Salt Lake Tribune | 1916-07-02 | Page 19 | Wedding Performed While Cannon Roar

WEDDI PERFORMED WHILE Ciffl ROAR Bavarian Officer and Augsburg Augs-burg Girl Marry on Flanders Front. FIRING LINE ROMANCE Major Performs Ceremony and Chaplain Blesses the Union. Special Cablo to The Tribune. BERLIN, July 1. Amid the roar of ennnon and the rattling of machine gun and musketry fire a wedding has just been celebrated two or three miles behind be-hind the German trenches in Flanders. The young people united for life in such romantic surroundings were Captain Cap-tain Albert Hafner, an officer of one of tho Bavarian reserve regiments, and Miss Hedwig ftrassner, oniy daughter of a wealthy Ajgsburg manufacturer. They had been engaged for nearly three years and all arrangements for their marriage had been made when Captain Hafner was called to the front three months after the beginning of the war. During the last year the officer repeatedly re-peatedly asked for "a furlough so that the postponed wedding might take place, but he was not permitted to go home, even for a few days, as his regiment regi-ment was exceptionally ' short of oi'fi-' cers. Recently the aged father of Miss Strassner became very ill and when the physicians informed him there was no hope for his recovery he expressed the wish to see his only child married before be-fore his death. Part After Wedding. This desire was telegraphed to Captain Cap-tain Hafner, who quickly obtained permission per-mission for his marriage at the front. Miss Strassner started for Flanders at once with two friends. When she arrived ar-rived at her destination everything was ready for the wedding, and the. knot was tied within half an hour after she left the train, as all legal formalities had been dispensed with. The civil marriage ceremony was performed per-formed by a major, who is mayor of a Bavarian city, and a Catholic army chaplain blessed the union in the presence pres-ence of soveral hundred comrades of the groom and 3000 soldiers. After a wedding breakfast the bride returned to Augsburg to be at the side of her father when his end comes. She will not see her husband again until the war ends. Indeed, there is a strong possibility that the newly married couplo will not meet again in this world, because the captain is -constantly under fire and likely to be killed at any moment. Boycott Is Complete. A German merchant who has been living- in Surabayo, Java, writes to the Hamburger Frendenblatt: The anti-German propaganda organized or-ganized by the British government throughout the world has been even more successful in the Dutch East Indies than in the United States and other neutral countries. Our lot here in Java is terrible. Although Al-though many of us are naturalized Dutch citizens, a boycott has been started against us under the leadership lead-ership of British merchants and consular officials. The newspapers fill their columns with unspeakable slanders against us and our nation, and the Dutch officials, who are in mortal fear that England may decide to annex the colonial possessions of Holland, Hol-land, do everything the British tell them. Java is today as completely under the rule of the English as any British colony in the east. Will Leave Colony. Wo have been excluded from all clubs. The homes of the Dutch families, where formerly we always al-ways were welcome guests, are closed to us. No Germans are invited to public functions and sorho of the tea houses and Restaurants Res-taurants have posted uotices announcing an-nouncing that they do not desire the patronage of the "Huns." When I visited a certain hotel recently re-cently the proprietor, who has been one of my personal friends for years, begged me leave as quickly as possible, because his place would surelv be placed on the bovcott list by the English if I should be seen under his roof. All German clerks who formerly were cmploved by British firms have been discharged, and those in the employ of Dutch companies also. It takes much money to save these unfortunates from starving, but wo are sticking together and have already al-ready raised $120, 000 for the support sup-port of our unemployed countrymen. country-men. As soon as the war is over we shall all leave, because there is no hope that we can ever get our former standing again.