New York Daily People, October 10, 1909, p. 3. NOTE: The item below was
abbreviated from the original as noted by the ellipsis.
AMERICA'S GRETNA GREEN
The Place Where Runaway Lovers Get Married
The finest place on earth for matrimonial couples in a hurry, said an
American lawyer, is undoubtedly Jeffersonville, Indiana, where Cupid and his
agents drive a roaring trade and where two lives can be linked in record
time at a minimum of cost and without any questions being asked.
Most of them, I am sorry to say, are runaway couples on whose romance
parents and relatives frown and who escape to this "Gretna Green of the
West" from Kentucky and other states where absurd obstacles are placed in
their matrimonial path. There is an almost constant stream of them crossing
the river from Louisville to Jeffersonville in their flight to the altar;
and they are welcomed with open arms by the crowd of "marrying squires," as
they are called, who are ready at any hour of the day or night to make them
one.
The most famous and popular of these magistrates who make a fat living by
acting as Cupid's agents, was Squire Keigwin whose boast is was that he had
united over 10,000 couples, but his place has been taken by Justice John
Hause who has now probably exceeded his rival's record. Hause's office is
at the upper end of the wharf where the ferry boats land from Louisville.
It is painted red, white and blue, and a huge sign over the door, with the
legend "Marriage Parlors Upstairs. Weddings Performed Expeditiously,"
invites lovers escaping from the State of Kentucky to step into the state of
matrimony.
Hause also hires "runners" to spot eloping couples on the ferry boats and
even at the railway station in Louisville-men who can tell at a glance
whether a young man and women "mean business or not"
.The squire is very accommodating in the matter of fees which, like the
cabman, he largely leaves to his clients. He has been known to accept a
pocket knife from an impecunious bridegroom; but his usual and expected
remuneration is from $10 to $50 according to the length of the ceremony and
of the bridegroom's purse and the unction (sic) of his blessing. So
obliging is he, too, that he never allows illness to stand in Cupid's way;
and for two years, when he was bedridden, he married hundred of couples
standing by his bedside.
Justice Hause has many rivals in his profession, the chief of them being L.
F. Warder, an ex-major of Jeffersonville; Justice B. T. Nixon,
brother-in-law and successor of the famous Justice Keigwin; Magistrate James
Prewitt who is a cripple; and Magistrate George Hall. Perhaps the most
formidable of them all is Justice Nixon who has stepped into the shoes of
his brother-in-law, and over whose office door still hangs the sign, "E.
Keigwin, Magistrate. Wedding Parlors Upstairs."
And the fame of Jeffersonville as the Utopia of lovelorn couples is
spreading, chiefly by means of wide advertisement.
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