Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-04-07

his last dying speech on the scaffold, no
less than ten goodly naidens be eyed for his
hand and life:
"This is our law quoth they;
ave may your death remove,
If YOU in lieu Of cur good viii
VIII grant TO US your love-"
None Of the virgins, however, suited his
fsstidious taste, aud the executiOner was
about TO do his duty when another damsel,
better looking, managed to persuade him;
So
Hand in hand they went
Unto the church that day;
And they were married presently
In sdmptuOus rich array.
A contamination, which it is to be hoped
the merchant did not find reason to regret
in after years.
LESS UNREASONABLE
was the fellow whose obdurate want Of gal
lantry is celebrated in the following lines:
Come, marry wife and save your life!"
The judge aloud did cry.
"Oh, why should corrupt nv hfe9n
The victim did reply.
"For here's crowd of every sort,
And why should prevent their sport?
The bargains bad in every part;
The wife is worst-drive on the cart"
Montague tells a similar story of a Picar-
dian, who, seeing lame damsel advancing
TO claim him for her own, cried out ''She
limps, she limps; despatch me quickly!'
The famous border thief, Scott of Harden,
had the like alternative, rope or ring, given
him. He had driven the cattle of Murray
of Elibank, but the latter managed in turn
to drive Scott, his followers, and the stolen
beasts, back to iEhbank castle. Upon tell
ing his wife be should hang the thief, now
he had caught him, she suggested it were a
pity to hang such a winsome fellow when
they had three such sorry girls pining in
single bleSsedneSs at home. Taking the
shrewd hint of his better half, Murray sent
for the ugliest of his daughters, and pre-
senting Meg-O'-mOuth Murray, as she was
called, to his astonished prisoner, gave him
his choice, either to make Meg his wife or
dangle from tree. The cattle-raider flat
ly refused to take the lady until he felt the
rope tightening round his neck, then he
gave in, returning to Harden married and
a sadder man, to repent at leisure the IN
lucky raid that had brought him to such a
pass.
MARRIAGE IN UNDRESS.
If the, belief in gallOws matches was a
strange one, it was no stranger than the
notion, that if bride Taxed mOdesty as well
as money, she could throw off her debts
with her dress, and by going to church in
but one garment, make her creditors shift
for their due; as though law was a lion, los
ing all ferceness before an uncTad Una. \
beauty thus unadorned skipped across
Ludgate Hill TO change her name by the aid
of Fleet parsOn. On the 18th of October,
IVA, John Bridmore and Anna SellwoOd,
Of Chiltern All Saints, Wiltshire, were made
one, and against the record in the parish
register was written: The aforesaid Anna
SellwOOd was married in her shift, without
any clothes or headgear on" Some ten
years later, similar performance took
place at Ulcome, Kent. Kahn, in bis
''Travels in North America (l747), relates
that poor widow, whose husband had lefl
her nothing but debts, upon marrying a
second time, went to church in her chemise,
thereby relieving herself and her new part
neT from all liabilities; and recording the
fact, Kahn remarks that such things often
took place.
Somewhere between the years 1883 and
1914, a Lincolnshire curate Officiated at a
wedding where the heroine of the occasion
! stood before him enveloped in a sheet
Such attempts to evade the law of debtor
and creditor evinced a laudable desire OF
the part Of the bold brides to spare the
pockets Of the men of their choice, which is
more than can be said of the means adopt
| ed not long ago by a Stafordshire woman
| to evade paying certain moneys she had re.
ceived on behalf Of the turnpike trustees
She had been sued in the county court, and
ordered to pay the money, aud appearing il
answer TO the summons for contempt, cool
" produced a marriage certificate, and
pleaded that her husband was now liable
for the debt. She had married travelling
tinker the day after judgment was given
against her, aud where he was to be found
she neither knew nor cared.
The artful tOll-taller was too anxious to
have a spouse Of some sort 10 be fastidiOus;
and for honesteT reasons, poor orphaned
Thomas Robins, of Abergavenny, was as
desperately determined 10 wed, when he
wrote to the chairman Of the Hereford
board Of guardians: 81 do want to marry a
young girl about 10 or 20 from the Union
house, if you have one that viii have me.
and will come and live in this town. ! do
1--we in Mill street, Abergavenny. / will
take her off the parish for good, and keep
her. I do want 10 know if You will marry
me in the Union house, at the board day
and please let me know about 1t as soon as
| yOu can, as | have no father or mother to dc
! for me, do want to be married as soon
as l can" Certainly, Thomas, willing to
/ take any girl the guardians choose to allOt
him, could not have said, like the country
man, when a Wiltshire coroner asked him
| how he came to be 50 foolish as to wed q
/ woman with a cough, that he "s'posed he
| liked her Not a whit more burdened
| with sentiment was the DOrsetshire labOrer
who put forth the following:
BILL FOR A WIFE:
0Charles Warren, Marnhull, Dorset. Ny
family is as follows: the eldest boy is thir.
teen years old, the younger boy five years
old. and a girl eight years Id. My house
/ is nv own, and have no rent to pay.
have an acre of potatoes, half blues anC
half whites, this year, My wife has beer
/ dead II months ago, last ShrOton fair; the
/ children lives with themselves in the day
time, but am always at home with then
at night. | do think it would be better
there was a woman to look after them, boil
for the children and myself. / have go
eight shillings week for my work, and The
boy two shillings a week, and have constan