The evening world. Newspaper, August 15, 1922, Page 16

16 —— And Now Prof. Leib, His Disappointments Tempered by Others, but Refusing to Abandon Hope, at Last Credits Police Theory That Freddie, Stolen for His Wonderful Voice, May Be Famous European Tenor By J. B. Calvo. RCH for a kid ex: ig World) uny Copyright, by napped boy that tended over half century and reached ucross two continents and that found nine other kidnapped boy and restored them to thelr parents but failed of its own end, is drawing Joplin to a close in Joplin, Mo. Jn there is a white-haired teacher of voice, now eighty years of age, who rnings of has spent nearly all the ¢ fifty-one years of his life in a futile search for a son who was stolen from him when not quite five years of age and who to-day is fifty-six if he still ix alive. Hope that he might find this son again has been the beacon star that tas lighted the long pathway down which Prof. W. H. Leib—the singer— has come, singing always bravely, If with a wistful note, because his songs were his means of finding the money with which to keep detectives forever running down forlorn clues that might some day lead to the recovery of the kidnapped boy. When the Jad was stolen, one golden June afternoon in 1871, Prof. Leib was a tenor of promise and just had signed a contract to sing for a year in Christ Episcopal Church, Chi- cago. He filled that contract and many others, and all the money that he and his wife could save from the sums these brought went into the search for the missing boy. As the years took away from the sweetness and clearness of the professor's voice he turned to the instruction of others and made a profitable livelihood, the surplus from which also went into the disheartening search. ‘The years rolled on and took their toll, and Mts. Leib died, and their other children married and moved away, but always the now ageing pro- fessor kept his hope, however dimly his beacon star burned through the mists of disappointment, until to-day, upon the threshold of a greater life, in which he has firm faith that he will have word of his missing boy, he awaits the end serenely in the thought of the joy this knowledge will bring ‘The ioss of his favorite son, for whom he dreamed a career as a great singer, has saddened but has not em- bittered Prof. Leib's life, It might have been embittered were it not for the thought of those nine other sons he found for parents whose good for- tune proved greater than his own. He could find others but he could not find his own son; but in finding others he found a measure of recompense {a the knowledge that all his years of searching have not been in vain, even if their fruits fell into other laps than his own. Prof. Leib came of a musical family in Quincy, TIL, and was well schooled as a youth in .he arts of song. He be- gan a career In a small way, singing in Quincy churcies and at small mu- sicales, and soon his voice and his command of it won some attention, and engagements to sing came from adjacent cities, He married, and it was not long before a son, Charles, x came to raise bis hopes that he might give to the world not only his own small vole but some great voice by whigh it might be forever enriched. Charles, though, showed no interest f singing and no inelination to music, 60, affer many futile efforts, Leib turned his attention to the second son that had been born, This was Fred die, a precocious child who learned to speak long before most babies even cau say “da-de" and “ma-ma," and whom vocubulury and verbosity in- creased with amazing rapidity. Freddie, when hardly ovetthe lisp- THE EVENING WORLD, TUESDAY, AUGUST 15, 1922. t 01 YearsVainly Séarchi But Re stored Nine fai gay Others to Parentu Prof. W. H. Leib, who TOM Atl HUTT) pgs i has spent over half a \ spo : a century and nearly all his earnings searching for his lost son. Joy They Have Brought to ing stage, took to singing a tiny paint the dying man’s rz swith robin learns to fly—timorously trying dreams of what his son, perhaps, his small pipes at first, then ‘with hay accomplished in song since athering confidence delahting tn At four and a half Freddie was in song, With a bell-like, sweet voice of demand at charity fetes to sing such such power and range as to raise the songs as “Old Dog ¥ “Goek wildest hopes in the breast of a dot- Robin" and “Nelly Gray’ and othe: ing father—hopes that even to-day rhymes of his day that were suitable Freddie —_ Leib, from a photo- graph taken a year before he was stolen. e the dr gnet for miles around that it was running down clues to children seemed impossible any one could that might he his baby boy grown- have spirited Freddie through the UP: be came across youngsters w lines, and so minute was the search EAYe him clues by which he w able to seek out their parents and that It removed any doubt as to Fred- restore them to their homes. Pe dig’s fate. Had he met with accident haps the most unusual case of t his body most certainly would have kind occurred in 1881, ten year after Freddie vanished A child of about fifteen was doned = by imaginable Pan ant been discovered, for every stream was every woods and field ug nt tur hu tion was i. Only one possible clue that seemed Me a8 he directly to point to kidnapping ever rae ae Bat " that came within a vealed t w the hue and ery of birthmarks t I been raised. A farmer Was sure Pec ho lived a few miles outside Quincy "™ Bon u reported having seen a child ina 1 ned The child, whose general description membx a house Nswered that of Freddie's, was in that stc the dot- tom te iithough the man pre ind candy upon him, and it was out ae wal; GORE Heme ame of thi ngle clue that police pro- city ; pounded a theory that took the chase — It so happened that about t across the United States, across the that Freddic was stolen a you of about the Henry Lachi antic Ocean and across Europe— ge Ww Prof. Leib as a young man at o SORBVRE BE It was presumed ; About 1871, when Freddie vanished, the poy was + torirangom:. but the time he began the search fo: there was much talk of the Itahan When no demand was made for padrone sys’ , and many cases were TORE: ENE lystery of young Lac mueller's disappearance grew he known where children had been stolen father speut ie tecnime orey his boy. beg by wandering bands boy, to no avail, a of Italians. The was an instance of it Beareh In 1881 & child who was older than Freddie. A* fase poy Aa tie dat tho and showed promise of singing, and conferred, thinking en ihe ae he had been stolen and taken to Italy uppearances might be linked, Noths for training. He was recovered only '"5 tended to confirm this supposi- tion, but becuuse he had by chance, a tourist from his home “ has paid: a. y u to Lachmueller in his suburban home town happening to see him and recog- near St. Louis, Leib remembered t nize him. For this reason police from the Lachmueller residence stood on the first believed that Freddie had little hill, at the bottom of which waa by some Itallan who “mall stream with a wooden bri 9 over it and not far away St. Louis he seeking tho nd had abandon and taugh to his Very young voice. He was a tremendous hit at every appearance. been stole ind what is more, t , took the keenest . recognized the promise in his voice and the Miss war ! light ip the entertainment he was nd took him abroad. flender clue’ he reported. to, Lach: to afford. Often, after finishing : ica GHTIBIEI. WINNER Ge “ne heat nae 5 That is why to-day Prof. Leib sits fund the wy ester and 1 song, he would away ina tran port of rapture, becay by the whitening embers of his fire c r w not the nine ins ot inces in which Leib's search enabled him to. restor missing boys to their families P of Europe may bo Freddie, cach of the nino cases Lally tune ly ignorant of his birth and the same element of happiness. His © every one so evidently enjoyed his effort. He had an inherent artistic temperament, if you want to call it » ‘ life and wonders whether it le that some one of the famous Prof, Leib redou is own singing, as the r ity, charming thousands with hig OWN disappointment time after time lowed such 7 voice and hailed, perhaps, as a great W4S Yery great, but the blow w oe ’ i that 1 hailed, perhaps, as @ great sonened py the knowledes that. | uke enough to accord Proddie th Italian tenor had spared others the sorrow that Ninest Anstruction in tho world, > Leib, at first, didn't take very much always was an ache in his heart father knew that ‘ stock in the police thee He en- As the years went by the clues be- boy adequate grou ios gauged private detectives and he ran Came fewer and fewer, but up until voles changed, but : : A wn b nap under “cal cron eee ib kept clos » but when a Is Freddie to-day, one of Europe’s famous tenors, little = 4" °very clue of boys seem Under wateh of all yc singers of pron: volce changed intended to put } . - any olreumstances that seemed un- and often nt much money teac ntirely in the hands of the w dreaming that he is the long lost son of the eighty-year-old — jsiiui. He travelled from coast to thelr boyhood and maki rtain of i sen v § * their | parentage. The * ; reatest masters, contigens ° Rea | coast, from Canada to Mexico n- he are many was atoRie'¢ Mident that Joplin, Mo., vocal teacher who trained that golden voice in from: Capads + a cali ir inging schools and many teuchers of as 0 the world a sin ning down these clues. e subseribed yoice he Eur ¥ ger who fr re and in Europe, and it may would attain the rank in che childhood? to a ping bureau that cut out be that Lelb is right and nis boy bes cars by Caru every reference to young boys picked ¢ ye a tenor, but if so, he was missed Suciiidig: the. Lan ata Sen ot give ace It the half century of sea When » household was appointment, for Vregdie sang him- through the lonely years that followed by police who could not give @C- he steps to the nt of the ope ude happy by the Tregdle: sang is vy t hem f these t Pere Fee ren A notes of gelf wight out of his pare home for he kissed her, ran out of the house, “ of thempelyes. wo aery or the concert platform to-day, rea : 14 bearttut d kn 1 and that is the last that ever has been Youngsters, of course, were promptly in nat: Oy i tide aurviven chiae that wa , 7 - restored to parents who came forward ® Strong one and has survived these pig , ym One day, n Leib was In Chicago heard of him as Mreddie parent Mit apd in. Mtty-six years), he little thinks that pre ! ng slening the contract to sing at the Leib was sent for and for days the to rep Ie t In many ! miles and miles in Joplin, Mo., : ; « Christ Episcopal Churen, Freddie came countryside bout — Quine was no clue to the identity of the there is an aged man waiting to die ted a 1 ly who hears that - a s running downstairs with a bright thr J as thoroughly as two good lads would be found and eventually Who hea ha in his dreams ware e and who is t he lea “di t is song on his lips, his eyes shining in setters will cross a field for hidden t would be si phan asy- tye rut th on ften ype is & v 2 . r id similar institutions. u eafter—if only in half-century « 1 happine hat was the last picture coveys, Every one knew und loved | “ imilar institution reward for the nine other stolen boys nd of dia~ bin yivther caused of him im Ber Heart lithe dveddic, aud so Hiurugie wag Nin urate times when Leib he eestored to frantic pareate —