MEN GIRLS ELOPE WITH.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5777, 22 January 1897, Page 4

MEN GIRLS ELOPE WITH.

(Engliah Paper.) From time immemorial, sentimental ladies of tonder years, and still more tender hearts, have been afflicted with a powerful weakness for eloping. And, as these runaway matches have occasionally been of a decidedly striking character, they throw a little light on the peculiarities of feminine fads in matters matrimonial. Strange as it may seem, the eloping damsel has always evinced a peculiar partiality for the custodian of the stable, the writer having come across no fewer than a dozen instances in wliich she has run off with her father's groom. Now, it cannot be denied that such a lover is possessed of more stable qualities than his less-favoured fellows ; although it is somewhat rash to assume, as some of the weaker sex appear to do, that a stable groom must of necessity make the best bridegroom. That, however, was evidently the view entertained by the daughter of a wealthy West of England gentleman who, when a girl of eighteen, eloped with and married her parent's groom. It would be difficult to say what could have induced her to quit a luxurious, stately horn 3 to fare anything but sumptuously in a two-roomed cottage for the remainder of her days. She had no property in her own right, and as her family never forgave j her for her folly, it is scarcely necessary to ' say they gave her nothing for her I subsistence. Yet she appears to have led a tolerably happy life, which extended to ! nearly a century of time. Another youug lady, the daughter of a Gloucestershire clergyman, must needs take a fancy to the village milkman. The fair damsel was an artist of undoubted ability*, anfl on ber excisions in B«mh>li .of subjects for n.r ".bl-tSI., was invariably attended by her faithful knight of the milk-can. This coming to her father's knovledge, she was sent away for several months, in the hope that she would, in the meantime, get over her unfortunate attachment. But this enforced separation only served to fan the flame of love ; and a day or two after her return to the parental abode, she quietly stole off to the nearest railway station, where her ardent lover .was anxiously awaiting her. By the next train they set off to seek fresh fields and pastures new, which it may be assumed they found, seeing that they never returned to the scene of their elopement. From a milkman to a farm labourer is not a very far cry, the latter being the gay Lothario with whom another clergyman's daughter thought fit to run away. The affair was kept from the public as long as possible ; but the reverend gentleman was so upset by his daughter's disappearance, that he was unable to conduct the next Sunday morning service. Consequently, several members of his congregation called upon him for an explanation, and he had, perforce, to make a clean breast of the matter. The girl being under age, legal proceedings were threatened against the other party to the elopement, but whether they were taken, or whether the young lady returned to her home, did not transpire, possibly because of the precautions that were taken to avoid a scandal. About twelve months ago, the eighteen-year-old daughter of a wealthy American brewer eloped with her father's coachman — a good-looking young Jehu of no small aspirations. It was stated that three weeks before he had boldly approached his master, and demanded the young lady's hand. The fact that he was dismissed, and received a sound thrashing instead, does not appear to have cooled the ardour of his affection in the least ; and it was not long before he had arranged with his charmer for a lovers' flight. Thus it came to pass that one evening the fair miss was missing, and no explanation of her absence was forthcoming until her father, on retiring to his i*oom, found a curt note on the pillow of his bed, in which the girl intimated that by the time the brief message had come to his hand she would have entered into the bonds of matrimony. Not long since a youthful but enterprising electrician, whilst fixing an electric installation in a certain establishment in a Lancashire town, contrived also to instal himself in the affections of one of the fascinating members of the household. In fact, by the time he had finished his work, the couple had become so much attached to each other that, rather than part, they agreed to depart together. This they accordingly did, and a plentiful supply of the needful, in the shape of current coin of the realm, enabled them to soon put a respectable distance between themselves and those who would naturally deem it their duty to endeavour to track them to their destination. That was supposed to be the other side of the Atlantic Ocean ,* but, wherever it may have been, let us hope that neither of ' the elopers has had reason to regret the hasty flight, prompted by their mutual infatuation. Why cultured, refined young women should take a fancy to men so much beneath them in the social sphere, is a matter which no really eligible suitor can understand. There is no accounting for feminine tastes in this or any other direction; but, all the same, one would expect girls to be sufficiently alive to their own interests, not to enter into matrimonial alliances which are far more likely to prove demoralizing than elevating in more senses than one. It may safely bo said that in nine cases out of ten of these sensational elopements, tlie party making tlie sacrifice lives to regret the rash act which plunged her or him into a lifo of misery and wretchedness. Some few years ago the wayward, spoilt daughter of a country squire eloped with one of her father's gamekeepers, a handsome man, but as brutal a scoundrel as ever snared a rabbit. The deluded girl was possessed of considerable property, b\xt the couple had not been married more than three or four years before the greater part of it had been squandered by the spendthrift husband. He then bolted with what little remained, leaving his wife practically destitute ; and had not her cruelly-wronged father relented and made her a generous allowance, she would have had to seek the cold comfort and meagre faro afforded within the gloomy workhouse walls — a mostanvomantic ending to an elopement romance.