The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1908-03-20
ELgPMG RECTOR
IS NOW 4 PAINTER
Says He Gets a Weeks Wages For
q Weeks Work.
uNFROckED lERE kNODE COOKE
Tells the. Story of His Early Life in
Hagsratown, Nd, and Baltimore
His Marriage in Latter City and
Growth of His In fatuation for Floretta
Whaley-Is Back at His Trade.

San Francisco Especially. - Jere
Knode Cooke, the unfrocked pastor
of st. Georges Church, Hampstead,
L. T., who eloped about year ago
with Floretta Whaley and who, un-
der the name of "Balcolm," Is now
occupying fat on the outskirts OF
this city with the girl and their baby,
told the following story of his life:
my parents died when / was very
young, but young as | was remem-
Der distinctly my mother making me
promise to enter the ministry. AS
grew older the calling appealed to
me more and more and decided to
enter the church. / was adopted by
man named Cooke, whom look
upon as an uncle, and attended the
public schools. When I was 16 years
old / was apprenticed to painter
and decorator, and there / learned
the trade which / am now following.
The little earned saved, and event.
ually had enough to allow me to
enter Yale. Life was an uphill strug-
gle then. l had to work my way
through college, and ON graduating
was appointed curate of church in
Baltimore.
While there 1 met and married
the woman the law calls my wife.
There made my first big mistake.
When three days after our wedding
she coldIy informed me that she had
married me simply as stepping
stone to social progress and that she
saw in me one who was going to
rise, I recognized the bitterness OF
my lot.
sFrom Baltimore was appointed
rector Of st. Georges Church in
Hampstead, L. I. The position was a
good one and one that highly pleas
ed my wife. She had there an OPP
portunity to further her social aims
and it was pleasing to me also, in
asmuch as it was in accord with my
personal ambition to succeed.
As rector of St. Georges met
FIoretta Whaley. She was a mere
child then and grew up under my
eyes, always regarded her as a
child until one day awoke to the
fact that she was woman and that
i loved her. At this stage might
say that, though l6 years old, Flo
retta Whaley was one of the type
that natures early. Her orphan life
ana surroundings had made her re-
markably precocious even as a child,
and at is she was in her woman
hood. / say this in the face of the
criticism heaped on me in regard to
the clipping with one so young.
II wish it to be remembered that
at this time | was at the height of
my success. The near future prom
Used for me all the sacredotal world
had to offer. / threw aside every
thing and took the girl.
II knew exactly what the payment
would be. / knew the storm that
would follow. / knew became a
criminal knew it all, and did it.
Here in San Francisco ! learned
the difference between the East and
West. m the East would have
been stoned and put in jail; in the
West people came to my aid to help
me out. They understood that had
only one course to purse and that
was to stick to the mother of my
child. | expected bounding, and
instead received nothing but kind
ness and offers.
And now all ask is to be al
lowed to live my life, not as Jere
Knode Cooke, the unfrocked pastor
OF st. Georges Church, but as Jere
Balcolm, painter and decorator. who
draws a weeks wages for a weeks
work -