Waiting at the Church.

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume XII, Issue 35220, 18 April 1914, Page 3

Waiting at the Church.

A Jibbing Taxi.

'-■'.Many people, have had interesting and perhaps unpleasant experiences with jibbing horses and a good few people can re'ate interesting stories about jibbing motor cars in the days when these vehicles were not so reliable as they are to day and when they bad to be humoured a good deal sometimes before they would do their work. To such a pitch of perfection have the present day motor cars been brought, that involuntary stoppages are comparatively few. Occasionally, however, cars refuse to budge, for no very apparent reason, and this generally happens at a time wbjen it causes much inconvenience. On Wednesday a taxi-cab had been 'brought from Christchurch to convey the bride to the marriage service at Killiachy. The taxi arrived art , its destination safely and everything appeared to be all right until the time arrived for the bride and her escort to be driven to the church. The engine was set going and the | taxi proceeded for a chain or so and then stopped. Efforts to set it going again were entirely friutless—no amount of coaxing could induce the machine to start off, although tte chauffeur worked away as hard as. he could for fully half an hour Of course all the relatives and guests had gone ahead and, along wuh the bridegroom, they were "waiting at the church" s What could have happened to keep the bride so late ? was the question that ran through the minds of the people in church. Someone suggested that the bride was purposely trying the patience of ..her future.husband and from another source came trie suggestion that the bride Was perhaps paying extra attention to her toilet, A wag even remaikVd that she must hayc changed her mind. >Tbe organist played one or two pieces to beak the monotony of the unusually bug wait, and when the patience of tr.e people was beginning to show signs of becoming exhausted, the clergyman, who had been taking matters quite philosophically, addressed a few words to the congregation on the importance of the marriage ceremony, remarking at the same time that it was an improper thing for people to talk to each -J Other in church and that it was j better that he should say a few \ words to them than ihst they should talk amoßgst themselves Babies comprised an unusually large proportion* of the corgregatiou, and they were more impatient than their elders and what was more they refused to acknowledge tH a mild re- \ buke administered by i he cayman. Q7 course , they had to be excused. The ceremony was 10 have commenced at 1.30 and at this hour the church was well fi>!ed with people, the numbers being pdc.ed to as time went on. Timepieces iecorded, 2 ifc^clock before anyone thought seri6us'y of the taxi-cab refasiug to do its duty. Shortly after 2 someone entered the church in a huiry and spoke to Mr H R Davison, who had a flue Sunbeam car outside. In a few moments Mr D ivison was out of the church, grounds and in a very short space of time he returned with the person about whom ad much anxiety had been 'eit The C'ause y of the delay was then very, apparent and when the guests r»rrivi ed, after the service, at she re-idence bf the bride's mo:her, they saw tt chauffeur endeavouring in vain to persuade his taxi to propel itself. Other motorists came to his j assistance at the conclusion of the '• wedding breakfast, but their efforts met with scarcely any mere success. It was hoped that the machine would be ready to con- . vey the bride and bridegroom to Christchurch, but the hopes were > not fulfilled. Mr Davison again J-. come to the rescue and took the ■ . newly married couple to Dunsandel, where they joined the train. As a last resort another motorist Dvho was present tied the disabled taxi to his car by a rope and whirled it round a paddock for a few times, but up to the j time the writer left the taxi stood! quite firm in its determination not to budge by its own motive power, much to the disgust of the driver, who felt his position very keen ly. Needless to say the remarks of some of the little boys did not cheer the poor chauffeur very much. Early next morning the taxi was seen speeding through Leeston as though it had never been guilty of anything so wicked as jibbing.