PECULIAR WEDDING PLACES.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 201, 18 August 1916, Page 3 (Supplement)

PECULIAR WEDDING PLACES.

ROMANTIC MARRIAGES CELEBRATED UNDER STRANGE CONDITIONS.

The romantic marriage of the 1 i - is7i rebel leader, Joseph Plunkett, to Mis* Grace Gilford, which was celebrated in prison, by special permission of the authorities, a few hours before the bridegroom was executed on May 4th. adds one move to the number of weddings that have taken place under extraordinary conditions.

Married, then executed, has been the fato of more than one unhappy bridegroom, and pathetic as all unions celebrated under such sad circumstances must inevitably be, the wedding, a year or two ago, in the death chamber at the Trenton penitentiary, New Jersey, must .ever rank as one of the most poignantly painful on record. Longo was executed in the electric chair, after having been united in wedlock to a woman with whom he had been living for years, and who was the mother of his three children. It appears that Longo and his wife (for such he believed her to he) had always regarded themselves as genuinely married, but it was discovered ai the last moment by the priest who attended the condemned man that their union was not legal according to the laws of the State of New Jersey, in order that the woman might inherit such property as Longo left, the marriage was decided upon, an hour or two before the pr'soner was executed, the couple with the bars between them, joined hands while the priest read the marriage service over them, and pronounced them man and wife.

The couple plighted their vows in th*» '■' death house'' in the presence of the : r children and of the chief warder and his assistants. The man and woman each knelt on their respective sdes of the bars, and were able to clasp hands. Longo was not allowed to kiss lus wife or his children. The bravery of the pair and the solemnity of the, occasion caused even the warders' eyes to bo dm with tears.

How would the average bride like It lie married in an undertaker's shop, with a corpse as a silent witness? That, however, is what actually occurred in the case of William J. Frey and M\ss Henrietta Leavey. The latter's parents strongly objected to the match, and so the young couple decided to take matters into their own hands. While scaching for a magistrate to tie the knot they came across an undertaker Justice of the Peace, who invited them to go to his shop for he ceremony. The couple did not take kindh* to the idea at first, hut it was the only way ou of the difficulty, so they agreed to th« suggestion, and the nuptial knot was safely and securely tied. Not very far removed from the firing liue, "somewhere in France," and within ecsy earshot of the guns, a young French soldier, a few mouths ago, was married to the girl of his choice. It was only tlia other week, too, that a wounded Tommy, while lying in bed in a Scottish hospital, was united in the bonds of holy matrimony to a very charming young lady. In another hospital romance the bridegroom was in plaster of Pans when the marriage vows were taken. Mr. A. Swan, the groom in question, was the son of a millionaire, and had both legs broken in a motor-car accident. His marriage date had already been fixed, and four hundred' people had been invited. What was to be done ?

The doctor suggested that the young lady should be brought to the hospital. She consented, the bridegroom was wheeled to an improvised altar, and'the nuptial ceremony was performed. Mrs. Swan afterwards lived in the hospital, and nursed her husband back to health On a more recent date a marriage took place near Washington under similar circumstances. Captain Horace Brown and his fiancee. Miss Maud Vera Hanna, wero injured in a motor smash shortly before they were to be marred They decided, however, that the event could not be postponed, ad both went through the ceremony in splints and plaster. To be "spliced" in a swinging trapeze would not be everyone's choice, yet that was the scene selected on one occasion by two couples of circus performers. The contracting parties, gorgeously arrayed, climbed on to two aerial perches, one on each side of the ring, while the officiating magistrate stood on a pyramid in the centre and conducted the. service. Another couple had the romantic idea of being mantoU inside the head of the colossal figure of the Goddess of L : borty, which stands in New York Harbour. The head being a hollow chambeiv the feat was made feasible and was duly carried out after the bridal party had mounted the three hundred feet of narrow stairs to reach their destination.

The interior of a lion's cage is surely about th.o most unlikely place that one could tlrnlv of for a wedding ceremony, but Tins was the choice of a Glasgow couple, who were made man and wife in the a-rcna at Bostock's Jungle a few rears ago. Hundreds of people witnesed the event, which was performed !> y:i local monster. Respite the excellent Vhavbur of the lionesses present the ordeal must have been a trying one lor the bride and bridegroom. Marrages have now and agan taken place on horseback, one such being l>otween an eloping couple some years back. While a service was in progress in a v dago church the noise of clat ter'ng hoofs was heard. An official going to the entrance found a man and woman on palpitatig animals. After some porsuas : on, as the pair were armed with the necessary authority, the clergyman promptly married them the lover's nut dismounting during the process. A* soon as it was ended they put spurs to their horses -and galloped ivwav into the darkness. Carnages, too, hav.o sometimes been brought into requisiton as mariage places. An American couph\ whose honeymoon was to be passed in Europe, conceived the notion of being made one just before the boat sailed. Hiring a carnage and pair, and accompanied by a magistrate they started for the wharf a few minutes before the ship s departure. As the horses were tearing <ilong at a rapid rate to? magistrate went through the marriage ceremony, mid the couple left to scramble on hoard the Luor ere it started on itvovage across tho Atlanta. A Melbourne merchant was al-o married m a carriage, h)\ nuptals being relebrated in r.n atmosphere ol ro(li.inc.-. AT the time he w;us more or le~s hois de combat in a private hospital, but even there Cupid made hi-, presence known. So much so that the merchant and one of the nurses Soil >n love with one another and deternrnM to man v. The nurse managed to Muu-'-de'h.-r patvent into a carriage, in which their drove to a neighbounm: village, where the minister came out to the carriage, and in it Wiry were mar-

'"iVurins the (liicnpo World's I'Vr sonio >•■ sirs njro the I'onvs NMi.wl, tit whu-h'theßiß Wheel «t Earl's Court an- n near relative, was on? ot th.> chief attractions, and an enterprising foirolc electa to be mavnod in it. Accordingly tlioy wore united two liuntied and fifty feet above the heads ot the raping and Altercated crowd.

But even this height has been exceeded as a wedding altitude, For when John Otto, clergyman's sou and cowboy,, wooed Beatcice Farnham, that beautiful and 'daring young .woman consented to marriage, but stipulated that the manage shrould take place on the top of Independence Rock in Monument Park, Colorado. 550 feet in me air. She also declined to "settle down" in anything else than a cave, and as the bridegroom was as tired of houses as slv was, he gladly consented. So the strange wedding took place, and the cowboy and his uit.de, who was a well-to-do and accomplished young lady, set off on their honeymoon "out west." Aeroplane marriages have not yet become "all the rage," but some years ago the car of a balloon was turned into a church, and a happy, though nervous couple made Jiusband and wife therein. This was Mr. Robertson, a famous American shot and rider of buckjumpera, aud Miss Cynthia Kenna, and the car and the balloon was also to be their honeymoon carriage After the knot had been securely tied, the sfgnal to "let go" was given, and up soared the balloon like a stately bird, amid the thundrous cheers of the thousands of onvokers. But, alas! scarcely had the earth been left a hundred feet beneath her pretty feet when the newlymade bride, completely losing her little head, leaped out of the car and foil plunm into the Tennessee River, whose dark waters were (lowing below. Never surely, was a bridegroom so startlingly and abruptly divorced from his br.de almost at the very threshold of the altar! Before Tie could recover from the shock of his tragic separation, rivet and w : f.> had been left behind; and like a prudent man Robertson decided to remain where he was, and to trust to fate for a later re-union. Meanwhile Cynthia was rescued from her watery wedding couch; and a few hours later her runaway husband was safely restored to her arms and forgiveness.