Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 291, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 December 1916 — DREW LOTS FOR A WIFE [ARTICLE]

DREW LOTS FOR A WIFE

Guardsmen Gambled For Girl Who Wanted Soldier Mate—Shortest Straw Won Wife. Five national guardsmen sat in a picture theatre at Wichita, Kans., the other day and drew lotes to decide which would marry a pretty girl who sat in front of them. None of them had ever spoken to her before, but one of them won her, and half an hour later she became the bride >f Chftties L. Todd. The girl was Myrtle Wood, who before her hasty marriage was a waitress in a Wichita case. The bridegroom, son of a well known family, didn’t even know her' name until she gave it to the probate judge that married them. Miss Wood, while ostensibly watching the movies, had caught a glimpse of a uniform and had heard the five men talking behind her. Suddenly she turned around, flashed them a dazzling smile and said, “I will marry the first soldier who asks me.” Far be it from Uncle Sam’s boys to refuse a dare, so they proposed drawing straws to determine the lucky man. One of them broke matches, which were drawn from his hand. The shortest stick and the girl fell to Todd, who immediately agreed to carry out his part “Iff the bargain. The heroine was just as game. Todd leaned forward, kissed her, and placed upon her finger a ring bearing the seal of the United States. The entire party of six drove -to the court house in a taxicab and were joined “until death us do part” Judge G. W. Jones., After the marriage the bride her reason for marrying—Todd: “I always said that if I couldn’t have a soldier I didn’t want anybody.” Then she informed her mother over the telephone, and the blissful young couple prepared to Jive happily ever afterward.