Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-02-29
LEAP YEARS RIGHTS
Taken Advantage of by Allegheny
Girls, Making Already a1
INCREASE OF 100 MARRIAGES.
Fair Ones Who Apply for the Need larry
License Themselves.
SOME VERY INTERESTING INCIDENTS


IF Allegheny county giils continue takINg
advantage of leap year at the rate th4 u
have started another new year will find j
as free from old maids as Ireland is d
snakes. Captain Heber, the genial marl
riage license clerk, who knows as much
about Cupid's darts as Cupid does himself,
has found that the gentler sex has taken
Cupid's quiver and with it slain more
hearts thar Times book has ever shown in
equal space before. The record of one day
less than two months proves that leap year
leads its predecessor with 100 more mar
riages and twice as many happy hearts.
The price for a marriage license is the
same as in 81. The manner of getting
them is exactly similar. There has been no
tax placed on old bachelors; no penalty for
being an old maid. Ministers are no more
anxious to join in wedlock than they were
a year ago, and all other known conditions
being the same, it seems like fact and can
only be accounted for by the assumption
that the increase in marriages is due to 1892
being leap year; that Allegheny county
girls are hustlers who believe in proposing
early in their every fourth year opportu-
nifty. 1t has been suggested that the lack
of natural gas has made courtship a burden
to the young man who has to carry in the
coal, but the proposition is looked upon
with suspicion.
Where tho Credit Il Placed.
To the girls, thinks Captain Heber, be-
longs the credit of having brought about at
least 100 of the 926 marriages which have
occurred in Allegheny county since the
new year was ushered in. When the books
were closed on February q, 1891, there
were only s26 to that years credit, and the
years being similar with regard to all other
things but woman's privilege. there are
scarcely any but the unsuccessful who will
challenge the conclusion of the marriage
license clerk.
Captain Heber, when seen BY the re-
porter, was facing beardless, blushing boy
of 1S or 19, who stood with his prospective
father-in-law-a stern old gentleman, with
a sort of I've-got-you-now look on his face
both waiting for the license that would
bring them into closer relationship. As the
document was finished the young man
reached in his pocket, jingled some coin,
but evidently didn't know how to ask the
price which the Commonwealth in its
wisdom has fixed as the penalty tor wanting
to get married. 1t was a desperate moment,
but to save the victim from asking whats
the damage?" or "How many wheels?" the
accommodating Captain carelessly re-
marked: SIT will cost you one dollar"
The boy looked relieved. He tarried mo-
ment behind the old man as the two left the
room, and was jocularly asked if it was to
be leap year marriage.
The Young Mans Confession.
"weH, yes" he replied with stammer
soThat is she asked me, and was mighty
glad she had the sand, because hadn't"
''That old gentleman is to be your father
in-law?"
'.Yes"
'He seems satisfied"
'You bet, f" was the proud answer 'T'm
onto him. He put Sally up to askin' me
because it was leap year, and now he thinks
he's mighty cute, but"
"Hurry up, Sam," was the authoritative
command that broke off the conversation
with snap that indicated anything bot
pleasant future for Sam in his dealings with
his papa-in-law.
Leap year etiquette in this case was not
carried to its full extent. It is now claimed
by fashionable people outside of Pittsburg's
upper 40. 900 that the girl who has enough
courage to propose should get the marriage
license, pay for it, settle with the preacher
and buy the beer for the serenade. Expenses
later on are to be borne, of course, by the
victim. The first girl to start the custom in
Americas most enterprising city was lady
of debatable age, who at one time in Pitts
burg school room taught young ideas how
to shoot. Her name is familiar to
many. 1t is not known Just how
the leap year proposal came about, but that
the ex-school teacher was the first to grapple
the subject was made evident by the fact
that she came after the marriage license,
got it and paid for it. It had been dull
day when Captain Heber's lady customer
came into the Office. She had passed the
blushing stage of existence. On such an
important occasion, she, of course, wore
red dress. Her hair was banged, she wore
Martha Washington earrings, carried an
nte-Revolutionary umbrella and didn't
chew gum.
II want license" was all she said
except to answer the stereotyped questions.
When the thing was finished and the
price had been paid she turned to the clerk
with fierce look and asked:
One Thing She Wanted to Know.
elbow long can keep this before marry
the man I am going to marry?"
When the question was answered the
young lady left, leaving behind nothing but
a doubt as to whether or not she had as
good grasp as hangman's moose on the
man she 'was going to marry"
But it isn't only the girls of long ago who
take advantage of leap year and carry the
matter into the marriage license Office.
Some enterprising maidens, of more tender
years, determine to row the boat themselves,
but none with more strategy than bright |
young miss of just 81, who last week |
secured license to marry her |
lover of just % She was as pretty |
as a novelist's dream and as modest as a |
violet. Of course she blushed when she |
asked for the license and it is just as easily |
guessed that she couldn't find her pocket |
book when the time came to pay for the |
legal document. At length, however, the |
ordeal was over, the big white envelope |
was laid away carefully in the pocket that |
never was. or will be found by any but !
feminine hands.
Some Information for George.
sIt's over" sighed the clerk as he
thought how bsshful the young man must |
have been who would wait until such |
beauty would propose. There was just a
little bit of regret as the official realized he
might never see his fair visitor again, and