100 years ago: Two girls abducted on Mass Street, escape from captor

From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Dec. 27, 1914:

  • “Maude and Louise Elliott, daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Sam Elliott, were taken at the point of a revolver Thursday night from the 900 block on Missouri street and forced to run through various streets and alleys first to one barn and then another until finally their captor was frightened away by Charles Olmstead just in time to prevent injury to the girls. The police were notified at once and the first arrest was that of a well known young man whose name came to the lips of one of the girls when he first attacked them, but when the girls saw him they were not able to identify him as the man and he was released. A second man is now under arrest and there are several reasons for believing him to be the guilty one. Maude, the eldest girl, is positive in her identification of him as the man…. The town is thoroughly aroused and the police sensing the situation are doing their best to secure every bit of evidence that can be found. There are no purer nor more innocent girls in the town than these two sisters and the very diffidence of their natures would protect them against anyone excepting the lustful brute who attacked them…. As the two girls were walking south on Missouri street suddenly a man rushed upon them from the rear and with a revolver pointed at them commanded them to run or he would kill them. The girls shrieked in terror and then fearing the men and not knowing what else to do they obeyed his command and ran as directed, first down Tenth to Maine street and then into the alley in the 800 block between Illinois and Alabama streets. The men threatened the girls whenever he passed a lighted house, but after reaching the barn he put the girls inside and stood in the alley evidently trying to find out what had become of the mother. Hearing some one he ran them out of the barn and into another one in the 700 block. Again being frightened he took them to the Chas. Olmstead barn. Then he asked the girls their ages and said he knew their father well, that he would take them home and would not hurt them. He ordered the elder girl to go to a phone and tell her folks where she was, but when she asked that her sister come too, the man threatened to blow her head off, but she still refused to leave her sister. The man then gave his attention to the younger girl, and was about to attack her when she said, ‘I hear some one coming,’ and her assailant rushed out of the barn. When Olmstead entered he found the two cowering girls, but the brute had gone…. The cries of the girls were heard by several persons as they passed and one woman distinctly heard the girls pleading with their captor to release them, but for some reason the woman did not go to the girls’ assistance nor give an alarm…. The Elliotts have been unusually careful in the rearing of the girls. They have never been out alone and are modest and shy and never by work, look or act do anything to attract attention. It was simply a case of where a brute was lying in wait for some one and thinking the girls were alone and unprotected attacked them.”
  • “The state of Kansas could well afford to set aside a revolving fund of $10,000 a year to be lent in small sums to the University of Kansas students who are struggling to gain an education, declared Geo. O. Foster, registrar, in a letter published today. Kansas towns should aid such a fund, Mr. Foster added. The communication was called for by the case of a freshman working his way through the University who forged a check because he needed money. ‘I wish to say he is only one of many, both young men and women, many of them who are boarding themselves and living on one meal a day and consequently constantly struggling to gain an education.'”
  • “W. B. Slack, who will be 89 years old on January 30th, is probably the oldest musician in Lawrence, and a few weeks ago sang a solo at the Christian Church. Christmas Eve. Mr. and Mrs. Slack were serenaded at their home on Rhode Island street by a chorus of young people from the church. While visiting the Journal-World this morning Mr. Slack stated there were two things that he especially wanted. One was National Prohibition, and the other was to reach the age of ninety.”