A GAY NEW YORKER. He Elopes with the Daughter of a Circus Proprietor.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 298, 12 September 1888, Page 4

A GAY NEW YORKER. He Elopes with the Daughter of a Circus Proprietor.

A London de&palch of July 16th to the ' New York World ' bays : ' The following signed telegram was received to-night at the ' World ' bureau : William Walter Fhelps Dodge, of the well-known New York family of that name, ran away with Ida Cooke, an equestrienne and daughter of the proprietor of Cooke's circus from Keswick yesterday. They spent the night at Workington, and were captured by the irate father at Carlisle, en route to Glasgow, where they intended to get married. Dodge had cabled to his family that hi.s honour demanded marriage with the young lady. The father was iurious, brandishing a cowhide The memory of young Dodge'b imaginary marriage with the heiress, Miss Stokes, and the graphic description of it which was furnished the press by the imaginative bridegroom, being fresh in my memory, I wired to the ' World's " correspondent at Carlisle for a description of the scene from a less partial pen than that of the principal actor in the escapade. He telegraphed as follows : At the early hour of 3 o'clock on Monday morning a gentleman who resided at 10, West Cumberland-street, discovered that his daughter had surreptitiously left his residence, and as a t'esult of subsequent inquiry it was a&certained that she and a young gentleman, said to - have been an American millionaire, had taken first-class tickets at Workington for Glasgow and had muniheiently teed the guard, so that they weie left alone. The pair, who were fashionably attiied, arrived at Citadel station at 8.20 am., and afterwards took seats in a firbt-class carriage on the Caledonian train for Glasgow, due to leave about 9 o'clock. In the meantime, however, an inspector of police arrived on the scene and informed them that the father of the young lady had telegraphed to have them stopped. The young gentleman seemed much agitated, and regretted in a loud bone of voice that he was not in a free country. In the course of a few hours a portly gentleman arrived from Keswick. When he was brought face to face with the young couple his feelings seemed uncontrollable, and several times he brandished his umbrella about the young man's head in a most threatening manner. The young lady burst into tears, threw herself into her father's arms, and protosted that she loved him best and would never leave him again. The happy father returned homeward with his wayward daughter on the next train. The young American millionaire is still in town and is visibly very much depressed. It will be remembered that after the bogus marriage advertisement escapade young Dodge was sent by his family for a five years' tour around the world to improve his mind. Y"oung Dodge sprang into unpleasant notoriety about the Ist of January last in connection with the bogus announcement in several New York papers of his engagement and marriage to Miss Lillian May Stokes, his cousin. Miss Stokes was a beautiful girl of 17, motherless, and heiress to a fortune of over .^3,000,000. Although she and young Dodge were second cousins, they had never met until last Saturday. Thomas Stokes, father of the young lady, is first cousin of Professor D. Stuart Dodge and of William Walter Phelps of New Jersey. Walter Phelps Dodge is the professor's son, and was named after his uncle, the Congressman. He was in the freshman class at Yale College, and came to New York to spend the Christmas holidays. Here he met his cousin. On Friday, December 29th, an advertisement appeared in the " Herald " announcing the engagement of the two young people, which was at once stamped by the. family as a cruel hoax. An investigation was begunj and young Dodge meutioned the names of some half a dozen of his classmates as persons likely to have inserted the advertisement. Matters were further complicated by the announcement of the , marriage of Dodge and ,Miss Stokes.. , The Dodges announced ,that they would expend $50,000; to find out the author of the hoax. . Finally it was discovered by Dodge's father, that he was guilty. A, confession followed, or else he would have had to go to "prison. His father , then made him go abroad.. The motive for Dodge's appar-.ently-foolish action appeared, at the investigation. He had set a trap for the heiresse s millions, and the bogus announcement was pait of his deliberate, plan to entrap his cousin into a marriage.

Charles : * That naughty cab, has been - the cbset again/ Cook: 'How do, you know?' Charles: 'It's eaten up all the cake again, to-day.' Cook: ' Youi- father shot the i cat yesterday.' Charles: 'Well* well, that shows . that, cats do live t ,after death* 5 >, ,