over the whole route—for five mortal hours my brain and eyes were in a fixed agony.”
He arrived in New York, took a cab to Grand Central Station, and by 11:00 A.M., stood alert once again on the rear platform of a train bound for Albany. The train twisted and turned along the course of the Hudson River. Once again, Christian held his white valise in one hand and gripped the train railing with the other. He squinted through the engine smoke and hot afternoon sun, unable to wipe his face. His mind became so exhausted that he couldn’t decipher between railroad flagmen and his potential contact—on more than one occasion, he prepared to throw the valise before recognizing the rail-workers’ flags. Christian, his nephew, and the officer arrived at 1:00 P.M., checked into a hotel, and asked at the post office for a letter addressed to C. K. Walter. No such letter had arrived. As tired as he was from the rush of events over the past twenty-four hours, Christian couldn’t quiet his mind enough to sleep. He spent the rest of the day wandering around Albany.
The next morning, the men left on a 10:00 A.M. train and returned to Germantown that night.
PHILA 31 July.—Ros: Yu seem to have no faith in us whatever. at the time we supposed yu wer gitin redy to effect the change yu were as the Evening Star stated on you way to potsvill to see some child there. if yu had done as the last letter instructed you and let the potsvill affair alone yu would now have the plasure of seeing yu child safe at home after we had seen that yu had gone to potsvill we did not instruct our agent to meet yu from the fact we thought it was no use. to save yu al further trouble an vexation in runing around to false reports that yu child is found here, and found there, we tel yu candidly that yu child is not in the possession of any woman or family or that his hair is cut off short.
The Philadelphia Public Ledger. August 1.
“John, your directions were followed, you did not keep faith. Point out some sure and less public way of communicating either by letter or person.”
PHILA. Aug, 3.—Ros—in not keeping our apointment with yu was entirely a mistake from the fact of havin seen a statement in evening star that yu had gone to potsvill on the day you was to setle this bisines with us. we saw the mistake but not in time to communicate with our agent or to notify yu not to go as we directed yu. Yu say yu want us to point out some sure way by which this money can be transmited to us—of course we can not call on yu personaly neither can we receive it by letter. Ros— We will make the followin proposition to yu and if yu comply with the terms propounded we wil settle this bisines in very quick time satisfactory to both parties concerned so far as the restoration of your child is concerned.
Proposition 1st. Yu wil hand the box with the amount in to our agent when he calls to yu store.
Proposition 2d. Yu wil hand him the box, ask him no questions—not folow him—not put any one to folow him—not tel him what the box contains—not notify the detectives so they can folow him—not do anything that wil interupt its transit to us.
The Philadelphia Public Ledger. August 3.
“John. Propositions are impossible. Action must be simultaneous.”
PHILADELPHIA, August 4.—Ros: do yu supose that we would produce the child and hand him over to you the instant yu paid the money to us. the thing is absurd to think of such a change, we are not redy yet to have chains put on us for life. when yu receive this we shal be at least 200 miles from here we leave the detectives of phila and Mr tagget to work out their clues. we think we have left no clues behind us. Charley wil remain where he was taken the second night after he left home. if Mr tagget can find a clue to that place he wil no doubt get the reward we have no feminies into that place. charley will never come out of there. it shal be his everlasting tomb—unless the ransom brings him out. we are not destitute of a few dollars yet, charley shal never starve to death if death it must be, it shal come upon him as instant as the lightning strock itself. Mr Ros, if you have anything to say to us it must be through the personals of New York Herald.