No. 351
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
March 13, 2017

Courtship from a Tree.

Young and Ardent Bob Toppin, a Newark, N. J., youth, does some tall climbing in order to meet his sw
March 13, 2017
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Courtship from a Tree.

Courtship from a tree

Young and Ardent Bob Toppin, a Newark, N. J., youth, does some tall climbing in order to meet his sweetheart, pretty miss Hobbie, a parson’s daughter. [more]

Robert Toppin, a Newark, N. J., youth has been courting the daughter of the Rev. Reeve Hobbie, pastor of a local church. The minister did not approve of Topping calling on his daughter, and told him to keep away from the house.

Young Toppin resorted to a novel way of holding conversation with Miss Hobbie. One night recently he climbed a tree under her bedroom window so he could talk to her. The Rev. Mr. Hobbie caught the two lovers carrying on conversation in this manner and he abruptly called the young man down from the tree. When Topping reached the ground it is alleged that there was a lively struggle between the minister and the lover.

Mr. Hobbie consulted Judge Conlon, and Toppin was summoned to appear in court to answer the charge of disorderly conduct. The proceedings, which were conducted in a private room, resulted in young Toppin’s release on his agreement to keep away from Mr. Hobbie’s house.


Reprinted from National Police Gazette, December 10, 1892.