MODERN "ENOCH ARDEN.”

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 5065, 15 December 1926, Page 3

MODERN "ENOCH ARDEN.”

WAIT VETBBAN’S RETURN. ! RESTORED MEMORY. A romantic stow reminiscent of Tennyson’s famous poem, "Enoch Arden,” has, says the Central News Agency correspondent at Now York, just been unfolded at Petoskey (Michigan). It centm on a girl, now in her early twenties, who married a; second time because she thought her. first husband was dead. But the man, after a lapse of years, turned up to claim the two childrep, one of whom was born after he left home and whom he. had never seen.

The girl was formerly Missj Dorothy Schiedel, and when 14 years of age; fired by a spirit oT patriotism, she took her brother’s old Boy Scout uniform after he had enlisted and wqnt off to Grand Rapids, where she tried to enlist. She was, however, sent home to her mother, but subsequently was allowed to hejp in canteen work in New York. Some time afterwards she met Sergeant William E. Davis, who had returned ‘from France Suffering .from severe shrapnel wounds in the abdomen and from shell shock and gas. He had been in the hospital six times, but had recovered sufficiently so as to be able after his marriage to find Dorothy civil, employment, and for a time seemed well. But not long after the birth of the first baby the ex-soldier Was obliged to go to hospital for, another operation, and the second child was born three weeks after he left Petosjkey. . .. * LOiter, according to the New York World, when the ydung mother endeavoured to find her, husband at the hospital, she was informed that there -.were- three William E. Davises enrolled there. One had died, one had walked out when no guard was watching, and the. third was not her husband. The two who had not died were reported to have blank minds, By this time the new baby was seven months old. The young wife went to Flint and worked to l support her little children. For a long time she believed their father wasj alive and wandering from place to place with no rememberance of her or of their little ones. She tried broadcasting appeals by wireless, and had her story apd his picture printed in mojny newspapers, but three years after she had last seep him she filed a petition in Flint Tor a divorce and obtained.it and was awarded the custody of the children. That was two years ago, but pot long after obtaining the...divorce Dorothy was married to Paul Pringle, of Flint. Pringle had an adopted son of nine, and now he and Dorothy have a b?hy of their own. Last winter Dorothy’s mother, Mrs Schiedel; passed the winter with her at her Flint home, and when she came hack to Petoskey early this summer she brought the two children by the first marriage with her to the Beaubien Avenue Tor an outing. Davis was not dead. He was the man who hM eluded the guards and had quietly walked away from the hospital in Washington. Hei had lost all remembrance that he had ever seen a girl named Dorothy, or that he was the father of one or possibly two children. He obtained an assignment at the Arsenal at Rock Island, IIIL nois, and went from there to Cheyenne, Wyoming. Thep he re-qnlisted in New York, and, after a while there was assigned to duty ni Detroit. It. was in Detroit that, the miracle hajppqned. He was struck hard on the head by a golf ball while out on the course, and rendered unconscious. When he came to he rqmember.ed Dorothy hind wanted her and the child or children, and so he wrote to Mrs Schiedel for information. Mrs Schiedel replied that the children were with her in Petoskey, but.did not mention that Dorothy was in Flint and was .married to another man. She needed time to think matters over and confer With her daughter. , The other day the soldier-father drove up to Petoskey and encountered his little son. He asked where his mummy was and the youngster replied, "Oh ! ■she lives in Flint, and is married. Then the soldier the little one he, had never seen before. He was at first determined to take both the children away, with him. He felt thUt Dorothy had another husband and another child, and that he had nobody, but Mrs Schiedel was firm in her refusal. The Court had granted their custody to Dorothy, ,and they were hers, she said. Davis then called up his former, wife, on the telephone. It was the first time she had heard his voice, and the first time in those years; that she became positive that he was alive.- As a result the girl came, to Petoskey to talk things over. He told Dorothy tha’t he would send her money each week for the chidren’s board and buy them clothes besides, and he was told they could come to visit him any time, and that he, could come to visit them. Davis left Petoskey In tears, but he has something to look forward to, for he will see his children frequently.