AN ELOPEMENT.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 1998, 31 May 1875, Page 2

AN ELOPEMENT.

"An elopement," records the Ballarat Courier, "came under the notice of the loiterers at the Western station on-Fri-day evening. A train arrived from upcountry, out of which stepped a youth and a maiden, evidently in high glee over their prospects, and at having defeated the watchful guardianship of the young lady's natural protectors. Scarcely, however, had a footing been secured on the platform" before the father, stern and wild, and themother, imploring, appeared on the scene. The former rather roughly seized hold "of- . his daughter, and insisted on her returning/ home with him. .To.do this »lxo* point- "ki-x blank-refused, whereupon the father beat" her over his knee, and told the mother to take off her boots. Bootless the young-' - lady was allowed to stand on the platform' without her father's grip;.- but while the < father and mother were.discussing whatwas to be done next, the young fellowwas winked at .by a sympathising cabman, and suddenly the girl darted off in the direction jof the cab, jumped in with her lover, and in spite of the loud calls of ' Stop, stop!' from the father, away went the party, skedaddling down , Lydiard street as fast as the horse could 1 gallop. A boot-shop was first visited, and a pair of understandings secured for the young lady, and after this preliminary difficulty had been disposed- of, the two were driven by a circuitous route back to the station, quietly got their tickets for Melbourne, and while the father, and mother were hunting about Ballarat for the runaways, the latter slipped into the train, and were off for Melbourne as fast as the engine could draw them. Here ends the tale; for what became of the father and'mother — whether they returned home, feeling that further opposi* - . tion was useless, or whether they followed up their quarry to Melbourne—are items of information which we could not procure. Suffice is to say, that the father and mother had, unperceived, travelled as far as Ballarat in the same train with their daughter, and that no person who " witnessed the occurrence expressed the least sympathy with the parents."