The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1891-12-17
BILL NYE AS A. JUSTICE.
An Account of a Remarkable Marriage


An Account of p Remarkable Marriage
Ceremony In a Wild Country.
/ forgot to say that the Office of justice
of the peace was not a salaried one, but
dependent upon fees, the county furnish
ing only the copy of the revised statutes
and woolsack, slightly and prematurely
bald. So while was called Judge Nye,
and frequently mentioned in the papers
with great consideration, was out of
coal about half the time, and once could
not mail my letters for three weeks be-
cause did not have the necessary post
age. Friends in the eastern states may
possibly recall the time when my CORE
spondence, from some unknown cause,
seemed to flag. That was the time. Of
course could have borrowed the money,
but had, and still have, foolish horror
of borrowing money. I did not mind
running an account, but hated to bor-
row.
The first business that had was
marriage ceremony. Imet the groom on
the street. He asked me if could marry
people. / said that could to a limited
extent. He said that he wanted to get
married. asked him to secure the vic
tim, and would get the other ingredi
ents He then wished to know where
my Office was It occurred to me at that
moment that there was no fire in the
stove; also, no coal; also, that the west
half of the stove had fallen in during
the night. So said that would marry
them at their home. He maintained
that his home was over eighty miles
away and that it would consume too
much time to go there.
"Where are you stopping atY in
quired-using the Pike county style Of
syntax in order to show that I was one
Of the people.
"Well. we met here, squire. She
come in ON the Last Chance stage, and
Pm camped up in Gov'ment canyon, not
fur from Soldier crick. We can go out
there, 1 reckon"
1 did not mind the ride, so locked my
Office, secured book of forms and meet
ing the young people at the livery stable
went out with them and married them
in rambling, desultory sort of way.
The bride was peri from Owl creek,
wearing moccasins of the pliocene age.
The rich Castilian blood of the cave
dwellers mantled in her cheek along
with the navy blue blood of Connecticut
on her fathers side. Her hair was like
the wing of raven, and she wore a
tiara of clam shells about her beetling
brow. Her bracelet was costly string
of front teeth, selected from the early set
tiers at the foot of Independence noun
tain. With the shfewdness of Yankee
and the hauteur of the savage she COM
bined the grotesque grammar of Pike
county and the charming naivete of the
COW puncher. She was called Beautiful
Snow. But 1 think it was mostly in a
spirit of banter. She was also no longer
young. asked her, with an air of bad
image, if she. remembered Pizarro, but
she replied that she was away from
home when he came through. The cave
dwellers were serious people. Their
plumbing was very poor indeed; so also
were their jokes. Her features were
rather classic, however, and-I was
about to say clean cut, but on more ma
ture thought 1 will not say that. Her
nose was bright and piercing. 1t resem-
bled the breastbone of a sandhin crane.
The groom was a man of great cour-
age. and held human life at very low
figure. That is why he married Beauti-
full Snow without any dinching; also
why 1 have refrained from mentioning
his name; also why I kissed the bride.
did not yearn to kiss her. There were
others who had claims on me, but did
1 not wish to give needless pain to the
groom, and so l did it. He had nc
money, but said that he had a saddle
which, if could use, was welcome to.
did not have anything to put the sad
die on at home. but rather than return
empty handed took it.-Bill Nye in
Century.