The record-union., 1895-02-01
HOW JOE ELLIS CAME TO MARRY.
Trying to Help a Poor Girl Got Him
Into Trouble.
He Tells the Story of How He Was
Duped-A Remarkable Matrimo-
nial Adventure.

ulenGs maze Dy Mrs. Belle Porter, WhOm
Ellis swears married him in San Fran
cisco under false pretenses and whom he
had accused of bigamy.
The chief interest in the affair conferred
in Ellis detailed recital of his experience
with the woman, how he came to marry
her by contract, and how she deserted
him.
ELLIS is a young man of excellent ad-
dress and, he says, of good family con-
nections. He told his story in a very
dramatic manner, and. although Iaboring
under great excitement and somewhat
rambling in the chronology of his matri-
monial career, he impressed many Of his
hearers with the idea that he had been
made the victim Of an adventures.
de said that last November he was
earning some So % day as mechanic iii
one OF the large fOunGrieS IL San Fran
| cisco. One day, as he was leaving his
room in the house where he lodged, he
encountered the landlady and the Porter
woman III the hallway and overheard the
latter say she was stranger IN the city,
that she was sick and penuiless and de-
sired place to rest herself. The land
lady had no room for her, SO, in the kind
ness OF his heart, he offered the good
looking young stranger the use OF his
during his absence, which was accepted.
She gave her name as Miss Stewart, and
said she had u cruel Steptather in Los
Angeles with whom she could not live.
AS she appeared to De quite i'll, he sug-
gested that she go TO hospital, but tins
she declined to do. lie then told her he
would try TO help her until she could get
employment, and went out with her TO
engage room in respectable lodging
| house. ON the way she collapsed, and
said she could go no farther, and he was
at his wits end what to Go.
Ii happened that her sudden collapse
occurred in front of the door of lodging
house OF shady reputation, and as she
could not or would not go farther he
went up stairs and got her a room. He
wanted to do something Tor her, but she
implOred him to leave her. He had, she
SAID, been IL brother to her, but he must
go away and leave her-death was the
only relief for her.
Ellis said, with all the fran1ness of a
big-hearted boy, that his heart went out
10 the poor girl, and his interest in her
was only intensified when she contided
to him that she had been betrayed by her
brutal stepfather.
He went cut and employed doctor to
attend her, and then sought one OF his
bosom friends and asked him what he
should do, as he did not like to abandon
the poor girl in her distress, and 1t would
! only compromise ner II he were TO try to
do more TOR her.
y new light broke in upon him. how
ever, when his friend bluntly asked him
why he did not marry her. Sure enough,
he had not thought OF that. So he went
back to the suffering girl and told her OF
his occupation and suggested that they
get married.
The poor girl jumped at the offer with
as much aVldity as the hungry trout
leaps for the seductive fly OF the expert
angler, and, TO overcome the usual OBJ
stacleS and delay, she proposed that they
be we'd by contract.
Ellis didn't know much about that
style Of marriage, but he did know
Colonel hOWalSkv, tine eminent law
yer," and he hasLeued OFT and asked him
as 10 the binding effect OF a contract mar
riage. The Colonel affirmed the correct
ness OF Miss Stewards opinion that it
would be as binding as any other, so il
was agreed upon. She dictated the con-
tract and Ellis wrote it down in a round,
bold hand. Then they called in James
Hanlon and William Mccormick, en-
ployes OF the lodging house, as witnesses,
and both signed the document, which
was expressed in excellent language.
! The briue, propped up in bed, signed her
name Mrs. Belle Porter, known now
as Mrs. Belle Ellis" and big-hearted
Joe affixed his own signature.
In the privacy OF their wedding cham
Der, he said. she explained the "Porter''
part OF 1t by admitting that she had a
| husband, William Porter, in Sacramento,
from whom she was practically divorced
in consequence of an act of his which en-
titled her to legal separation.
This was all right, thought joe al
though the circumstance robbed her poor
and-triendless-g girl story of much Of it's
romance. Then he wanted to have the
contract recorded, but she talked him out
OF the notion. although he mentally de-
termined on having it done sooner or
later, at least, as soon as she got over her
illness.
70 make the young mans story brief,
the bride kept on getting 'sicker and
sicker," and he had to stay by her and
employ more doctors, among them one
| G. &. ODonnell. One OF the doctors, he
noticed, supplied her well with morphine.
One night she declared she was going
to die, and he got up to go for doctor.
but she held him back, saying she wanted
to tell him something. She then told him
that she was not stranger in san Fran
cisco, and that her folks lived there-her
mother and brOthers-and that the fam
lily name was Nhalen, while she was the
wife OF William Porter Of Sacramento
Ellis then fastened to her mothers
home, but Mrs. Whalen refused to go TO
her daughter. She told Ellis the girl was
not only married, but that she was 2
drunkard and worthless character, and
advised him TO have nothing more TO do
with her.
Still Ellis would not desert her, She
did not die, however, but managed to get
word to some OF her male friends, who
came to see her. When one II arry
Lewis called Ellis says he was out in the
hallway, aud heard the dying girl and her
visitor kissing and indulglug in the most
endearing terms. He went into the room,
] On n Loft ,,x
had another spell of collapse, but was
strong enough to deny that she had kissed
her visitor
And SO matters went on from day to
day. Ellis lost his place while playing
nurse to his bride, and his supply OF
money was running short. However, he
| insisted Oh q regular marriage, so one
day Mrs. Ellis sent for an old friend
named Paine. who, she said, was JUS
tIce and Notary, and he would marry
them. Ellis thought it was ali right.
Tho Notary came and filled out certifi-
cate or license and mumbIed something.
and Ellis and the girl signed the docn-
ment. Subsequently Mrs. Ellis de-
stroyed it.
They were very short of money by this
time, and were thinking OF leaving the
city. One day, Ellis said. his wife told
him to go 10 certain friend of hers vino
would give him some money as a loan to
her. He went, but did not lind the good
friend, and wnen he got back to his room
his SICK wife was gone with everything
except So which he had in his own pos
session.
He finally found her in saloon on the
water front, which he ascertained she
was wont to frequent before he met her.
They had scene, of course, but went
away together. Not long afterward she
lett him again, and this latter escapade
brought them together here in Sacra-
mnniO.