The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1892-01-06
BILL NYE
As "Justice of the Peace" He CfRcIates
at Marriage Ceremony.

Edgar Wilson Nye, otherwise Bill
Nye. is writing series of Autobiogra-
phies for the Century. From the first
paper we quote as follows: Il forgot
to say that the Office was not salaried
one. but solely dependent upon fees.
the county furnishing only the copy of
the Revised Statutes and a woolsack,
slightly and prematurely bald. So
while l was called Judge Nye, and
frequently mentioned in the papers
with great consideration, L was out of
coal about half the time. and once
could not mail my letters for three
weeks because l did not have the nee
essary postage. Friends in the East
ern States may possibly recall the time
when my correspondence, from some
unknown cause, seemed to flag. That
was the time. Of course could have
borrowed the money, but l had, and
still have. foolish horror of borrow
ing money. l did not mind running
an account, but hated to borrow.
''The first business that had was a
marriage ceremony. met the groom
on the street. He asked if l could
marry people. | said that l could to a
limited extent. He said that he wanted
to get married. l asked him to secure
the victim, and l would get the other
ingredients. He then wished to know
where my Office was. 1t 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 l said
that l would marry them at their
n q nfoi hot 30
was over eighty miles away and that
it would consume too much time to
go there.
.'Where are you stopping at?' I in
quired-using the Pike County style of
syntax in order to show that was one
of the people.
'"Well, we met here, Squire. She
come in on the Last Chance stage, and
I'm camped up in Gov'ment Canon, not
fur from Soldier Crick. We can go
out there, l reckon
Il did not mind the ride. so locked
my office, secured a book. of forms,
and meeting the young people at the
livery stable went out with them and
married them in a rambling, desultory
sort of way.
1.-The bride was a peri from Owl
Greek, wearing moccasins of the plio-
Gene 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 a raven. and
she wore a tiara of clam-shells about
her beetling brow. Her bracelet was
a costly string of front teeth, selected
from the early settlers at the foot of
Independence Mountain. With the
shrewdness of Yankee and the hau-
teur of the savage she combined the
grotesque grammar of Pike County
and the charming naivete of the cow
puncher. She was called Beautiful
Snow. But think it was mostly in a
spirit of banter. She was also no
longer young. l asked her, with an
air of badinage, if she remembered
Pizarro, but she replied that she was
away from home when he came
through. The caYe-dwellers were a
serious people. Their plumbing was
very poor indeed; so also were their
jokes. Her features were rather clas-
sic, however. and-I was about to say
clean-cut, but on more mature thought
| will not say that. Her nose was
bright and piercing. 1t resembled the
breast-bone of a sand-hill crane.
''The groom was a man of great
courage and held human life at very
low figure. That is why he married
Beautiful Snow without any flinching;
also why 1 have refrained from men
tioning his name; also why kissed
the bride. l did not yearn to kiss her.
There were others who had claims on
me. but 1 did not wish to give needless
pain to the groom, and so did it. He
had no money, but said that he had q
saddle which if could use was well
come to. did not have anything to
put the saddle on at home, but rather
than return empty-handed took it."