Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-08-13

A.
money go. To establish the practice of Il
regulation price Tor the service would not
I cement the ministers, because the average
marriage fee is much larger than could
very well be fixed upon as a uniform rate.
nave any idea what the average mar
rlage fee is? Well, let's see. When l
was young preacher had a fairly we'll
to-do congregation, and lived In a good
nelghborhOod. married 1872 couples in
nVe years and l received $47S in cash, one
silver watch and tin wash boiler. That
Is an average of about SO for each mar
rage. In my present congregation, which
Is IN financial way much superior to
that or my early years, my marriage fees
nave been sufficient in the past ten years
10 ouy me very comfortable house, if |
! were disposed to invest in real estate. |
have received a fee of $500 in one instance
ana 5Oc. In another, and l married one
couple tor nothing and gave them few
hundred dollars to begin housekeeping on
the bride was my daughter. have a
ministerial friend in this city, who is very
well known, who was paid $4,000 as
marriage fee, which is the largest that l
have any personal knowledge Of"
One of the popular Methodist pastors of
the city says that he has received from
S2OO to pair of juicy spring chickens for
marrying people. "On one OCCASION" the
minister said, 81 took drive of 16 miles
and paid 50 for the privilege Of marrying
a couple who did not even invite me to the
marriage supper. That was in New
Jersey. The groom promised to send me
fee large enough to include the cost OF
the conveyance, but l was never able to
collect either. Once marriage fee came
near getting me into very serious trouble.
was paid 50 bill by the groom which
was counterfeit. l placed the bill in
my pocketb0ok, and few days afterward
| had occasion to 90 over to baltimore.
When | went into u store TO buy pair OF
gloves | gave the salesman the So bill and
waited for my change. Unfortunately
for me swindler had been passing bad
money in Baltimore about that time, and
description OF the fellow had been put
J in the papers. In general way l hap
| pened to answer fairly to that descrlp-
ton, and it was with great difficulty that
prevented the clerk who was waiting on
me from handing me over to an officer,
whom he had called after closely examln-
ing the note. OF course the newly mar
| ried man who had given me the money
was greatly mortified. He afterward gave
me beautiful colt as compensation, and
| redeemed the note, OF course.
cit Is pretty mean thief who Will
swindle poor country preacher with
large family and a small salary; but
once knew a man mean enough to do that
by means of bogus marriage. He came
! to a small country town in which my
church was located. This was in New
York State. Near me lived a Baptist
minister who had hard struggle to make
both ends meet. A man and a woman
| drove up to his house one evening and
| were married. The man had large roll
of bills, and pretended that he was look
| ing for So note among them, but they
were all for 500. The fellow was profuse
in his apologies; said he was sorry that he
| had no small bills, and did not want to go
away without giving the minister fee.
Was it passible for the paster to get one
OF the large bills changed. The poor
| clergyman, eager to get cash So mar
riage fee, which was something unusual
with him, went to his little hoard and
| gave the man $50. The next day the
| clergyman found that the 500 bill was a
counterfeit, aud he was never able to find
| the swIndler. The marriage was put-up
| Job, and about the most contemplate
trick l ever knew or heard Of"
Ex-MayOr Bradshaw, Of Camden, dur
ing the latter part of his term had queer
| fish come to his matrimonial net. A
Philadelphia couple went over the river,
and calling at the Mayors residence asked
| TO be married. The groom said that he
had been out of emplopmentfors some time
! and had no fee to offer. The MAYOR being
| pense with the fee, and promptly married
| the inpecunious couple. A few minutes
after the ceremony the groom came back
to the Mayors house and sought to bor-
| row So, as he said he desired to celebrate
the marriage. Before he could recover
| from the shock the Chief Magistrate was
actually Induced to hand over dime, as
reward, be subsequently remarked, "for
the gall Of the thing"
| The most common fee in Camden from
the people who cross the ferry to get mar
ried is 81, which Is given with request
that the marriage notice be published in
a Philadelphia paper This COSTS Doc.
| The marriage certificate costs an addi-
tiOnaI 5c.,Ipostage &c., and the minister or
magistrate has just 42c. as his share
! of the grOOm's prodigality. OF course
they cannot refuse-at least they do not
but the marriages are becoming so
numerous and the fees SO ridiculous that
| the Camden ministers and magistrates
say that they do not propose TO marry all
Philadelphia for nothing. "The Phila-
| delphia Minister'S" said one of the breth-
rem in Camden, "get all the fat fees. and
the others come over here 20 us. We pro-
! pose to raise the rates."