The
Westminster Gazette25 SEPTEMBER A HAMPSTEAD MYSTERY The neighborhood
of Hampstead is just at present exercised with a series of events which seem to
run on lines parallel to those of what was known to the writers of headlines as
"The Kensington Horror," or "The Stabbing Woman," or "The
Woman in Black." During the past two or three days several cases have occurred
of young children straying from home or neglecting to return from their playing
on the Heath. In all these cases the children were too young to give any properly
intelligible account of themselves, but the consensus of their excuses is that
they had been with a "bloofer lady." It has always been late in the
evening when they have been missed, and on two occasions the children have not
been found until early in the following morning. It is generally supposed in the
neighborhood that, as the first child missed gave as his reason for being away
that a "bloofer lady" had asked him to come for a walk, the others had
picked up the phrase and used it as occasion served. This is the more natural
as the favourite game of the little ones at present is luring each other away
by wiles. A correspondent writes us that to see some of the tiny tots pretending
to be the "bloofer lady" is supremely funny. Some of our caricaturists
might, he says, take a lesson in the irony of grotesque by comparing the reality
and the picture. It is only in accordance with general principles of human nature
that the "bloofer lady" should be the popular role at these al fresco
performances. Our correspondent naively says that even Ellen Terry could not be
so winningly attractive as some of these grubby-faced little children pretend,
and even imagine themselves, to be. There is, however, possibly a serious
side to the question, for some of the children, indeed all who have been missed
at night, have been slightly torn or wounded in the throat. The wounds seem such
as might be made by a rat or a small dog, and although of not much importance
individually, would tend to show that whatever animal inflicts them has a system
or method of its own. The police of the division have been instructed to keep
a sharp lookout for straying children, especially when very young, in and around
Hampstead Heath, and for any stray dog which may be about. |
