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· 117 · 16 She declares that she will be there, and expresses confidence in her ability to stand the ordeal she will have to undergo. . . . The young lady has endured almost untold sufferings, and all must rejoice to see her present degree of health. —New york Times, October 28, 1883 As the days and weeks of summer passed, emma’s health continued to improve. Naturally, that kind of news didn’t make for the best of headlines. so with the trial still several months away, press coverage of her story grew even more sporadic— until July, when the two biggest intrigues of the spring suddenly resurfaced. in march, a loyal family friend had tried to put the fuss over the cabinet card to rest, but for reasons unknown, his rebuttal, titled “Why miss Bond’s Photographs Are sold,” was ignored by the Los Angeles Times until July 12: To the editor of the Chicago News. Chicago, march 31. Lately there have appeared in various newspapers articles criticising in adverse terms the sale of miss emma Bond’s photographs . . . [and assigning] a desire on miss Bond’s part to make capital out of her misfortune. . . . Her long and severe illness has been a great expense to a family far removed from wealth—so much so that they have been reduced almost to poverty. This being the case, . . . she naturally accepted the kindly suggestion to sell her pictures. . . . miss Bond’s family have been influenced in this matter only by the pressure of necessity. it is hard to imagine this poor woman . . . at times delirious and hovering between life and death, entertaining thoughts of working upon the sympathies of the people for the sole object of making money. Four or five devils have wrought a great and terrible injury to an unoffending household, and instead of uncharitably denouncing an honest endeavor on their part to raise means for relieving their distress, the press could well afford to lend its encouragement to this and suggest to our citizens other means of contributing financial aid to this stricken family. e.L.T.1 118 · nameless indignities Whether or not this advocate possessed an intimate knowledge of the Bonds’ money situation is hard to say; however, he had used the term “kindly suggestion ,” which implied that the scheme to sell the picture may have originated with him or some other family friend—someone who saw it as a way for the Bonds to generate a little extra cash. Alternatively, newshounds have always hankered for the likenesses of well-known figures, so it is just as possible that one of them offered to pay Bond for a picture of his daughter and thus unwittingly planted the seed of an idea. As for the alleged kidnapping, emma’s father still worried constantly about her safety. unable to accept that the kidnappers had gotten off scot-free, he tried to smoke them out in July: $500 reward . . . A. D. Bond has issued the following circular: “on the evening of march 16, 1883, emma Bond was abducted and carried out of the house of Abner Bond, just northeast of Taylorville, and dropped on the ground. i will pay $500 for the arrest and conviction of the persons who were engaged in the abduction. And $100 will be paid to anyone who will give information that will lead to the conviction of any of the guilty parties. if either of the parties engaged in the abduction will give the information, he will be paid the reward and will not be prosecuted.”2 With the offered reward exceeding the June contributions from Chicago and with the family so strapped for cash, someone else—possibly sonny—may have put up part or all of the money. in any case, if just one of the perpetrators could be enticed into coming forward and snitching on the others, then the reward was all his, no strings attached. But alas, nobody broke rank, and the reward went unclaimed. Perhaps the incident really had been nothing more than a figment of emma’s imagination. The press and the public barely noted several other events related to the case. The first occurred on July 14, when Dr. Vermillion was finally released from jail, after spending almost a year behind bars. At his march court date, his bond had been reduced to $1000, which led to immediate promises from his friends to procure the cash. it evidently took them another four months to raise that amount. Also, late in...
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