A COURT OF LOVE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16848, 26 September 1922, Page 7

A COURT OF LOVE.

HAVEN FOR ANXIOUS SPINSTERS. ! “THOSE WHO WOULD WED.” j From Hammonton (N.J.) comes the I following account of tlie- latest innovation by an energetic and original American who has instituted a Court of Dove. Over IOCO women have filed j their applications, and there are 100 ; men on the waiting list to choose from. ! HAMMONTON. X.J., August 18. | There has come into being here one IGi tlie strangest courts in all the J world --the Court or Love. Men and J women in search of mates may oomc, peur out the longings of the heart, I aji»d be succoured. Before the court are the qualified ; lions and yearnings of ICO bachelors j and 1109 spinsters, but the first day’s • work resulted in only five matings. | 'These, however. were shining exj aniples of what may come. A man, 62 years of age, was mated : with a gold star mother. 43 years of | age: an undertaker was selected as a : husband for n nurse; a coastguard was- : picked to become the protector and i life companion of a fair divorcee: a J widow became the helpmate of a pa-in- | ter : and lasi- .but not least, a Kenj lucky belle—a daughter of tlie moun- ! tains- -was snatched U]> by Thomas I Bancroft Delker. founder of the court. The Court of Love, be it known, is constituted much the same as any ] ether court, having a presiding judge, j or Cupid in this case, a woman, and i p jury of seven, including the chief of J police, a former soldier, a telegraphist, j and four women. i The idea of the court, so the story j goes, was conceived over a plate of j hash in the town restaurant by Delker : and Lewis Conley. Ha-mmonton’s leading cigar store proprietor. They orgnni i.sod the Lovers’ Co-operative Union, • which in turn produced the love court* The court sat. for the first time in I< no lonely moving-picture house, i Bleeding hearts, with blank arrows j through them, decorated the bench and I tho jury box. The first, audience was l made up of twelve newspaper report- | ers. six photographers, and two boys. Delker opened the court by reading r. letter from the lonely Kentucky i belle, and, after going over her qualifications. asked the jury to recommend ; himself, which it did. It was announced that of the 1100 women who sought husbands, tho 1 youngest was IS and the oldest 69. | Tin l youngest male applicant was 23 | and the oldest 79. The jury deliberated some time in ! mating tho gold star mother, whose 1 home is in Norwalk, Conn., and the 62-year-olrl man from Elmhurst. N.Y. They explained in deciding in favour of the man that he was well preserve'!, 1 nd a good job. and a healthy hank j account. “He is much younger than j his years,” they reported. The five women whose cases were disposed of were notified that in case they wore dissatisfied with flu* findings iff the court they had two weeks within which to file applications for new" hearings. ENTER THE SCANDAL. On the second day something like a scandal broke out in this strangi Cupid’s court. Veiled hints of jury tampering were j hotly denied by Thomas Delker, sec- I re tarv of the Co-operative Lovers’ Union. Delker, who runs the show, was accused by some of cupidity because he was awarded the prize of the lot—Alary Doe, ail eighteen-year-oh! beauty of old Kentucky. Airs Hellen Long Rodgers, judge of the court, at the opening to-day ruled that, there would be no re-trial of th/s case of Delker and the daughter of Kentucky. “ Whom the' Co-operative Lovers* Union has joined together, let no man put asunder,” ruled Mrs Rodgers. It will be weeks, court attaches believe. before the entire 2000 are disposed of. Combined that his court has been a grand success. Thomas B. Delker announced that he would tour the country. holding court in various cities to mate the lonely souls seeking helpmates for life. Already Delker says he has 7000 applications for an ** appearance ” in court, and he feel* that as yet lie has but scratched tlie surface of loneliness m the United States. Delker is determined to he to marriage what AYill Hays is to the movies and Konesaw Landis is to baseball—the grand arbiter. Delker avows he lias a great mission in life—the sneering bachelors of Hammonton sav he means mischief. THE COURT OX TOUR. In any event Delker lias found out at last what lie really wants to do most. For tw®ntv-two years he has I been running a newspaper, appearing j regularly each Friday under the slogan i of ‘• Independent but not Neutral.” j Much of the time Delker lias felt that I his public was unappreciative. “ The j fruits of my orchard,” lie said. ‘ 4 have not been worth the picking.'* Delker is to begin his tour of the country the coming week. He says there must be more of wedded bliss, or at least of wedded life, in this land Delker is to be a sort of itinerant clearing house for posterity. He claims that many will raise % up and call him blessed. Tlie first “ court ” of Delker’s tour j will be held at Camden, N.J.. when ! he w ill attempt to mate the applicants j m that vicinity. His next try-out will j he at Atlantic City. He feels that the | mating there should be particularly i good. From Atlantic City the love I salesman will trek to New York. Bos- I ton. Philadelphia, Chicago, St Louis, j Denver. San Francisco. Los Angeles. ’ New Orleans. Birmingham, Atlanta' and other largo centres. •■ Billy Sunday may have known f something of how to gather crowds. : but just wait until my message reaches j the people of the larger cities.” said Delker. Originally Delker planned to main- ! tain his court permanently here in'j Hammonton, but Hammonton has re- ! fused to take him seriously, and the i giggles of tho country have led him to \ change his plans. Under the Delker plan each appli- | cant- for husband or wife must fill « out a question form and be eard-in- j dexed. When the question forms are boiled down the mating season is on. Women whose age. religious views, likes and dislikes, seem to agree with those of some likely gentleman, are notified that selections have been made for them. Tt is up to the woman to look up the references which have l>een sent in. Delker wants everyone to he satisfied with his “ goods.” and believes that personal investigation is better than any other method. When the woman applicant finds a reference satisfactory the map in the case is notified. The woman then still has a. chance to withdraw, but the man hasn’t- Tf the man and woman fail to suit each other and are not

married, new prospects are selected for them after a lapse of six months. Delker has worked night ana aay on bis plan. His newspaper is but a shadow of its former self. He has lost much sleep, and hasn’t shaved in seven days, looking more like an embryo Kris Kringle than a rosy-cheeked Dan Cupid. But he is filled with an absorbing happiness. And be is very much in earnest.