SOCIETY SENSATION.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 746, 19 February 1910, Page 13

SOCIETY SENSATION.

MILLIONAIRE'S DATJGHTEB ELOPES . ' WITH A WAITER. Philadelphia society has been shocked by the revelation • that- the - lfi-year-old daughter ,of a well-known millionaire in. that, city, who had occupied an expensive flat in the beet Philadelphia hotel; had not "drowned heiself, as was at first reported, , but had really eloped . with John Cowan, aged. 50, a waiter in the hotel. .

The, girl, ' .who . is well. educated • and very : beautiful, had been lonely in the hotel ;Mnce the death of her mother a year, ago, and, despite the wealth : of her father and her luxurious, environment, she pined for companionship' and ■ a glimpso of tho big world outside. The disappearance of the girl coincided with the: departure, of Cowai, and since then no; hint has been received of the whereabouts of the oouple. . '' Mrs. Cowan, wife of '.the absoonding waiter, found a number, of letters in her husband's-jacket; in. which the girl said how: greatly sho admired Cowan, 'and how greatly she appreciated all his little services at the hotot and. finally' asking him to let her be "a daughter to him for always."": The girl seems never to have been completely happy esoept in the 'company of Cowan, whose .chief duty at tho hotel was tobrihg in ice-wate* to the guests. .'.The girl suffered from a consuming thirst apparently, because the was ; constantly ringing'for tho'.ice-water, and when Cowan ,ms away "she made arrangements to meet him outside, "Please take, me away,' darling papa; my happiest' hours are f spent 'with you," tho girl wroto to the waiter from ■ the hotel. ' One . letter to Cowan expressed Borrow because' some thoughtless words "might have hurt his feelings," a sympathetic consideration which, : Mrs. Cowan says, the absconding - waiter. seldom cvinced as regards herself. "Why can't I be your daughter? Papa and grandpa aro cool to. me," was iiio text of anothorletter.-

"Now, I'v« to go to school in two weeks from to-day;" sho wroto in . one letter, "and 'I-; wish' to' leave Philadelphia before then, and, .as I've no place to .go to, and. couldn't go away by myself, won't you please take, me with you? If you- .refuse,: I'll kill . myself. -Now;; think it. over, Pred, and. give/ me ;an answer, when you bring m tli-3 ico-water." : ;':' '. Mrs. -Cowaii said her husband married her fourteen years ago, and had' been a good,husband.;She;promised to ..make it warm for Cowan when he is found, and not to grant him a divorpe under, any cir-'cumstariM^-V'-: