AN INTRICATE ELOPEMENT.

Evening Star, Issue 6711, 1 October 1884, Page 2 (Supplement)

AN INTRICATE ELOPEMENT.

A very painful and intricate *ff»ir has, says the' New York Time?,' ooourrod mar Wheeling (WebtVa.) One of the ftatures of the iStit wan as elopement, std three men, a widow, a girl, and some £*Hiilioa ana other parties, were mixed up in it in a way that is simply nnddeuiog to the readsr, The report begins with the spparently imffsnsive assertion tba* "the families of William Cook Mid Mrs Jano M'Cormlck, a widow, are retideata oa adjoining farm?." Tbiß is clear, and as a contribution to the history of Moncngahela County is doubtless valuable. Its conneoiion with the rest of the story Is, however, by no m*ans cletr, for we hear no mora of Mr William Cook, and are left to imagine hfs character, condition, and fate, Wo are next informed that " Jones is wealthy and Mrs M C jrmick is poor," This, too, ie an intoreatieg fact, though the 6udden intrcduotion of Jones i« startling, and to seme extent uDJiutifiabla, in view of the reporter's avowed purpose to give an aocount of an elopem»nt with which Jotios apparently had no mere to do than William Cook, or any other iaiv cent person, Nsxt we are introduced to "Young Jones," who. we are told, "cocc?ivfd a violent passion for Miss M'Cormiok." There is good reason to believe young Jones was 5 species of Jones entirely distinct from the Jones of uncertain age bat of undoubted wealth. S) f»r the reader is in no doubt as to whether William Cook, the wealthy Jones, or Young Jones is the peism who eloped, and altheugh the fact that ycung Jones conceived a violent past ion renders it possible that he was the leading man in the elopement, there is no positive tviderca in support of this theory. While the reader is trying to keep his attention fixed on William Cook, Mrs M'Coimiik, Jones the wealthy, and young Jones, his breath is fairly taken away by the suddenness of tin announcement that " the girl first disappeared," and "the boy secured a horse from bis father, and also disappeared." Who was the girl ? Was she th 3 widow M'Cormiok, or, as is more probable, Miss M'Cormick 1 And who is the bjy? Could this boy have been William Caok? And if so, has Wilihm Cook a father, or was young Jones the br.y 1 What with the necessity of rinding senn asswers to these questions, and of also ret&iaiDg a mental grasp upon William Cook, Jnjos the wealthy, the *>ldow M'Cormiok, Mies M'Cormiok, tho boy, the boy's father, fie horse, and the girl, the reader wiil find the story a terrible strain npo»> the intellect in the present hot weather. Tue story ?oes on to say that when " they came home"— meaning, perhaps all the Joneses, M'Cormickß, Cooks, girls, boys, and horses—"the father" —though we are not told what father—cut a swi r cb, and gave him—-ay William Cook, young Jones, or, pirhaps, the j horse—l thrashing, Tho same father then genii "him" to a military echool—wbioh looks as it the culprit was not the horse after all, but was, perhaps, "*be boy" who secured a parental horse. Not to ba cur. done in enterprise, the "mother"—and, whether she was William Cook's mother, or ycaing Jones's mothsr, cr merely a general locsl mother, the reader is lef 1 to decide—- " insti'utcd a suit against Jones " —who W3S probably tbe wealthy Jone: —on behalf of her daughter for damages, iayirg the tern at 5,000301, and alleging the alioaating of her husband's affections. This " mother " o:uld not have been the widow M'Cormick, for that lady's husband was permanently deal, and his affectiors could not be alieoated by any variety of Jones. A? to ths concluding assertion that " Jones claims that it is a scheme to mulot him," there can be little doubt that is true. That a male Jones shculd alienate the sffootions of any mother's husband is grossly improbable, even if Jones is wealthy. Moreover a vague "mother,'' who cannot be identified unless we regard her e.s the me*;her of the greater part of the population of Monongahela County, dte3 not command public respect as a woman of high character and genuine rofinement, ~rd she would be quite capable of conceiving a scheme to muiot the wealthy Joucs, and, pfirhaps, of following it up by mulcting William Cook and the energatic bst unidentified father. Of one thing only we may feel tolerably sure, and that is that somebody in Monongahela County nag eloped with scniebodyfhe. Perhaps if an intelligent reporter were to tell the story in a clesr, straightforward way we nhould find that Mrs M'Cormiok, whose family is a widow and resides on adjoining farms, eloped with a wealthy horse belonging to William Cook, who having given the girl a thrashing, ceut ber to a military school, and then, driven frantic by his wrongs, triad to mulct Jcn?s with an axe, when the hoy interfered and but after ell, this is not much clearer than the oiiginal story, and, on the whole, the further consid« ration cf the matter had better be postponed until cooler weather.