The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-05-18
BAN AT The ALTAR
Minister AmaZeS Guests at a
Gotham Marriage.
Stops a Fashionable Wedding in
the Church.
THE BRIDE ADIVORCEE
Clergyman Learns 1t Late and
Refuses to Act.
Ceremony Is Then Performed
at DelmOnicO'S.

New York, May 1S.-Because the
bride-to-be was a divorcee the wedding
of Mrs. Clio Hinton Huneker, the fam
Gus sculptress, to William Berrie
Bracken, was held in Delmonico's. in
stead of the Church of the Heavenly
Rest.
While the wedding guests awaited the
arrival of the bride and bridegroom in
the church, Rev. DR.. Parker Morgan,
rector of the church, refused to perform
the ceremony. He gave as his reason
the fact that he had just learned that
Mrs. 8uneker was divorced, and that
her former husband was still living.
Under the rules of the Episcopal church,
he told the bride and bridegroom, he
could not make them man and wife.
Rev. DR.. Anthony H. Evans, pastor
of the West Presbyterian church. in
West Forty-Second street, was called
upon, and he performed the ceremony at
ASTONISHED THE GUESTS.
DR.. Morgan's refusal, when announced
to the assembled guests, was received
with expressions of great astonishment-
Then they filed slowly out Of the church.
The wedding party went at once to
DelmOnico'S, where the wedding break
fast awaited them.
Never in all my life" said DR. Nor
gan, have 1 had such an experience.
If had performed the ceremony max
ing them man and wife before I made
the discovery, would have gotten into
ly forbids it.
Il can not understand why Mr..
Bracken, who is a lawyer, could have
done such a thing. He came to me a
fortnight ago, and made arrangements
for the wedding. He told me that Mrs
Huneker was a widow, and on the re-
turns which are required by the board
of health on all marriages he put her
down as a widow.
Il did not then know anything to the
contrary. 1 believed his statement that
she was a widow and the preparations
| for the wedding went forward 1 was
| still of this belief, not anticipating any
/ trouble, when received some hints that
| Mrs. Huneker was not a widow; that
/ she was DIVORCED, and that her husband
was now living
7 was shocked beyond expression to
! think that anyone. should have attempt
/ ed to deceive me into committing an act
for the performance of which / should
have had to answer to my church
INSISTED SHE WAS A WIDOW.
when I found out all the facts it
! was almost time for the ceremony The
| guests assembled in the church to- the
number of about thirty; the bride and
| the bridegroom appeared.
Then called the bridegroom to me
in the veStry. He came and with him
| his best man. I told him of what
had discovered, and he made the sol
| emn declaration in the presence of his
best man that Mrs Huneker was. a
| widow.
I told him that I had found out her
| divorced husband was alive and that I
could not marry them under any cir
| cumstances.
He still declared that Mrs. Huneker
was a widow. 1 sent word to the we'd
| ding guests that for canonical reasons
| the ceremony would not be performed
in the Church of the Heavenly Rest by
me Then they dispersed. and, un-
derstand, went to Deimonico's.'
Mrs Huneker obtained a divorce last
May from James C. Huneker, who is
well known as a musical critic. She is
about 20 years old, the daughter of
Howard Hinton. Her mother was a
Miss Lucy Bronson and a Sculptress of
ability This talent was inherited by
| the daughter and when only years old
she had modelled the head Of a child.
BRIDES ARTISTIC CAREER.
| At the age of Is she contributed a
figure for the exhibit of the Academy Of
Design. More of her work which gained
public attention includes busts Of Pad
erewSki, Mrs. James Brown Potter and
| others.
Mrs. Huneker began work under st.
Gaudens in 1898, in the Art Students
league and during a four years stay
| in Paris she studied again under St
Gaudens, with MacMonnies and with
Louis Curry. She was the winner in the
competition for memorial to General
John c. Fremont, on which the commits
sion, it was said, was $4,000.
Mrs. Huneker is one of the first
American plastic artists to work ex-
clusively in the small. Several months
ago she stirred the art world by ex-
hibiting a group of tiny statuettes- The
collection numbered several dozen, not
one piece of which would more than
; fill a mans hand.
. Mr. Bracken is a well known lawyer,
: with an Office at II Broadway. He is
president of the Consolidated Electric
Storage company.