Omaha daily bee., 1903-01-01
InCOr1 q Rooor1S 10 20 Features Life Lifted
40 III w Above the Routine

In diverse and curious fields the record
breakers were busy during the year 1909.
Equally busy was the freak editor Of the
New York Sun, who compiled the record
and kept tab on the record-breakers.
The love-at-frst-sight record was ruth
lessly shattered in the early springtime
when Madison ormsby. aged SO. went down
to Kansas City from Omaha and met Miss
Jessie Turner, who evidently still retained
Irresistible charms, Notwithstanding that
her forty-hfth birthday was wound up on
lines relentless reel. They met by chance
and were introduced by a common friend.
whereupon they liked away to the court
house and were married Just as soon as
they could get the license and line up in
front Of a Judge.
TITS just thirty minutes since nrst we
met said Ormsby, as pleased as Punch.
and here we are with the knot tied"
Whether the knot remained tied does not
concern this history.
1t was in the early weeks Of the year that
the romance Of Miss Mildred Deuel. OF Rich
mond, Va, set a new mark for those inn
portant stages Of life which most women
reckon by years. In the brief space of ten
minutes she was a maid, a wife and a
widow.
In a San Francisco hospital she became
Mrs. Richard Miles Stanton while her hus-
band was dying. a victim Of fever con-
tracted in the service OF his country In the
Philippines. Clasping each others hands,
when 1t was too late to summon a minister.
the young people took the vows Of matri-
mony under a civil agreement, which was
duly witnessed by relatives Of both. and
a few minutes later Lieutenant Stanton was
dead.
The tiniest bride Of the year appeared
in st. Louis IN April, when Miss Bertha
Clark, scarce 10 years old, weighing only
seventy-fve pounds, and attired in short
skirts, eloped with Frank Mccoy, nearly
twice her age, and became his wife. The
year still was young, and so were Miss
Rose Mason and her hance, Michael T.
McGovern, when they appeared before the
clerk In Chicago and established a new
record as youthful applicants for a mar
riage license, which they obtained. The
bride was Is and the bridegroom two years
her senior, their combined ages being 80.
The record for the Oldest married couple
In the United States was said to have been
made last March by Mr.. and Mrs. Alex
ander Gum Of Harrington, Kan. They
celebrated their diamond wedding In 1900,
and, therefore,, had seventy-seven years OF
welded life to their credit. The husband
thought he was ia years old, while his
wife was also past the century mark.
The oldest record In this line, how
ever, probably belongs to Mr.. and Mrs.
John Iams of Washington county, Iowa,
who, a few weeks ago, told their friend
that after Eeventy-four years OF married
life they could look back n find they
never had a dispute, much less a quarrel.
They have ten children, thirty-six grand
children and sixty-fye great grandchildren.
Justice Frederick Brown, known far and
wide as the "marryin' squire of Aurora,
ILL.," has tied the nuptial knot several
hundred times but not on this score does
he aspire to any pinnacle among the
records Of the year. His proudest boast
is that his marriage knots stay tied, and
upon this distinction he seeks a blue rib
bon. .
The secret Of his success, he thinks, is
that his form Of ceremony, which is all
his own, is short, sweet and simple, init
ting the obnoxious word "obey," and is
generally prefaced by a recitation of the
Declaration of Independence, which he
regards as the corner stone of marriage In
the United States. Divorce, he declares,
is unknown among the couples he has
spliced.