Girl Is Kidnaped On Way To Work

1920

PRETTY MISS OF 20 WHISKED AWAY IN CAR.

Sees Another Abducted Woman in Auto — Is Thrown Out Bruised and Frightened.

ROCHESTER, New York. — The movies missed a thriller when pretty Hilda Gresens, 20, was kidnaped by three men. The girl was carried a mile in a closed taxicab when she was thrown into the street. The police have made no progress in investigating the outrage, inasmuch as the girl was so badly frightened and misused she was unable to give a reasonable description of her assailants.

Miss Gresens is employed in a factory. She was on her way to work when attacked. She had reached a street near the factory, when an automobile drew up to the curb and two men alighted. The girl was seized and forced into the car despite her struggles and screams for help.

Sees Another Girl.

In the car, Miss Gresens claims, was another girl, who apparently was drugged, as she appeared to be dazed and made no effort to help herself in any way. The curtains of the machine were drawn tightly, and she said she did not know what route the car took after she had been dragged inside of it.

When she struck the pavement, she realized that she had been hurt, and she fainted soon after. How long she lay in a vacant lot in Hollenbeck street she did not know, but when she came to she found herself more than a mile from home and some distance from any house. She lay in the lot fully an hour before regaining her senses.

Search for Man.

Miss Gresens' knees are bruised and her right side was wrenched when she was pushed from the taxicab.

The police are searching for a young man who showed Miss Gresens much attention at a dance hall at Sea Breeze two weeks ago, and who became so demonstrative that the girl was forced to leave the hall. She claims the man had written her many notes, telephoned her and called at her home on two occasions in an automobile since that time. The girl says the man wanted her to elope with him.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Aug. 7, 1920, p. 5.

Eloping Pair Are Wed Deep in Waving Corn

1916

Doctor Outwits Farmer's Wife in Race to Win Bride — All Ends Happily.

WILMINGTON, Delaware. — Maud Muller on a summer day never looked lovelier than Margaret Beattie, a farmer's daughter of Hockessin, when she stood a bride in the middle of a waving cornfield.

The bridegroom was Dr. Alvin Rupert, of New Rochelle, N. Y. It was a runaway match — so much so that the bride played her stately part in the fetching simplicity of a sunbonnet and a gingham frock.

A difference in religious beliefs had caused her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Beattie, of "Fernside," to forbid her marriage to Dr. Rupert on August 17, as the young people had arranged.

But the enamored doctor was not to be denied. Accompanied by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Rupert, he established quarters on a neighboring farm, that of William Crossan.

Communication had been forbidden, but the sighing pair discovered a hollow tree of the type traditionally favored by Cupid as a lover's postoffice, and thus in scribbled words they exchanged their hopes and plans.

Dr. Rupert came to Wilmington, procured a marriage license and a clergyman and motored with them back to Hockessin. Margaret Beattie met them at a turn in the road, having slipped away from her father's farm in her everyday clothes.

Fearful of pursuit, the wedding party hastily penetrated the sheltered expanse of a cornfield. It was as much as the minister could do, however, to get thru the service quickly enough to outspeed the bride's vigilant mamma, who had followed Margaret and arrived breathless just after the ring had been slipped on her finger.

Faced with the inevitable, the Beatties decided to forgive their daughter and her Lochinvar, and the happy pair went South for their honeymoon.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 5.

Runaway Returns Home

1915

This is going to be a Merry Christmas at the Mohr home, 10 St. Mark's place, New York City. For Sophia has returned. Her voluntary return cleared up her mysterious disappearance. She had been working as a "stripper" in a cigar factory at Hartford, Conn., while the police of the country were searching for her.


Miss Snow Elopes With Mr. Blizzard

PHILADELPHIA, Pa., Dec. 16. — It has just been learned that Miss Bessie Snow, 25 West High street, Germantown, eloped with George Blizzard. The bride is 19 years old, the bridegroom 27.


Troubles

Making light of your troubles is the best way to dispel darkness.

The Elopement Story

Printed Jan. 1896

The shooting of John T. Starner, on the premises of Mrs. James E. Dutterer, near Silver Run, Md., about a month ago, was further ventilated by the hearing in the case of Jerome Dutterer, charged with having committed the assault, before Justice William Moore, of Westminster. Some interesting and sensational facts were elicited, and Mr. Dutterer was held in $300 bail to answer the charge before the county court.

Miss Elizabeth Dutterer, whose proposed elopement was the cause of the shooting, was a witness at the hearing. She testified that she had become engaged to marry a man named Perry Rumler, a citizen of Myers district, and probably 75 years of age. Miss Dutterer is about 50 years old. She said that on account of the opposition of her friends to the marriage an elopement was planned, and, she employed Mrs. Starner, wife of the wounded man, to accompany her. Mrs. Starner was to come to her house on the night set, and it was agreed between them that if a light should be in her window she would be ready, but if not, Mrs. Starner was to retire.

She said that Rumler had informed her that he was in receipt of a pension of a thousand dollars a year and kept a carriage, but she had been making inquiries about it and believed he was deceiving her. The understanding with Mrs. Starner was that if the elopement took place they were to go together to a point where Mr. Rumler would be in waiting with a carriage and then drive to Westminster, where the marriage was to have taken place.

Starner testified that at his wife's request he went with her to the home of Miss Dutterer at the time appointed, and when they reached the yard gate discovered that the signal agreed upon was missing. They were about to retire when he discovered two men in the yard, and determined to make some inquiries of them in relation to the matter. He went through the gate and approached them without a suspicion of danger.

In reply to a request for information one of them said, "I'll show you," and immediately fired upon him with a shot gun. The charge took effect in his leg, making a painful and troublesome wound from which he is still suffering. A second shot was fired, but missed him. He said it was too dark to distinguish the features of the men, but he swore positively that the voice of the man who shot him was that of Jerome Dutterer. The accused is a relative of Miss Dutterer. The latter said to be worth about $10,000. The affair still excites great interest.