The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1903-12-28

old girl who works in the laundry
in which l am interested. and she
told her she could. The child did not
return up to $3.50, and my wife be-
came anxious and told me to go and
see if she was at Mrs. Dovoy's. |
did not find her and went to several
places in town and still l could not
find any trace of her. AS the night
wore on my anxiety increased and
my wife who is very nervous wo-
man was in a state of total collapse.
| sent men in different directions
on horses to look for the children
as l. thought they had been kidnap-
ped, which happens once in thou
sand times. or had been lost or
drugged by some villain. l never
dreamed that the children were at
the hotel, but my wife had premo-
milton that they were at the Shell
by and told me to go there several
times. But l did not do so. Had 1
done as she suggested the terrible
night of anguish could have been
avoided. l am fully satisfied that the
men who took the girls out are not
guilty of any criminal conduct, but
l will plainly state that both of
them must leave Roswell at once.
l will not prosecute them, but they
must leave and leave at once. My
son Lonnie Cottingham went to the
room of the Offer man at about Il: 80
knew where the children were, and
he declared that he knew nothing
about them. The scoundrel should
be killed for telling this lie. Offer
and the Dovoy girl, understand,
had been sweethearts at the laun-
dry, but I did not know this until
today.
"The Dovoys came here and were
highly recommended by prominent
people. They live in a tent, and Mr..
Dovoy has consumption, and Mrs.
Dovoy and the daughter worked in
the laundry to help support him. /
supposed his sickness for several
years had reduced them financially
l understand the Dovoy girl looked
on the matter lightly and said, why
it is nothing to stay out late at
night, and 1 have done SO before
The worst mistake we made was in
allowing Erma to associate with
girl who worked in the laundry. But
in poverty are as good as anybody.
f'My little girl is a school girl and
we do not allow her to associate
with boys. The worst she has done
was telling her mother a story when
she said she was going to see the
Dovoy girl. l am satisfied they did
not drive around with the men. but
simply strolled around town until
about $50 o'clock and then the child
was afraid to go home for fear of
the scolding she knew she would
get shot gun and intended to
kill both of the men, but when I
reached home with my child my
wife tainted from the shock and
ran to her assistance and dropped
the matter. AS I was taking my
child home 1 saw Offer and l told
him l was going to kill him if he
was guilty. and ordered him to face
my child at the house. He said. 4
am innocent and you can kill if you
| wish l never saw man act cool
er, and he went to my house with
me. At this point my son Lonnie
rushed out and drew a revolver on
Offer and said, Il am going to kill
you if you are guilty and the mans
GOODNESS caused Lonnie not to shoot
as he did not want to kill an inno-
cent man. Offer replied, I am inno-
cent and drew open his coat and
said kill me if you want to. but you
will kill an innocent man. There
are many conflicting stories and ma
ny think that the case is really worse
than it is. AS it is it is a severe
blow to me-"