Douglas daily dispatch., 1926-01-13
MARRIAGE INDUSTRY
IN CROWN POINT, IND,
Is STILL TIL IRWIN G.

| CROWN POINT, Ind, Jan. 12.-The
marriage industry of this nationally
renowned mecca Of Quick and easy
weddings is experiencing a gradually
increasing. growth.
Chief of the Hoosier Gretna Green
is Justice of the Peace H. H. Kemp,
an affable, smiling, rather short
heavy-set first assistant to Dan Gu
pid.
His office is just across the street
from the county building. 1t is one
flight up, and signs direct the way
to the marriage parlors. There is
more than one, for sometimes busi-
ness presses and one couple waits
while Judge Kemp performs the fin
ishing touches of the ceremony inn
med:ately in hand.
He has been in office as a magis-
trate for II or II years and says he
has performed $4,000 marriages dur
ing that time.
This year alone has witnessed hin,
officiating at 1000.
In the county building at Chicago,
persons may he divorced on one
floor, rush down to another, obtain
licenses to take new mates and be
legally attached inside 80 minutes.
1t requires daylight hours for that,
however, since the judges, clerks and
bailiffs adhere rather strictly to the
usual hours of a business day.
In Crown Point, where performing
production, it is different The neces-
l. II 1aH
to open shop at almost any hour.
Hard roads run directly here from
Chicago, and if two are in hurry,
even the taxicab fare is inside an.
ordinary weeks pay.
When the Illinois divorce law was
amended a year ago to permit re-
newed marriages of divorced persons
without waiting year, it was
thought that perhaps Grown Point
would lose some of it's fame. How
ever, it has not.
Wisconsin, with it's law requiring
a five-day wait after obtaining a
license and presentation by the man
Of a certificate he has passed Il
physical examination by a reputable
physician, is just step farther away
than Chicago, and many couples from
the Badger state cement their love
ties in Crown Point
The new Michagan law requires a
five-day wait between THE applica-
tion for a marriage license and is
suance of it. Crown Point is much
nearer and a gradually increasing
of automobiles with Michi'
gan tags has been noted here.
The city is the seat of Lake coun-
ty, just far enough away from adj
Joining states to make the motor
ride matrimonial diversion. JUS
tice Kemp is efficient; his marriage
parlors are neat and tidy. He ap-
proximates his number of weddings
and points to the chief decorations of
his office-baskets and boxes. The
baskets are the usual Wire waste
paper boxes which are items of
usual equipment; their contents are
the boxes. Thousands of them, rep
resenting nearly every state in the
Union. They are small and white
plush lined, and once held wedding
rings
Were Justice Kemp to trace the
record of these rings to the volumes
which show the contracting parties,
the names of celebrities in many
parts of the world would be dis
closed.
Two fellow justices as assistants
usually take care of criminal and
civil cases. But when Justice Kemp
is not available for the joining of
hands, these men officiate. The num-
ber of marriages they have perform
ed, added to the record of their
chief, sweIls the proportions of the
Crown Point market,