Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1900-09-07
A MARRIAGE OF CONVENIENCE
Bride Of Senator Turner'S Nephew Weds to See
Paris Exposition.

Bride Of Senator Turner'S Nephew Weds to Sec
Paris Exposition.
The following special to the N. Y.
World bearing date the 2Sth ult, pos
sesses an interest quite as much for
its departure from conventional forms
as for the personality of one Of its CHIEF
actors.
The young woman, then Vonnie
Knowles, who last March married
Walter 7. Turner, a nephew of Sena-
tor Turner. OF Washington, because
she believed that by so doing she
would be able to attend the Paris Ex.
position, brought suit in the Supreme
Court of the District of Columbia to-
day for divorce.
In her prayer to the court she says
that, being very young woman and
having lived a secluded life in small
town in the shelter of her parents
home, she was unacquainted with the
world and its ways, and that, being in
large measure ignorant and thought
less of the gravity of the marriage re-
lation, she entered into wedlock with
out rejecting upon its seriousness.
Mrs. Turner says her home was in
Xenia, O., and that she is twenty-five
years of age.
Two years ago, she declares, she
came from her rural home to Wash
ington and until April l last was a
clerk in the Postoftice Department.
Life and the ways of the world were
new to her, she says, and being away
from her parents she had no one to ad-
wise her and correct her youthful er-
rors OF judgment.
She had heard much Of Paris and
its delights and longed to 60 there,
and she finally conceived the project
of securing an appointment from the
United States Commissioner to the
Exposition. The idea, she says, ap.
pealed with undue attractiveness to
her youthful fancy and immature
judgment, and the more she thought
of it the more attractive the project
seemed to her. 1t became the one
ambition of her life and the principal
subject of her thoughts. and plans.
She used sll the means ut her COM
mand and appealed to all her friends
to help her, but met only with dis
couragement. The United States
Commissioner was unwilling to en-
rloy young and unmarried women for
service in Paris. She was given to un-
derstand, however, that if she were
married it would not be difficult for
her husband to secure place, and he
could then take her to Paris to live
during the Exposition.
She had known young Turner for
several months. she says, but had re-
garded him merely as an acquaint.
ance, with never thought of mar
riage. So far as one knew, he had no
desire to marry her. She met him ON
March 6 last and told him OF her
troubles, remarking that she guessed
she would have to get married and Sc.
cure the place for her husband.
Thereupon, she declares, Turner
volunteered to marry her, explaining
that there would be no necessity for
their assuming coniugal relations,
and that when their visit to Paris was
ended the marital bonds could be dis
solved.
She says that at first she would not
consent to such a marriage, but her
ignorance having led her to accept
Turner's representations as true, and
desiring above all things else to go to
Paris, she finally agreed. The next
day they were married in Alexandria,
Va, by the Rev. DR.. Revelles, Metho-
dist Episcopal minister. Immediately
after the ceremony they returned to
Washington and went to their separ-
ate homes, and at no time since, she
declares, have they assumed the rela-
tions of man and wife.
Acting upon the advice of friend ds,
who told her it was out Of the question
for them to 90 abroad and maintain
the formal relations they had agreed
upon, she says she gave up the idea ol
visiting Paris.
As the reasons that led her into be.
coming Turner's wife no longer exist
she asks that the marriage contract be
declared void.