Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1902-04-30
FEW ELOPEMENIS NOW.
DEATH OF ROMANCE LAID TO FEM
mime ATHLETICS.

Nowadays a Runaway Marriage is Much
Easier Than the More Orthodox Style
of Ceremony Parents Are Much More
Sensible Than They Were in the Past.
1T seems odd at first glance that,
considering all the facilities which now
make runaway marriages such an ex-
tremely simple thing, elopements have
to great extent gone out Of STYLE"
said clergyman. There are hardly
one-fourth the number of runaway
marriages now recorded that there
were 20 years or more ago.
I'm the old days runaway couples
had to go to all kinds of trouble to
carry out their plans. In the first
half of the century, when elopements
were quite common, the young people
had to hire coaches or riding horses,
ford rivers in leaky boats, for which
they had to pay big sums to the own
ers. and go long distances to find some
one who would consent to marry them.
Nowadays runaway marriage is
much easier than the more orthodox
style of ceremony. With justices of
tht pCiSC on CFCly COl ehhu q i4iooS
obliging coterie of officials waiting
on the docks over at st. Joseph, Mich.
ready to perform the ceremony, kiss
the bride, and present the groom with
q half-tone marriage certificate, all
inside of three minutes it does not
seem that any young couple in Chi
cago who had the slightest wish to
elope would find the least bit OF
trouble, and similar conditions exist
all over the country.
Stern fathers and relatives on stur-
dy steeds no longer follow fast be-
hind clipping couples or stand on the
shore with arms outstretched and wall:
Come back, come back he cried in
grief,
Across the stormy water;
And I'll forgive thy Highland chief,
My daughter, o, nay daughter
But in this fact may be found one
of the principal reasons why elope-
ments are no longer popular. An
elopement appealed to sentimental
young people because it was so ro-
mantle. If there are no angry papas
mounted on fiery chargers or reti-
nue. of relatives in pursuit large ele-
ment of romance is eliminated. The
papas Of ye good old days had a much
finer appreciation of true romance
than the prosaic and commonplace
dads of today. The old-time father,
with sundry 'Ods bodliins,' 'gadzooks'
and by my halidom' gave the true
.rl - Il A,,f
made the sentimental maiden feel that
indeed she had not lived and loved in
vain. But the father of today spoils
the romantic element by simply light
ing a fresh cigar when told that his
daughter has run away to get mar
ried and remarks Run away, eh?
Well, they'll run back quick enough
when their money is gone"
"a runaway marriage with nobody
to run after the runaways is not at all
a success. 1t is Hamlet" with Hamlet
left out.
Yet the greatest and possibly the
real reason why elopements have gone
out of style is because of the better
conditions of life which women of to-
udy euJOy-COulpdltu Will lutll luOlu-
ers and grandmothers Until quite
recently the women of the upper and
great middle classes of the country
passed their lives either in unhealthy
pastimes or complete idleness. 1t
used to be considered unladylike to be
strong and healthy like modern girls,
and even when they were children
uirIS would nftpn ba rpnrGpp1 If not
forbidden, to romp with their broth
ers. Such things as golfing, bicycling,
rowing and tennis that make the mod
ern girl big and strong and tans her
face a good sailor brown were un-
known to the girls of the old genera
tions. They had to sit in the house
and keep their hands soft and their
c>nplexion Of pearly whiteness, and
any girl that dared to assert her in
dependence was set down as hoyden-
ish tomboy, whom all good men look
ing for proper helpmate would shun.
THE girls of the former days, too
were fed on a sickly sentimental lit
erature. They read nothing but nov
els, which invariably had for their
themes the story of maudlin sort of
girl who left home and wealth and de-
fed her parents in order to marry for
love alone with some ninny who was
from every standpoint entirely insult
ed to marry anybody.
Yet for love alone was the phrase
which sentimental young girls, cut off
from knowing men and being unable
to form a proper estimate of their
character and ability, had continually
ringing in their ears. ANY number
of the old-time girls no doubt arrived
at young womanhood with the idea
firmly planted in their breasts that a
formal engagement and marriage was
something entirely at variance with
love, which invariably demanded of Its
votaries that they defy parental coun-
sci and advice and make all sorts of
sacrifices in going to the altar, and
too ion h.Yt -