The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1888-05-26
HIS LAST.

Apo consequence was that all the
pleachers on the Maryland side of the
iine became as lean as geese. and the
PREACHERS across the line in Pennsyl-
sSaala grew as fat as turkey gobblers.
bu there was one preacher near
Wsynesboro, who did not grow fat.
darick Howton, who did the largest
business, became leaner and leaner
re Aster he married people. He
5SSsr-s,c,o lean, the people said, to en-
gJo3tifa like a good Methodist, timer
anbra rubicund priest, No chicken
eooS we're agitated at his approach.
NO title pigs squealed and got under
theilanXiOus mammas when Gar
rick aned over the sty and survey
ed tim.
Notdy knew just what sect or
church Garrick belonged TO there
where verybody was his own theo-
logian.
He c;led his church The Zion
sixties All was the only one of 1.-THE
bishop irieed-except his son, Weas-
ley Howon, whom he called "the
deacon"
The chrc building did not exist,
though ranches of the Zionskite
body Wer said to be "furder west"
by both he bishop and the deacon.
lnquisiive people limited that there
never void have been as many as
two ZioBkites except for the fat
marriageees which were to be had
along MaDn and Dixon's line and
that Bisbp Garrick Howton only
Ordained his son Weasley into the
priesthoot reluctantly that he might
occasionally take some recreation
himself AID not miss any runaway
couples which should arrive. between
midnightand morning.
All people far or near understood
that the Eowtons would marry any.
body, the delivery of the certificate
being conditional on the payment of
the fee, and pains were taken to i'm
press strangers that in The Zionskites
hssSliapIine the certificate was part
y feS ceremony itself.
A story was started and grew that
old HOwton married children tor the
sake Of his fees.
This story came up from sorrowing
and broken-hearted parents in Vir-
ginia and from the rich manors and
hamlets of Frederick in Maryland.
The Pennsylvanians never verified
these reports because it was none OF
their business.
That was the golden age, when the
people of every state did to the peO-
pie of every other state just what
they pleased, and the boundary line
made outrage justice or simplicity
criminal.
Nobody crossed the line to call
Bishop HoWton to account. All
licensed clergymen could marry ; the
bishop had a license signed by the
deacon, his son, and the son had a
license signed by the bishop of 1.-The
Zionskite Purified Order, Garrick
Howton, First Temple-fungus."
If any preacher of q large church
dared to inquire into the subject he
was told that there had been a "Iay-
ing on of hands," and this sent him
to the right-about, to be followed by
the cruel insinuation that his sole
motive in questioning "liberty of
conscience" had been envy and
coyetousness of Bishop Howton's
marriage fees.
Still, that idea of marrying chill
dren to designing men had a bad
sound. 1t gave superstitious name
lta. bishop Howton's parsonage"
The runaway slaves from the old
slave states knew and avoided that
house, for they remembered how
little Missy This or That had been
spirited away by a reckless cousin or
designing oyerseer and made a
wife in her early teens by "dat bad
ole Bishop HoWton."
If we could only get at him !" was
muttered in many a proud, awed &,
humiliated homestead along the
Shenandoah or Monocacv.
But they could not get at him for
the same reason he could not get at
them nor interfere with their privil-
eges and abuses. We had no common
country; we were inYiolable states
secure in our own venerable viola
tions.
AS times advanced Bishop How
ton became a widower, and his mind
was set on marrying again.
Ii may haye been the example Of
marrying children under age, torn
from their parents by their own dis
ooedient impulses or the powerful
sinister influence of man, or 1t may