The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1897-09-10
ocA1A's LATEST SENSATION.
a Strange and Romantic Love Affair
That is all one-sided

! OF western cyclone has been the top
, lc of conversation here for the past
, week. The central figure being Miss
) Gwendoline G. Jenkins, of Stoughton.
: Mass former resident of Ocala some
three years ago. This young woman
arrived in Ocala Saturday afternoon
accompanied by her little adopted
: brother, and she says she came at the
instance of Mr.. Will #. Gary, the
young man on whom she has set her
aiiecuons. She is about eighteen,
and native of Canada, and from the
lrst the general opinion was that she
was either actuated bya sordid motive
or was demented, the latter being the
general impression.
Her strange infatuation for the
handsome Ocalian began some three
years ago, since which time she has
not missed an opportunity to harass
the young man with her love missiles,
whether he was i'll Oeala, Lake Citv
or Palatka the mails rarely ever miss
i
or her mother, none of which were
ever received by the young man but
always marked 'refusedn and re-
| turned to the writer.
She was seen Sunday by a Banner
reporter, and when asked if she had
the young mans letters replied that
the letters were never written by him
in person, but always by his mex
friend. She was next asked if the let
ters were written from Ocala, to which
she replied that they We're written
from Ocala when the young man was
In Ocala, from Lake City when he
was there at school and from Palatka
when he was there, but always in the
| same handwriting. She stated em-
phatically that she was here to marry
him. That she had set September
18th as the date, but by his request it
had been changed to September 2lst.
She said she had her wedding tr0us-
| seau nearly complete, and had even
given orders for the wedding cake,
and that these, with the price of her
ticket to Ocala, had about exhausted |
her little store of savings. The ring
she wears as her engagement ring is a |
plain gold band, with the full name of |
the young man on the outer band, |
while on the inside are the initials of |
the high contracting parties. She |
also wears silver belt buckle with the |
young mans full name engraved on
the front in conspiciOusly large letters, |
and claimed to have other numerous |
presents from him. She was sanguine |
her lover would prove faithful and |
true and would claim her as his bride |
unless prevented by his mother, but |
stated should he fly the matrimonial |
track she would institute breach of |
promise suit. Her lover has just |
reached his majority.
The young man was then seen and |
says he knows the young woman, but |
that he had treated her with common |
courtesy only. That when living in |
Ocala the family was very poor, and |
was brought to his mothers attention |
in her work of charity. That as soon |
as he discovered the young lady's |
strange infatuation for him he ceased |
speaking to her. He denied ever in |
his life having written her a line, or |
authorized any one else to do so, and
had always refused to take her letters |
or her mothers letters from the post |
office, but for three years, whether in |
Ocala, Lake City or elsewhere, the |
mails have rarely failed to bring him
letter from the young lady or her
mother. Not only this, but they have
sent letters to other persons to be de-
| livered to him-not one of which he |
has ever read.
After repeated attempts to see the
young man and failed she decided to
enter suit, and then for the first time
realized her utter inability to get the
matter into the courts, as she could
| rot get lawyer to take the case, so
she has, no doubt, decided to drop the
| matter.
In order to give faithful and full
particulars of this strange infatuatlon
case. and to make an examination of
| the letters she said would incriminate
the Young man in the love meshes of
| her tolls, Banner reporter, accompa-
MED by one of the Oldest attorneys in
Ocala, visited the young lady at her
temporary abode Monday.
An examination of the letters made
for the sole purpose of arriving at the
truth i'm this strange affair, disclosed
them to be O feeble imitation of the
Grace Darrell style of letters, and
might have been suggested by the
strange conduct of that young woman
who brought ruin and shame to so
many homes in our neighboring cOun-
| ty. The young Massachusetts woman
has saved only the postmarks to the
| envelopes which she claims brought
| her these warm, love-whispering mis-
siles.
The young woman has evidently
written to parties in Ocala, Lake CITY
and Palatka, asking, perhaps, ordina-
ry questions, which have brought
forth responses. She has carefully
preserved the postmarks and destroyed
the balance of the envelopes. To one
letter of q certain date she has APP
amended the postmark of the date to
correspond, and so on of all the other
letters. When asked why she did this
and why she did not preserve the en-
valones intact, she said her little broth
er cut the postmarks from the envel-
ones as Florida souvenirs; that she
3 would have preserved the letters entire
a Loa sha once thought she would have