BRIDEGROOM MURDERED.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XL, Issue 9146, 31 October 1919, Page 5

BRIDEGROOM MURDERED.

• Roy Willard, ... a prominent young man of-Blue-field,' Virginia, is dead — ■ murdered by his .mother-in-law (Mrs W; J. Taylor), half an hour after his marriage to her . daughter (says the Chicago "Tribune").' Mrs Taylor/is in gaol, but will not talk of the crime," excepting that she " had done the right" thing, and was not .concerned auti. further iii the matter." The officiating 'clergyman %yas the Rev. ;J. B. Simson, who just before tying the knot asked the young bride if she: should await the arrival of her mother or go ahead with the. ceremony. On being assured that everything was all' right, the ceremony was concluded; A few .minutes later the .bricle's sister, returned to the Taylor house, and gave the. wedding certificate to ' her'"mother,-• who, it is nowknown, had objected to the-■ "match-,' a-nd. refused to- attend the wedding, ,despite the fact that the other.,members of the family urged her to do.so. During the ceremony she had remained at home.

; According to' witnesses, Mrs Taylor, immediately;,upon receiving the marriage certificate, ran from her home, burst into' the room where the bride and groom were receiving the congratulations of many friends, opened on Willard, pumping six shots at him from a revolver, one of which took effect/killing him almost .instantly. To show her feelings towards her son-in-law, the irate mother deliberately kicked the dead body, ov.cn while her daughter was sobbing hysterically' over the lifeless form. Following the shooting,. Mrs Taylor gave herself up with the remark that she "had.done the right thing,"

October 13 has been a favourite day. for prophesying the end of the world; This has its origin in. the prophecy of the famous mathematical divine, Dr. Whitson, who,' in 1736, said the wcirM would be destroyed hi that year On October 13. Crowds of people assembled in the' big open spaces of London on that'date to; see the "beginning of the end"; but nothing happened 1,, and Whitson became the laughing-stock of the metropolis. '

"No other race of animals can show such/a history as., the black oxen that draw the funeral cars of Japanese emperors. They are of a special breed, and for centuries', ■- have=- been kept for the" sole "use of the Imperial family.