Hit & Mrs.

Mississippi's lenient marriage laws (no blood test, no waiting period, no parental consent for youngsters) have long made the state a Dixie Gretna Green. Of the state's 66,000 wedding licenses a year, 65% are drawn by out-of-staters who skip across the border from such states as Arkansas, Tennessee and Alabama to take their vows in neon-lit marriage chapels. But last week, Mississippi's hit-and-Mrs. marriage business reached the beginning of the end. Bowing to increased pressure from physicians, ministers and clubwomen, the state legislature passed and sent on to Governor James Plemon Coleman for signature a more stringent new license law that should shoot out loveland's neon lights and keep rash child brides at home.

Under the law, which takes effect July 1, a couple marrying in Mississippi must wait three days for their license; pass blood tests, prove that the bride is at least 15 and the groom 17. Minors need parental consent; circuit clerks will routinely notify the parents by registered mail during the three-day waiting period. Circuit judges may waive the routine only for grievous reason, e.g., pregnancy.

Most Mississippians felt the new law was overdue. But not border-country circuit clerks, who collect--and keep--$3.25 on each license, take in as much as $30,000 a year. Predicted Alcorn County Clerk Dayton Potts, whose office services Alabama and Tennessee residents and whose fees last year totaled more than $25,000: "I doubt there'll be many circuit-clerk candidates for the next election."

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