CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL
OF
POPULAR
LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART.

CHARLEY ROSS.

On the 1st of July 1874, two little boys, brothers,were playing on the side of a public road nearsome villas at Germantown, a few miles fromPhiladelphia. The elder of the two, Walter Ross,was nearly six years of age; the younger, CharleyRoss, was aged four years and two months. Theywere the sons of Christian K. Ross, a gentlemanin business in Philadelphia, who lived in one ofthe villas at this pleasant part of the environs.His wife and some other children were at thetime residing at Atlantic City on the sea-shore ofNew Jersey. Charley was a charming little boy,with a round full face, broad forehead, brightbrown eyes, and light flaxen hair, curling inringlets to the neck. Like all American childrenwhom we have ever seen, Charley and his brotherWalter were fond of candy, a sweetmeat of thebarley-sugar species, the taste for which led inthe present case to a serious misadventure.

For several days in their outdoor sports, thetwo boys had been presented with a present ofcandy by two men who were driving in a kindof wagon or drosky, and who stopped for a momentto talk to them. These interviews produced aslight acquaintance with the men. When theydrove past on the 1st of July, and as usual gavethem candy, Charley asked them for a ride, andalso whether they would not buy him somecrackers, which they promised to do. The crackerswere meant to be used as fireworks on the 4th July,the annual fête commemorative of American Independence.After driving on for a certain distance,the men returned and took them for a ride into thewagon. Walter asked them to go to Main Streetto get the fire-crackers, but was told that he andhis brother would be taken to Aunt Susie's store.This was a place which had no existence. Soonward the two boys were driven, amused withtalk, and supplied with fresh doles of candy. By-and-by,as Charley thought the men were drivingrather far, he began to cry, and begged to be takenhome. To pacify him, the men gave Walter somemoney to go into a cigar-store which had crackersexhibited in the window; he was to buy twopackages of crackers and one of torpedoes, andcome back to the wagon. While he was gone onthis deceitful mission, the wagon drove off withCharley. When Walter came out of the store withhis hands full of fireworks, he was not a littlesurprised to find that the w

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