Columbia Democrat And Bloomsburg General Advertiser

The Kidnapping of White Men.
--How a Young Man Luckily Escaped.

It is a well-known fact that poor white men are now kidnapped every day in New York, by a set of land-sharks, who get $10 per head for dragging them in the army, under the plea of their being deserters. The following case rests upon the authority of an Abolition paper, the Commercial Advertiser, of that city. It says:

"Last Monday morning a young man was abducted from Yorkville, under the following circumstances:—The Saturday previous two men entered station H., city Post Office, and made several inquiries of Mr. Pease, the Postmaster, respecting his name and former business, and then went away. On Monday, a man came to the office, and said that he desired the person of one Charles H. Pease, who was said to be a deserter from the 33d New Jersey Regiment. He did not state whether he was a detective or military officer, but took the boy down to the barracks at the City Hall, where some private conversation took place between the supposed officer and a person who did not wear the uniform of a military or police officer. After a few moments' conversation the supposed officer was told to take the boy over to Jersey City. Here he was arraigned before Captain Miller, who upon being asked if this was the young man who had deserted said, "Well, I don't know, I suppose he is; he looks like him; he is young, pock marked, &c." Whereupon the boy was sent to Governor's Island, placed in confinement, and allowed no opportunity of communicating with his friends. The next day one of the government officers engaged in repairing the fort on the Island made a requisition for some men to do some work, and among this detail was this C. H. Pease, who recognized the government officer as one with whom he was acquainted and who resided in Yorkville. He obtained an opportunity to make himself known, and desired the gentleman to tell his father where he was.

"His father immediately secured the services of an officer of the Twenty-third precinct, and they started for Governor's Island and examined the records, but as they did not find the name of C. H. Pease, they were compelled to go away. The next day the search was resumed and the boy was seen, when application was made to General Canby, for his release. The General told the boy's father that he would have to show that the boy had been so employed, that he could not have enlisted at the time alleged, and he would then release him.

"Affidavits were made by several citizens of Yorkville that the boy had been seen by them on the day specified, and could not have been in Jersey City, whereupon General Canby discharged the boy.

"This is not the only case of this kind which has occurred in this city. $10 is now paid for the arrest of deserters, and parties are employed who do not care who they arrest so long as they earn the $10. If a man is once sent to Governor's Island he cannot readily get off. In this case, if young Pease had not been recognized he would by this time have been sent off to the army. As thirty dollars will soon be paid for deserters, many innocent persons will doubtless be picked up."

Here, by the merest accident, (and no doubt there are a hundred like cases), the boy recognized an old acquaintance while detailed to work, and his father was enabled to rescue his son, and so to save him. Under the temptation of $10, other cases like this have occurred here, but now $30 is the temptation for thus abducting and stealing men.—N. Y. Day Book.