The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1908-01-03
Discovered Through Photo OF
Girl He EIoped With.
FIoretta Whaley Now Mother OF
a Nice Bouncing Boy.
Unfrocked Rector Tells the Sad
Story of His Career.


knode Cooke, formerly pastor of the.
fashionable st. Georges church at
Hampstead, Long Island, and Floretta
Whaley, the seventeen ear-old heiress
with whom he eloped eight month ago,
deserving wife to whom he had been
married for nine years stole away
from the little fiat which they had oc-
cupied at 1899 Green street in this
city.
They were discovered here living
under the name of Mr.. and Mrs.
Gerald Balcom. They took with them
their baby boy, Balloon, born two
months ago. They drew the blinds,
bolted the rear entrance and locked
the front door, leaving behind all
they had managed through rigid eeono-.
my to save for their worldly comfort
during the eight months that search
for them has been made throughout
the country.
Whittier they went has not been
ascertained. The police declare that no
request has been made of them to APP
prehend the couple and that no effort
is being made to locate or detain
them.
The discovery of Cooke and the girl
with whom he had eloped was made
through Capt. Clearly of the Morse
patrol agency, who met the couple
when they arrived, here last June from
Los Angeles.
When the girls picture was pub
lished last week in connection with a
dispatch from Louisiana stating that
Cooke had desterted Floretta Whaley
''and gave her away to family there
that was educating her." Clearly i'm
mediately recognized the picture as
that of the young woman whom he
had met as Mrs. Balcom.
4 reporter called at the home of the
unfrocked minister and his compan-
ion where they had lived quietly under
their assumed names. Cook is Yale
graduate, worked at painting and
decorating, and when hard pinched
for funds did any manual work he
could get.
The only notice ever taken of the
couple by neighbors and those who
lived in the same fiat was to comment
upon the appearance and happiness
and the devotion of Balloon" to the
girlish mother and the baby boy.
When the interviewer called yester
day Balloon, or Cooke, admitted hi;
identity, but sent the frail mother
and the baby into another room, ask
ing the reporter to lower his voice
that she might not learn that theil
identity had been discovered.
My God! What an awakening from
our happiness." exclaimed he.
Then he burst out passionately
Look here; give me chance to get
away. You're human-just as human
as / am. l don't mind Sing Sing o
hell, but it's she. The child wa
born two months ago, and this vii
kill the mother"
Pacing back and forth, the unfroeke'
minister poured forth the story OF hi
life and his elopement with prett.
FIoretta Whaley.
whats the user he said. "Th
memorable law will be-must be-maitl
tanned / have preached it SO often
ought to know Faith? There is moth
ing that will paint black sheep white
But listen to my side; for ten, ffteel
wears | have kept silent. For the las
eight months | have bourne without
murmur all the abuse, the viles
lies that yellow journals could coneoct
Now l. will speak. Judge whether al
as big scoundrel as the public la
been led to believe.
Cooke then told of the wealth Q
his father when the son was six year
old; his adoption by an Uncle, learnin
the trade of paperhanging and decor
ating, how he worked his way throug
Yale and finally entered the mihistr,
He touched upon his marriage and uf
happy married life, declared that hi
wife admitted to him that she ha
married him for no other reason tina
that it would proye convenient steF
pingstone for her social ambition
but added that it would be "eaddis
to dilate upon his marriage troubles.
~ "Then / awoke to love and ever.
thing else was worthless. You kiio9
the end. On the one hand was u low
less life with honor and dispesitio
and wealth, and on the other love Wit
poverty. l chose this."
He pointed to the scahtily flu
nished room.
81 don't praise myself for. the ste
took. It was weakness; IL was .dn
manly. But am only human.
Il am doing a mans work. I hav
sinned. but l have suffered. Now
beg the world to let me alone wit
my wifesand child. can live tn
life of good Christian. They say
am good decorator. ask the worl
IA lat mo no ,aaiufar ,tnthtue, ty,nra