A BENEDICT'S FOLLY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5490, 21 June 1879, Page 7

A BENEDICT'S FOLLY.

In a modest little shoe-store at No. 11l Stanton-street, Detectives Williamson and McNaaght yesterday discovered a couple hjing happily together, for whom the officers of the law bad been some time looking They were Elias Reynolds and Annii! Powell, who, on January 29, eloped from their homes in Peekskifl, X.Y. Reynolds was a married man, and the father of nine children. He had a show business on the main street of the town, and seemed to be thnviug when he chanced to meet Annie She was a young girl of 19, who resided with her parents close by, and who from time to time wai thrown in the way »f the prosperous shoemaker. In Reynold's household there wa<i but little placidity, as hiwife suspected his devotion, and made him feel rather unpleasantly her resentment. In this way Elias came to take a deep interest in the Powell girl. She favourably received ms attentions, and soon Reynolds sought in her company the sunshine of his existence. Soon a prfect uuderstandiug was established between the pair, and with the opening of the new year they made up their minds to leave the town together. On the evening of the 29th of Jauuary, while Mrs. Reynold?, after a family quarrel, was sitting in high dudgeon among her numerous progeny, Elias stole away with what money he had saved in his pocket, met Annie Powell, and arrauged for an itumediat? departure. She gathered her clothing, and that night with Reynolds drove out of Peekskill in a sleigh, from which they were transferred at Sing Sing to a New York train. Oh reaching this city they hired the little shop in Stanton-street and began life anew as man and wife. Everything had gone on quietly for a couple of months, when an intruder interrupted this pleasant state of affairs. It was Detective Williamson, who, under the pretext of having his boot stretched, entered Reynolds's shop nn Friday and, from the description he had with him, identified the two fugitives. Then he and Detective JlcNaugh't, armed with a warrant from Judge Couch, of Peekskill, swooped down upon the couple and carried off the Benedict Lothario. Reynolds was given into the custody of a Peekskill officer, who took him thither, to answer a charge of abandonment.