Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1909-01-08
Plot and Counterpart.


Jim Pickering and Marcia Kyle
were as popular a due as ever graced a
city social set. When they became en-.
gagged the girls all said "How loyely!'
and the men said "a pair of bricks"
1t was to be expected that they would
be married in fine style n would re-
ceive a multitude of presents. They
decided, however, to confne their in
vitations to their intimate friends and
make an old fashioned Publication of
it. Even this narrow limit took in
some two hundred people, but there
were plans among those invited to
have a rare time. 1t was proposed by
one group to kidnap the bride and
groom and take them far out of their
way on their wedding trip. Another
group planned to give them what is
called in the country a charivari-that
is, to collect under their windows and
serenade them with all kinds of dis
cordant music. Another feature was
to follow them footing horns.
But the groom and bride were also
busy planning. How should they es-
cape all these traps set for them and
turn the laugh on the would be trap
pers? Many plans were discussed, but
laid aside as impracticable. One was
to procure an automobile with an eX-
perienced chauffeur to distance their
pursuers. Another was to hide some
where in the house till the guests,
weary of hunting for them, would give
up the attempt to find them. No conf
dence was placed in being able to lose
their pursuers IN the road, and, as to
hiding In q house with 200 eager
searchers to turn 1t inside out, such a
scheme was manifestly impossible.
There was one venue of escape,
which they did not hit upon till the
last moment. though it was the sim
plest and most practicable of all. For
tunately for them they thought of 1t in
time to put it into practice.
"The guests were met, the feast was
set" Two hundred young men and
women-there was not an old person
among them except from the immedi-
ate families of the bride and groom
witnessed the ceremony, many of them
on tiptoe Of excitement, to put in prac-
~ OOAlC pan Wy hAN W buAh lhO
wedding night into a carnival. Then
there were the usual kisses for the
bride and groom from members of
their respective families, after which
the boys and girls passed before them.
offering their congratulations. After
this came the drinking of the health
of the bride in the supper room and
lastly the usual disappearance up
stairs of the newly married couple to
don travelling suits preparatory to be-
ing driven to the station.
The hour was 10 o'clock at night.
The groom's dressing room was on
the top floor of the house, the brides
aap the pesxtufaoor below When 2le
floor above, where the groom awaited
her. Together they ran up a ladder
way to the ~scuttle, pushed it aside and 1
stood on the roof. The house was in a
block of houses of nearly equal height.
Pickering jumped down owe the cop
ing and handed down his bride, and to-
gether they ran over half a dozen
roofs, vainly trying to find an open
scuttle, till they reached the seventh
house away
Now, there had been frequent rob-
berries of ate in that part of the city,
and people were on the lookout for
thieves. Hearing footsteps on his
roof, an occupant of one of the houses
the couple passed over telephoned for
the police, and in less than three min
utes a patrol wagon full of cops drove
up to the front door in question.
Being informed that robbers were on
the roof who would doubtless seek
an egress through one of the houses,
the block was surrounded. A police
man went into each of the houses and
upstairs to receive the thieves when
they should come through the scuttle.
The consequence was that when the
welded pair stepped down on to the
top floor of the house they entered, in
tending to explain matters to the oc-
cupants and then secure their indul-
gence and cooperation, they walked
into the arms of a policeman.
A policeman is a matter of fact in
dividual, utterly devoid of humor,
sympathy or any of the attributes re-
CURED on THIS occasion. Pickering eX-
planned. He told the cop what a fine
joke they were p~laying-aIl to no
purpose. They were informed hat
they could tell their story to the SER
geant at the desk at the station. There
was but one alternative-to request to
be taken back to the house from which
they had escaped. Pickering suggest
ed this course to his bride.
what! Go back there to be laughed
at! Neverlp'
"We'n have to pass our bridal night
in a CELL"
"Pll pass it in a fiery furnace rather
than face that crowd in charge of a
policeman
The terror of it was in riding to the
station In the open patrol wagon.