The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-07-30

lions of the Girls Parents, Their
Last Ride and the End of
All.
MASON CITY, Ill, July 25.-Through
the quiet shaded streets Of this little
town and out between the smiling fields
to the cemetery which lies almost at its
door two funeral professions wound Mon
day, July II, when the rites were ended
and the mourners had slowly moved
away from the two fresh heaped mounds
the last chapter in the romance of two
fresh young lives was closed Beneath
the flowers and wreaths piled high on
one grave lay the body of Leona EInore,
whose life came to a swift and shocking
end last Friday night before the bullets
of the lad who loved her with the Wild,
unreasOning love of him who Stays rather
than part with the object of his pas
sion. Scarce a stones throw from the
spot where the tragic ending of their
love dream came to both the boy who
paid the forfeit of his life for his mad
ness, was laid to rest. Close to the
cemetery gate Roy Sutton pleaded for
the last time with Laona tc fling parental
opposition to the winds and fly with him
to the happiness which his fancy painted
for both in the future. Her persistent re-
fusal overbalapced his reason and judg-
ment. lie was but a lad of scarce
eighteen years, but men of far ripper age
have done the same deed a thousand
times before Roy Sutton He had a re-
volver and to his craZed and passion
swept mind there was no other recourse.
To ole together OF to live apart was the
problem confronting him and his whirling
brain solved it in a moment. He fired
bullet into the heart of the girl he loved.
Crazed by the very commission of the
deed he shot her again that his work
might not be unavailing and then quickly
sought to end his own life. Two bullets
tore theiI way through his body and
twenty-four hours later he joined his
sweetheart in the great unknown beyond.
SCHOOL CHILDREN TOGETHER.
Roy Sutton and Leona Elmore were
school children together here in the town
where their brief lives were spent and
where they ended so tragically. Indeed,
they were little more than school chill
dren when death came to them last week
A few miles out of town T. N. Sutton,
father of the lad, is a prosperous farm
er. For more than a score of years he
has been figure in the community.
respected and honored by his neighbors
as plain, honest citizen striving to raise
his boys in the way they should go.
One of them, who has attained mature
years. is editor and part owner of the
Mason County Democrat, at Havana,
III. The other poor lad, who sought too
soon to solve the serious problems Of
life, who dreamed he was a man with a
mans duties and responsibilities ere the
down had passed from his cheek Is
lying out in the little cemetery, the vic
tim of his own rash folly. Roy Sutton
thought he loved Leona Elmore when
they played together in the school days.
Every lad thinks that of some school
mate, perhaps, and Leona's parents
smiled indulgently at the gallantries of
the farmer lad who came to town to
school in the season. They knew who he
was. They knew his parents to be we'll
TODD, prosperous people and had time
served might have approved a union of
the young people But in those days Roy
was but sixteen and Leona only few
months older than him and no one
dreamed of thinking seriously of his at
tentions to the pretty girl So he came
and went with her, carried her books
from school and her parcels when he met
her on shopping tours; he took her driv-
ing as every country swain does in pay
ing court to the lady of his heart and
Leona smiled upon his suit half shyly
as though she did not quite understand
what it all meant.
Then came the time which arrives in
the life Of every boy, especially if he be
raised a farm, when he longs for a
change of scene The old home town, the
farm, the familiar roads became too
small, too narrow, too confined for Roy
Sutton. He wanted to go away into the
world some place where he could "have
r. chance" He longed to do great things,
though he had but turned sixteen years
old. His life on his fathers farm had
made him strong and had developed him
beyond his years He was close to six
feet in height, closer than the avera ge
boy of his years, and already he felt
stirring within him the promptings of the
old nomadic spirit of his forefathers, the
pioneers of the great West, which urged
him to try his hand some place else. He
knew Mason City thoroughly. He knew
what he could do there-remain on his
fathers farm, perhaps for years, sue
ceed to the ownership of 1t in time. be-
como a farmer and remain right there
treading the same paths, meeting the
same friends. moving in the same cir
cumscribed circle for the rest of his days.