A Niagara Honeymoon (1912)

• 77%
• 1912
• Comedy
• Romance

A well-to-do family, living in a suburban town, was annoyed on receiving word that the wife's sister-in-law intended to pay them a visit. When she arrived, she was greeted coldly, compelled to perform menial services, and treated more like a servant than a relation. Naturally, she was very unhappy. About this time the family was thrown into excitement by the news that the father's old chum in college, who had gone to Australia to make a fortune, had returned, with $1,000,000, and intended to marry and settle down. The parents figured that this was an excellent chance for their only child, and planned to marry her to the millionaire. The rich man came to be their guest, but strange to say, the fascinations of "daughter" had no effect upon him. Although the aunt tried to efface herself, she attracted his attention, and he soon fell in love with her, but the family did not suspect it. The aunt went away, taking with her no regrets, leaving behind her no sorrow. The rich man, pleading an unexpected business engagement, hastily departed too, and they met on the same train. The man from Australia decided to waste no time. He wired ahead to the city clerk of a town along the line to meet the train with a marriage license, promising a big fee. He also directed him to bring a minister along. The aunt was bewildered by this chain lightning courtship. Before she realized what was going on, she had signed the application, and the minister was performing the ceremony on the observation platform of the rapidly moving train. When she left the town, she was a widow; two mile posts beyond, she was the bride of a wealthy man who loved her for herself alone. And the train was headed for Niagara Falls, where their honeymoon was spent. Many couples have gone to Niagara Falls on honeymoon tours, but none of them ever took the minister and the marriage service along with them, so there was some éclat to this wedding. The happy couple returned to greet the bride's relatives, and give them a chance to show how social training enables persons to conceal rage, envy and chagrin under the most trying of circumstances.