GREAT HEIRESS'S WEDDING.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 73, 22 April 1909, Page 4

GREAT HEIRESS'S WEDDING.

.Miss Svlvia Green, the only daughter of .Mrs." Hetty Green, the " richest woman in the world," and Hr. Matthew Astor Wilks, a millionaire descendant of the original Jacob Astor, was married at noon on 23rd February, at the little Church of St, Peter, Morristown, New Jersey. The wedding was a great triumph for Mrs. Green, in so far as it was pcriormed in the absence of reporter.-,, to outwit whom was one of the few remaining ambitions of the celebrated lady banker. She duped them (relates tw,' New York correspondent of the London Daily Wail) bv issuing an announcement that, the marriage would be celebrated in her din«v Hob'oken Hat. Thither after breakfast time travelled scores of reporters and photographers, but Mrs. Green had muffled the door-bell, and {here was no answer to repeated calls save an occasional peep through" the curtained windows. Suddenlv a dilapidated cap stopped at the house". A young woman in blue opened the house-door, and the figure uf Mrs. Given, in rusty black, rushed, with an ability marvellous for an octogenarian, across the pavement. She was followed closely by Miss Sylvia, dressed in a brown travelling gown and white hat. They jumped into the cab, which ! stalled at'a furious pace over the cobblestones.

The reporters straightway seized a milk-waggon and two delivery-carts, bribing the drivers, who clattered down the street in hot pursuit. The clamor brought hundreds of people in the chase, loudly calling "stop thief!"

The crowd was augmented by four hundred students of the Stevens Institute, who raised a stentorian ''college cry," "Rah. rah, rah for Hetty Green!" while climbing the pursuing waggons or racing after the bridal cab. FLIGHT BY TRAIN. Mrs, Given and her party reached the station with a lead of fifty yards, and sprang into n private saloon car, bolting the doors and windows and drawing the blinds. A second later the special train escaped the .wildly yelling, baffled mob. It reached Merristown three-quarters of an hour later, and there Mrs. and Miss Green, with some dozen guests, who had been safely placed in the train before the lloboken riot began, emerged and drove in live carriages to a suburban inn, where the bridegroom and the minister, the Rev. Philemon Sturgcs, were awaiting them. A conference ensued, and at noon the small party marched to the church, where, with the briefest possible ceremony, the heiress of a fortune yielding £1001) a day became Mrs. Matthew Astor Wilks.

There were no bridesmaids. The bride was simply clad in a walking gown, with a white boa and a veil. She was given away by her cousin, Mr. llowland Pell. Mrs. Green's grim, wrinkled features were wreathed with smiles. She 6at in the front pew. Her grey hair was done in "Pompadour" style.

_ She was in great good humor, and insisted, as soon as the ceremony was over, on her daughter posing to "the photographers standing outside the church. The crowd in the street profited by the opportunity to indulge in banter. "What did <die give her daughter for a wedding present!" cried one man. "What would your mother give you?" retorted the old lady. "I gave her my love. When 1 die she will have a great deal more from me."

"Will she have all vou own?" asked the inquisitive one. "She will have it all when I am dead." replied Mrs. Green. Miss Green, since the marriage of Fraulein Bertha Krupp and Miss Gladys Vamlerbilt. has been the richest heiress in the world.

The couple departed for Ontario on their honeymoon.