The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1880-04-08
CHRIsTlANCY AND WIFE.
How the Incongruous Match Came
To he Made.

To he Made.
Washington Letter.1
During the Centennial among the tens
of thousands of people who visited the
departments here every one, old and
young, rich and poor, asked to be shown
the stamping machine in the printing
bureau that the pretty girl tended who
married Senator, and, had il not been
of wrought metal and riveted to the
floor, it would have been carried away
by piece-meal as relics, or charm for
good fortune to the possessor. The tax
payers who really owned all they saw
here, that expressed the tangible form of
government, saw nothing that SO thrilled
them as that mute machine. They
would stand and stare at it as if they ex-
pected the lovely tender to place within
her dainty fingers the bits of paper for
the "red seal" that lifts them to the dig
nifty of fractional currency.
When the bride returned she had her
compensations for the wagging heads
and envious tongues. Lady Thornton,
the social creme de la creme, called i'm
mediately after the stately Mrs. Fish.
Good-natured Madame de Mantilla fol-
lowed and lisped her congratulations in
Spanish, which her old husband trans
| lated to the brides old husband, making
a very amusing scene all around.
Other notables called who were not so
good-natured and much more critical.
| They found her beautiful and in silk
attire. They voted her given to gaucher-
les from lack of form and seated in so
high chair that her feet did not touch
the floor; that her home was not in a
fashionable quarter, and her apartments
were stuffy and commonplace. But now
all ischanged, and an ocean-going steamer
is bearing minister Christiancy home
from Peru, and the final chapter of
another version of that old story, "Marry
in haste and repent at leisure" will be
recorded in the divorce courts of the
country.
In society here the lady receives much
sympathy. According to the natural
laws of selection and harmony, the wo-
mans youth, beauty, grace and charm of
manner must initiate in her favor
against husband old enough to be her
grandfather, and whose habits of life
have been such as to give him distaste
for fashionable society, and an utter in
difference to the attractions of operas,
balls and other amusements so essential
to young people, and which the lady
had elected to follow in the wake of rank
and riches.
A husband had never been so boldly
played for and so easily won as hers. 1t
may be so that the course of true love
never runs smooth, but it is fixed fact
that when woman sets out to catch a
husband not handicapped with love, the
machine runs right straight along as if
it had been oiled for the occasion. The
Senator's capture had been determined
upon before the opening of Congress in
December, 1875. And so adroitly had
the lady managed, seconded by her
mother, that a month after they met
they were engaged, and married at the
expiration of three weeks longer. The
lady modestly pleaded for more time in
order to earn the money for handsome
trousseau, but the impatient lover placed
several hundred dollars in her hand and
implored her to hasten matters.
To keep the wedding as secret as pos
sible, they purchased the wedding out fit
in Baltimore, and fashionable modiste
here made the dresses, but no mention
was m de of the happy mans name in
her endeavor to reach the outer world.
The unusual activity of the door-bell,
the showers of express and other pack
ages and bundles, and the avalanches Of
wrapping paper on the fourth floor back
landing completely demoralized the ser.
wants OF the establishment where the in.
terested parties had rooms. These sights,
with the fact that the lady did not slip
off to her machine in the morning early,
as usual. lent wings to feminine fancy
and the riddle was read, to such purpose
that friends of the Senator's were visited
by disinterested parties and entreated tc
save him from what would prove the
mistake of his life.
But the friends ESQ called) declined tt
Interfere, on tire ground that II man Ol
sixty-three was not able to take care o.
himself they did not banker after the re
sponsibility, and then, too, the affair had
gone so far he would suffer if it was
broken off. So the Senator was left te
his fate.
Those who know the true inwardnesl
of the marriage from the beginning have
no sympathy whatever with either; the
only wonder is that such a marital farce
has had the dura ion OF four years.
| The Dead Chita and the Bird.