Married Without Money.

Thames Star, Volume XVI, Issue 5073, 18 April 1885, Page 1

Married Without Money.

, There are a good many singular incidents connected with the administration of matrimony, especially as it is dealt out by a justice of the peace ,in a young terri* tory. During eight years of my official capacity as general agent for substantial justice and durable wedlock,' I was called upon a great many times to ladle out my blessing, at so much per bless, under very. " trying and peculiar circumstances. We never had much of the orangeblossom and swallow-tail coat business in my studio. I generally invited the couple to sit on the wood box until I got through with the simple drunks, and then we would call in the marshal and the janitor v as witnesses, and proceed. I remember, one day, a gentleman named Chilblain Henry, came in from the Chug Water, and brought with him a Mexican woman commonly called Beautiful Soow Colorado Maduro. She wai of a rich nut brown color, with a wonderful wealth of raven hair, which she combed whenever the siga was right, but it hadn't been right for a long time. She was dressed plainly, but neatly, in an old laprobe, caught buck with safety pins and held in place by'means of a broad horsehair cinch, which had been an heirloom in the family. She was about forty-eight years old, and I asked her in a bantering tone if she had her parents' consent. She did not understand me; as she only knew a little broken cigar-box English. Thinking perhaps she might be more familiar with the early history of her race, I asked her if she remembered Pizarro ; but she only laughed and displayed her tottering ruin of a mouth. The union with Chilblain Henry did not seem to saturate her with a great wild joy. She stood there through the imposing' ceremony with her cute little Mexican feet just peeping out from under the heavy drapery of her lap robe, and mechanically answered the legal questions propounded to her, in a rich, deep,. and resonant tone of voice. Somehow I could not hefp wondering if she did not love another. Perhaps she had given her young heart to some neighboring greaser, and smiled on him, perhaps, and it had thrown him into convulsions from which he had never recovered. " ' When I got through, Chilblain JElenrj . saluted his bride. I had heard before that be was a very brave man. Then he | cordially invited me to ditto. I .told him that it might occasion talk. He said he., didn't want any foolishness or funny business. He allowed that a magistrate had the right to salute the bride, and it looked kind of outre to waive it. He would not | pay me, he Eaid, unless I saluted the. bride. " Never mind the pay, Henry," I said " between old friends ; so it don't matter. Hand it in any time. I don't care if you' - never pay it. But to. tell you the trath, Henry, I'm afraid to kise Colorado Maduro. lam a man of strong impulses, aud Ido not dare to salute her. Wheii I caught her in my arms I might forget my home ties, and kidnap your fair young bride, and dash away with her to the mountains'. I know my own failings,:

l^'nrf^^lrtr^^yl^ml•;T]r-|lr^l^r"*^^^|^ißli^Mr|■||li^li Henry, better than you do. It wouldn't > he right, and it would certainly make talk. However, if you insist, I will give my proxy to a friend of mine, who is totally blind, and who is accustomed to all kinds of horrors." He went away with his wife, intending to come back and kill me. he said ; but after I had stayed in the office, behind the fire«proof safe, two days, with the doors locked,, some friends came and told me Henry had done the whole thing on a bet that he would get married and that I wouldn't ch-urge him a cent.l—-New York Mercury.