Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-01-29
A HAT BAND ROMANCE.
THE STORY OF A MARRIAGE BROUGHT
 ABOUT BY LETTERS.

ABOUT BY LETTERS. A Hat Trimmer Made Happy by Her
 Friends Joke-she Pasted Note Under
 the Sweat Band. and a Young Man in
 Utah Got It-Overruling an Objection.
 My name Is Amelia Kelleger, trimmed this hat. and would like to correspond with the man who gets 1t, if he is young and not married Address care of the makers name found on the hat tip"
 The above lines were written on a slip of paper and pasted inside the sweat band of a derby hat by a young lady hat trimmer of Newark, N. J. Amelia Kelleger knew nothing of 1t until the case containing the hats had been shipped of. Bertha Hafiii, the writer of the note, was a shopmate of Miss Kelleger, and indited the missve as . practical joke, and some time afterward told her friend about it AS the custom of writ ing their names inside the hat bands was e common one among the hat trimmers, the incident was forgotten in few weeks and no more was heard about it
 AN ANSWER FROM MoRMoNDox.
 The matter was, however, brought forcibly to mind ill little more than 8 month later, when letter addressed to the firm inquired If girl was employed there named Amelia Kelleger. The writer said he was @ distant relative, and would like to know what sort of a girl she was, whether she was of good moral character, and asking if she was passably good looking. The initials "A. c. Y." were signed to the letter, with the request that the answer be directed to Salt Lake City, Utah. The senior member of the hat making firm, without letting her know the object of his in- 7uiry, asked Miss Kelleger if she had any friends or relatives in Salt Lake City. She answered at once in the negative. Several other ques- tions were put to her, and in answer to them she said that she had an uncle in the west where she did not know; the family had not heard from him for years, beyond the rumor that he was either in California or Oregon, and was very wealthy. The hat manufac- turer inquired no further, but returned to the office and wrote favorable reply, under the supposition that 1t was going to the long lost but wealthy uncle
 A week after the reply WIS sent of a let Ter came from the center of Mormondom ad- dressed to Miss Amelia Kelleger. 1t was signed "A. Crosby Young" The writer said that he was young, steady working and faFly prosperous man, and was unmarried. He had been the fortunate purchaser of the hat which contained the kind invitation to address the trimmer. He wrote in conclu- sion:
 "Perhaps you only wrote that in the spirit of fun. have answered it in the spirit of sin cer1ty, and the least you can do under the circumstances Is to write few lines saying that you did not mean what you wrote and that you do not desire the matter to proceed further. If you do this, upon the word of an honorable man, will acknowledge the re- nf 1off the matter there"
 The writer further said that he was 2S years old, and had thriving carpentry, and was anxious to procure an eastern wife, as none of the western girls he had seen suited him. If Miss Kelleger would sand favorable reply he would do all in his power to convince her that she was dealing with an honest man.
 Upon reading the letter Miss KelIeger con- fded the letter and it's contents to her friend, Bertha Hafli, who advised her, ''just for the fun of the thing" to answer the letter Amelia thereupon wrote @ straightforward letter, explaining all the circumstances, but added postscript in which she said that while she did not particularly desire to con- tdnue the correspondence, yet her curiosity ness, and she would particularly like to know if he happened to be Mormon A regis tered letter bearing the reply arrived early in the following week. It was 8 long letter, in which A. Crosby Young started of by as suring his fair correspondent that he was not Mormon, but, on the contrary, was a mem Der of the Methodist church. He then gave a detailed history of himself and his family. The rest of the letter was such as 8 young man very much in love would wrfa He told how happy he was to learn that 1t was not she who had placed the note in tho hat. He begged her to allow him to continue the cor respondence. telling her that he would fur nish every proof necessary to show that and asked her to forward her photograph. One of his was being finished for her, and would arrive in @ day or two.
 ENDED HAPPILY OF COURSE.
 On the following day the photograph ar. rived It showed Q we'll built young man, with frank and pleasant face, and pretty curling mustache. Amelia sent on one of her photographs, and Bertha Haf1i, who saw al the correspondence, says that letters wers written and received twice . week. "Oh, they were regular gushy lovS letters aftez the photographs were sent," she said to @ re porter. Both of them were clean gone The boys in the office thought that she wa. writing all the time to her uncle"
 1t appears that tn0 young man actually d1d come all the way from Utah, arriving at Newark. He stayed for time at the United States hotel in Broad street. Notified of hil coming, Amelia was prepared to meet him, and did % with her ever constant Bertha q her aide. The epistolary love was ratified at the meeting.
 The young man was for at once going tc the girls house and making known to her parents the object of his visit She negatived that proposal, saying she had not prepared her parents for 1t, but promised to do so in [ few days She preached the matter, but met with an nnfavorable reply. Her father and brothers would not be brought over to be lisve that a man who lived in the land ot Mormons could be 8 proper person to marry Amelia, and she was forbidden to hold future intercourse with him. This injunction she immediately disobeyed by meeting Crosby, and informing him of her parents decision. Tho young man said nothing, but on the following evening, introduced himseh tc Amelia's family and told them he had come all the way across the continent to make her his bride.