Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 February 1874 — SINGULAR MARRIAGE. [ARTICLE]

SINGULAR MARRIAGE.

A Couple of Lovers Join Hands at Slid, nlglit Over a Grave in a Lonely Cemetery, and Are United in the Holy Bonds by an Attending Official. Marriage, although an affair of the heart, is essentially also an affair of business. Those “business” people who discard the romance of the new relation are very apt to go about it in a “business way.” A word or two before a justice ot a minister, and the “business” is finished. Others are a little more expansive in their “business” notions, und require, a fashionable church, with the accessories of music, bridesmaids and orange blossoms, with a.bridal tour in the near perspective. Others again look upon the ceremony as solely a. matter of romance, anil strive to surround it with impressive and startling adjuncts, calculated to create what may be termed sensations. In a Southern newspaper of —a recent —date appeared an account of an ardent and romantic coupje who entered the new relation by telegraph. This of course refers to the use of the telegraph in conveying the questions and responses. Another couple were recently married on the ice, probably because that substance was typical either of the warmth or the strength of their affection. Still another couple were married in an obscure lane by an obscure preacher who only “happened along.” Of course this was a premeditated affair, and was arranged to give piquancy to the new relation, and perhaps to give the gossips a chance to wag their tongues, for if there is any period in a woman’s life when she dearly loves to be talked about, it is when she leaves the spinsterhood and assumes the honor and dignity of matronage. But the queerest of all tastes exhibited by candidates for matrimony was that shown by a couple at Pittston, Pa., who very unnaturally, one would think, chose a graveyard as the place for plighting their solemn vows. The after speaking of the arrival and mysterious movement of the pair and their two gentlemen attendants, says they left that village about midnight in a carriage for the cemetery. As soon as the carriage stopped, the four ocaupants gotout and passed slowly and solemnly to the gate, and preceded by two gentlemen, the lady hung upon the arm of another, and in this way the singular quartet moved forward among the tomb-bordered paths to a distant part of the cemetery. Here they halted directly in front of a grave, at the head of which stood a white marble cross. Presently the lady and her com panion, separated, each taking a position ou opposite sides of the grave, and near the Then they joined hands. At the same I time the two who were left took positions, one at the head the other at the foot of the grave, each facing the other. At this mbffient the bell of a distant church qjwer tsJed out the sclemu hour of midnight.

almost before the » reverberations had died away among the distant hills a marriage ceremony had commenced above the quiet grave in the cemetery. The service was a short one, and the scene most singular and impressive. This is the latest phase of the romantic in matrimony. It may be that the service, performed with such ghastly surroundings, will be the prelude to a bright and happy married life, but one would imagine otherwise. In their happiest moments, the grim specter of death will be very apt to interpose, and surround thet< and their belongings with a funereal gloom sadly unsuited to the relation.