SANTA CLAUS' BRIDE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20508, 8 March 1930, Page 3 (Supplement)

SANTA CLAUS' BRIDE.

OLD FRIENDS . REUNITED;

" FATHER CHRISTMAS" ROMANCE

-A wedding -in New York -is the romantic gift which Santa. Claus has given a Lancashire girl—the bridegroom none other than a Father Christmas. Jesse Arkwright, who 'hails from Birmingham, used to cross ■ the Atlantic as a steward on a Cunard liner, but some years ago when he got a shore job-in an office in New York he quit the mercantile marine service. He left a girl behind in Liverpool,. where most • people have friends and relatives on this side. Letters in course of time dwindled' until they , ceased. Mr. Arkwright was one of the victims of the recent Wall Street crash. He was consequently glad to close with a chance to act the role of Santa Claus in a Christmas grotto of'a'New York store. "I was astonished," Mr. Arkwright said, when telling the story, of•:his romance, " to see Doris Washburton; whom I knew in Liverpool,, walk' in with a little girl one day. After = I had convinced myself that I had made no mistake I inquired how old her daughter was —I thought: perhaps she was < now married—and .what she would ; like • from Father Christmas. .. " She's * not my daughter." was : the smiling reply. " She's my little niece." "Live in New York?" lasked. "' No, we've come over from Brooklyn" she said. " But. Em from Liverpool. I'm staying with a sister, who lives in Brooklyn now."- " Liverpool! Heard of anyone called Arkwright'there?" I-next asked. • " Ark— ?"■ she replied. " There was a Jesse Arkwright; but he left years ago." " Like to see'that boy again?" I went on. " ' . V • " And so- we "'arranged , that if * Doris came to * the store at • closing time next day. she .would meet, Jesse ; Arkwright. 'I had put off the Father Christmas togs and was in my: street clothes. " Yes, she knew me"" again,"and she tells me-she thought she : detected a familiar note in the , voice of , Father Christmas when I he asked' her- about her old friend. We are' both mighty happy." Mr. Arkwright" had not been long at the store before he was promised a,per-manent-post. His future assured, he felt he could do no better than marry.