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A Rural Romance

A Rural Romance image
Parent Issue
Day
17
Month
September
Year
1891
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

A great bnrden of suspense has been lif ted from the minds of the people of Coalton, Pa., and vicinity by the marriage of Anna Cobert, daughter of the well to do village tailor, Benjamin Cobert, to Anthony Fraley, a prosperous yonng builder. The bride is twenty years oíd, pretty and vivacious. The bridegroom is twenty-three. They were married by Dominie Blacklock on Friday morning. At first people refnsed to believe it, but when it became known that the event was an assured f act business was almost entirely suspended in the village for half a day, so pleased was everybody that at last he didn't have to He awake nights wondering what pretty Miss Cobert and her lover would do next to furnish unusual subjects for gossip. It was more than two years ago that Miss Cobert and Anthony Fraley became acquainted at a picnic. It was a case of reciprocal love at first sight, and the young man began making frequent calis on Miss Anna at her father's house. Papa Cobert had different ideas about who his daughter's lover should be, however, Fraley then being only just out of his time as a carpenter, with no visible future, and he soon notified Anthony that he must cease calling on Anna, and ordered Anna to receive no further attention from Anthony. Finding that nothing could change the old gentleman's determination, his daughter apparently obeyed his will and her lover called no more. But that they managed to see or communicate with each other was made manifest a few weeks later, when Miss Cobert was found missing from her room one day, and in her place was a note stating that the dictates of her heart were so much stronger than her desire to obey the commands of lier parent that she had eloped with Anthony Fraley and that they had gone away to get married. Now, it had so happened that a week or so before the elopement Papa Cobert had heard that Anthony Fraley had a rich uncle in Pittsburg from whom the young man had great expectations, and npon investigating the rumor he had found it to be based on a very solid foundation. This caused a great change to come over the scheming tailor's views on the subject of his daughter's marital prospects, and he was on the eve of announcing to her that he had repented of separating her and her lover, and that they might resume their tender relations, when the elopement was announced to him in his daughter's note. The tailor was at first very wroth over the news, and was about to start in pursuit of the flying lovers when it auddenly occurred to him that, while it precipitated matters somewhat, it was a good thing all round, for i$ would enable him to save biq dlgnity ;n the matter of the commanda he had laid upon iugJUughter, and .at the same ten the young man and I1Í3 prospecta ín the family at once and save all fear ot future uncertainty. So he gave up the idea of pnrsuit, and went to his work with a complacency and qniet unconcern that surprised hia neighbQra, who had quickly heard the news and were making the most of it. Fryburg is eight miles from Coalton, and thither the eloping couple drove as f ast as the horse fraley hal hired would carry them, for they expected that Anna's father would be after them in hot pursuit as soon as he received his daughter's note. Aa they neared the place for which they had set out to be married the girl grew extremely uneasy, but they reached the vülage, stopped at a hotel, where Miss Cobert remained while her lover went out to hunt up some one who could marry them, leaving the horse tjed at the post in front of the hotel. Fraley was a long time in finding any onO who could perform the anxiously desired ceremony, for one of the two ministers of the place was officiating at a funeral, and the other had gone fishing. The young man finally found a justice of the peace, who accompanied him to the hotel to marry him and the girl. When Fraley and the justice arrived at the hotel, the former noticed that the horse and carriage were gone. The young man hnrried into the house and asked whai had become of the rig. The landlord told him that the girl he bad ieft there had taken the horse and carriage and driven away, leaving word to say to the yonng man when he carne back that she "guessed that she must have been only in f un, and had gone back home." Fraley did not waste any time in foolishness, but hired a horse and carriage of the landlord, and with the hostler to drive him started in pursuit of the girl. The f resh horse overtook the other four miles out of Fryburg and Miss Cobert was compelled to stop. "What in the world does this mean, Anna?" exclaimed Fraley. 'Oh, Tony," replied Miss Cobert, "1 only meant it in fun; let's wait." But Tony soon persuaded the fickleminded girl to turn about and go back. When they got back to Fryburg the young man did not take the chancea of leaving Miss Cobert at the hotel again, but drove direct to the justice's office. He helped her out of the carriage, and telling her to go in and wait for him, he got into the carriage and drove away toward the hotel. He remained away so long that the girl started out to see what had become of hiny At the hotel she learned that he had driven past in the ttirection from which they had come. Miss Cobert, at a loss to account f or this, in turn hired the hotel rig and started in pttrsnit. She overtook her lover two or three miles out of town, and angrily demanded to know why he was treating her so. "I happened to think," he replied, "it was only meant in fun, and we had beteer wait." Without another word the piqued Mss Cobert drove on home, and her lover followed leisurely. The arrival home of the tailor's daughter alone did not surprise the o}d gentleman, for he eupposed she had come to plead for forgiveness and reconciliation. Before she had time to say a word he kissed her and saidj "I am sorry you did it in this way, but I f orgive you both. Send for yonr husband." But when the father was told the truth he was wild, and upbraided his daughter for her fickleness. From tlat day and for weeks, greatly to the amazement of Anthony Fraley, Anna's father used every means to reconcile the stubborn and inexplicable lovers, but Anna would not yield, and declared that she would never again see or speak to Anthony. On the contrary, she openly accepted the attentions of James Johnson, a widower, twice her age. In the meantime Fraley had repented of his hastiness in revenging himself on Anna on the day of the elopement, and persistently endeavored to obtain his fonner sweetheart's forgiveness, but she held out stoutly against his appeals, although they were aided by the efforts of her father. Six months after her elopeinent and its peculiar ending, she told her father that she intended to marry Widower Johnson. As Widower Johnson was by no means a prepossessing man and had three children, one nearly as old as Miss Cobert, every one knew that the girl was going to marry him sftnply out of pique. No one knew this better than Anthony Fraley, and he made up his mind to prevent the wedding. He chose a singular way of doing it. He went to Johnson and told hiin that if he married Anna Fraley he wonld shoot him dead on his wedding day. Widower Johnson was not a man of particularly strong personal couragn, and Fraley's manner was so detennined that he was filled with mortal terror. The result was that he broke his engagement with the tailor's daughter. This did not seem to grieve her in the least, neither did it have any effect in softening her toward her old lover, and Tailor Cobert at last gave up all hope of ever having Tony Fraley's great expectations as a part of the Cobert family, and ceased his endeavors to bring about a reconciliation between that young man and his daughter. Fraley himself finally made up his mind that he might as well give up his efforts to renew the old relations, and about three months ago apparently showed considerable partiality to the daughter of his old employer, he having in the meantime started in business for himself. Some time before he began paying attention to his fonner employer's daughter Miss Cobert had gone to Clairsville to live with an aunt, who was an invalid. According to the gossip of Coalton about the Fourth of July a letter from one of her girl friends in this place conveyed her the intelligence that Tony Fraley was going to marry his new name, and in replying to this letter Miss Cobert had -vritten, "Tony Fraley isn't going to do any such thing." At any rate one day early in July she returned to her father's unexpectedly and without notification. The gossip of the place declares that she told her father that she wanted him to send for Anthony ffráley. Whsther sne a or not Anhony Fraley certainly went to Cobert's on the very night of Anna'S arrival. He oontinued going there right along, and the first thing people knew it waa announced that Anna Cobert and Anthony Fraley were to be married on Friday, July 31, and so they were. Such is the romance that has kept the gossips of this place inore than busy for two years, the denouement to which has lifted a great burden of suspense f rom their miiuls, and carried joy to the heart

Article

Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Register