The broad ax., 1916-07-15
STARTLED BY KISS
Long Distance Courtship Rounds
Up With a Mishap.
WRONG FELLOW IS HUGGED,

Victim UtteEs Incoherent Words of In.
quiry When. Prospective Husband
Comes Along, and After Apologies
He Hurries Her Off to Minister.
Parsons, Kan.-Marcella Rowland
kissed the wrong man. And inasmuch
as Marcella at the time of her Oscula-
tory performance was engaged to be
married and the man she kissed was
not her prospective husband, she found
herself In an embarrassing situation
when the real groom hove to and made
anxious inquiry as to her affection for
another man If it had been in the
good old days Of rapiers and swords
perhaps there would have been q duel,
with much blood, but there was none
Of that, and only a few people at the
Katy station were aware of the near
tragedy.
The story of the kissing and Marcella
and the man she kissed and the man
she should have kissed adds another
SAoplCl " IhC NOluluCS ludl nave UcGu
written about long distance love max
ing. This episode might have been
labeled "COurtship by Mail, or Wooing
by Correspondence" The story is this,
duly attested and sworn to by at least
one Of the parties concerned:
Marcella lives near Joplin and is a
helper in a grocery store. A year ago
she found the name of James Vandyke
In a case of eggs, the said James not
being a barber, as his name might in
dictate, but a raiser of chickens and
corn near AnadarkO. Okla. Marcella
wrote to James, and James replied.
Then followed a correspondence with
each succeeding letter ripened into
love. A month ago it was decided to
meet In Parsons end have a minister
here perform the ceremony, an elope-
ment being considered the proper
thing to do.
James arrived and spent a restless
afternoon waiting for his bride, who
was to come from Joplin on the even
ing train.
Came 7:45 o'clock. and with it the
train from Joplin and Marcella. James
was a bit confused in time and was
not at the station. Marcella, wearing
q pink carnatiOn by Encouragement,
went to the waiting room and sat
down to await the arrival of her hus-
band to be.
Now enter the other side Of the tri-
angle, whose name for the present Is
unknown. as he absolutely refused to
divulge his identity. His name will be
John Doe for this occasion. John en-
tered the station and gazed over the
crowds. Marcella saw him, and after
giving him time to discover her trip
ped across the room and stood enrap-
tured before the astonished man.
"Well, here l am, James," she said
demurely, waiting for her fance to
take her in his arms, ETC., etc.
John gasped, but made no move to-
ward her.
"Why, you bashful thing" the girl
exclaimed, and with that bounded over
to the man, threw her arms about him
and planted kiss upon his lips.
John extricated himself as best he
could-or would, and was mumbling
some incOherent words Of inquiry
when In came a breathless Vandyke,
who had come up just in time to be-
hold the performance, and, convinced
that some one was making away with
his bride to be. rushed up to thwart
him.
As he approached misgiving spread
over Marcella's face. She had faint
suspicion that she had kissed the wrong
man, and this suspicion grew with
each step of the excited Vandyke. He
stood before her. She looked at Doe
and then at Vandyke. Yes, the last
man was certainly the one she had
come to meet. How could she have
mistaken the other fellow for him, al
though their resemblance was quite
marked?
Then apologies, explanations, assur-
ances by Doe to Vandyke that he was
an innocent party and had no intention
to "cop" Marcella, tand then Marcella
kissed the right man, right there in the
station, with a score of people watch
ing her.
The couple decided to take the S:22
train back to Joplin and be married
there. They hurried to a telephone,
made an appointment with a minister
there and left.