Los Angeles herald., 1906-09-03
ELECTRICITY ACTS
As MATCHMAKER
EASTERN COUPLE HEED ITS
PR0MPTINGS
Man and Woman Touch Telephone,
Receive Shock and See
Face Of Intended
Revealed
snecial to The Herald.

CHICAGO Sept. 2-Probaby the
strangest, most inexplicable, uncanny
love romance of all time eliminated
recently I'm the marriage at Baltimore
Of Miss Helen Clayton to Harry Lee
Stafford.
They were brought together by an
electric flash. and they refer to their
courtship as the lightning courtship,
for two reasons, one because they were
engaged within an hour after they
first met each other in the flesh and
married within two days.
Perhaps no romance ever told, no
freak of vivid imagination ever equaled
In weirdness the facts which have de-
veloped in the Stafford Clayton case.
The entire story, so strange, so appal-
ling almost as to stagger belief, affords
another proof of the truth of the old
proverb Truth is stranger than f1c-
ton"
The beginning of 1t was on Feb. "a,
1905. At that time Miss Clayton was
employed as stenographer in all in
surance company, with offices on Balti-
more street Stafford. young Vir-
ginian, had but recently entered upon
the practice of law and he was in the
office of one of the biggest legal firms
In the city, about ten blocks from the
insurance building in which Miss Clay
ton worked. They never had seen each
other, although both were Virginians
and members of old families.
He came from Norfolk and she from
a small town near Richmond. So far
as can be learned they never had
heard of each other and never had
passed each other even on the streets
of Baltimore. at least not to notice each
other. These facts have been ascer-
tanned in the effort to explain away
the seemingly inexplicable circum-
stances surrounding their meeting.
1t happened that in 1905 February "a
fell on Friday and that the afternoon
was dark and threatening. Miss Clay
ton was at her desk in the insurance
office. engaged In writing a long letter
for the superintendent At the same
time Mr.. Stafford was in his office
ten blocks away. He remembers dis
tinctly that at the moment he had
taken up volume OF supreme cour.
reports to investigate a case he had
in hand and started to look up the
language of the supreme court in de-
cision bearing on his case.
The time as closely as they can dis
cover, was 1875 a. m. Their recol-
lection of the time is borne out by the
testimony of others who were In the
Offices at the same time
Apparently at exactly 1926 Miss
Clayton noticed that the light was bad.
She was bending over her machine,
and. she says, without looking up
she reached up her left hand, intending
TO t,1rn ON the electric light above her
desk.
Both Burned by Electricity
At the same instant, it appears from
the evidence. Mr.. Stafford, ten blocks
away. with his head bowed over the
supreme court decision. reached up
his right hand to turn on his
electric light. Apparently both, in
stead of touching the rubber key and
turning on the light. grabbed or
touched the metal base of the light.
At the same instant there were Two
splu uttering explosions. The occupants
of the insurance office We're startled to
see Miss Clayton fall senseless across
her desk, with one hand badly burned
while the occupants of the law oftlce
saw Stafford sink down senseless, his
right hand burned to the bone.
These things have developed since
then. At the time. of course, no one
thought OF connecting the two acci-
dents. even if any one in Baltimore
had known of both.
The odd part of it began immedi-
ately The Office people who rushed to
Miss Claytons assistance were aston
smiling happily. and not until the ter
rible pain in her scared hand drove
it away did the smile fade. George I.
Mulholland, who picked Stafford up,
told several persons that electricity
had a strange effect on Stafford, FOR
he was smiling all the time until he
discovered how badly his hand was
burned.
The thing that caused the smiles on
the faces of the handsome young
stenographer and the young lawyer
was that each had seen the others face
while unconscious. Neither knew it at
the time or for many months after
ward.
While unconscious Miss Clayton saw
the face of young man, smiling. The
face was of strong features, a dark
complexion, and above it was heavy
black hair, dropping and curling lit
tie above the ear. Stafford had seen
a face of singular beauty and frank
ness, with big blue eyes and halo OF
light, wavy hair
Time, of course, obliterated the recol-
lection of the accident from the minds
of both, but it appears from recent de-
velopments that neither forgot at any
time the face seen during the uncon-
scious moments, and each, 1t is said
often thought of the face and Won
dered about it.
Face Haunted Her
Miss Clayton admits that the face of
the man she saw haunted her day and
night. It was unlike that of any man
she ever had seen, and she declares
that she was in love with the dream
face for months. The experience OF
Stafford was similar.
He even went so far as to consult an
alleged clairvoyant and inquired as to
the meaning of the face he had seen.
The clairvoyant told him it was the
face of his mother when she was a
young girl that he had seen. but, know
ing that his mothers hair was raven
black and her eyes matched them, he
was not satisfied.
The accidents almost were forgotten
when. on May 2S, in the afternoon,
Stafford went to theIMount Royal sta
tion to meet a friend who was ex-
pected to arrive from Philadelphia. He
was hurrying into the waiting room,
fearing that he had missed the train,
when suddenly he came face to face
with young woman.
STAFFORD stopped dead still and stood
staring at the girl. She gasped and,
with her pretty blue eyes dllated with
surprise and fear, she stared at him
Stanford was the first to speak He
lifted his hat grasped her hand and