Girlless-town Swain Awaits Bride in Vain

1920

Says He Sent Her $20, but She Failed to Appear.

CINCINNATI, Ohio. — Girls, a true-blue man has been discovered. Also a town has been found where there are no eligible girls and at least twelve young men who want brides.

The man is Robert Alldaffer, 24, of Snyder, Mich., who passed his second day of waiting at Central Union station for his fiancee. He never has seen her, but promised to meet her in Cincinnati.

"There are only two girls among the fifty inhabitants of Snyder," Alldaffer said, "and they are engaged."

Alldaffer sought a wife thru a matrimonial agency. A furnished house in Snyder awaits the "bride-to-be," who represented herself as Cora Graham, widow, 25, Afton, Tenn.

The courtship dated from May 15, when she wrote to him in reply to an advertisement in the matrimonial paper. She wrote that she had no money. He mailed her $20 to pay for a railroad ticket, he said. He also provided a blue bow similar to the one he wore on his coat, for it was by the blue bow that the lovers were to identify each other.

He has scanned the faces of every woman traveler, but the young widow failed to appear. "I'm afraid she's sick," he said. "It must be that or some trouble she experienced while traveling." Alldaffer still believes in the sincerity of his bride-to-be, but finally decided to buy a ticket for home.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Aug. 7, 1920, p. 5.

She Waited

1901

Even a Scotchman cannot always be humorous, if he would. Like other people, however, he is sometimes funny without meaning to be. The Scottish-American thinks that the message sent by a young man in Peeblesshire to his waiting bride may have kept her from worrying over his nonappearance, but that she must after all have received it with mixed feelings.

The bride elect lived in a village some distance from the home of William the bridegroom. The wedding was to be at her home. On the eventful day the young man started for the station, but on the way met the village grocer, who talked so entertainingly that William missed his train.

Naturally he was in what is known as a "state of mind." Something must be done and done at once. So he sent the following telegram:

Don't marry till I come. WILLIAM.

If the bride elect knew her William she probably knew how he felt when he sent the message and forgave the mental confusion which resulted in what she must have looked upon as a needless request.

Many United States Sailors Marry Irish Brides

1919

Plans for Dismantling Naval Stations Are Going Forward Rapidly

Queenstown, Ireland. — Plans for the dismantling of the American naval stations in and around Queenstown are going forward rapidly. Time will be required to remove the base hospital at White Point and much work will be involved in removing the many big warehouses which were brought here from America and set up in record time. Other important parts of the American plant include wireless stations at Queenstown and Aglada and many hutments.

American officers and men have made a deep impression on the people of Queenstown and in other parts of South Ireland, and relations generally have been of the most cordial nature. This is proved by the fact that a number of weddings already have taken place, and more than one American sailor has promised to return for the girl he must leave behind.

Queenstown has prospered greatly since the station was established here, but the people declare their regret in seeing the Americans depart is because they have become accustomed to their presence and like them for the fine young fellows they are.

Unwilling Brides

1896

If there is a person on earth entitled to sincere commiseration, it is an unwilling bride — a girl who has given her hand, without her heart, in marriage; and more especially is she to be pitied if her heart, unhappily, has been prepossessed by another. Can any prospect be more dreary than that which lies before such a bride? What has she to look forward to, what to expect, what to hope? Linked not for a day, but for life, to one with whom she has no sympathy — who is no more than a stranger, save that in law and in fact but not in soul, he is her husband!

Is it not dreadful to contemplate? How much more so to experience! It is natural and it is proper that parents should desire that their daughters should marry well, and it is reasonable that they should prefer for them husbands in comfortable circumstances.

But when it comes to the exercise of compulsion in the selection of a husband — to commanding a daughter to relinquish an engagement or an attachment on which her whole soul is fixed, and to marry a man towards whom she feels indifference or dislike — that is a very different matter.


Why Men Become Bald

Men become bald more frequently than women because of the closeness of the hats they wear, which keeps the head too hot, induces perspiration and weakens the hair. The boys of the famous Blue Coat school in London, who never wear hats, never become bald late in life.