The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-11-05
A PRETTY NEW YORKER
6HH CAME DOWN TO SEE HIM
ON THURSDAY.
lF SHE LIKES HIM SHE WILL MARRY
N She is Not Pleased She Will go Back and
Hes Would-be Husband viii Pay All
Expenses Of the Trip Here
and Back,

All the world loves a lover"
And when that lover is good-looking,
strong Of arm, with courage enough to
disregard the miserable little convention.
Aities Of life, to win the woman of his
choice, the world loves him all the more.
Such a lover is James Gillian. we'll
to-do farmer in Chatham county. AT
least he was such a lover yesterday.
This morning he is probably husband
and let us hope still loyer.too
His bride, If bride she be, is Miss
Down, of New York city.
Jim" Gillian, as his friends familiar
~ call him, is not a rich man, but among
his neighbors he has always been con-
sidered as one who ought to be happy.
It is true that some seven years ago his
good wife died, leaving him with half
q dozen healthy children on his hands.
But he had paying farm of rich land
near Pittsboro, and as his little family
grew up they We're able to render him
great assistance in the cultivation of his
crops.
In due time two of the children mar
tsSob 0ho thC Adi SiS" anu was
not only able to pay his taxes, but to
put aside few dollars here and there
until he has become known as man Of
some wealth.
He loved his children, he loved his
farm, he loved his neighbors. But oft
times, after the days toll, he would
think of the good wife, whose COM
partnership he so sorely missed, and he
would yearn for that love and sympathy
that children or neighbors or fields and
forests cannot give. He needed it to
complete his life, and wondered dimly
would such love ever come again to
him. I
1t was about FIVE months ag, that
there appeared in a matrimonial paper
. personal something after this fash
Ion:
"GENTLEMAN, forty, Of good fami-
~, character, reputation, appearance,
fond of home and its moral influence,
man Of means, desires to correspond with
\ lady about %, medium<size, good look
ing, refined and honorable; view: matri-
mony." 49,
In reply to this several answers came
some well-written, some scarcely legi-
bic; some couched in well-turned phrases,
some ungrammatical and badly spelled.
OF them all, that written by Miss Down,
OF New York, most satisfied Jim Gill
liam's IDEAL and pleased his fancy. He
answered the letter at once. Then an
other came, and another, and another;
and finally there was one with q pho
tograph in it.
1t was the portrait of tall, graceful
woman of twenty-five, perhaps thirty,
with black eyes and hair, and the sug-
gestion of sweet smile about her mouth.
Now the courtship progressed rapidly,
for the man liked the pcture-it became
his ideal, the object of his alteration.
Often, after the days hard toll, he
would come home, take it out and gaze
long upon it. Then he told few of his
intimate friends, and they told others and
the news of the romance went flying on
gossip's lips, until the courtship Of Jim
Gillian was delight tempered with
anxiety to the entire population Of Pitts
borO and the surrounding community.
The sewing societies in the little town
never talked Of anything else, the preach
ers sermon at the country meeting house
was forgotten the minute he finished de-
livering it, in the all-absorbing topic of
this wonderful love-making between
New York city and Chatham county. As
for the men, they perched themselves on
fences or lounged on goods boxes and
speculated as to what Jim Gilliam's
children were going to say about all his
"carrying-on"; and whether an old man
IN love is bigger fool than a young
man.
None of these questions were ever sat
isfactOrily decided, but yesterday about
noon, when Mr.. Gillian and his affianced
drove out from Moncure to his place,
two miles northeast of Pittsboro, it was
almost like some great event in the
country's history. The news had gone
before that they were coming, and every
body tried to see them. Half the people
condemned and half approved them.
Now there were reasons-nice, conven-
tional reasonably these two should
go slowly in this matter Of joining their
destinies for life. Younger heads and
warmer hearts would have acted differ
emily, OF course. They would have said:
II love you, and you love mellow can
anything else matter?
And there would have been a maria &c
on the spot. But in this case the man
Ii 45 and the woman %. The man has
two married children and four others at
nome. their Iurure must De cOnSulteu.
The woman has been reared in city and
perhaps she might not like the country,
and the farm life. Then, again, they
had both fallen in love with pictures,
shadows, and they might not like the
substance so well.
Better settle these little things before
hand" wrote the woman two weeks ago
"Better see one another now, go over the
whole situation and then decide. After
that there can be no heart-burnings, nc
denominations, no charges Of having
been deceived"
As, in case Of marriage, they must live
In North Carolina, on Mr.. Gillam't
farm, he suggested that Miss Downs
come down, look it and it's owner over
and then decide whether or not SHE
would take them for better or worse, fol
life or death.