Los Angeles herald., 1906-06-22
MOTOR CARS
FOR ELOPERS
Paris Agency Supplies Speedy
Automobiles for Runaway
Couples
From tho London Express.

PARIS. June Mile. Bob Walter,
sill vous plait?" The man took my
card. "Madamoiselle will see you in a
| moment he said. And / had Just
! time to look round the biz garage with
| its twenty or more motor cars of all
! makes, shapes and sizes, when l was
/ called I'm to see tie proprietress.
| Mile Rob Walter is a bustling little
woman Of about 80 with cudly brown
hair and laughing eyes, She was
| dressed In bright red-"the color of
| passionate love, for passionate love is
my business" she said.
Then 1t Is really true, mademoiselle,
! and not merely newspaper canard?"
MY elopement agency? Certainly it
is true. There are two things in life
| which everybody considers necessary
| happiness and money. There is also an
| old proverb about the course Of true
love and the rough road. Then there
was Bob Walter, who was tired of do
| ing things that everybody had done,
and wanted new business. Et VOLTA Z"
And mademoiselle laughed at my
amusement, and tok me to look at the
elopement motor car. 1t is a 35-horse
power Panhard of the 1906 make. The
| carriage Is a comfortable berline, a
| little larger than ordinary, and with a
roof to carry luggage.
Cupid on the Panel
mot that my lovers often need the
roof" said Mile. Walter. "Get in and
see how comfortable it is, and then I'll
Introduce you to the cupid"
| thought at first that she meant
Frederic or Vaudoyer, who are the two
chauffeurs who drive the elopement
pot uCnntd'c DaI
ter calls It,
But she didn't mean the chauffeurs;
she meant the little cupid daintily
painted on the panels.
Il always arrange my elopements by
contract she said. "Of course, 1 have
sliding scale of charges which depend
on the distance the eloping couple
wish to go, the likelihood of danger Can
angry father has shot at 'Cupid's car
before now, and the ,if'erent details.
/ have been wonderfully lucky. OF the
six elopements which | have organized
five have ended in happy marriage, and
that the sixth did not do so was the
young mans own fault
Que vouez-VOus? He was young
lie was in love, he was foolish and he
was therefore ridiculously proud of
himself for carrying off the lady. In
consequence of these things, his first
care, when he got fairly started, was to
send kilograms to all his friends, say
ing that nothing could prevent the mar
riage now. L'imbecile!
Foolish Wires
"He forgot thCt everybody who re-
Ceived a telegram would know where it
came from, and therefore which way he
had gone. The woman's father arrived
here, almost specchless with excitment,
about two hours and half after his
daughter had been carried off Ma
DAME he said, when he could talk, my
daughter has been carried off by a
scoundrel-
In reddish brown Panhard motor,
with little cupid on the door, said l.
laughing at him.
Then he called me magician, and
his savior and an angel, and other
things that men call women when they
lose their heads, and offered me large
sum of money if l would catch the
runaways 1t was not very difficult.
OF course / knew the way they had
gone, and l sent him off in a quicker
car than the Cupid, under the charge of
Vaudoyer, for Frederic was on duty
with Cupid that day.
Il gave Vaudoyer orders to use his
discretion when he caught up with the
runaways, and if he thought they
looked happy-those things are easily
seen-to take papa off on a wldgoose
chase somewhere, or to break down
conveniently. Cupid's car never does
break down; that is its popularity.
"Vandoyer, when he caught the elop-
ing pair up not far from Rambouillet,
saw them sitting in different corners of
the car looking out of different winI
dows. So he shouted to Frederic to
stop, and drew up in front of him,
barring his passage. The rest was
simple. Papa and the young man
danced round one another in the road
little, and then the two men changed
cars, papa and his daughter going home
in Cupid, and the young man. thinking
over his sins, alone.
The Days Work
ut was a good days work for the
Maison Bob Walter, but think | would
have preferred the usual happy ending.
l wish | could show you my collection
of letters and mementoes from my five
eloped couples, but of course they are
confidential. And l have photograph
of No 1 couples No. baby. The Sec
ond couple has a baby, too, and l am
godmother to that.
But | think the most amusing pres
ent 1 have had yet came from the last
little couple, M. Martin and Mile. Guis-
sez They, if you remember, Travelled
as far as Bagneres de Lorme in Cupid,
and then lodged about all over France
by train till they got to Granville. They
crossed to Jersey, and are now in Eng
land somewhere.
"They have sent me the collection of
their railway tickets and a set of pic
ture postcards of all the places where
they stopped"
Mile. Bob Walter has had a remark
able career. She was born in Algeria,
where her father was in the French
commissariat. After her parents death
she came to Paris and formed a large
circle of friends, among whom were
Melssonier, Gen. Boulaneer, Henri
Rochefort, Van Beers, Caran Ache
and numbers of other clever men.
Then she went on the stage, singing
eighteenth century French songs to the
harp. She made a success and toured
all over Europe. When she came back