Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-07-29

How . Rejected suitor Compelled Miss Nc
Kinney to Reconsider.

Afnney to RecOnsider.
The STAR announced yesterday that Judge
Hagner had made a decree annulling the mar
| riage Of Charles f. Reed and Mary Stewart Nc
Kinney, contracted November 49, 1880, Miss
Mckinney. the complainant, alleging that she
had been forced to the marriage by threats.
The story told in the papers filed in court as
| outlined in TIE STAR yesterday. is q very ir-
| regular one Reed is about twenty-five years
old and Miss Mckinney about . year younger.
They were both clerks in the census Office, and
| it appears that Reed had proposed marriage to
Miss Mckinney and been rejected
1t appears from the testimony that the parties
were both clerks in the pension Office, and that
Reed fell in love with Miss MCKINLEY and be-
lieved that she loved him. but did not know
it, and, az he afterward told one of her friends,
that ''she did love him but said she did not ~
and that The knew her better than she did her
SELF. He pressed his suit urgently aud con-
stantly with protestations. promises and threats.
and, 1t Is asserted, declared she should marry
no one else, that if she did not marry him he
would kill her. He would take no refusal, came
home with her from the Office, met her in the
street, waylaid her behind tree boxes and came
out to surprise her at Intersections and ressrva-
TONS. This persecution, she says, destroyed
my health, both Of mind and body. was not
work 1t the Office. T did not dare
to 60 out Of my house at night or even to walk
along the streets in the daytime" One after
noon as they came from the pension Office he
made her promise to meet him; she did 80, and
they went to the house of Rev. Asbury s. Kelley
of the NJ E. church on 9th and streets. She
says that ION the way up l plead with HIM
again not to force me to marry him, but be
said that was his determination, he would not
be stopped then, and that II l showed signs of
distress or agitation through the ceremony
must suner the consequences" They went
together into the house OF the minister and
were married, Justice l.. l. OF Neal being one of
the witnesses. Neither the minister nor any
one else saw anything strange iIr the marriage,
but the husband and wife parted with the I'M
Outstanding that there was to be no consumma-
ton and the matter was to he kept secret, but
became public. Then, at hia request, she met
him at the office of Mr.. David Mcknight.
MIR. Mex. says: "Shs agreed to meet him
on the day appointed and Il notified
him. He came to my office Immediately
after o'clock and 80 did she. stepped into
an adjoining room, where l heard tbs con-
versation. She asked him why he wanted to
see her and he replied that he thought that,
as the marriage had been made public,
they should both recognize it and live to-
gether. That proposition she declined. She
burst into tears and began to plead with
him to spare her further harm, saying that
he had wrecked her life already and was now
breaking his promise to her. She made such
an appear 10 hin. as Actually 70 move me 20
tears could bee him from where was and
he sat there like stone, utterly unmoved,
seeming to be determined tc conquer her and
make her live with him. He had previously
told ME. L have great control over nlary and
when We come together viii take care Of the
result HIS manner ana words to her were
polite enough. but quite determined and cold,
and the result was that shs fell into q fit OF
Mysteries, weeping, and finally she jumped up
and ran out of the ROOM esving MIN there.
When entered the room he said. 'Weli this
is singular way tor girl to act and he dis
played 50 little feeling that was quite dis
gusted with him."