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GretnaGreen License Clerk Knows HumansttMiss Lillian Schmidt, Who Deals Out the Certificates to Quaking Couples, Tells Some of Her Observations ofthe Marriage Problem—Always Gives Young People Some Advicepc[SPECIAL TO THE TIMES]CROWN POINT, Ind., July 27.—If some great university ever decided to add a course In human nature to its curriculum, it could give Miss Lillian Schmidt a sheepskin without it being necessary for her to don a cap and gown or even matriculate.As marriage license clerk at Indiana's Gretna Green, Miss Schmidt has had an unusual opportunity to study human nature in all its perplexities.I can spot them when they are coming up the court house steps, Miss Schmidt, whose signature paves the way for a glorious honeymoon,I said. “I don’t understand why* but jftthe young folk invariably w-alk shakingly into the office, ataring straight ahead.”The clerk advised that it was not really as bad as all that. She declared that, when she jokingly told a young man that she was going to , “sentence him for life,” he bent over I the counter and tried to kiss her.Miss Schmidt recalls many amus-I irg incidents of young couples coming in for licenses. However, she tells one of where a prospective bride, still in her ‘teens, w'anted his license fee returned because, after getting the coveted piece of paper, stern parents of the girl kept postponing the wedding* No provision jfor the return of the fee could befound in the musty statutes.FIFTY-FIFTY BARGAINMarriage, Miss Schmidt believes,is a give-and-take proposition. Little differences are bound to arise where the husband must give in to the wife and vice versa.“Many marriages, where the husband and wife are deeply in love with each other, end in the divorce court simply because of a burst of anger that makes one or the other overstep the half-way mark,” she says. “I always try to give the young folk that -come before me alittle bit of advice—thoughj-liot too!iiimuch, for I don’t want to lecture them.”Many types of men and women— old and young—though mostly young, come to the court house for licenses to wed. Among the applicants are all types of human nature and many times Miss Schmidt is forced to issue licenses to persons who, she feels confident, will not be happy in marriage. Often, it is pointed out, girls come in who are too young to understand the meaning of wedlock.In a great many instances, the girls are accompanied by their parents, who give their consent sothat their daughters will not elopewith their beaus.The age for marrying in the State of Indiana is 18 years old for the girl and 21 for the boy. Any applicant under these ages must obtain the consent of parents before the clePk can safely issue the license. The clerk thinks that the averageage for marrying Is IS) and 22. At least, she says, that has been her experience.Miss Schmidt says that older people seeking licenses, for the firsttime or even the second time are just as excited and nervous as the 18 year old girl or the 21 year old youth, bent on embarking on life’sgreat adventure.
Newspaper Details
Hammond Lake County Times
Hammond, Indiana, US
Mon, Jul 27, 1931
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Lake C.
IN, USA 09 Jul 2022
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