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| A BEDOUIN ROMANCE - When the troupe of Syrian
riders reached Chicago they were unable to obtain a place on Midway
Plaisance, and opened at the old League Ball Park at Wentworth avenue
and Thirty-fifth street; thence they removed to Garfield Park, on the
western borders of the city. At last they landed safely in
Midway.While they were at Wentworth avenue the
school girls looked in upon
the party, and young Nojep Faresse, noting the good looks of Miss
Alice Ranney, threw his silken scarf about her neck. The Miss dashed
it haughtily to the ground, but as Nojep declared she had smiled on
him, and stood bravely by his opinion that she was pretty, the Miss
came again and again, until Midway was agog with news of an
engagement of marriage. The mother of the girl made no objection,
and the young lady's portrait was thereupon printed in
the daily press, with learned disquisitions on the Nedj. She learned
to ride the camel and adopted the costume of the Syrians. The
picture shows the pair during their courtship, when Miss Ranney seems
to have added to the attractions of the exhibition. On the 9th of
January, 1894, Nojep applied at Chicago for a license to marry his
affianced bride. Marriage License Clerk Salmonsen refused the
license on the ground that Nojep was but twenty years old, according
to his count. But the bride's mother promptly accepted the office of
guardian for her son-in-law-to-be, and the document was issued. The
pair went to Syria. |
