M ARBI AGE PRANKS

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 420, 6 August 1908, Page 4

M ARBI AGE PRANKS

“ Marriages are made in Heaven and completed on eaith,” runs an old French proverb ; but the writer had not America in his thoughts when be penned these words, for in that country marriages sometimes are completed at the top of a chimney stack or down under the water, A wedding on roller-skates was the method chosen by two enthusiastic followers of that sport. This was beaten by the New York Hippodrome management, who upon the opening of the season, offered a large money prize to any pair who would be married at a matinee under the diving-bell in the mighty tank. A great throng filled the theatre to witness the wedding, and watched with inter" est a ceremony in which bride, bridegroom, and officiating minister displayed chattering teeth, and an evident yearning to get out from under the water. Eloping couples have adopted all sorts of ways to accomplish their object and mislead wrathful and pursuing parents. A Virginian youth and maiden were joined together in the middle of the Potomac River, with the wind almost lashing the waves into foam, and the girl’s parents trying with all their might to overtake the runaways in a small skiff. Another runaway couple seemed likely ’ to be foiled because of their inability to find a clergyman. At last they were directed to a cellar of a new building, where a justice of the peace was following his calling, that of a stonemason. As Hymen had already proved himself no respecter of time or place, the ceremony was performed by this justice hi bis working clothes, with fellowmasons as witnesses.

When Mr N. E. Dooley, the New York politician, announced his annual outing for his constituents, he added that he would furnish a home for any young couple brave enough to have the marriage ceremony performed at his outing. There was a rush for the chance, but the prize fell to Olaf Jorgenson and Miss Emilia Swenson. “Dooley Day ” was spent at Tuna Park, where an improvised altar was reared and the ceremony duly performed, with Dooley himself to give away the bride. An order on a furnishing house for was presented to the bride on a satin pillow, and after the ceremony fhe b; ide and bridegroom “did” Coney Island in charge of their fairy god-father, Mr Dot ley.

Seven pairs applied for the chance to win a gas cookingstove and equipment as well as £5 in cash and the minister’s fee, offered by a gas and the • electric company. All they were asked to do was to mount to the top of a 2co; foot smoke-stack on the day of its completion and dedication and he married in the clouds. The wind blew a hurricane on the eventful day, but the successful applicants, with a minister in tow, made the ascent, while thousands of breathless spectators watched the ceremony from the safer footing, 200 feet below.—“ T.P.0.”