BEDFORD WEEKLY MAIL BEDFORD, INDIANA FRIDAY, DEC. 28, 1900 INFAMY AND DEATH Leesville Girl, Enroute to Portland To Be Married, Enticed By Unknown Man. Portland, Ind., Dec. 24. – The finding of the body of Honora Benton in the river near Hurley, Wis., ends as cruel an infamy as history records. In the extreme eastern part of Lawrence county, Indiana, in the village of Leesville, in the home of her uncle, Miss Benton lived a happy life with a still happier prospect before her. She was soon to wed an exemplary young man in this city, and in two months, on becoming twenty-one years old, would have inherited $2,000. A pure, unsophisticated county girl, she left her home in Leesville, December 5, to meet her intended husband in this city, when they were to be married and begin life under favorable auspices. Enroute to Portland Miss Benton met an affable and fair appearing young man, who made himself agreeable to her. She asked him where she should change cars for Portland. He told her to leave the matter in his hands and she would reach her destination safely. At the point where she should have transferred he procured her a cup of coffee and a lunch, and Miss Benton knew no more until she found herself in the station at Chicago. She still trusted the young man who was with her, and who told her that he had drunk coffee at the same point she did; that he had fallen asleep, and that they had been carried past her transfer station to Chicago. Still professedly acting as her friend, the young man told her that he would take her to a hotel, where she could stay until morning, and then take the train to Portland. He kept her there a week under close surveillance, telling her that she was now his wife and that he would take her to his home in Wisconsin. Two days after Miss Benton's disappearance her lover in this city received a letter from her written from Chicago. It told the story of her ruin. She said that she was somewhere on Clark street. Her letter ended with this appeal: "Do save me from this man. I thought he was a gentleman. He says now I am married to him, and that tomorrow he is going to take me to a town in Wisconsin called Hurley. He tells the people here that I am his wife. There is a policeman who comes here. I told him and he said I would feel all right in a few days. The woman who waits on me says I am crazy, but it is enough to make any one mad, what this man has done to me. This place is on Clark street. They do and say such nasty things here. Dear, dear Jess, do save me! Your unfortunate HONORA." The lover wrote to the only relative he had in Chicago, a workingman of the name of Murphy, inclosing the letter and imploring him to rescue the girl. He also wrote to Miss Benton's uncle in Leesville, with whom she had made her home since the death of her parents in early girlhood, telling him of what had befallen his niece. This uncle is poor, and did not have means to make an active search. Murphy did all he could to find the fiancé of his nephew in Chicago. Accident sent him to the headquarters of the Anti-cigarette League, where members of the league assisted him with money and advice. On their advice Capt. Colleran was notified, and a detective was detailed on the case. Murphy went to several dives on South Clark street in company with the detective, but in the third dive they visited the proprietor told him that he had heard they were coming and Murphy gave up the search in that quarter, thinking that all the keepers had been notified. Reference to the postmark on the envelope showed that the letter had been mailed from Lincoln Park Sub station, and so an unavailing search was made along North Clark street. Murphy knew nothing of the dives of Hurley nor of the constant traffic in women going on between Chicago and the lumber region; so he thought that Miss Benton was in Chicago still. Finally he telegraphed to the sheriff at Hurley, giving Miss Benton's description and telling him that she had probably been brought there by a procurer. The sheriff was asked to answer at Murphy's expense, but apparently he took no interest in the case, for he failed to answer the telegram. Two days later a second telegram was sent to the sheriff. The search dragged along in Chicago while Miss Benton was being subjected to all the horrors and sufferings of the life in the degraded dens hidden in the depths of the great lumber woods. Again the unfortunate woman tried to reach her relatives by letter. This time she wrote to the uncle in Leesville, telling him where she was and of the life which she was forced to live. She said that she thought she saw a possibility of escape to the river, and if she succeeded in getting away she would drown herself. Evidently she thought her lover had forsaken her in her extremity, and despaired both of escape and of any happiness in the future. Instead of being the wife of an honest man, she found herself as much a slave as any of the low-caste women of India and China, sold into slavery at a price about the same as that prevailing in the vicious countries of the Orient. Miss Benton's uncle lost no time in going to Hurley. He found the den in which his niece had been held, in the woods several miles from the town, but she was reported as missing by the proprietor. The river was dragged near the den, and the body of Miss Benton was found. They Hurley authorities did nothing. The body was prepared for burial on order of the uncle and shipped to Chicago for interment. The Chicago police have instituted a search for the young man who ruined Miss Benton and took her to Hurley. The dives of the lumber regions have been the cause of the ruin and death of many innocent girls and women. Chicago is the head-quarters for the men and women who ply the vocation of furnishing women for the dives. Many are secured through innocent advertisements for waitress and chambermaids, and do not know of the trap into which they have fallen until they find themselves prisoners and slaves in some low dive in the region of Hurley, Marinette, Pembine, Iron Mountain and other towns in the lumber and iron regions of the Northern Peninsula. Escape from these dens is difficult, and it is declared that a slow and horrible death is inevitable to any woman who remains in one of them. Ten years ago the horrors of these dens in the lumber woods were exposed by Dr. Kate Bushnell of Evanston. As a result the palisades and dogs, with which many of them were surrounded, were done away with for appearance, but the evil has remained the same. (The name of the unfortunate young lady was probably Bennett. There are many Bennetts between Leesville and Sparksville and some of them are well-to-do. – ED MAIL)