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YANKEE DOUGHBOY L IN HURRY Sir Weeks Too Long to Wait for Formality of a French Bride Writing in La Baionnette a Paris humorous week ¬ ly Maurice Dekobra makes some interesting obser ¬ vations on the marriage difficulties encountered by American troops in France FranceAngloSaxons AngloSaxons are no novelty in the war zone he says but just now we are making the nsqualnt anec of a different branch of the same race I re ¬ fer to the Yanks the brave Yanks who have come all the way from the far west to take part in the splendid fight of the nations allied for democracy democracyAfter After all our FrancoAngloAnstraloCanadlaii unions we are now going to have sonic Franco American alliances The lucky girls near the fight ¬ ing line will have any number to choose from and Mr Eros Is already sharpening his arrows behind the folds of the flag tliat bears the Stars and Stripes Yankees from New England southerners from New Orleans Californians from the land of the orange groves and giant palms are going to initiate us into the expeditious methods of hurryup weddings weddingsSaid Said one Yank to me the other mornin want to ask your advice about something Im going away tomorrow morning on a four days daysleave leave but I want to get married to Madame X before I start shes my landlady you know Whom do I go to to get the affair attended to right off Ive no time to lose you see seeUnsuspecting Unsuspecting Yank He had no idea of the ancient formalities of our French marriage laws which makes this business more complicated than the solving of an equation of the fourth dimension My dear boy said I in France we are not in the habit of going about this thing in a hurry We regard marriage as something to be mediated over frr several years We weigh the pros and cons not the withstandings arid the subsequentlys We shift and hesitate and then when the hour for crossing the Rubicon comes the shepfierds pipings have often lost a good part of their charms charmsFRANCE FRANCE QUEER TO THE YANK But when we have at last come to the fatal decision we have to go to the mayor to the notaries and to the solicitors to get a bundle 6f indis hensable documents And then after all that the bans are published and the ceremony takes place We are married in conformity to the law We love each other and are happy in conformity to the law And then if everything does not go as we imagined we can only blame the law for frightening Cupid I get you sighed Yankee Then he protested inore forcibly Look herej Suppose I meet a lady on the train and I take a fancy to her and she takes a fancy to me Do you mean to tell me that we could not hunt rip to the nearest minister and ask him to marry us on the spot We dont go about things in that way Yank Well you do live in a qiieer country dont you1 you1I I sympathized with his discomfiture and did my Iiost to explain the formalities which lie would have to undergo in order to be legally married to the young woman who was lodging him He thanked mo but then spoke anxiously Its all plain enough But how many days is this business going to last 4A month six weeks perhaps longer Your sweetheart is a widow you know knowSammy Sammy lifted his eyes to heaven Im not going to marry her he concluded desperately Why not Wait six weeks he exclaimed Why in that time I may want to marry somebody else
