The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1892-02-20
a STORY OF elLL NYE,
"a "Justice of the Peace" Tie Omciai es nj


81 "Justlce of the Peace" lie Oniclaies mt
Marriage Ceremony.
The Office was not snlaried one, but
solely dependent upou fees, the county
furnishing only the copy of the revised
statutes and q wouisack, slightly and
prematurely bald 80 while l was
called'Judge Nye, and frequently men
toned in the papers with great con-
sideration, | was out OF coal about half
the time, and once could not mail my
letters for three weeks because | did
not have the necessary postage. Friends
in the eastern states may possible re-
call the time when my correspondence
from some unknown cause, seemed to
flag. That was the time. OF course
could have borrowed the money but
had, and still have, a foolish horror of
borrowing money. | did not mind run
ming an account but hated to borrow.
The first business that had was a
marriage ceremony. / met the groom
ON the street. lie asked if ! could
marry people. / said that could to
limited extent lie 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 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 at?" in
quired- the Pike county style of
syntax in order to show that l was one
of the people.
"Well, we meet here Squire. She
came in on the Last Chance stage, and
Pm campedup in Govment canyon not
fur from Soldier creek. We can go out
there, / reckon"
l did not mind the ride, so locked
my Office, secured 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.
The bride was peri from Owl
Creek, 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 raven, and
she wore tiara of clam-shells about
her beetling brow Her bracelet was
costly string of front teeth, selected
from the early settlers at the foot of
Independence mountain. With the
wdness of Yankee aud the hauteur
of the savage she com Dined the gro
tesque grammar of Pike county and
the charming naivete of the cow-punch-
or. She was called beautiful Snow.
But think it was mostly in n spirit of
banter. She was also no longer young.
asked her, with an air OF badinage, if
she remembered PiHarro, but she re-
piled that she was away from home
when he came through. The cave
dwellers were Il serious people. Their
plum biug 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
mature thought l viii not say that.
Her nose was bright and piercing. 1t
resembled the breast-bone of sand
hill crane.
The groom was a man Of great cour-
age and held human life at very low
figure That is why he married Beau
tifuul Snow without any finching; also
why have refrained from mentioning
his name; also why ! kissed the bride.
did not yearn to kiss her. There We're
others who had claims on me, but l did
not wish to give needless pain to the