MAY AND DECEMBER.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 94, 18 September 1874, Page 2

MAY AND DECEMBER.

EXTPA.ORDINARY MARRIAGE. (From the ITobart Town Mercury, Aug. 15th). At the City Police Court yesterday, a ing lame man, named James Paisley, aged seventy years, who was recently before the Court on a charge of bigamy, was summoned by his wife, Elizabeth Paisley, aged nineteen years, for maintainancc. The facts surrounding the case were somewhat of a singular nature. The defendant—who, by the way, appears to bo a local sultan among the fair sex in New Town notwithstanding the fact of his having attained the allotted term of human life, possesses sufficient vigour to be keenly appreciative of the seductive delusions associated with the " bloom of young desire and purple light of love.'' About five weeks ago, in an evil hour, defendant entered the Rose and Crown Hotel, New Town road, and there and then, for the first time, came in contact with the plaintiff. The moment proved a fatal and disastrous one for the patriarchal Paisley. His juvenile enchantress played her part with such heart-killing adroitness on that occasion that, to use her own sweeping and confident assertion, her venerable admirer " wanted to get married next day, and promised me all sorts of things." This powerful volcanic burst on the part of Paisley—pure flame without ash—did not seriously scorch the budding sentiment of the insinuating Elizabeth ; she stood firmly and heroically on the edge of the blazing crater, and as subsequent facts revealed, came away unscathed. Plaintiff, who, up to this period, had been unobtrusively plodding through this vale of tears as a domestic servant at the hotel at the rate of 5s per week, narrated the difficulty of the situation to her mistress ; and that good lady very properly and instantly brought the antique lover to tusk. She bluntly told him that she hoped he was not going to take the girl away from earning an honest living for any dishonorable purpose. Paisley declared his intentions to be honorable; and so the senile Cupid was thenceforward recognised as .i suitor. Ilcfore a week had expired the couple vsurc joined in "holy" wedlock at the residence of the Rev Mr Simmons, in the presence of Mrs Esther Hyams, landlady of the Rose and Grown Hotel ; the Rev Mr Greene, of St John's, having previously declined to perform the ceremony. After the silken noose had been slipped, the festive party adjourned to the Hose and Crown to celebrate the nuptial feast. A dance took place, which lasted until two o'clock 'the following morning, but pre«

vious to the advent of that small hour, the hoary bridegroom, who had partaken of a couple of bottles of ginger beer, suddenly vanished. Neither the bride, nor the "pop, nor the dance, nor the song, was in accordance with his overweighted conscience, and his sudden action seemed to endorse the sentiment of the poet —

"For the night shall be filled with music, And the cares that infest that day, Shall fold their tents like the Arabs, And as silently steal away." He stole away accordingly, having previously told his spouse to " stop until she was tired. and that he would call for her next evening." As he did nut "turn up" next evening, plaintiff went to his house, but she found the door locked against her, and from that forward defendant never came near her. Hence the cause of the suit yesterday. In giving his decision the police magistrate endorsed to a certain extent the opinion expressed by counsel for the plaintiff (Mr Graves) that such unions were a desecration of the marriage ceremony. The defendant was ordered to pay 5s a week.