Continued: "I JUST LIKED HER' -------------------- Andrew Burgess' Reason for Abducting Viola McFarland Gastonia News, 17th Viola McFarland, nearing her. thirtheenth birthday, sat in court this morning with her white sun bonnet thrown back over her head and with her childish breast bared by the V- necked and neat shirtwaist she wore. Oppo- site her on the prisoner's bench sat Andrew Burgess, her lover, from Gaffney, S.C., who could give as his only reason for attempting to steal her away, "Well, I just liked her and thought I'd take her, if I could ger her." With the plain white waist aforementioned, a calico skirt and a sun bonnet for her wedding attire, she has supposedly gone to the Loray Mills this morning to her work. Up in the morning her parents were notified that she was not at work and further that she had been seen to go away with her lover in the direction of the west. The father procured a team, drove to Bessemer, and was there in waiting when the two drove up to the depot. Imagine the anguish if you may, in the two young hearts when the father appeared and took his baby away from her intended. The Burgess boy was arrested and brought to Gastonia, where at 9:30 he was given a hearing before Squire W. I. Stowe. He was placed under a bond of $100 for his appearance at Dallas court next week but this bond he was unable to give. He had only two dollars on his person. On the stand to-day Mrs. McFarland related that she had told the boy that so far as she was concerned he might marry the girl. For this reason it is not likely that the sentence upon the prisoner will be harsh. The girl had told him that she was fourteen years of age. There is a decided element of sadness in the case and unlimited room for pity. Without even the adornment of a linen collar and in everyday work clothes. possessed only two dollars in this world, unable to write a letter of the alphabet of his native tongue, miles away from his people, he was going to get married. And the girl child was willing, even anxious. The whole affair, however, becomes explainable in the light of the simple statement "I just liked her." Andrew Burgess did succeed in marrying his sweetheart. They appear together as man and wife in the 1910 census record. They have had one child who did not survive. No further record has been found of them. He is not among the surviving brothers listed in sister Ida Burgess Scoggins' obituary in 1937.
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