The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-12-30

]age To pun her back into The steeples
SO she settled down to cry. and ne
isettled down to smoke a pipe, With a
view to clearing his ideas. N
i All of a sudden he saw what ne
ought to do, and wondered that he had
lbeen such an idiot as to not nave seen
lit before There was the bell just
labove his head, and ell he had to do
was to climb up and ring it by swing
ling the clapper from side to side, till
/ the alarm should bring back the sex
Eton with the keys. BY this time 1t
/ was getting rather dark, and Halsey
fset to work at that bell and kept on
ltolling it: slow and regular, for that
was the only way he could manage to
ring it.
sIt's the custom with us to toll the
lbell when anybody dies, and to give
just as mary strokes on the bell as
! the deceased had lived years. When
Halsey began to toll the bell the
iAthensville people listened TO ind out
lhow old the deceased had been. When
the strokes had got among the eighties
they allowed that the oldest settler in
jthe town must have died very sudden,
for he had been drunk. as usual, and
lin perfect health that afternoon as
Hate as 8 O'Clock. But the bell kept on,
and bimeby. after it had tolled some
l250 times and showed no signs of stop
4 ping. folks began to think that the
sexton had just happened, to. hear
about the death of Methusalam and
was notifying other people of the TACT.
1 You may ask why didn't somebody
lgo to the church and find out what
1.-THE bell was ringing for. Well, for
one thing, it was just supper tirne,.and
nobody felt anxious to take walk of
a mile or two. just at that hour. Then,
! too, it had been said that the Baptist
chuchyard was haunted, and there
wasn't any general desire to interfere
| with ghosts in case they should have
tolIing kept on till Halsey had tolled
| the bell over 400 times and then Rev.
Mr.. Humphreys arrived on the spot,
land when he heard Miss Payson' S
/ voice somewhere in the air over his
head. he was considerably startled.
Though not being a believer in ghosts
| he wasn't the least bit frightened.
4 How on earth did you come up
There. ma'am?' asked the minister.
and what are you toling the bell for?
Miss Payson explained what was the
matter She said that she and Mr..
Halsey had come to the church in the
afternoon. cal'latin' to f1nd the parson
There and to get married; that not ind
ling him they had gone into the steeple
to see the view, and had accidentally
been locked in She was sure that she
couldn't live many minutes longer, she
felt SO weak, and she hoped Mr.
Humphreys would marry her to Mr..
Halsey without another minutes delay,
and so save her reputation, even If it
didn't save her life.
THE minister wanted to send for
help, and get her safe on the solid
ground, before marrying her, but she
said that she must DE married be-
fore she could dare to face any of her
town, en-, az, C,.ah &, said vyarn also
dear Mr.. Halsey's views, and if Mr..
Humphreys had the feeling of a man
and a Christian, let alone a Baptist min
lister, he would go ahead with the mar
riage service.
.sMr.. Humphreys finally consented,
and called out to Haisey to nod when
he should see the minister wave his
right arm, that being the only way in
which Halsey could make the responses,
seeing as his voice didn't fairly reach
to the ground. Having arranged this
satisfactorily, as he thought, Mr.. Hum
phreys went ahead, and in about two
minutes he had Miss Payson married to
Mr.. Halsey. Just then the sexton came
up with the keys. and knowing where
he could lay his hand on a length of
rope, he took it up into the steeple with
him and bent it on the bell rope. Then
he and Mr.. Halsey lowered Miss Pay
stairs together.
s''You'l find your wife waiting for you
in the graveyard says Mr.. Humphreys-I
to Halsey, She's naturally a little ex-
cited, and she's resting on a fiat tomb
stone
Is If you mean Miss Payson. says
Halsey, L can't understand why you
call her my wife
8" 7 call her your wife says the min
J-k ,,i.,-
two, and I don't allow no man to ques-
ton the binding character of any mar
riage that I have hand in
-" Married u.s.! cried Halsey. When |
and where? This is the first time |
have heard of it.
" Young man. says the parson, this |
hyer's serious subject, and I don't ap-
prove of jokes on either weddings or
funerals. Miss Payson told me. while |
she was swinging there in the air that |
you and she wanted to be married the |
worst way. and so I married you. If
there's any mistake I'm 1fot to blame. |
I've done my best as a minister of the |
gospel, and if you don't like it you can
go to the divorce court and see if you |
can get it altered. I'll tell you candidly |,
that 1 don't believe any court will listen !
to you, for my marriages are iron clad |
and outlet proof every time, and worth
a good sight more than the five dollars |
that I'm waiting for you to pay me-
well! Halsey he went home pretty |
mad, without waiting to see Miss Pay
son, and the very next day he begins a
suit for a divorce. That's the great di- !
vorce suit 1 was telling you about when |!
I pointed out Rev. Mr.. Humphreys to i
you. It's been dragging along for four !
years. Sometimes it's decided in favor |
of Halsey, and sometimes in favor of |
Miss Payson and then it's always ap- !
pealed, and has to be tried over again !
Miss Payson she sticks to it that Hal .
sey agreed to marry her, and that he
perfectly well everything the /
parson said while the ceremony was 60
ing on. The parson says that Halsey !
nodded as was agreed upon when he
asked him if he took Miss Payson to be
his welded wife, and all that sort of
thing, and that Halsey had hold of the
rope that was tied to Miss Payson
which was the same as having hold of
her hand. On the other hand Halsey
swears that he never meant TO marry
the woman and never knew that mar
riage ceremony was being gone through
with, but that he just nodded out of
when he saw the parson
his hand at him The evidence.
as you can see is pretty straight against
him, and when he does happen to get a
verdict, it costs him powerful lot of
money, for our jurymen are mighty
honest and high toned, and it takes a
good deal of money to INDUCE them to
see things in light favorable to Hal
sey. I'm interested in the case because
Of its Importance, for if the courts final
~ decide that a man can be married to
a woman when he is seventy-five feet
above her, and don't know what is GO
ing ON, none of are safe, and the first
thing you know some woman who is
rushing through here on the express
will be married to me while ] am selling.