The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-08-05
CUPID BUSY AT CONEY ISLAND.
MANY MARRIAGES TAKE PLACE
THERE IN SUMNER.
Some Of tho Weddings unprecedented
Other Couples Choose to he Married
There for the SAX OF the Romance
-ExpertenCea Of the Coney ClerEyman.

Some Of the Weddings unprecedented
Other Couples Choose to he Married
There for the Sake OF The Romance
Experiences OF the Coney Clergyman.
Coney Island has Of late become popular
with prospective brides, and bridegrooms
who van to have the matrimonial mot tied
in a hurry. It Is a sort Of up to date Gretna
Green, where young couples and couples
not 30 very young give attentive friends and
rice and old shoes the slip and dispense,
Eve times out OF ten, with the formality even
Of a bridesmaid or best man.. Sometimes
they forget to pay the minister, or their
supply Of ready cash 10 30 slim that the
minister forgets to demand a fee.
Last summe the Rev. Mr.. Hughes, who
Is III charge o fthe little Coney Island church
which holds it's meetings mostly on the
sands, and Of the Rescue Mission. married
moro than fifty couples. most Of whom
ostensibly came to Coney to see the sights.
"A few years ago." he explains, the
number Of weddings at which l officiated
was very small and l was more inclined
then than now to believe the stories young
couples told Of making up their minds ali
Of a sudden to be married. They always
surprised me, but then q minister gets a
good many surprises from first to last, and
30 long as the important questions l asked
were satisfactorily answered it was not
my business to probe into the workings
OF the young peoples minds.
But Of late the suddenly making up their
mind story doesn't impress me much, for
the reason that scarcely a bridegroom of the
fifty I married last season was not provided
with a wedding ring. Inotice the same thing
this summer, when business in the matri-
monlal line lie even brisker than last year.
yes, 1t is true l married two couples
the other evening, getting out Of bed to
attend to one OF them, but 1t Ia not true
that either Pair gave as a reason for the
marriage that they had lost the last train
from the island. 1t wa not nearly II
o'clock when they arrived at the mission.
Each bride was married with a ring and
was of full age and apparently sensible
and fairly well educated. Don't ask me
why they chose to be married at that
hour or in Coney Island, for l don't know.
By far the greater PROPORTION Of the mar
outcome Of the large excursions to this
place.. excursions, l mean, from towns
and cities In New Jersey, New York and
Pennsylvania.
Sometimes young people arrive with
these excursions who don't 20 back with
them. When the starting time arrives
they hang back, come here and get married
and choose another route to go home by.
On the other hand l have known cases
where the ceremony came off before starting
time and the couple wen back with the
excursion all ready to 60 to housekeeping.
From words I have heard dropped !
believe that fully 80 per cent. OF the couples
who come hero to be married are actuated
by a desire TO have something romantic,
some feature a little out of the common.
Il am seldom asked to marry a divorced
person. The few cases of that kind / hav
been connected with were young women
who had been divorced by their husbands
for questionable conduct and afterward
reformed, married respectable men and
made good wives. I know Of some kind,
philanthropic persons who sniff at such a
story as this. Nevertheless, it is true.
Refuse to marry any Of the %couples2
Well, not often. II they confess to being
under the legal age or I have reason to
think the girl IL too young refuse, al
though there have been times when / thought
It better to take chances on this point than
send the pair away.
when q Protestant and a Catholic come
before me. which happens often, I always
take pains to explain to the bride that a
marriage performed by mo will not be con-
sidered a marriage at ~ In the Catholic
Church, and having mace that point clear
II they still want the ceremony to go on I
comply with heir reaue.t. provided there
are no other osjections,S