OLD AGE PENSION ROMANCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15482, 13 December 1913, Page 2 (Supplement)

OLD AGE PENSION ROMANCE.

FROM WORKHOUSE TO WEDLOCK. A wedding, the outcome of an old age pension romance took place recently, at Brain, tree,. Essex. The bride was Miss Susannah Clarke, aged 76, who has been an inmate of the Braintreu Workhouse for nearly 20 years. The bridegroom was Walter Townsend, aged 77, who has lived for many years at Drury Lane, Braintree, and has been a widower for two years. The bride applied to the Braintreo Guardians for assistanc in her coming marriage, and said that she and her husband would each receive the old age pension of 5s a week. A guardian offered the pair a cottage, and other members of the board subscribed 5s to buy her wedding-ring, the master being ordered to provide the trousseau. On the occasion of the ceremony the verger of the, high-steepled parish church was visiUy astonished. "I've never seen so many people at a Braintree wedding before," ho observed. Every pew was lull, the aisles were lined, and through the latticed windows one saw the crowd stretching up the winding avenue to the church gates. It wasn I the "quality" either who were being united to awake such intense local interest. Just old Walter Townsend, 77, widower, marrying Susannah Clarke, 76, widow. The bridegroom left his cottage in excellent, time carefully locking the door behind him, and inspecting, not without a touch of pride, the red chrysanthemums in the tiny patch of garden, and the decent curtains to the windows. He was very spruce in a black coat with unwonted creases and smart striped trousers of subdued hue. Susannah was waiting for him at the workhouse, a white osprey iu her ! bonnet, a new black dress uncasing her spare figure. The motor-car into which thev climbed with tlio master had been decorated with a symbolic boot, but someof Susannah's cronies had improved upon this by eoquettishly affixing a pair of babv's shoes to the vehicle. Two policemen were required to secure a passage for the old cojple along the church path bordered with limes—which dropped golden leaves upon them—and thev stood very uprightly, very nervously before the altar. ■ Susannah was stronger in her responses than Walter, but holding her hand in his unsteady palm, he assumed the immemorable vows, and placed the bright ring upon her wrinkled finger after a brief struggle to force it over the knuckle. Susannah's bouquet trembled so much that it left a pool of white petals near the altar steps. When Mr. and Mrs. Walter Towsend emerged from the porch there was a frantic movement tc obtain a glimpse of them. Walter's soft hat was full of confetti and rice, and Susannah clung to his arm and bent her grey head to the merciless hail. Long after they had reached the simple cottage, in Drury Lane they dripped bright spots of paper, and as Susannah took off her coat and a shower fell to the floor she glanced at established in his lush-backed chair by the hob, and looking at her through his spectacles. "I shall have quite a business sweeping it up," she said; "it'll bo my first job." ° '•Yes," said Walter, jocosely, "I shan't get married again; it's.too much bother.-' ,