The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-07-03
The Man Who Didn't Marry His Aunt.

lHAT u IndN WHO IudTIlcS HIS aunt
should, sooner or later, get into court
on that account, will hardly be doubted
by moral and intelligent persons; but
that a man who didn't marry his aunt
should be the first, at least in this coun-
try, to bring the subject into legal dis
cission is curious fact in jurisprudence.
Men who do not marry their aunts are
plenty as blackberries; the "woods is
full of them.' You can meet them by
the thousands every day. They live
next door to you. They are inmates Of
your family. The chances are many
millions to one that you are one of them
yourself. And yet how would you like
to be obliged to pay $4,000 for the
privilege of belonging to such an extern
sive sect. 1t is very much like paying
a heavy fine for membership in the civ
ilized races, or bonus for the right of
breathing the common air.
A New York jury at Lockport, how
ever, thought it best to assess that sum
on DIR. Champion, of Mobile, because he
didn't marry his aunt. If the verdict
had been sustained by higher court,
and the same amount collected from ev-
cry man who has not married his aunt,
we could not only pay off the National
debt, but have enough to pension paper
makers, wood-pulp Congressman, De-
troit millionaires who detest new rail-
roads, and other objects of public
charity.
Luckily, however, for the rest of us,
this verdict has been reversed and the
men who haven't married their aunts,
and have no wish or purpose to marry
their aunt, are relieved from the chance
of having to pay roundly for so whole
some an abstinence. The circumstances
are not altogether unfamiliar to the
newspaper reader; but they may be
briefly recapitulated.
When both were young and charm
ing, DR.. Champion and his aunt, or half
aunt, SIX years younger, fell in love
with each other in Alabama seven years
ago. He was a physician, o man of
education and persuasiveness, and in
his capacity of doctor, lover, nephew
and orator, overcame his aunt's scru-
pies to the alliance. But the laws of
Alabama, unfortunately, were not so
susceptible to his logic or his charms,
and he proposed evading them by
marrying her in New York-in which
State there is no express prohibition
against such marriages-and then re-
turning to live in Alabama. In 1877
she came to visit friends in Fairfield,
Michigan, where her nephew called
upon her and renewed his engagement.
Then ensued long silence which
aroused such fears and anxiety in her
mind that she became i'll, from which,
on receiving renewed assurance of his
faithfulness, she recovered just in time
to get a letter from her nephew lover,
in which he asked God to bless his
=" dear aunt" and said ne would always
be her friend. The next week he mar
ried somebody else, and on his wedding
journey visited Lockport, New York.
Here his aunt sued him for $4,000
worth of breach of promise, and verdict
was rendered in her favor.
The Judge, however, Judge Wallace
Of the United States Court, permitted
the jury to decide only the facts, and
took the law into his own hands. He
now grants the motion for a new trial,
on the ground that in Alabama, where
the marriage itself would be invalid, the
promise is invalid, and the agreement
to fulfill the promise in New York,
where the marriage is not forbidden,
can not make valid n promise given in
Alabama. If marriage of that sort,
however repulsive, should be consum-
mated in State where it is not invalid,
the courts would for the sake of the off
spring and other circumstances grow
ing out of the marriage be likely to re-
cognize its validity; but where no other
than the damage to feel
ings and health ensue, it is contrary to
morality and public policy for the courts
in any way to recognize a promise of
marriage between such relatives. If
these two had become husband and
wife, said the Judge, "they would have
been regarded as joined in an unnatural
union, and as victims of a corrupted
moral taste, to be pitied and avoided, if
not as objects of detestation." He
thinks the aunt should consider herself
fortunate that she had been saved from
such future by the selfish and perfdi-
GUS conduct of the nephew.
As the majority of maiden aunts are
married and settled with somebody
else's nephews long before their own
are capable of overcoming their scruples
in such matters, and would if their
scruples were assailed in that fashion,
generally kiss or spank the offender,
the decision is not Of wide and practi-
cal value; but it is destined to make
briefly famous the man who didn't mar
ry his aunt.-Detroit Free Press.