Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-06-14
CHAINED TO A FLOOR.
How a Long Island Father Punished
His Girl for Elopement.
WARNS ALL AGAINST TAKING HER.
Acts Of Cruelty Which May Call for a
Legal Investigation.
LOVE DOESN'T LAUGH AT LOCKSMITHS

PATcHoGUE, L. l., june i3.-The people
here are excited over the manner In which
w. L. Raynor, fish dealer, is alleged to
have maltreated his daughter, pretty girl
just approaching 16 years of age.
Grace Raynor, the young woman in the
| case, is very attractive, and numbers her
admirers by the score, but is especially par
tial to the attentions of one David Curtis,
youth from Bellport. Raynor, the father,
is quite prominent in church circles here,
but apparently has his own peculiar ideas
as to discipline in his family. When the
father discovered that his daughter was in
from the neighboring town he proceeded to
warn her that the visits of the Bellport
youth must be discontinued under the pain
of his severe censure.
But David and Grace were not to be dis
couraged by any threat of parental displeas-
ure, and so while the latter pretended to ac-
quiesee they continued to meet, and, it is
alleged, had planned an elopement for last
Sunday.
The Girl Mysteriously Disappears.
The father became suspicious that some
thing was going on, and when Sunday came
blocked the schemes of the lovers by lock-
ing his daughter in her room, and spent the
day enjoying the discontinue of the young
man, who, failing to find his sweetheart at
the trysting place, had vainly attempted to
communicate with her. e..
Later, Raynor relaxed somewhat his
watch over his daughter, and on Tuesday
she disappeared, and then it was learned
that young Curtis had absented himself
from home. That the fshmonger was angry
at THIS evident intention of the young peo-
pie to defy him hardly expresses the idea.
He raved wildly about the disobedience of
his child, and prosecuted vigorous search
for her.
A warrant was sworn out for the arrest of
Curtis, who was charged with abducting the
young woman. Late in the day word was
received that Miss Grace was at the resi-
dence of I. X. Dodge and family, on a small
clearing in the woods about two miles north
of this village. Thither the father went
after the young woman, but the Dodges de-
clined to acknowledge that she was there,
and only surrendered her when search war
rant was produced.
The Young Man Goes Also.
Curtis had disappeared and has not since
been seen in the vicinity. 1t is understood
that he claims to be married to the girl, but
as she is not yet 16 years old the point will
be raised by her parents that she is not COM
petent to give her consent to the marriage
contract
Raynor took his daughter home, where it
is alleged he had her chained fast to the
floor and beaten severely. She was held
close prisoner, the chains cutting into her
limbs. The girl managed to reach win
dow at moment when her jailers were off
guard, and calling to passer-by, told him
the manner in which she had been treated,
and was even then being deprived of her
liberty.
This person went to Justice Cannon, told
him the story and he at once ordered the
young woman released. She says she is not
married to Curtis, but it is believed that she
is impelled to this denial through fear of
her father. Since the return of his daugh-
ter the father went to one of the local papers
and attempted to secure the insertion of an
advertisement in which he forbade anyone
from marrying, harboring or visiting his
daughter. The publisher refused to receive
Raynor's money, and declined to print the
advertisement.
There is strong talk here of appealing to
the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Children to interfere in behalf of the girl