MARRYING IN HASTE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 181, 4 September 1909, Page 3

MARRYING IN HASTE.

THE GRETNA GREEN OF 1909 RUNAWAYS. Gone is Gretna Green as a goal for elopers and others bent on marrying clandestinely. But there is in London, many people will 'be amazed to hear, a.i area to which Cupid's victims lice, much as of old they Hew to the blacksmithparson's home on the other side of tiie Border, and many lovers hasten to '.\. from all points of the compass. The couples who repair to London's Gretna Green number, on an average, one thousand a year, and are, with fe.v exceptions, aliens. Due lovelorn swain was a Constantinople pasha; while only about two years ago a German princess came to the romantic region to he espoused. So large is the inflow of lovers, indeed, that several men specially lay themselves out to accommodate them and arrange all the details of their marriage. The biggest of these enterprising gentry, who maintains three large houses, not only advertises in , Continental newspapers, but publishes a pamphlet, which is largely circulated through solicitors, , etc., in Austria, Belgium, Russia, Geri m&iiv, and other countries.

Another of these guides to matrimony, who also does a flourishing business, issues a similar pamphlet, it contains the questions and answers of our Marriage Service in English, that bride and bridegroom may learn them parrot fashion.

Why do so many foreign couples flock ] to London's Gre*tna Green '! Briefly, because of our comparatively lax marriage laws. Some travel to England because it is impossible for them to get married in their own country, on account of their having been divorced. This was so in the case of the manager of a Dutch factory, who reached London with the divorced wife of one of his directors. It was 60, too, in an instance wliicli happened only a fortnight later. The director arrived with the manager's divorced wife!

Other couples there are who shrink from the publicity absolutely indispensable in some countries. In Germany, for instance, banns must r oe published, not only on the church doors, but in the local newspapers, and in them the contracting parties must be fully <loscriEcu i . Picture, then, the feelings of the poor bride and bridegroom elect when there is a great disparity of age, or when—as happened recently—the one is a cook and the other a ■wealthy, cultured merchant, 'whose father died in prison. The weddings of the couples usual'y take place at certain churches, a good many being celebrated by a German pallor, and some of the agents have pro ff-ssional witnesses. Nowadays cveryj tliin? i< carefully arranged; but only a 1 i'--v ■ i-.n■; ;igo there was a good deal of I - haphazard in such .events. When j oat- couple from the Fatherland ivas nlmit to lie married, the elerk had to | dash off for some Prayer-books in Gr.'-

man. He obtained them in a neighboring institution, and everything pa=si-d oft' satisfactorily—just as'sntisfaetor 1" as if the covers o'f the books iiiid in! been boldly inscribed, "H.M. Prison. Newgate"!

Many are the strange incidents in the rush to the international Gretna Green. The most remarkable, perhaps, was one of a Tady bringing with her a whole retinue of relatives. These were nine in number, and they came for only one purpose—individuals and collectively to protect her interests. They succeeded, inasmuch as thev hound the bridegroom —who was a Mohammedan—to covenant that he should forfeit a large sum if he married a second wife while their relative was alive.

A curious circumstance is that, though most of the lovers who come to London's Gretna Green are aliens, there are among them a few all-British lovers.

These couples, unlike the foreigners, ?nin nothing from a legal standpoint hy coming to London to he married. Their motives are generally due to the eccentric views thev hold on woddin?.—vieivs which a bridegroom announced to the wide world bv holdly advertising, "No cards! No cake! No fuss."—Answers.