WEDDED AT A DANCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19163, 31 October 1925, Page 2 (Supplement)

WEDDED AT A DANCE.

A FANCY DRESS CEREMONY, OTHER UNUSUAL SCENES. BALLROOM INTERRUPTIONS. A strange wedding service has b?cn performed at a fashionable danco club in New York. Many exciting "stunts" had been carried out to amnso the guests, but they were capped when the orchestra suddenly ceased playing a waltz and switched over to the "Wedding March." Two of tho best-known people among the dancers, who were all in fancy dress, then headed a procession along the room.

The man was attired as an Indian prince and the girl was dressed as an Arlesienne. Together tho couple stood before a justice who had suddenly been called away from a banquet to unite the couple. He duly wedded them and the ball continued. The couple received much chaff from the othei dancers, who all thought that the affair was just another "stunt ' to amuse them.

Next day, however, the wedding was duly announced and was followed up by a religious ceremony. A more exciting incident interrupted a dance in greatly differing surrounding from this fashionable club. It was at ;■ small dance hall in Paris, where half-a dozen couple.- —workmen in velveteen trousers ana red sashes, and girls enjoy ing their evenings "off"—were dancing t the music of a makeshift orchestra. Bud denly a newcomer who had just started dancing left his partner as they drew kve with another couple, the man of whom was a dangerous-looking fellow with a scarred face.

'Rio newcomer sprang upon the otherman and simultaneously three police cam up with drawn revolvers ready to use then should the man resist his attacker. It was an arrest, for the man with the scarred face was an apache who, an hou; previously, had been engaged in a revolver duel with the police. The dance; who attacked him was a detective dis guised as a workman. Guests Locked in a Boom. Dancers at a West End private house received a thrill, one night when ar agitated servant burst into the room and exclaimed to an Italian noblewoman. "Madame, your house is on fire!" The lady found that while she had beer dancing two floors of her mansion hac! been burned out with the consequent lose-

of thousands of pounds in extremely valuahle antiques and old Italian furniture. Probably that was one of the most expensive dances on record, for, had the ladv been at home, the fire might possibly never have occurred. Fashionable dances, where much valuable jewellery is worn, are sometimes marked bv sinister incidents. Hotels have their own private detectives, who keep ati eye open for possible jewel thveves, or even for otherwise respectable people who may succumb to sudden temptation. On one occasion, at a dinner dance, the guests, including foreign royalty, were locked in a room while the waiters were searched for valuable jewellery which had been missed by one of the guests. Handcuffs on Lovers. Even at private dances hostesses sometimes employ a defective to safeguard guests against thieves, who may obtain entry into the house in the guise of gue*'s. -An amusing incident enlivened one fr i ionsble rtance where such a detective was employed. A pair of lovers got tired of dancing, so sat out in the room where the family snfe was kept, shutting tlii» door behind them. The detective, with an eye to the safe, became su«vicious, and when the couplo paid no attention to his repeated knocks at the door, he wns quite sure that thev were trving to rob the safe. When he got the door open he would listen to no explanation. but handcuffed the two dancen and marched them downstairs, Luckih the daughter of the house njet the tri ■ and secured the captives' release.