The weekly tribune and the Cape County herald. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1914-1918, 1915-09-17
CHILD ELOPER,
Home, SAYS She's
GLAD SHE DID IT
"Put Me in Cell, ToO," LOttie
Greer, Is Years Old,
Tells Father.
DETERMINED TO WE'D
HER BEAU, SHE SAYS
Asks to Be Punished Like Sweet
heart, But Parent Takes
Her Home.

Deputy Sheriff Seagraves early this
morning arrived in the Cape from St.
Louis with 15-year old Lottie Greer
and her 19-year old sweetheart,
George Vier Webb, the couple that
rifled leather pouch containing S11O
in gold that belonged to the girls
father Monday afternoon and eloped to
st. Louis.
They had been arrested in St. Louis
as they walked from the platform into
the midway at Union Station in St.
Louis by Detectives Agee and Lem
kemeier of the st. Louis Detective
Bureau.
The arrest was made after the faith
err, j. H. Greer, of South Cape, had
discovered his daughter had fled with
the contents of hi; money pouch at his
home. He told Chief of Police HutsOn,
who wired the st. Louis police to
watch trains for the girl and her
sweetheart
On their arrival in the Cape young
Webb was placed in the city Jail pend
ing hearing before Justice of the
Peace Willer at 10 o'clock this NOR
ing and the girl was paroled to her
father for the rest of the morning.
The girl did not want to leave
Webb's side in the police station and
demanded that she be placed in a cell
with Webb. Her father has $92 of the
money that was recovered on the cou-
pie in the hands of Seagraves as Sc
curity that he will produce the girl
this morning.
"Don't you want to go home, Lot
tie? the father asked his daughter,
as she declared her preference for a
cell rather than not receive the same
treatment as her companion.
mot if they're going to put him
here, l don't" she replied. ~ want to
get the same treatment that he does"
The girls face showed no sign of
emotion as she told her father she did
not care to go home. The father ar
gued with her and after several mo-
ments convinced her that she ought to
leave for home with him.
The girl stoutly declared that she
intends to marry young Webb as sooH
as their present trouble is cleared
She loves him, she declared, and part
of their plan was to go to Madi"
| H., small town near st. Louis, where
she said she understood that they could
have been married despite the facj
that they were under age and were
without the consent of their parents
They had planned to go to Madison,
they said, soon after their arrival in
the city. Their arrest, however, inter
fered.
| The arrest at the station was not
unexpected, young Webb said. owe
talked about our scheme to leave about
five days ago." he said. 81 tried to get
she insisted.
Monday afternoon l had a date
with her just to go downtown. | went
to her house and could not find her
l started on toward town and pretty
soon | caught up withher. She had the
suitcase and began telling me we were
going to leave on the afternoon
for ST. Louis.
"I've got the money! she said to
me and when l asked her what money,
she told me some of her dads. She
didn't tell me how she got it, whether
he had given it to her or she simply
had taken it.
81 kept on trying to get her to 8.
home, but it was no use. She insisted
on my going. We went into the cloth
ing store together where we got her
a new dress and then when we got to
the station, she gave me the money to
buy railroad tickets to st. Louis with.
81 kept thinking all the time on the
way into St. Louis that something
wuold happen like this. A couple of
plainclothes men grabbed US at the
station as we were coming out the
gate"
In talking to Seagraves, Webb told
him that they had talked about get
ting the money and leaving for some
time before. The girl in her statements
declared that she took the money that
belonged to her father and corrobor-
ated Webb's story in detail.
Webb had warned her before they
started, that they would be arrested |
within a few hours after leaving, but |
the girl held him to her plan.
The boy said that the detectives had
just arrived at the station in st. Louis |
as the train pulled in, and he declared |
that he was sure that had they been !