Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1889-09-19
JCat! aAY's couRTsHiP.
A Question Which Rather Surprised an
Old-Time Methodist Minister.

n question Wntch hatber surprised NJ
Old-Tine Methodist Minister.
Colonel John w. Ray, himself now a ven
cradle gray-headed man, tells, in the In
diapapolis journal, the following story o.
the courtship ard marriage of his grand
father, Rev John Ray, who figured largely
in the Methodist church in the latter par
Of the last and the early part of thi:
century: "My father joined the travelling
connection in 1907 said he, "when there
were less than $50 ordained members in the
United States and but one conference, ex
tending from Massachusetts to Florida
along the coast His early work was in Vlr-
ginia and North Carolina, where he trav-
eled ten years, OF course single man, for
in those days TO marry was to locate. He
Travelled in 1900 the Tar River circuit,
which extended from the coast into the in
terror hundred miles or more. He was
thirty-two years old and had made up his
mind 10 marry and locate and go West,
which meant into Kentucky, his former
home. Among his stopping-places on his
circuit was the plantation Of rich widow,
by the name Of Lewis, well stocked with
slaves and the Injuries that a wealthy slave
holder Of that period was expected to pos
sess. The widow had also grown daugh-
ter, who had made such an impression upon
cluded to ask her to go with him, nothing
doubling that she would 20, and go on his
own terms, but he had said nothing to her
on the subject until one evening, toward the
close of the year, he took scrap Of paper
and wrote: Are you under obligations to
any mani Are you in the spirit of slaveryl
viii you go Westl Will you 90 with meP
"He expected an immediate answer, and,
Of course, a favorable one, for how could a
girl refuse such mani But she carefully
folded the paper, put it in her pocket, and
soon after left the room, to be seen no more
until the next morning. To the surprise
and perplexity of the lover, she appeared the
next morning in the family circle as merry
as usual and went about the ordinary duties
Of the morning as though nothing un-
usual had happened. The suspense became
painful and embarrassing, until he finally
got an opportunity to ask il she could now
answer the question he had propounded.
She asked for further time to consider.
"'No,' said he, 4 must know now l am
going away to-day, and want to know be-
fore starting.
"'Well,' said she, Il have some questions
to ask before deciding. viii you give up
your piper
"The lover was dumbfounded. 1t had
never entered his head that girl had any
right to PROFOUND such a question on such
an occasion, but that the extent Of her pre-
rogative was to say: Yes, with all my
heart Presuming upon his own impor-
tance, and assuming that she would be only
too glad to say yes after this little episode,
he said: NO, not for the best woman on
earth 1t was now her turn to speak, and
she said, in tone that indicated earnest
ness: Then you can have my answer once
for all. / will never marry man who
thinks more Of his pipe than of me- No
man ever did more thinking in few min
utes than he did then and there. She had
put the pipe question in new light. Think
more Of my pipe than of herP he solilo-
quized. why, certainly not; yet it looks
like 1t If l can not give 1t up for her.
But there is another question: Shall girl
force me to do what four conferences have
failed to dol Can be happy without this
girl-happier without her and with my pipe
than with her and without my pipef and
the man found himself deeper in love than
he had ever suspected, and he was not long
IN settling the question. If it is girl or a
pipe, farewell pipe, and he turned to her, as
she sat apparently as heartless as a stone,
and said: well, Elizabeth, IL it is to part
with you or my pipe, give up the pipe for
ever.'
"What followed Immediately is more
easily imagined than told. In few weeks
they were married. AS soon afterward
as the papers could be made out all OF her
slaves were manumitted, and the two went
West, which meant Montgomery County,
Ky. There my father was born, and there
my grandfather spent many years as
local preacher, rejoining the conference in
1919, moving later to Indiana, where he
died near Greencastle in 1887 He never
resumed his pipe. His plucky anti-pipe
wife survived him seyeral yearsm