Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1891-08-19
How He Won n Wife.


Col. John W. Ray, himself nov a
venerable gray-headed man. tells the
following story of the courtship and
marriage of his grandfather, the Rev.
| John Ray, who figured largely in the
Methodist Church in the latter part of
the last and the early part of this
century:
"My father joined the travelling
connection i'll 1890" said he, "when
there were less than $50 ordained
members in the United States, and but
one conference, extending from Massa-
chusetts to Florida, along the coast.
His early work was in Virginia and
North Carolina, where he travelled ten
years, of course a single man, for in
those days TO marry was to locate. He
travelled in 1900 the Tar River circuit,
which extended from the coast into
| the interior hundred miles or more.
He was 80 years old, and had made up
his mind TO marry, and locate, and go
West, which meant into Kentucky, his
former home. Among his stopping
places on his circuit was the planta-
ton of rich widow, by the name of
Lewis, well stocked with slaves and
the luXuries that a wealthy STAKEHOLDER
of that period was expected to pos
sess. The widow had also IA grown
daughter, who had made such an i'm
preston upon the bachelor preacher
that hc had concluded TO ask her to 90
with him, nothing doubling that she
would go, and 90 on his own terms,
but he had said nothing to her on the
subject until one evening, toward the
close of the year, he took a scrap of
paper and wrote: Are you under OBJ
legations to any man? Are you III the
spirit of slavery! Win you 90 West7
Will you 90 with mep
He expected an immediate answer,
and, of course, favorable one; for
how could girl refuse such man?
But she carefully folded the paper,
put it in her pocket, and soon after
left the room, to be seen no more un-
til the next morning. To the surprise
and perpleXity of the lover, she APP
peared the next morning in the family
circle, as merry as usual, and went
about the ordinary duties of the morn
ing as though nothing unusual had
happened. The suspense became pain
full and embarrassing, until he finally
got an opportunity to ask if she could
now answer the questions which he
had prOpounded. She asked for
further time.
"'No," said he, q must know now.
| am going away to-day, and want to
know before starting.
".Wen,' said she, u have some
questions to ask before deciding. VIII
you give up your pipe!
"The lover was dumbfounded. Ii
had never entered his head that a girl
had any right to PROFOUND such
question on such an occasion, bat that
the extent of her prerogative was to
say Yes, with all my heart Pre-
suming upon his own Importance, and
assuming that she would be only too
glad to say yes after this little episode,
he said: No, not for the best woman
on earth 1t was now her turn to
speak, and she said, in a tone that in
dicated earnestness: Then you can
have my answer once for all. L will
never marry man who thinks more
Of his pipe than of me- No man ever
did more thinking in few minutes
Than he did then and there. She had
put the pipe question in a new light
Think more of my pipe than of herp
he soliloquized. why, certainly not;
yet it looks like it if l cannot give it
up for her. But there is another
question: Shall d girl force me to do
what four conferences have failed to
do! Can | be happy without this girl
happier without her and with my
pipe than with her and without NV
pipeP and the man found himself
deeper in love than he had ever sus-
pected, and he was not long in settling
the question. If it is girl or a pipe,
farewell pipe, and he turned to her,
as she sat apparently as heartless as a
stone, and said: We'll, Elizabeth, if it
is to part with you or my pipe, | give
up the pipe forever
"What followed Immediately is
more easily imagined than told. In
few weeks they We're married. As
soon afterward as the papers could be
made out all of her slaves were manu-
mitted, and the two went West, which
meant Montgomery county, Kentucky.
There my father was born, and there
my grandfather spent many years as a
local preacher, rejoiniDg the conference
in 1919, moving later to Indiana,
where he died near Greencastle in 1887.
He never resumed his pipe. His
plncky anti-pipe wife survived him
several years.-[Indianapolis Journal.