MARRIED OR SINGLE?
1 The Keic York Tribune says.—A curious romance has been unfolding itself in a corner of the little Tillage of' ! Tarrytown. In one of its aspects its has given rise to legal questions which the heroine is now most desirous of having settled, The said heroine was 1 burn to humble station, but was fond i of reading. By the time she was eigh- j teen years of age she had read much, j She was tall and slender, and attractive by reason of her intelligence.' Withal she was ignorant of society and , its ways, except as the latter purported I to be taught in the light literature of which she bad imbibed deeply. Of the realities of life she knew little. Into Tarrytown came a dashing young clergyman of a peculiar type, who carried firearms and shot at a fellowstudent while at college in Virginia. He became interested in the girl, whom he flattered by his visits and attention?, and to whom he read his sermons for criticism and the " poems of their choice'' for mutual delectation. His visits grew more and more frequent. One evening he asked her to j marry him. Regarding this as a joke, the girl said yes. Af.erwards he referred to this as a binding promise. His neit step was to repeat to her a portion of the marriage service of the Episcopal Church, getting her to make responses, telling her that it was merely a form of engagement. Then he told her that they were married i hard and iast. All this time the clergyman had been trying to get the girl to go to picnics and places of amusement with him, but in vain. She had never met him except in her father's house. Now he told her that they were married, but as his church did not wish a married pastor, they must keep it secret until he was in a position to acknowledge her. They could, however, spend their vacation together. The girl eteadi.'y refused to believe in in the legality of the marriage. Then the clergyman filled out one of the marriage certificate blanks, signed it himself, and got a firm of New York J lawyers to certily to the coriectness of the document and the legality of the marriage. By alternately threatening to kill himself and her he tried to make the girl sign it also. She would : uot, however. One day, in a fit of ' anger, he destroyed it before her eyes. {Then he filled out another and got a I brother clergyman to &ign it, or else forged the name, and had still another law firm put the iuprint of their approval upon its legality. He was I acain unsuccessful in making her sign . this one, and it, too, waa finally des- . troyed. After failing in these repeated attempts to make the girl acknowledge j the marriage, the clergyman gave up the contest and left tbe town. During the two years which have passed since, the girl has pondered the question, " Married or single ? " until she is well-nigh distracted. Legal expert* consulted by ber flatly contradict one another as to the Law bearing on the point, and she hesitate* to appeal to the Court, m the shrinks from publicity,
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Bibliographic details
Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1517, 29 January 1886, Page 4
Word Count
546MARRIED OR SINGLE? Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1517, 29 January 1886, Page 4
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