“MARRYING SQUIRES.”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19271, 8 September 1924, Page 5

“MARRYING SQUIRES.”

AN AMERICAN GRETNA GREEN. The Gretna Green “marriage-houses” have long been closed, but ‘■’marriageparlours” still flourish' in the United States (says a correspondent of the Manchester Guardian). Jeffersonville, Indiana, was recently. described by an American journalist as “the tinest place on earth for matrimonial couples m a hurry, a place where two lives can be linked in record time at a minimum of cost, and without any awkward questions being asked.” In the course of a year thousands of couples cross the Ohio from Louisville to Jelfersonville in quest of the '‘marrying squires,” as they are called. Of these, the best known is Justice John Hause, whose establishment stands close to wharf whore the ferry boats laud their passengers. It is painted red, white, and blue, and bears a huge sign inscribed “Marriage-parlour upstairs.” Hause employs runners to rope in eloping couples on the ferry boats —men able to tell at a glance whether young people “mean business” or not. Having secured his victims the runner escorts thorn to House's office. The prospective bride is shown to a room where she can make her toilet, while her future husband accompanies the runner to the courthouse to procure the license. “Hause’s ceremony,” we are told, “is a beautiful one, from a rhetorical standpoint, and he can make it very impressive when he thinks it worth while. Ho has, indeed, five or six ceremonies. Where but a_ small fee is in sight the ceremony is brief. . . . There is no false pride about Hause. Ho has been known to accept a pocketknife from an impecunious bridegroom, and to thank him prettily for it, too; but his usual remuneration ranges from ten to fifty dollars, regulated by the length of the bridegroom’s purse, the duration of the ceremony, and the unocuousness of the benediction.