VICAR’S WIFE

Southland Times, Issue 18968, 15 June 1923, Page 11

VICAR’S WIFE

DRAPERS’ ENDOWMENT. AN ORIGINAL CLERGYMAN. I have succeeded in locating the “invisible wife” of the Rev. A. Cuming, vicar of Addlestone, Surrey, writes a correspondent oi the Daily Chronicle. Mr Cuming has introduced her to his pariahoners by means of his Parish Magazine, in which he said he would not be responsible for her debts. He further expressed an unmarital hope that she might die during the year. She dwells, it seems, in the imagination of certain of the big West End stores only. From time to time they send her invitations to fashion displays, and as the vicar is a bachelor he is a trill e disconcerted, on opening circulars addressed to her, to find within some fascinating pictures of feminine attire. ■So he wrote about the affair in his Parish Magazine, in which he jots down most of the things that occur to him, grave or gay. Addlestone is, in fact, fortunate in having a vicar with a sense of humour, and the Parish Magazine has become the favourite light reading in these parts. Every month the parishioners wonder what the vicar is going to say next, and they cannot be easy until they know. Hence the rapidly rising circulation of the magazine. On the solemn matter of marriage by licence, Mr Cuming unburdens himself thus:— “Why will people always talk about being married by special licence? I suppose because it sounds very high and mighty and grand. “A special licence can only be issued by one person, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and is a most expensive luxury. I wish you would go to his Grace and obtain one when you are intending to get married at St. Paul’s, Addlestone. There would be a fine, fat fee for me. and I would wear my very best white silk stole and my dossiest surplice. “I know I shall get into a thundering row about it all one of these days,” said Mr Cuming to me to-day, “but the fact is I want to sell my magazine. I am succeeding, too. "Of course, some people think it is a terrible production. One lady told me she would not even leave it in her kitchen Still, I could never see that it is wrong foi a clergyman to have a sense of humour.'' Other people in the parish share the vicar s view. One man told me the Parish Magazine was the only thing he could laugh at when he had influenza. Mr Cuming is not a “clerical comedian.” His hard work and enthusiasm are appreciated in the parish as much as his jokes. He never makes jokes in the pulpit. “I draw the line at that,” he told me. Another thing he the line at, ap parently, is getting married. Asked if he intended to follow the example of an American clergyman (information of which was anonymously sent to him > and pray for a wife, he answered, “No,” with some emphasis. “Then there is no possibility of the invisible wife changing into a visible one?” I asked. “No, most happily,” he replied, “none whatever 1”