The Washington herald., 1907-05-04
Rev. Cooke Says He and Girl
VIII Not Return Alive.
BORROws $4,000 OF PATRONS
Also Looks Up Penal Code ON Crime
of AbduetioR-Roman Dates Back
10 Childhood OF Miss WhaIey,
Bishop Burgess to Occupy Pulpit.
The Cordova Case Recalled.

VINO on lueS0dy elOpeQ 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 lntlmation in a letter
| received to-day from the fugitive minister
| by Bergen Carman, one OF the vestry-
men.
Or. Cooke begs that his parishioners
viii forgive and not judge him or Miss
/ Whaley hastily. He declared. however,
that neither he nor the girl would return.
In this letter. as IL those written TO
Bishop Burgess, he expresses a horror
Of arrest, and strongly intimates that one
death. if not two. viii be the price Of
any successful attempt to find him with
the idea of bringing him back TO Hemp
stead for trial
Cooke Says He Had BrRin-stOrm.
Bishop Burgess refused to-day to make
public the letter which he received from
Cooke on Wednesday, and which led TO
his being formally deposed from the
Episcopal ministry on the following day.
It is believed that the publication Of this
letter in full would give a new sensa-
tionai turn TO the case. From a source
outside the bishops office it was learned
that Cooke. in his letter. attributes his
disappearance to a 'brain-storm he used
that expression. He tells the bishop that
ne has decided to leave his parish and the
ministry.
No mention is made in the letter Of the
girl.
Looks I'D Penal Code.
The pulpit from which Dr. Cooke fed
r.sffwfaF sssfr4fFarr r,rrr-qfr,s-
Bishop Burgess. who is expected in his
sermon TO deal at length with the sean
daL In the evening the sermon win be
delivered by the Rev Percy Grant, OF
the Church OF the Ascension. in Manhat-
tan. who will go to Hampstead al the
personal request Of August Belmont. the
senior warden.
There is reason for belief that Dr.
Cooke weighed the question Of his flight
with Miss Whaiey carefully before he
went
one day last week. while Justice Of the
Peace Citizens Was alone in his Office.
Dr. Cooke entered and asked TO see a
copy Of the penal code. The rector looked
over the book for a few moments till he
found the section he sought. This he
studied carefully. The book is "a new
one. and when he returned II it opened
naturally 20 the page on which the crime
Of abduction is penalizCd-
EIopers start with s9,523.
Pinkerton detectives. engaged by Au-
gust Belmont senior warden Of 81
Georges Church, have begun a systematic
search for Dr. Cooke and the girl. who
are believed 20 be in hiding in this city
That the rector had fully prepared for
his elopement was discovered when il
was learned that he had borrowed $50
from his patron, August Belmont; S3,l00
IN smaller sums from other paTishioners.
and had drawn from the bank $500
In addition to these sums he had drawn
months pay. SIS. in advance. He also
had with him the fee, said to have been
100o, which he received on Monday for
officiating at the wedding Of Miss Van
Rensselaer-Kennedy 10 Frank Porter
How the Romance Sprung.
The Rev DIR. Jere Kn0de Cooke first
met Floretta Whaley as she was romping
by his house to grammar school one day
with her sister Edna. He was busy rak-
ing the front yard as they passed. He
stopped short Ia his work and calculated
as F1orrie afterward told Of it.
What dear, sweet little face II is
just the face have been looking for"
He callcd TO Florrie. talked with her
and learned that she attended his Sunday
school. From then on the clergyman
never ceased to be Interested in the girl,
but until recently. when Florrie had
grown up into strikingly handsome
young woman rather tall rosy faced,
well developed. and looking and dressing
much older than she was. no one eVeri
suspected that his interest was anything
more than a pastoral one toward the
child who had lost her father and mother
What were apparently pastoral calls
made at the little yellow cottage were
not looked upon as anything else than
in accordance with Mr.. Cookies minis
terial duties Moreover, year a go. when
John z. Whaiey. FiorTie's father died
the fact that on his deathbed he had
asked the rector to look after the spir-
itual and moral welfare Of his two little
girls became well known, as well as that
there was an understanding. too. that /
although not legally made his wards, he
was 70 look after their general welfare, I
as Mrs Whaley. their only other relative /
in Hampstead was getting along toward /
eighty years of age.
Several Women Felt ScandnIIEed.
But seven or eight months ago when /
Florrie put up her pigteils and began to |
wear her hair in Psyche knot and /
heightened her skirts. the minister's in !
terest in the girl began to attract the no.
tice of his Darishioners More than one /
of his congregation felt that Air Cooke /
ought to be told that his frequent calls at /
the Whaley home and his marked atten- |
tion TO the girl at church social gatherings /
wers- indiscreet. but hesitated 70 tell him /
Within the last month or two, however. /
the intimacy CT the two became 50 marked /
that several Of Mr.. Cookies friends re- 1
monstrated with him and told him point |
blank that he was creating scandal, and /
several women in the church who pro- /
fessed to be shocked ceased to attend |
services.
The rector had been very popular, for 1
he was hard worker. had raised large
sums Of money for the church and made +
many Improvements on the property, and 1
was affable and winning in his personal /
ity but his parishi0ners were not willing /
to countenance an intimacy with a seven /
teen-yeaT-old girl, even had he not been /
married Their remonstrances had no in /
huenee upon Mr.. Cooke. however.
Like Notorious Cordova Case.
The case of the Rev. Jere Rnode Cooke. |