1895
"On Thursday, November 7, Annie Morris and Roland Stevens will have been married forty-six years.
"Conditions are such that we can't take on the burden of opening our home for a celebration as we did fifteen years ago. So here's the secret plan:
"Invite the bride to a lunch at the Outing Club, Hanover, at high noon. Take her home for a bit of rest immediately after lunch. Give her a tea party and reception at my office at 3:30 P.M. as a complete surprise. Some nice ladies are conspiring with me secretly."
The above is a self-explanatory document. It hardly belongs, I suppose, in this column, except that it will be news to those of my classmates, all but Fred Cleaveland, who happen to read it.
It may be classed as a Wilsonian open covenant openly arrived at finally, but intended to deceive a very important person and she was indeed surprised, not to say flabbergasted.
Notwithstanding the fact that about 30 persons, mostly young ladies, were in on the secret four whole days before the climax, not a leak occurred. The projected conspiracy was accomplished to a dot. All of my office rooms were decorated with branches of hemlock and flowers galore. Tables were clothed and loaded with sandwiches, cookies, nuts, etc., with a large white-frosted-congratulatory cake as the piece de resistance; a phonograph was loaded with appropriate ammunition (a record Lohengrin's Wedding March) and was strategically emplaced. At 3:40 P.M. the bride of 46 years was persuaded to mount the stairs leading to a lawyer's office and upon reaching the last step or two the record was vitalized and notes of the Wedding March filled the surrounding space. The conspirators were on hand in a bunch and noted with spontaneous smiles and laughter, the unfeigned expression of bewilderment and surprise on the face of the special guest. She beheld with evident pleasure an unusual spectacle: A wedding reception in a lawyer's office. Telegrams, telephones and letters were awaiting the bride.
Such doings do not lead to the divorce court.
Secretary, White River Junction, Vt.
Treasurer, Hanover, N. H. A SECRET NO LONGER "Top Secret"
