The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-05-22
HIS HOPE BLIGHTED.
A Fourteen Year-Old Girl De-
serts Her Father.
RAN AWAY WITH A FRENcHMAN.
SAD Blow to an Old Man who Had
ToiIed and Saved to Spend His Old
Age With His Little Daughter.

J. ]. Brown, an old resident of Seattle,
by profession cook. is looking for his IA
year-old daughter Josephine. Yesterday
she rolled the contents of her wardrobe
INTO bundle and threw it out of the win
DOW OF her room on Madison street. She
lett the house without arousing her land
lazy suspicious, recovered the package
and disappeared.
Mr.. Brown has reason to believe that she
went away with q young Frenchman,
Whom she met while attending school at
Harve, and who followed her clear from
france to marry her.
Mr.. Brown went to her room a little
after o'clock and discovered her absence.
he noted, too, that her clothes were gone
from the hooks on the wall. The landlady
could not explain it. A little girl, who
mad seen the bundle thrown out of the
window, cleared up the mystery in the
fathers mind. He went to the depot and
searched the train that was on the eve of
departure for Tacoma, without avail. As
the train moved away from the depot the
face of the little lady appeared at one of
the windows. Her father Immediately
teiegraphed friends to meet her at the sta
ton. but she evaded them in some way,
nor has she since been heard of.
Three years ago the girls father sent
her to live with her grandmother, Mrs.
Dumare, in Havre, and to attend Cath
Ollie seminary at that place. He sent her
money from time to time, and in return
heard reports that she was getting along
nicely. The grandmother was in indie
pendent circumstances, having invested
in Seattle real estate six years ago, some
of which she now holds. Last Christmas
Mr.. Brown sent his daughter $50, at the
same time sending a substantial sum to
her brother, who is in Philadelphia. Out
of the money that he had accumulated he
lavished upon his children everything
that he thought would make them happy.
At last the day came when Josephine's
education was finished. She arrived home
Monday and met her father with an affec-
tionate assurance that she was glad to see
him.
Mr.. Brown roomed at the Thomas house,
on South Fifth street near Jackson. Be
lieving that it was not suitable place for
young lady, he secured room for her in
quiet cottage on James street, and paid
$3.50, . months rent, in advance. He
visited her frequently and was charmed
with the progress she had made in her
studies.
"Why, she can read. write and talk three
languages" he said with fathers pride,
in describing her accomplishments.
She came to HIM yesterday little after
think of it?"
'Of what, my dear!' he asked.
"Why, of my getting married, of course"
&c 4 -
"You aren't but IA years old, and if you
had husband you couldn't bake pan of
biscuit for him. Who is the young man
you tancy?"
"a young fellow met in Havre," she
said. "He is good looking, he has got
money and good family, and love him.
When left he told me that he would fol-
low me over here and marry me-"
"Wait little longer" the old man con-
tinued, not thinking that the danger was
so near. "If you'll promise to wait till
you're of age I'll go before the judge and
make $1,000 and two lots over to you for
your own. / don't want you to marry yet,
and especially to foreigner"
The sequel shows that the girl preferred
her lover to 81, 900 and two town lots.
During eight years residence in Seattle
Mr.. Brown has won the reputation of be-
ing honest, industrious and capable, as
well as becoming the owner of good deal
of property. His wife died four years ago,
leaving him four children, two of whom
have died. Upon the other two he fixed
his hopes and lavished his money. He
worked faithfully while they were at
school, and during the last four months,
until about three weeks ago, cooked tor
camp of loggers at Mukilteo. Be-
sides property in Seattle, he owns
considerable in Spokane and In
other small towns. A year ago
he built cosy home in Worcester, Mass,
the birth place of his daughter, and the
city in which he was married. He in
tended to go East in few months and
settle with his little girl as housekeeper.
sits pretty hard to work till your fin
gers are most down to the bone for your
children and then have a foreigner come
and sneak away with one of Them" he
said last evening, land that before the girl
is old enough to know what she is doing"
The authorities at Tacoma have been
notified, as well as the priests of the vari-
Gus nearby parishes, who will refuse to
marry the couple and will forward lnfor-
nation to the anxious father Of the
whereabouts of the girl. The man, if
caught, will be punished for abducting
girl who has not yet reached the legal age.