Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1916-01-21
e.. An %.
Elopement
1t Occurred In 1885
By r. A. mitchell

My father was born In 1916, when
the great European war was raging
and when his parents talked nothing
but war, read nothing but war and
dreamed nothing but war. The conse-
quence was that he imbibed war when
he was Il baby, and when he was four
years old. hearing the rattle of a drum,
he attacked his nurse with a carving
knife and slushed her cheek, leaving
a scar that she carried all her life.
When he became man he entered
the army, which had grown from the
100000 men composing It when he was
born TO 100000 regulars and 10000
900 reserves. and he was stationed at
one of the thousand steel and flint forts
protecting the Atlantic coast, his par
ticular fortress being where Long
Branch formerly stood.
He met my mother, then Miss Belle
Ostrander, Mt n garden party held at
her fathers home In New Hampshire,
which state by that time had been CIV
Ell over TO multimillionaires for coun-
try seats. My father, Luther Much
more. was II member of the aviation
corps and thought nothing of 100 miles
between the fort and Miss Ostrander's
home. after O'Clock dress parade, for
dinner Mt Z.
Lieutenant Muchmore was very yer.
satile. being eminent In all the various
corps of the army. 1t was said Of him
that he had flown higher In the air
and dived deeper under the sea than
any other man.
But aviation was his specially. He
was the inventor of those combination
aeroplanes that In these days may be
seen like winged cocks climbing noun.
tains by means Of tapping wings
and digging their toes into the crevices
OF rock or into the snow Some OF
them have been fitted with an appa-
ratus which enables them when they
have reached the summit to flap their
wings and crow One of these i'm.
mense chandeliers has recently been
fixed on the top Of Mont Blanc and
at dawn breaks the slumbers Of the
inhabitants in the valley by its vocifer.
GUS growing.
My grandfather Ostrander was
much concerned TO see that Lieutenant
Muchmorc and Belle we're falling in
love with each other, for the young
officer had but II paltry 100000 a year,
whereas my mother to be would inherit
an income OF $2,O00.000 Mr.. Ostrander
forbade the sultor entering the house
and warned his daughter that IL she
married him clandestinely he would
cut her OFF with n beggarly million.
But, not content with this warming he
placed her under strict surveillance.
He even deprived her Of her runabout
aeroplane, which she was accustomed
to drive herself, restricting her air out
ings to a clumsy AIR cutter" type
Of machine that had been left far be-
hind by other types and needed to be
managed by an experienced aeronaut
But she seldom used the latter.
In olden times they had saying,
Love laughs at locksmiths." When
my mother was girl this had changed
to cupid rules IN air as well as on
the earth One fine afternoon when
Belle .Ostrander was driving her du-
plex machine-an auto that by means
Of wings was enabled to fly over low
distractions -looking up In the air, dot
ted with the aeroplanes of country
gentlemen. she espled one making d.
rectly toward her. Within IA few min
Ttes 1t had descended TO the road be-
fore her and out stepped Lieutenant
Muchmorc
Choose between me and your fam
Ily," he said III you are theirs, will
never see you again: II you are mine,
fly with me"
"Oh, Luther. what win we do with
only the million my father will leave
me If marry you aud your little hun
dred thousand year? We will sink
out Of the social world entirely"
"Decide!' he cried
Il cannot"
He decided for her.
While he was taking her from her
duplex he heard the sound Of that De-
cullar b-r.r-r-r made by these machines
and, looking back along a straight road,
saw one Of them coming at full speed.
Heavens exclaimed my mother TO
be. "It IL father! He forbade my go
ing out IN this machine He must have
seen me leave, taken another duplex
and followed me"
MuchmOre. without reply, put her
back into the machine, turned ON the
power, and II shot forward like an ar.
row. His own aerOplane, which he had
left In the middle OF the road, blocked
the way. but by eleyatlng the steering
fan the duplex cleared II with bound,
and the lovers were of ut seventy
mile gait My grandfather, who was a
timid man. had been following his
daughter at slow pace-some fifty
miles an hOur-but when he saw what
had occurred threw caution to the
winds and turned on all the power his
machine possessed
When he came 10 Muchmores ma.
chine, which was so light OF structure
that II looked like a great gauze winged
beetle. not seeing II III he was within
n hundred yards Of II. he came very
near wrccking II and his own. There
was bnrely time TO make the jump,
grazing its wings. which we're scat.
tered In the mir. powdered TO n pun Of