Arizona weekly enterprise., 1888-01-14
BRIDAL COUPLES AFLOAT.
How They Become Conspicuous and
 Foolish on Bay steamers.
Baltimore Herald.

Do see much of young married people from the country? We'll, now, if steamboat captain who has been dealing with them for fifteen years ain't calculated to know thing or two about them don't know who is." This ejac- ulation of indignant surprise fell from the lips of a captain of a bay steamer as he sauntered down the pier from the street where he had just parted from young couple who entered bus and drove up Light street. That is the third pair" he cont nued, T have started on the matrimonial voyage this week, and Pll be consarned if 1 don't belleye the marriage craze is epidemic on the eastern shore. Let one fellow double up, and you u.can bet your boots that yery chap in the neighborhood, who can make up the necessary funds for license, will follow suit.
 If the governor lad not been so pig headed, and sat on the 60-cent mar riage bill, cur list of rural couples would be twice as great. You see the steamboat lines are the only means of travel between the peninsula and Balti- more and the result is that we captains first start the rural couples on their honeymoon tour. Green? We'll, now, 1 should just remark they are but theye're mighty happy. They make out well enough as long as they are with their friends, but as soon as they leave them at the wharf and are ushered into the saloon usually filled with strange faces, 8 lonesome kind of feeling comes over them. The row 11-l,ich fhoi1 frin Ic l-ia1r them good bye lets the cat out of the bag, and in ten minutes every passenger knows that the couple slowed away in dark corner of the saloon have just been yoked up. They are stared at from all sides and get terribly con fused. The groom in his desperation gets the book of pictures from the table, and both become absorbed in turning over the leaves Nine times out of ten the book is upside down.
 Soon their heads begin to get near each other and, about the time the kiss is to take place, one of them happens to glance up and see two or three pairs of roguish eyes staring at them. This Is too much, and the way they become absorbed in the book all of sudden is thrilling to witness. In few minutes they are at the old love game again, and again they see the same roguish eyes from She opposite side of the saloon. If l do not come and relieve them from their embarrassment they seek the deck until the arrival of retiring hour. They can't summon up enough courage to go to their state-room while the saloon is filled with passengers. Do they make me q contidant? Of course, they do. They tell me all about their court ship, marriage and thousand other matters. They generally get up pretty early and look more sheepish, if possible, than the night be- fore. They then begin to inquire about the city, and want to know where they should stop, etc. After I part with them here on the pier I never think anything more about them until two or three days, sometimes a week later, I see them boarding the steamer loaded down with bundles and packages. They | have gotten used to each others society by this time, and don care @ cent who stares at them. There is usually a large crowd waiting at the wharf to welcome them back. Very frequently I see some fellow, who is now staid old farmer, travelling on my boat with a l youngster, and I never let the occasion slip without teasing him about his mar | riaGe,"