BRIDE AGED NINE
Living In Cabin In Tennessee
SOCIAL LEADERS' OUTCRY
(New York— By Air Mail)
A golden-haired bride of nine fondles a prettily-dressed doll— the wedding gift of her 22-year-old, six foot husband— in a cabin in the backwoods of Tennessee, America.
Social leaders are demanding a reformation of the laws of the State to -prevent what they regard as a return to the Dark Ages.
They want legislation forbidding the marriage of children under 13.
The principals in this strange matrimonial venture are little Eunice Winstead Johns, of Sneedville, and her strongly built husband, Charles Johns, a mountain farmer.
They were married by a Baptist minister, the Rev. Walter Lamb, whom they encountered on the journey to the mountain cabin where they are spending their honeymoon, and where they hope to make a home.
'They just told me they wanted to marry, declared the minister. 'I noticed that the girl looked a little young, but they would not tell me their ages. They joined hands. I read the service and pronounced them man and wife.'
Still
WEARING SHORT SKIRTS
Eunice shows a plain silver ring as a symbol of tbe marriage ceremony, and in the soft drawl of the Southern mountain folk she declared that she is right happy.
"Ah guess Ah love Charlie," she said, as she squeezed the lanky fellow's big hand while he rocked his home-made rocking-chair.
"Ah like to play housekeeping," she continued, "but Ah reckon Ah don't know much about it yet, but Ah can make a bed up, cook jes' a little, an' bring in wood."
"No, Ah ain't so big yet, but Ah don't know what all this fuss is about. Ah'm growing up fast.
"Sure Ah like bein' married. Ain't Ah known Charlie for three years?"
"And we've played together every day when he didn't have farmin' to do. It's all a lot of fun.
"Ah don't see anythin' for them folks to get excited about, do you all?"
And this ie what the husband thought:
"Ah married her young, yessir, but Ah'm aimin' to get me a wife like Ah want. The only way Ah could do that was to
GET ONE YOUNG ENOUGH
and raise her myself. She's right purty, ain't she?"
The mother of the child-bride, who herself was married at the age of 16, strongly defends the wedding.
"If they love each other," stated the mother, "their getting married was the right thing.
"To bring the girl back home just now would just start a feud.
"Anyway, people should leave them alone."
"Charlie rocks Eunice to sleep In her chair every night, then carries her to bed and tucks her In, just as he used to do before they married.
"Charlie loves her too much to harm her.
"He's got more sense than that, and is taking good care of her."
