Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1911-07-26
ATLANTA AFTER Sky Pilots.
Girl and spiritual Adviser" Held
Tor South Carolina Authorities.
(Atlanta Journal, 25th.) !

'a . &. T.
Looking for one Methodist
preacher from South Carolina, who
1t was reported, mad eloped with a
young girl and was headed for At
lanta, the police raided little Madl-
son avenue hotel and pinched, not
the South Carolina preacher and the
girl for whom they were searching
but an entirely different pair.
Rev. b. l.. Padgett and pretty
Miss Corrie Stockton, 16 years of
age, are the two in custody, and the
Rev. J. II. Newton and Miss Tessle
Moore, likewise 16 years Of age, are
the two for whom the cops are still
looking.
The quartet, the preacher and the
girl incarcerated, and, the preacher
and the girl at large, hail from
Greenville. The Rev. Mr.. Padgett
takes his arrest calmly, and says that
he could stand his part of 1t all
right If 1t did not put the young
lady In such an embarrassing and
likely-to Observation-Disclosures attitude.
He Is also rather sore with the po-
lice, who, he thinks, felt that they
just had to make some sort Of an
arrest, when they made the raid and
failed to find the preacher and the
girl for whom they were looking.
was on my way to Greensboro,
Ca, says Mr.. Padgett, where was
to assist one Of the pastors In hold
ing revival services. | stopped off
IN Atlanta for short time just to
look Things over here, and on Mon
| day Miss Stockton joined me.
"She had my address, as did other
members Of her family, whose spir-
itual adviser I have been for some
time. When she came here she I'M
| mediately looked me up, and since
then have been acting simply as
her protector. didn't know she
was coming, but when she did, i'm
mediately wired her mother that she
was here. l then procured a position
Tor her as seamstress and have
been looking out for her In every
way. She left home because ter
mother ts going back to live with
her husband, from whom she had
been separated, and the girl did not
want to go with her. Neither did an
older sister, and she also was pre-
pairing to come to Atlanta. am
| simply friend of the family, have
known them all for years, and want
ed to do anything in my power for
the girl. She positively refused to
live with the father, and when her
mother went back to him she was
without place to stay. I don't
blame her for not wanting to live
with him, but that's another story,
and as I learned the things which |
know about 1t simply as a spiritual
adviser, | do not feel at liberty to
go into details"
Rev. Mr.. Padgett says that he has
been Methodist minister a number
of years, and that last year and year
before he was president of the South
| Carolina Conference. He declares
that his record Is above reproach,
and that when the local authorities
are wired about him they will re-
lease him.
! The police flushed" the couple In
adjoining, but connecting rooms at
the hotel, and for that reason the
| city will probably prosecute the case,
| If the South Carolina authorities do
not wish to extradite them.
! A peculiar circumstance of the
case Is that Padgett says that he
knows both the Rev. ]. II. Newton
and the Moore girl.
| Newton left a wife and several
children In Greenville, and Rev. Mr..
| Padgett did the same.