WHERE RUNAWAY LOVERS GET MARRIED.

Hastings Standard, Volume XIII, Issue 4310, 13 November 1909, Page 2 (Supplement)

WHERE RUNAWAY LOVERS GET MARRIED.

A TWENTIETH-CENTURY GRETNA GREEN. The finest place on earth for matrimonial couples in a hurry, said an American lawyer to the writer, is undoubtedly Jeftersonville, Indiana, where Cupid a lid his ageius drive a roaring trade, and where two lives can he linked in record time, at a minimum of cost and without any questions being fusked. To this matrimonial Mecca thousands of couple;, young, old. and middle-aged, make their pilgrimage every year, 'for they know it is the easiest'entrance to the Eden of married bliss. WELCOMED BY "MARRYING SQUIRES. ! Most of them, I am sorry to say, are runaway couples on who.se romance parents and relatives frown, and who escape t<> this "Gretna Green of the West" from Kentucky and oth»r States where absurd obstacles are placed in their matrimonial path. There is an almost constant stream of them crossing the river from Louisville to Jeffersonvdle in their flight to the altar ; r.nd they the welcomed with open anus by tho crowd of ' ; mar.ying squires," as they are called, who are ready at any hour of the day or night to make them one.

The most famous and popular of these magistrates, who make a fat living by arting as Cupid's agents, was Squire Keigwin, whose boast it was that he had united over 10,000 couples : but his place has been taken bv Justice John llau.se. who hag now probably exceeded ilis rival's record. Hause's office is at the upper end of the wharf where tho ferry-boats land from Louisville. It is painted red, white, and blue, and a huge sign over the door, with the legend "Marriage Parlours Upstairs. Weddings Performed Expeditiously." invites lovers es- aping from the State of Kentucky to step into the state of matrimonv BRIEF CEREMONY-SMALL FEE. Ha use also hires "runners" to spot eloping couples on the ferry-boats, and even at the railway station at Louisville— men who can tell at a glance whether a young man and woman 'mean busine-s'' or not. The runner escorts the couple to the office of Magistrate Hatise; the young lady is shown

t > a room where she can make her toilet, while the bridegroom accompanies tho runner to the Court Tloii.se, gets the license, returns, and the ceremony is over.

Hause had cards printed, which he would send into the rural districts of Kentucky by those whom he had married. ilis ceremony is a beautiful one from a rhetorical .standpoint, and he can make it very impressive, when he thinks it worth while, by his imposing manner. Fie has, indeed, five or six i-eremon-es. Where but a small fee is in sight the ceremony is brief. The sruiro is very accommodating in the matter of fees, which, like the cabrrnn. ho largely loaves to his clients. H.> has been known to accept a poc-ket-kriiiV> from an impecunious bridegroom: but hig usual and expected remuneration is from lOdols. to oOdols., according to the length of the ceremony and of the bridegroom's pur.se. and the unction of his blessing. So obliging is he, too, that; ho new r allows illness to stand in. Cupid's wayj. and for two wars, when he was bedridden, he married hundreds of couples standing by his bedside. But, as a matter of fact, it would be difficult to imagine any condition under which those obliging squires have r.ot conducted their amiable business of uniting loving hearts. They have married romantic couples in carriages, on the big bridge which spans the Ohio, under the bridge at midnight, on the frrry-boat in mid-river, and in everyplace which romantic fancy might suggest to a bride. Hause gives a recipe for happiness with every cnroniony. Ho has married both father and son 011 tho same day. H<> has married seven sisters, and has officiated at ceremonies by which brothers married sisters, and vice versa COMPETITION EVEN HERE. Justice Hause has many rivals in his !-euevolent profession, the chief of them being L. F. Warder, an ex-mayor of Jelrersonville; Justice B. T. Nixon, brother-in-law and successor of the famous Justice Keigwin : Magistrate James Prewitt, who is a cripple; and Magistrate (ienrge Hall. Perhaps the most famous of them all is Justico Nixon, who has stepped into the shoes of hi.s brother-in-law. and over whoso office door still hangs the siiin. "E. Keigwin, Magistrate. Wedding Parlor rs T'pstairs." And tho fame of Jeffersonvilie as tlio Utopia of love-lorn couples is spreading, chieflv by meal's of large advertisements. From all parts or" America the stream of would-be Benedicts and brides pours in, and it is considered a bad yen-- which docs not see 8.000 p.u-->.ons transformed into biif.sful husbands ,-md wives within its borders.