MAD MATRIMONY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 302, 23 December 1907, Page 4

MAD MATRIMONY.

FREAK OF AN AMERICAN HEIRESS. There has been a sensational development of the elopement romance of Miss Helen Maloney, the daughter of a Philadelphia millionaire, who iled last month to Europe with Mr Samuel Clarkson, a young Englishman. Air Arthur Herbert Osborne, a stockbroker, living with his mother, says he was married to Miss Helen Maloney on December 28th, 1905, at Mamargoneck, a suburb of New YoTk, by a Justice of the Peace. The records show that "Herbert Osborne" married "Helen Eugene, aged 21, ol Pittsburg." Mt Osborne siiys he did not disclose the fact of his marriage to Miss Maloney's family until after he heard oi her elopement, with Mr Clarkson. This disclosure has added to tho distress of the Maloney family. Mr Justice Bodd says he remembers the marriage distinctly, as the couple were tne most loving pair ho ever saw. It seemed to him, he says, that after they were married they would never tire of hugging and kissing each other. They came to his office in a motor car with a lady giving the name of Marion Graham, who said she was the bride's chaperon. Mr Osborne's mother says the fact of the marriage was not made public at the time it was celebrated because he was still a student at Princeton University. Lawyer Fanning, counsel for Mr Martin Maloney, says that now what he knows of Helen Maloney, he believes she regarded the Osborne marriage as more m tho nature of a "lark" than anytliing else. She was reared in the Catholic faith, and would not consider»,the ceremony before a Justice binding. The two principals arrived in London in October from America.

Their journey was shrouded in considerable mystery, and they crossed from Quebec in the Empress of. Ireland. Throughout the voyage the couple kept themselves aloof from tho other passengers, and took their meals in their own state room. They travelled as Mr and Mrs Cunningham. The young lady had many friends in London. She was there about three months ago, and stayed at one of the most fashionable hotels in the West End. She is a beautiful girl—a perfect type of blonde, with large lback eyes. She is twenty three years of age, and on her last birthday her father presented her with £IO,OOO.