The Cincinnati Daily Star

LOVE TRIUMPS OVER A FATHER.

Some miles west of Indianapolis lives a worthy old farmer named Hoffman, whose daughter, Sarah, plighted her troth with a gallant young gentleman of that city, David Clemens. Sallie was the prospective heiress to the broad acres of her father, and Mr. Hoffman objected to a marriage contract with any one, more particularly David, because of her youth (seventeen), and yet the lady is in weight nearly 200, in height nearly six feet, and is possessed of unusually mature judgment. The old man guarded his treasure closely, but there was a secret communication between the lover and the beloved, by which the elopement was arranged.

The night chosen was a stormy one, but Clemens and his friend, Mr. F. C. Shofer, engaged a swift team and drove to the meeting place, and there awaited her coming. She had the requisite nerve, and, at the hour named, jumped from her chamber window and struck out in the darkness for the carriage. The wind slammed the shutter of her window with a terrible bang that awoke the inmates, and the father gave rapid pursuit. The girl outwinded him in the race, sprang into the carriage, and with loose rein and vigorous whip the lover and beloved and Mr. Shofer galloped toward the city. The girl had several uncles, hard-handed, strong-fisted, stalwart fellows, who backed the father in his opposition to David, and these men joined in the pursuit, together with their retainers and neighbors, all of them members of a cavalry company organized for protection against horse thieves. In squads of twos and threes the pursuers rode to every railway station, within a radius of twenty miles, leaving Mr. Hoffman one other to follow to this city, warn the police, and telegraph for the arrest of the fugitives.

It is seldom that a double rig plunges more madly over a dark, muddy road than did the one bearing David and Sallie, and within a trice after reaching his father's residence, on Northwest street, they were indissolubly bound together for life by the Rev. Dr. Ketcham, of the California Street Church. Quick as was the ride and the marriage ceremony, there was no time to waste, for, within a few moments after they were made husband and wife, and while the company were sitting down to a substantial supper, in bounced six feet five of the irate father (normal weight 225), revolver in hand, demanding an immediate return of his daughter to her home. Shofer, who had heroically stood by David, drew his revolver and evinced a perfect readiness to respond; the bride replied: "I guess not," and seeing things had taken a turn, the old man stooped to parley, and then went off for reënforcements. Reënforcements came in the shape of her brawny uncles, but she had made up her mind to remain with David, and there she stuck with true feminine devotion. Then he threatened to disinherit her, but Clemens pere gave Hoffman pere to understand that his money was backing his boy, and Hoffman pere could disinherit and be—stay to breakfast. At last accounts David and Sallie have settled down to the quietude of domestic life, the uncles have drawn in the cavalry scouts, while Hoffman pere was altering his will—a material thing when it is considered he is probably worth a cool $80,000.