VIENNA'S STRANGE WEDDING.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 29, 4 February 1899, Page 3 (Supplement)

VIENNA'S STRANGE WEDDING.

Some days ago, says a London paper, a mysterious wedding took place in one of the Roman Catholic churches in Vienna. The bride, 'fat, fair and forty,' drove up alone in a hired' carI'iage to the church door, There the lady was received by the bridegrobra —a man oti the shady side of sixty, and wearing shabby, genteel and threadbare clothes. Saying the words, 'I am the bridegroom,' he introduced

himself to the lady, and without a word more the two went to the altar and were married.

The lady, with the faintest bow possible, then left Mm and .returned, to her'hotel. Within half an Ihour the bride was on her way to" her" home in: the Caucasus, while the old bridegrdolri found his way back to.-his home, the Vienna workhouse.

Soon it was rumoured that this strange lady was the owner of large estates in the Caucasus, and had taken! this step in order to give her son am honourable and illustrious name. This was done by her marriage with the shabby, genteel man out Of the Vienna poorhouse; the latter is the last scioa of a noble family of long lineage in the Transylvania district of Hungary, but he has fallen upon evil times, and, having lost all his property, is glad to end his days in the workhouse of the Austrian capital.

It was a matter of indifference to this practical mother as to what "manner of man gave the protection, of his name to herself and son, and it is highly probable that husband and wife will never again meet; but she made arrangements for his future by assigning him a yearly income to be paid by; a Vienna banker. .