The Short-Lived Elopement of a Seattle Waiter
A 14-year-old girl and a theater employee wed in a rush, only to be torn apart by an incensed mother within the hour.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A 14-year-old girl and a waiter in the People's theater furnished a romance that set their respective circles agog yesterday, by eloping, getting married and being rudely separated before the ink had hardly dried on the marriage certificate. Mrs. Annie Kohney is the proprietor of the European lodging house on Washington street, between South Second and South Third streets, and has a pretty 14-year-old daughter named Hattie May Barnum. Three days ago, James Haider, a roomer at the house and a waiter at the People's theater, went away. Yesterday, the girl met Haider, obtained a marriage license by swearing she was 18, and wed at Rev. John F. Damon's residence. Mrs. Kohney, discovering the ruse, retrieved her daughter and placed her in the House of the Good Shepherd. Haider, left disconsolate, intends to consult an attorney.
“A 14-year-old girl and a waiter in the People's theater furnished a romance that set their respective circles agog yesterday.”
This incident exposes the 19th-century legal and social control over young women's lives, where marriage was often a desperate gambit for autonomy or survival, frequently met with institutionalization.
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