Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1910-06-03
An Aeroplane
Elopement
A Story Of 1888
By JASON JUDSON
Copyright. 1910. by American Press
Association.

t1OD only 10 OCCUR III tueSe udyS Wueu
our Weather classes have money.
Miss Anita Beriton loved a poor man.
and her father desired that she should
wed q rich one. Young Van Damn
Follansbee had but beggarly ten mil
lion, while the old widower Plankin-
ham Porkenpaker possessed a cool bill
improperly of asking for a girl he
could not support in the style to which
she had been accustomed, but he came
of an old Dutch family on his moth
er's side, and the Dutchmen who set
tied New York were proverbially obsti-
nate and stupid.
One would suppose that the Beritons.
who owned a railroad starting from
New York, running to New Orleans
and thence around the Pacific coast
and back through Canada, might afford
to let their daughter marry a poor
man. But a panic at the time Of the
courtship had reduced their dividends
to 20 per cent, and they felt unusually
poor. Mrs. Beriton, who had married
her husband when he was a brakeman
on one Of the railroads which he after
ward united in the circular coast line
system and became that systems own
er, sympathized with her daughter, but
Beriton swore round oath that he
would have no beggars in his family.
On the morning Of June 10, 1885,
Miss Anita Beriton was sitting with
her mother and a younger sister in the
spacious roof garden Of her fathers
residence occupying the four blocks
between Five Hundred and Tenth and
Five Hundred and Fourteenth streets
and avenues d and II, New York.
when Mrs. Beriton proposed q ride.
One Of the family aeroplanes was call
ed and in a few minutes lit upon the
roof garden. Mr.. Beriton, fearing that
his daughter Anita might in some of
these rides elope with Follansbee, had
given orders that August Spindleton,
driver of his own choosing, should
at all times conduct the machine, and
on this occasion Spindleton was in his
accustomed seat.
Mrs. Beriton and her two daughters
entered the machine, which rose light
ly circling upward for a thousand feet,
when Spindleton was directed to pro-
coed southwark along the coast for a
brief trip to Annapolis. They were
moving at a moderate pace of some
sixty miles an hour, when Spindleton
cast glance to the right and. seeing
machine coming toward the party,
clapped on double speed.
Mr.. Beriton's fears had proved to
be well grounded. Mr.. Van Damn
Follansbee was out in a machine of
a new pattern and was bearing down
upon them. 1t was evident that Fol.
lansbee was intending to get into
communication with Mrs. Anita Beri.
| ton.
Spindleton was true to his employer
He drove his machine at its best speed
passing over cities. bays and rivers
but his aeroplane was gradually gain
ed upon by Follansbee. lowering over
| Philadelphia. Spindleton endeavored
| to descend. but Follansbee glanced
| down like a bird and reached a plane
beneath him. Spindleton then rose
and. made bee line for Baltimore
But Follansbee. evidently with the de-
termination to drive him out to sea
| got to the west of him and forced him
over Chesapeake bay. In a few min,
| uteS more the pursuer had the party
over Fortress Monroe, flying due east
The race was won. Spindleton was
/ IN md
there was no way for him to get bach
except by encountering Follansbee.
Spindleton slowed down, and Follans
bee glided up beside the Beriton aero
plane. conference took place, after
which Mrs. Beriton ana her two daugh
tiers stepped from their own aeroplane
into that of Mr.. Follansbee.
Meanwhile Mr.. Beriton had left the
roof Of his office building downtown
in One Hundred and Twenty-ffth
street. intending to go home. Soon aft
er rising he saw in the direction of his
mansion an aeroplane starting, and
Selling glass he always carried in
the smoking room Of his capacious
bird-car, brought it to bear on the one
| JuSL StllllS Oul. Discovering IluL It's
occupants were his wife and daughters
with his own aviator in control. be
was about to lay aside his glass when
he saw another aeroplane towering
near his home Bringing his glass tc
bear on this machine, he saw Follans
bee alone in it and just starting fol
the one occupied by the Beritons.
Mr.. Beriton noticed that Follansbee'.
aeroplane was Of kind he had moi
seen before. 1t was of the bird type
and on its PROV was a sharp ram
The merchant was at once filled will
apprehension. 1t was plain that Fol
lansbee was bent on some course con
nected with the BeritOn family. but
1t was impossible to imagine wha
that course would be- 1t was not t
be expected that he would run dowr
the Beriton car and thereby precipitat,
the girl he loved TO a distance of some
800 feet. Nevertheless he was soon il
full chase. Mr.. Berlton directed hi.
| for 10 I,n