The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1891-11-06
BILL NYE AS "JUSFICE OF TIL
PEACE"

lie 0fficlates at Marriage Ceremony.
Edgar Wilson Nye, otherwise 81
Nye, is writing a series OF AutODlO-
sraphies for the Century. From the
first paper, in the November number,
70 uuuIe as follows: ~ forgot to say
hat the office was not Salaried on
,ut solely dependent upon fees, the
.nuntv furnishing only the copy of the
Revised Statutes and woolSack,
lightly and premaLurely bald. y"
while | was called Judge Nye, and re
Iuently mentioned in the papers Wit
great consideration, L was out of coal
,bout half the time, and once could mol
nail my letters for three weeks be-
:ause 1 did not have the necessary
postage. Friends in the Eastern
States may possibly recall the umt
when my correspondence, from some
Unknown cause, seemed to flag. That
was the time. OF course l could have
borrowed the money, but nag, anu
.tiIl have. a foolish horror OF borrowing
money. / did not mind running an &C
cunt, but l hated to borrow.
Tire first business that L~Had was a
marriage ceremony. / met the groom
on the street. He asked If L could mar
" people. / said that l could to llnl-
ed extent. He said that he wanted to
get married. ! asked him to secure he
victim, and / would get the other ingre-
lients. He then wished TO know where
ny office was. 1t occurred to me al
hat moment there was no fire in th'
.JOve; also no coal; also that the wesi
lalf of the stove had fallen In during
he night. SO l said that L would
marry them at their home. He main
aimed that his home was over eighty
niles away and ii would consume too
much time to go there.
Where are you stopping 2" l in
Iuired-using the Pike County style Ot
<yntaX in order to show that l was one
# the people.
"Wen, we met here, Squire. She
come in on the Last Chance stage, and
ur from Soldier Chick. We can go out
there, reckon
81 GId not mind the ride, so L locked
my office, secured book of forms, anu
meeting the young people at the livery
stable went out with them and mar
ried them in a rambling, desultory sor'
of way.
'The bride was a peri from Owl
Creek, wearing mOccaSinS Of the pho
Gene age. The rich Castilian blood OF
the caVe-dwellerS mantled in her CHI Elk
along with the naVy-blue blood of Con-
uecticut on her fathers side. Her hair
was like the wing of raven, and she
wore tiara of clam-shells about heI
oeetling brow. Her bracelet was .
.ostIy string of front teeth, selected
rom the early settlers at the foot of In
Mountain. With the
shrewdnesS of a Yankee and the hau-
teur of the savage she combined the 81 o.
eesque grammer of Pike County anu
he charming naivete of the cow-punch-
n She was called Beautiful Snow.
But I think it was mostly in spirit OF
banter. She was also no longer young.
| asked her, with an air of badlnage, II
She remem bered Pizarro, but she re-
piled that she was away from home
when he came through. The cave
lwellers were a serious people. Their
plumbing was very poor indeed; so also
were their jokes. Her features were
rather classic, however, and was
about to say clean-cut, but on more ma
ture thought 1 will not say that. Her
nose was bright and piercing. 1t re-
the breast-bone of sand-hill
crane.
1.-The groom was a man of great cour-
age and held human life at a very low
figure. That is why he married Beau
tiful Snow without any f1inching; also
why have refrained from mentioning
his name; also why kissed the bride.
did not yearn to kiss her. There were
others who had claims on me, but l did
not wish to give needless pain to the
groom, and so L did it. He had no
money, but said that he had a saddle
W hich if could use l was welcome to. /
lid not have anything to put the sad
lie on at home, but rather than return
1 took it,"