The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1891-01-23
Eva nrann,s Marriages.


in connection with his conduct
of Eva's fight for Robert Ray Hamil-
tons millions in New York; and the
result was a great big change OF base
in her testimony day before yesterday
concerning her relations with Josh"
Mann.
Eva's claim was based, oil course, upon
the assumption that she vas the widow
If the dead descendant of the great
Hamilton, and in support of it she
produced the proofs of her ceremonial
marriage in this State. The answer
that was made to this was that she had
previously become the wife of Josh"
Mann. and that having never either
divorced herself from him or killed
him, she had no lawful right to go
through the ceremony with Hamilton
and could not become his lawful
wife. Her opponents did not pre-
tend that there was a ceremonial
marriage between Josh" and her
self, and the proofs that have be en-
submitted that they passed as
husband and wife were sufficient to
do no more than establish a pre-
sumptive case of marriage between
them.
The laws of the State of New
York do not require the introduction
of a magistrate or a clergyman to
make a marriage. II a couple go off
In a corner by themselves and swear
eternal fidelity to each other, they
are man and wife in the eyes of the
New York law. If they introduce one
another to their friends-the man, the
woman as his wife, and the woman,
the man as her husband-they fur
nish by that act in all ordinary cases
strong presumptive proof that they
had consented TO become man and
wife, and, as far as the interests OF
third parties at least are concerned,
they are holden to have entered into
the marital relation. 1t was non-cere-
monial marriage, and not a mere pre-
sumption that they were married
that Hamilton's respectable heirs
tried to set up to defeat the
woman's claims of recognition as the
widow Of Hamilton, and the various
mutual introductions of the couple as
husband and wife were proven to
establish the probability hat such a
marriage by agreement had previously
taken place.
: The fact that Josh and Eva lived
together and introduced each other as
man and wife is so notorious that it
was impossible of successful denial;
and, in the nature of things, the only
sane answer that the oma could in
terpose was that her relations with
Josh were wholly meretricious; that
she never consented to be his wife or
he her husband; that the union be-
tween them was only n of convent
ence, and that the introductions of
each other as though they had been
welded were only designed to conceal
relations they were ashamed to con
fess.
Ex-State School Master Fuller does
not seem to have seen this, and he per-
mitted Eva to make other and absurd
explanations of their union, until at
last she went on the stand and boldly
few In the face of all previous expla-
nations by offering those just sug-
gested. If Eva had, In the start,
made the confession she finally made,
her chance Of establishing her right
to Hamilton widowhood might have
amounted to something tangible.
Men and women are constantly
assuming such relations as those
which Eva at last declared she
bore to Josh, and in this Case it is be-
You'd reason to believe that Hamilton
went through a marriage ceremony
with her without knowledge Of
her previous career. But she
threw suspicion on her new testi-
mony by the perjuries she committed,
under the eyes OF the judge, in the
first absurd explanations she offered
him, and her new answer to the Ham
iIton heirs assertion that she had al
ready become the wife of Mann. lost
most of its force
Even If it did not, the nice question
remained whether the meretricious
marriage TO Mann which the New
York laws might have presumed
from their relations and their
admissions would stand against
the ceremonial marriage to Ham
ilton. And a circumstance that
considerably helped to involve the
problem still further was that
the wedding to Hamilton was
solemnized under the laws Of this
State, which, SO far from recognizing
a m~eretricious marriage, punish those
who enter into it. when they are
caught, with imprisonment and fine.
Eva and Josh, married by consent
under the laws OF New York, would