The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-05-04
ELOPINC PASTOR IS
 OF DESPERATE MIND In a Letter Dr. Cooke Inti- mates He Will Never
 Return Alive. LOOKED UP PENALTY Might Take His Own Life and Miss Whaley's if
 Pressed.

New York. May S.-That the Rev. Dr. Jere Rhode Cooke, the unfrocked rec tor of St. Georges church at Hemp stead, who on Tuesday eloped with seventeen-year-old Floretta Whaley, is prepared to take his own life and that of the young girl who was placed in his charge by her dying father is the in- timation in letter received to-day from the fugitive minister by Bergen Carman, one of the vestrymen.
 pr. Cooke begs that his parishloners will forgive and not judge him or Miss Whaley hastily. He declared, however, that neither he nor the girl would re- turn.
 In this letter, as in those written to Bishop Burgess, he expresses a horror of arrest, and strongly intimates that one death, if not two, will be the price of any successful attempt to find him with the idea of bringing him back to Hampstead for trial.
 The pulpit from which Dr. Cooke fled will be occupied on Sunday morning by Bishop Burgess, who is expected in his sermon to deal at length with the scandal. In the evening the sermon will be preached by the Rev. Percy Grant, of the Church of the Ascension Mo0hafton u-bn oro to LIaYop- stead at the personal request of Au- gust Belmont, the senior warden.
 There Is reason for belief that Dr. Cooke weighed the question of his flight with Miss Whaley carefully be- fore he went
 One day last week, while Justice of the Peace Gittens was alone in his of- flee, Dr. Cooke entered and asked to see a copy of the penal code. The rec tor looked over the book for few moments till he found the section he sought. This he studied carefully. The book is a new one, and when he re- turned it 1t opened naturally to the page on which the crime of abduction is penalized.
 Pinkerton detectives, engaged by Au- |. Georges church, have begun sys- tematic search for Dr. Cooke and the girl, who are believed to be in hiding in this city.
 That the rector had fully prepared for his elopement was discovered when it was learned that he had borrowed $500 from his patron August Belmont; $2,100 in smaller sums from other par ishioners, and had drawn from the bank $4,50O.
 In addition to these sums, he had drawn a months pay, $125, in advance. He also had with him the fee, said to have been $2,O0O, which he received on Monday for officiating at the wedding of Miss Van Rensselaer-Kennedy to Frank Porter
 With this sum Cooke expected to be able to eke out an existence in some foreign country till the girl became of age, when she is to come into $125, ,000 from the estate of her father. But If he is caught all his plans will be upset, and it will cost all the money he has gathered up to defend himself in court. It can, therefore, be seen that the girls relatives are anxious to get her back home befcre the preacher can spirit her away to Gone foreign country.
 Among the people here there is only sympathy for the girl, the belief being strong that she is the victim of de- signing man. In view of the fact that the attentions of Cooke to the girl have been the subject of gossip for year past, there is some wonderment that effective action was not taken long ago to break up the affair.".
 Cooke first saw Floretta Whaley when she was fifteen years of age. The clergyman called on the father of the girl, a retired hotel keeper, who was dying of a chronic complaint a year ago, and the latter on his deathbed made the rector promise that he would take kindly interest in the child and have her attend church and Sunday school regularly.
 Cooke promised, and he kept his word, so far as that was concerned. He also aided the girl in her high school studies.
 Bishop Burgess, when asked to-day if he would give out the letter he re- ceived from Cooke asking that he be deposed from the ministry, said that because several other persons would be involved he did not feel at liberty to do so. Several other persons were mentioned in the letter, he said. T do not think it would be just to involve them in the scandal" he added.
 'In substance, MT. Cooke asked to be deposed and begged my forgiveness He spoke of his years in the ministry as having been full of happiness, and of how much he regretted to leave it. He did not mention being in the com pany of the young woman in the case, seeming to. take 1t for granted that I would understand. He spoke of other matters which I do not feel at liberty to give out, because the letter was purely personal one.
 When I first read the letter I thought the man crazy"
 Bishop Burgess secretary said that a verbatim publication of the letter could cause a sensation. The letter was postmarked Long Island City, May l." and was received yesterday.