MODERN PAUL AND VIRGINIA ROMANCE.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCIV, Issue 14360, 4 February 1911, Page 1 (Supplement)

MODERN PAUL AND VIRGINIA ROMANCE.

YOUNG COUPLE, DENIED MARRIAGE, ELOPE. AND. LIVE IN A CAVE. A singular and romantic story ei » young runaway couple, denied jcariWEo marriage by obdurate parents, returning fox six weeks to the simple life in the woods among the OatskiUs, with a cave lor shelter, is told by the "New York Tribune." The impetuous young lovers are Beatrice Sanders and La Vera Tallman, both aged seventeen. They did not sltaro. the sad fate of the iiabes in the Wood of our childhood s story, but have returned to civiUsataon under circumstances stated below.

On September 18 Beatrice and La Vera left their homes in Newark, staggering baaeath tho weight of two heavy blankets, a small rifle, a shotgun, and a meagre supply of kitchen implements. They crossed the river and missed a boat for Catskill. They stayed that night in the' city, and started next day. When they reached Catskill they took the train to Palenville, and found a cave winch had been described to La Vere by David Kellar, a friend of his. It was an ideal retreat for persecuted lovers hedged about by protecting trees and shielded by kindly Nature from prying eyes. A stone's throw from the care Jay a limpid, glistening hike, and here it was that "Paul and Virginia" spent the long crisp September evenings, snared tho trout from their lair, and performed their primitive ablutions. It seemed Mi idyllic) spot for the boy and the girl. Although they had only 30 dollars when they left their Newark homos, La Vere and Beatrice so economised in their cave keeping that they managed to live a life of comparative luxury in the- wilderness. When the. fish in the little lake were bashful about rising tc the hirje of the hoked worm, the boy would track his way through the silen-i woods and return with a rabbit, a chipmunk, or a squirrel hanging to his belt.

Beatrice proved to be an expert cook according to Tnllinan. and, although their eyes would fill with tears as they bent over the camp fire, they were tears induced by the snibke, not remorse. Farmers in the neighbourhood ali unsuspecting of the romance which, was being enacted under their very noses, were glad to help the young couple out with gifts of potatoes and corn, eggs and milk. Toward the end of October, however, when the keen frosts began to cover the ground with a silver mantle every morning, the lovers found the shelter of the cave was quite inadequate, and that it seemed rather a retreat for ail the winds that blew. Blankets and leaves alike failed to prevent them from being chilled to the bone, the fire would persist in going out during the night, and so they decided to return to civilisation, lest their bones might bo left in that cave of their romance. They kept a diary of their experiences, and" the last entry in the diary refers t,-, the time when La Vera was discharged by the baker from whom he had got a job as delivery boy in Yonkers. on Riversdale Avenue, and were down to their hist penny last week when found by Captain Lent. They said they intended to get married when they eloped, but were afraid their youth would prevent this, and thus set the authorities after them.

Beatrice and La Yore wore married in Newark-, at the home of the bridegroom's mother, the only witness's being the girl's father and Mrs Tallnv-n. Beatrice and her lover had been held for safe keeping by Captain Lent, of the Yonkers police force, to await tlie arrival of their parents. No one in the wedding party -would answer any questions. The young man simply said that if ho were so inclined he- could "tell a great story" about their life in the cave. He said, however, with utmost serum-mess, that lie would write a book about it himself.