Part One of this story was written by Rebecca Gordon Ball for the Lafayette Journal after the Civil War during a time when orphan children were sent from New York to parts of the Midwest to find homes. Rebecca was an eyewitness to a tragic scene at the train depot in Lafayette, Indiana. This riveting encounter with a little orphan girl and her wicked caretaker will touch even the coldest of hearts. Rebecca Gordon Ball  (Courtesy of A. Winter Ball Bottum) I had just returned from the depot, where I had seen, gathered together, a large number of  children and youths, taken from the highways of New York City and sent West to claim that charity which, I think, in many cases might be invested at home, for although the old adage of “Charity beginning at home” is by many voted a selfish one, I cannot but think it a truth which through a mistaken zeal is too often overlooked; however, I with others, had gone and looked upon the group of orphans, and dropped a tear at the sad tru...