WRITING MARRIAGE PROPOSALS WITH RIFLES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7607, 17 January 1903, Page 3

WRITING MARRIAGE PROPOSALS WITH RIFLES.

And Love-Letters with Waterfalls. (English Paper.) Miss Annie Oakley, the world's champion lady rifle-shot, who, it is understood, will appear at Olympia this winter in "Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show," recently gave some particulars to an interviewer on what is prohably the most extraordinary proposal of marriage on record. She was, it appears, practising one day at the usual cardboard miniature target, when a stranger'happened along, and, picking up a spare rifle, fired 109 shots thereat, the whole spelling out the following message ; — V/imVOU HARRY ME The lady was naturally somewhat sur{>rised; but, not to be outdone, she prompty replied after similar fashion with her own match rifle: — ' .CERT&fNLX MOT jl This is probably unique as an offer of marriage, but it is a fact that a young matron living in a South London suburb has in her possession at this present moment several rifle-writte^ love-letters. The lady in question was formerly an attendant in a shooting gallery at a certain popular place of amusement (soon, alas ! to be closed for ever), which is " down Westminster way," and her sweetheart that was, and husband that is, used to drop in of an evening to practise. He became co expert, i after, a while, that he could place the shots where he liked to' within a fraction of an inch, and he frequently used his skill, when no inconvenient onlookers were around, in the manner indicated. Needless to say that, as soon as he had finished, the little perfoi'ated squares of cartridge-paper were carefully removed and preserved by her for whom alone the messages so curiously written thereon were intended. The most far-famed feature of the beautiful Yosemite Valley, in California, is the Bridal Veil Fall. It descends from the plateau, nearly three thousand feet above, in .a single ribbon of silvery water limned luminously against the dark vertical face of I the precipice. Perhaps it was its romantic name which suggested to Charles Evelyn, a young and wealthy San Prancisoan, to utilise the falling streamlet in an altogether novel fashion. j Anyhow, he spent several thousand dollars in constructing, at the summit of the cliff, just where the water gathers itself together for its final terrific leap into the abyss below, a sort of vertically -sliding sluice-door, which worked so smoothly and so perfectly that it could be lowered and raised several times in the course of a single minute. Then, when his preparations were complete, he brought to the valley from her far eastern home the young lady to whom he was engaged, and, ,by alternately Raising and lowering the sluice-gates above, for longer or shorter interval as the " case might be, he caused the cascade to tell her in spirts and' jets, corresponding to the dots- and dashes of the Morse alphabet^ of the love he bore her. Whether the lady exactly approved of this blazoning abroad of what should have been a message sacred to her eyes alone js not recorded ; but she has, at all events, the supreme satisfaction of reflecting that she is the only woman in tile world to whom a love-letter has been indited by a harnessed waterfall. Love-lettere spelt out in fireworks are, !of course, not uncommon. One such, written aloft in parti-coloured globes of name, and addressed by a Magyar noble to his aflwnood bride at Hermannstadt a short time ago, is said to have cost £800. Another, set up in the grounds of a rich Texas rancher's private^ residence, was 180 ft long! comprised sixty-three words and over five hundred letters, and burned for nearly half an hour. In a Sussex garden, only a month or twj> back, a love-lorn but bashful Bwain sowed in mustard and cress a marriage proposal to &c daughter of his next-door, neighbour, land the fair one, not to be outdone, answered "Yen" in radishes. ; They were married without delay, and both tna proposal and the answer wer« servedj and eaten, tat the wedding breakfast. After aill, however, it is doubtful whether thi modern lover has, on the whole t pro-

gressed very far in tho matter of inventing novelties, either in marriage proposals or love-l«ttars. Nearly four thousand years ago a proposal for the hand of an Egyptian princess was inscribed elaborately on a block of solid stone, and can be seen to this day, by anyone curious in such matters, in the British Mustum. Machares, an old-time King of Colchis, wooed his wife by sending her presents of young and beautiful child-slaves,, each one of whom had sqme tender and loving message tattooed ou the skin of the back; while, coming down to more recent times, it is recorded of the Princa de Oonti that he sent to a certain great lady a proposal indited on a. golden plaque, exquisitely engraved,- the letters of the words of the epistle being formed of diamonds, rubies and emeralds, set in the metal. The lady's answer was, however, in the negative ; whereupon the Prince requested that she would at least do him the honour of accepting a ring containing a miniature of himself. To this she- assented, but stipulated that the ring should be destitute of jewels. The tiny portrait was accordingly set in a simple rim of gold, hut to cover the painting a large diamond, cut very thin, served as a glass. The lady promptly returned the jewel, whereupon the Prince had it ground to powder, which he used to dry the ink of the note he wrote to her on the subject.