The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1884-09-03
A WIDOW BY PROXY.

Should you wish to know to wha
height artistic gardening can b,
brought let me advise you to pay
visit to HARLEM (in Holland, wher
near the beautiful park filled with
deer, which makes such a beautiful
walk, you will find the famous hor
ticulturist, Claereboets. After he has
shown you his astonishing collec
ton of tulips, hyacinths, carnations
anemones, crowsfeet, camelias, prim
roses, cowslips, cactus and pelargo
Minis, you will be delighted. Try
and persuade him to allow you I,
see his six remaining daughters anG
you will be dazzled.
1t is the story of the seventh, ol
rather the first, which / am about Il
tell you, Just rs this worthy man
who has remained poor, although
his conservatories are full of treas
ures, told it TO me last year.
At the end of the year 1882 he haC
seven daughters on his hands. How
ever, the Misses Claereboets were as
virtuous as they were lovely, as sen
sible as they were poor, alas ! anG
their appetites were only equaled by
their virtue.
One winter evening, at the end OF
one of those meals which absorbed
all the profits of the business, Claere-
boets lighted his pipe, and with a
mysterious air drew from his pocket
q letter with a foreign postmark.
"Guess who has written to me?'
he said.
Seven pairs of well developed
shoulders shrugged simultaneously
expressive of ignorance.
why, Micheels Maassen, the son
of our former neighbor, the con
tractor. He is the cashier of Planter
Van Meeruyt, in Java. He wishe:
to settle down, and seeks one of youl
hands in marriage"
(which one, papa ?" exclaimed
five somewhat tremulous voices.
"ItIs the same to him. He was
eleven years old when he left. He is
now twenty-eight, SO you may un.
derstand that he has no choice. II
is for you to decide, and l am going
to take your opinion, beginning al
the eldest. Well, Nina, will you
marry Micheels ?"
"Yes, papa" replied the eldest
without hesitation. She was a mag.
nifcent blonde, twenty-four years
old.
Around the silent room six dis
creetly subdued sighs were heard.
Fright, my child" said the father,
as quietly as if it had been the mat
ter of delivering hundred hya-
cinthes. "Micheels is good fellow,
with excellent references. He sends
his deed, all in order, to the lawyer
for the marriage. We will avail
ourselves of its being fall to consul
mate the affair, SO that you shall not
arrive there in the hot weather"
Three weeks later Nina had be-
come Mrs. Maassen. When | say
had, it requires some explanation.
The Dutch, the best colonists in
the world and the most practical
people / know of, have devised an
easy means by which their single
friends settled in the Antipodes can
easily be married in the metropolis.
To make the bridegroom pass two
months at sea, thereby to attend the
registry for ten minutes and the
church for perhaps double that time
was barbarity. To send out the
intended was dangerous. She might
find the suitor eaten up by a tiger.
TO get over this the Dutchman in
stituted marriage by proxy. For in
stance, you may be at Sumatra and
you wish a fine looking helpmate.
You have nothing to do but to send
to friend at Rotterdam or Utrecht
power of attorney TO act on your
behalf. He marries her without
charging any commission whatsoev-
er; she carries her title deeds away
with her. He registers her in the
first steamer and four or five months
after the order is given the commits
sion is executed and delivered.
Thus the beautiful Nina, who had
seen many of her friends married in
the same way, did not consider the
process anything unusual.
She cried a little, however, as she
embarked on superb steamer be-
longing to the "Koninkylke Neder-
landsche stoomboot Maatschappy"
and saw her native land disappear
ing.
Presently the Batavia got out to
sea and then she was too much 9TH
erwise engaged to be able to find
time to cry, and she never came out
of her stateroom till they reached
Suez. Then awful storms arose, the
shaft broke and they reached Co.
lombo by sailing, arriving just in
time to catch the boat for Singapoor.
Nina was SO i'll as to be unconscious.
She was carried from one ship to
another. again they were at sea, the
only difference she realized being
that the basin close to her was of
China instead of copper.
She arrived at Singapoor in pros
trate condition imagining her last
hour had come. Again she was
transferred like a bit of baggage to
another steamer and two days later
they arrived at Batavia. At last a
fourth boat landed her at Samarang.