The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1918-02-11
Love AT FIRST sight
AMERICAN SAILOR BOYS SNAP
AT BLUE EYED IRISH MAID
EMS FOR BRIDES.

lSu dteTS, req. LIVERY part Vi
the United States has supplied a hero
in love romances that have culminat-
ed in happy marriages between Am
erican bluejaekets and blue-eyed
Irish maidens since the arrival of the
American destroyer forces in the
south of Ireland. After the war, ev-
cry part Of the United States from
Maine to California and from the
Great Lakes to Florida will boast of
an Irish bride who was wooed and
won in her native land by an Amer
lean sailor.
All of the brides are looking for
ward to that happy day when they
will see what their husbands so
proudly proclaim as Gods country"
Already the American sailor has sup
piled his Irish bride with all neces-
sary documents to establish her
identity as an American and some
have even had their property in the
United States transferred to their
wives as a precaution in case they
lose their lives for their country.
Studies Colorado History.
There is the marriage of a former
ranchman, Bert Adams, to Bright
O'Rourke, whose family descends
from an Irish king of that name.
Adams, who is a boiler maker ON one
of the d~estroyers, halls from Hugo,
Colo. He is now arranging to have
/ h;o ranch In Colnrodn daadad N hic
wife as a %precaution in the event of
his being torpedoed. His wife's rela-
tives live in Bruce, County Limerick,
and there is plenty of anecdote con-
nected with the family's relation to
the O'Rourkes of kingly fame. IL
don't know anything about ranch
ing" Mrs. Adams said, but | am
preparing myself for the fair land
Bert has told me so much about by
studying a history of Colorado"
Then there is the case of Mary
Ridge, head waitress at the leading
hotel here, who lost her heart to
Harland G.. Richie, a machinist's
mate. first class, of Allston, Mass.
She was one OF the most popular
girls in town. The dining room over
which she presided Is out of bounds
to enlisted men, but Richie contriv-
ed to see her when she was off duty.
They knew each other for four
months before Mr.. Richie led her to
the altar of the village church.
Love at First Sight.
But the record for love at first
sight among the Americans belongs
to a young seaman, Paul ValachoviC
by name, who used to work in the
machine shop of the General Electric
company, at Schenectady, N. Y. He
fell in love the first day he stepped
ashore here from his destroyer. Ada
Jones, a Cork girl, was the object oil
Cupid's dart. After the war Vala'
chovic is going to take her back with
him to that thriving city in New
York.
A few of the Americans first me-
their wives on visit to England
Charles Harmon Cobia. of Charles
ton, s. c., fell in love on the beauti
full Cornish RIVERA with Ada Gilbert
a widow of "a, whose home was in
Plymouth. Another English bride i:
Nora Elizabeth Kilt, who married 10.
seph w. Highfield, of Des Moines, la
But the majority of the Americans
married Irish girls, who lived in the
vicinity of the American naval base
and whom they met at the dance hall
or roller skating rink. Thus Doris
Francis Phillips is now Mrs. Leo Vim
cent Flavell, of Hanover, Mass, and
Mary Ellen Sullivan has become ths
wife OF Thomas A. Balschi, of Mt
Carmel, Pa. After the war Mary
O'Keefe, who became the wife Of Ed
ward C. Turner, expects to desert the
trying climate of southern ireland
for that of sunny San Jose, Cal.
which is her husbands home. VIM
Spaulding, of DeLand, Fla, has mar
ried Ester Allen, while Oral L. Cox
of lola, Kan, won the hand of Phylli.
Rose Rogers.
Among others of the American
sailors who have taken to themselves
a wife over here are Benjamin ]
Moore, of Dallas, Tex; Ebert r
Buckingham, of Pensacola, Fla; Har
ry E. Holder, of Denver, Colo. ant
Michael j. Della Rocco. of Schenec
tady, N. Y. And the list gives prom
Use of growing steadily.