The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-06-19
The Marriage of Mrs. Aston
Had To Be Postponed.
1t Was to Have Taken Place at
Bar Harbor Today.
MAINE LAW 1NTERFERED
Pretty Widow in Tears Over
Enforced POstponement.
The Wedding Supper All Pre-
pared for This Evening.

Bar HarbOr, Maine, June 1S.-It
was learned early this morning that
Mrs. John Jacob Astor and William
Karl Dick have decided to be mar
ried at 2 o'clock Thursday afternoon.
1t will be church wedding. Mr.. Dick
consented to this plan over the tele-
phone late Sunday night.
The shift in plans came after Mrs.
Astor and her fiance had consulted
legal advisors and decided there was
no way of getting around the Maine
marriage license laws which pre-
scribed a minimum time limit of five
days for non-residents between filing
and granting marriage license app1-
cations There will be no music or
flowers There will be police guard
The bride will be dressed in a blue
travelling suit. Her only attendant
will be her sister, Miss Katherine
Force She will be attired similarly
Adolph Dick will be his brothers only
attendant Both he and the groom
will dress in business suits.
A Simple Ceremony.
The wedding will be exceedingly
simple and informal.
The ceremony will be performed in
the Protestant Episcopal church of st.
Saviour on Mount Desert street, Bar
Harbor by the Rev. A. c. Larned.
and friends including the following:
Mr. and Mrs. William Force. Mr..
and Mrs. ]. Henry Dick, Mr.. and Mrs
| Horace Havemeyer. Mr.. and Mrs
Kingsley Macy, Seth Barton French,
Miss Dorothy Sturgis, Lyman Khyne,
Scott Poyle, Archibald Harrison, Vic
tor Cushman.
The young widow of Colonel Aston
found that she and her fiance, Villa m
Karl Dick, were helpless in the face
of the rockbound marriage license
! laws of the state of Maine. Accord
| ingly, after hours at the long distance
| telephone, Mrs. Aston recalled the linn
tied invitations she had issued for
Monday evening. She told her friends
she and Mr.. Dick might wait until
| Thursday, when a license can be le-
gally issued for the performance. 'tOr
| perhaps" she added, Il shall meet Mr..
Dick in New York and be married
there
| Almost in Tears.
The beautiful young widow was al
most in tears when Mr.. Sherman.
town clerk, motored up to her home.
A license application had been filed in
her behalf on Saturday by Victor
Cushman, a young Newport and Wash
ington society man.
The town clerk explained that I'M
der a law of April 2, 1913, five days
must elapse before non-residents can
be united in marriage following the
filing of an application.
Dear, dear" exclaimed Mrs. Aston.
MY New York attorneys told me 1
could come to Maine and be married
the same day. They read the Maine
statute to me, but it must have been
before the 1913 act was passed.
isn't there any way we can secure
q. special permit or something?" she
continued in high excitement
81 don't believe there is" responded
Mr.. Sherman. LAS town clerk 1 can
not break the law
isn't that the most provoking thing
you ever heard Of" remarked Mrs.
Astor. why I had everything plan
ned for the wedding"
The young woman consulted with
her mother, Mrs. William H. Force
and her sister Katherine. They called
New York on the telephone and con-
suited with members of the Force and
Dick families and others.
No Way Out.
Then she called Mr.. Shearmar
again. He again assured her there
was no possible way of getting around
the awkward clause in the law. Asked
by Mr.. Sherman if she had definitely
decided to be married on Thursday
Mrs. Aston said:
Yes, I suppose SO, unless / find the
law is simpler in Massachusetts OF
some other nearby state