The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-12-31
REV. COOKE
 IS LOCATED .Unfrocked Minister Is Found in Frisco. COUPLE DISAPPEARS . AGAIN A Baby Boy Was Born to Them
 Recently.
COUPLE DISAPPEARS AGAH
A Newspaper Reporter visited the House and Cooke Admitted His Identity--Thcir Whereabouts
 Are Asaia Unknown.

HNhH DGCs ou+~-lH a ptitih6 ra'h before daybreak today. the Rev. .fst Rhode Cooke. formerly rector of Lis fashionable St. Georges Church at Hampstead, l.. l., and F'loretta whaley. the l7-year-old heiress with whom he eloped about eight months ago. desert- ing wife to whom he had been mar ried for nine years and creating a sen- sation in church and society circles. stole away from the little flat which they had occupied at 1199 Green Street in this city. where they were discov- cred yesterday. living under the name of Mir. and Mrs. Gerald Balcomb.. talk Ing with their baby boy, born two months ago.
 They drew the blinds. boited the rear entrance and locked the front door, leaving behind all they had managed through rigid economy to save for their worldly comfort during the eight months that search has been made throughout the country. Whither they went has not yet been ascertained.
 The police declare that no request has been made to them to apprehend the couple and that no effort is being made to loeate or detain them.
 The discovery of Cooke and the girl whom he had eloped with. was made through Captain cieary of the Morse Patrol Agency, who met the couple
 
 Los ingeles.
 Recognized Girls Picture.
 When the girls picture was publish ed fast week in connection with dis patch from Louisiana. stating that Coof.e had deserted Fioretta Whaley and gkve hef away to a family there who we're educating her. Cleary imrne- dlaselSt recognized the picture as that of the young woman whom he had met as Mrs Baicomb. Yesterday afternoon repo ter from local newspaper call cd at Ae home of the unfrocked minis- ter an.g hts companion, where they had lived tnietly under their assumed names Cooke. a Yale graduate. work ed at ;nting and decorating and when hard ! ehed for n tney,s did any man. usl w1n,. that eonld get. The only uatf ssTsNvsf taken af thsS couple ny neighbors and those who lived in the same building was to comment upon the apparent happiness and the devo- ton of Balcomb to the girlish mother and the baby boy. When the inters viewer called yesterday. it was like lightning out of clear sky.
 Balcomb or Cooke, admitted his iden- tity but sent the fragile mother and the baby Into another room, asking the re- porter to lower his tone so that she might not learn of the discovery of their Identity.
 Awful Awakening.
 My Gody what an awakening to our happiness" exclaimed Cooke. "All I want is a chance to get away. I don't mind Sing Sing or hell, but it is she. The child was born two months ago. and discovery and apprehension would kill the mother"
 Pacing back and forth. Cooke told the reporter the story of his life and of his elopement with Miss Whaley.
 "The inexorable law must be main tained." he said. T have preached it so often I ought to know. There is nothing that will paint black sheep white. But I have my reasons. For ten years I have kept silent. For the last eight months I have borne with out murmur all the abuse, the vilest lies that newspapers could concoct."
 Cooke's father died when he was 5 years old He was adopted by an un- cle and learned the trade of paper hanger and decorator. He worked his way through Yale and finally entered the ministry. Since his disappearance he has been working at painting and other work he could get.
 Cooke told of his marriage and of his unhappiness after that time. He de- clared that hts wife admitted to him that she had married him for no other reason than that 1t would prove a con venient stepping stone for her social ambitions. He added that it would be "caddish to dilata on my marriage troubles"
 Then awoke to love and every thing else was worthless" He con tinued:
 You know the end On the one hand was a loveless life with honor, position and wealth and on the other love and poverty I chose this"
 Weak and UnmanIy.
 He pointed to the scantily fur .;.I 2 or the step 1 took. It was weakness, it was unmanly: but I am only human and as I am to be judged by human beings, it is but right that they shall know that I gave up all that I had fought for ana won. Now all I ask Is to be let alone.
 "I am doing a mans work. l have sinned but l have suffered. Now beg the world to let me alone with my wife and child. I can live the life of a good citizen, They say 1 am a good decorator. was kept at work long after the other men were let go dIP. Ing the financial stringency. l ask the world to let me be a painter nothing more. to do a mans work and enjoy the average society and happiness of the average man
 The only Identification established so far of Gerald Balcombe as the Rev Jere Rhode Cooke. Is his own admis- sion. Cooke said he was afflicted with heart failure and several times he was on the verge of callapse during the in terview. -On the promise that Mrs. would not be apprised of The fact that their identity had been d discovered, Cooke accompanied the re- porter to a newspaper to be sketched.
 On the way down town, Cooke tainted on the street car
 Cooke's neighbors speak in the high est terms of the pair and of Cooke's devotion to his supposed wife.
 Mrs S M. Miles, who lives in an ad- joining apartment. said that she saw Cooke and his companion. or Mir. and Mrs Balcombe as she knew them. leav- ing their fiat early this morning and go out in the storm. The man had a few pieces of baggage and the girl car ried the baby closely wrapped All eff. forts 10 lind them today were in vain.
 Welcome Awaits Girl.
 Mineola. l.. l.. Dec. 30.--Dtstrict At torney Coles said today that he has re- celved no official information that Jere K Cooke and Floretta Whaley have been found in San Francisco. As soon