The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1913-03-08
Rev. Alfred Harrison Burroughs

| Bristol. Tenn, March 6-Fate has
handed it's second and perhaps finish
ing wallop to the marrying career of
the Reverend Alfred Harrison Bur
roughs, now four score years old, who
in twenty years of intense application
has married close to five thousand
couples and made of Bristol an Amer
lean Gretna Green. greedy rival
now is infringing upon the marital
privileges hitherto considered by the
Rev. Alfred H. as his own particular
prerogative, and by methods which the
! aged divine considers in the light of
unfair competition is taking over the
major portion of what in former days
would have been the patrons of the
venerable coupler. According to Bur
roughs. agents of other ministers go
onto the trains and station platforms
whence he is now excluded by rail-
road rules, and carry from under the
very nose of the petrified parson his
stock in trade-etoping couples.
! Thus is struck Fate's second blow.
The first was the action of the Min
isterial Association of Bristol, pledg-
ing its members not to perform mar
riages contrary to- the law of the state
from which came those married, and
rnemorializing the Tennessee legislature
to prohibit "hasty and indiscreet" mar
riages such as Burroughs has been
performing. This action threatened
seriously to curtail what had been
made by Burroughs q real business,
carried on in hotel erected especially
for the purpose This hotel stands
directly over the state line between
Tennessee and Kentucky. so that by
merely stepping to one side or the
other couples may evade the officers OF
the state from which they came. in
case there should be arousing of the
authorities by angry parents. In con-
nection with this business, it has been
the custom of the parson to meet in
coming trains and, by sort of keen
intuition, pick out the clippers and in
vite them to his HymeneaI hosiery.
The seriousness of the present state
of affairs to the veteran knot-tier is
thus very real indeed!
There he said, as he stood on the
union depot platform, pointing to a
young couple who were close on the
heels of a sallow-faced individual who
appeared to be their guide. there goes
the fruits Of my long efforts in build
ing up a business. They are deter
mined to ruin my trade. You see now
what comes to my notice every day /
am barred from the trains while those
agents who serve other ministers for a
price go on to the platform and on to
the trains undisturbed, because they
are not known to the police on duty
around the depot. They not only are
robbing me of a business when / have
built up in twenty years, but they are
fleeing young couples who leave their
homes in the Virginias to come to my
Mecca. / shall appeal to the railway
authorities to protect me against such
individuals and save my customers
from being f1eeced by such unscrupu-
lous agents"
Burroughs did appeal to the local
railway representatives and got this
reply from the Norfolk & Western;
IT wish TO advise that the Norfolk |
& Western Railway is in no way in-4
terested in the matrimonial bureau |
established by yourself except to the
extent of keeping you off our prem |
Uses while engaged In the solicitation |
of such traffic. so far as we can.
1--WE do not desire to be further an
noyed by communications from you on |
this subject. Tell your troubles to the /
police
The Rev. Burroughs declared that
he was keenly hurt by this comnlun-
ication.