The Savannah morning news., 1904-03-12

4 S11NAE1, mASO.
little suspecting that the plaintiff
would take hand at counting in the
presence of judge and jury.
The defendant afterward went on
voyage, and while on the sea he in
dited ELUSIVE love letters to the plain
tiff, telling her how constantly he
thought of her while asleep, touching
ly adding: while l am tossed to and
fro on this wide ocean love thee
STILL
Yet, Notwithstanding all this, the
mad lover broke off the engagement.
The plaintiffs counting" was fully as
successful as had been that of the de-
PENDANT, for she recovered a judgment
for 800.
Merely NeighbOrIy Visits.
In a Vermont case the plaintiff and
defendant were neighbors and the de-
PENDANT paid neighborly visits to the
plaintiffs family. 1t was shown that
these visits were at first to the entire
family and that they were gradually
narrowed until they were confined to
the plaintiff alone. This fact, together
with the proof that during the periods
of the defendants visits lights were
frequently seen burning in the parlor
some other circumstances led the jury
to find for the plaintiff.
A very cruel case occurred in Michi-
gan. A man. who, strange to relate,
. bore the name of Constant. while en-
gagged in counting had his financial eye
open and borrowed money from the
lady. On his last visit to her he re-
newed his notes for one and two years
and then went off and married the
81 i L -1l
proper to allow proof of this money
transaction, holding that IAN engage
ment broken off suddenly and without
warning would very naturally create
more pain and modification than if
ended under any other circumstances,
and If a jury We're to regard this con-
duct concerning money matters as cal
culated under the circumstances to
have caused additional grounds of pain
or grievance to the defendant in error,
we think they would not be violating
ordinary proba bilties."
Queer Evidence of Consent.
Where the defendant asked the hand
of the lady in the presence of the lat
ters mother, who consented, and the
lady said nothing, and the defendant
thereupon gently took the hand of the
mott + and touchingly said Hence
forth consider me as your son." 1t was
held sufficient proof of the lady's con-
sent, and in a New York case the lady
was permitted to show that she had
procured a wedding dress and had
gone so far as to get a wedding cake
as showing her acceptance, while in
Iowa the plaintiff was allowed to prove
in support of her acceptance that she
was making preparation for her mar
riage piecing quilts and doing fancy
work, and that when she heard of
defendants marriage she hated it aw-
full bad.
While the law makes it easy to
prove a proposal by the gentleman and
equally easy to show that the lady ac-
copied, when it comes to evidence
showing a release on the part of the
lady then the proof must be strong to
sustain the defense. In one case a
bachelor of SO had been paying his re-
spects to a maiden of 40 summers for
the unlucky period of thirteen years.
During all this time she declared to
others that she would never marry
him and spoke of him in terms of de-
rision and contempt. After thirteen
years of counting the bachelor sum-
moned sufficient courage to propose
and was promptly accepted. After
the engagement he heard of the dou-
ble-dealings of the maid and refused
to marry her. The court held that it
was no defense to the action, although
it might go in mitigation of damages.
Judgment Despite Hatred.
In a Pennsylvania case the lady
wrote the defendant a letter in which
she said: II don't want you, for l
know that I would have a devils life
of it, If you were any kind of a gen.
tleman you would not act as you have
/ pray night and day that you may
never prosper in this world I Just
pray for every hair in your head to
come out" And yet she recovered a
judgment for $4,000.
In looking beneath the surface for
the reason for this verdict it is quite
evident that the jury believed that the
lady was goaded to desperation by the
attentions of. her fiance to her rival and
that she did not in fact mean to say
that she did not want to marry him
and did not really desire that he lose
all his hair, Cor in her letter she says
cruelty of her rival: "Well. if 1 am
poor l do not wear the one hat for five
or six years. like she does. and turn
it hind part before, like she does
Under the weight of authority, then,
If party does not want to find him
self, in the eyes of the law, an engaged
man, he must look we'll to his daily
walk and conversation, for if he has so
conducted himself as to be estopped
from denying the engagement he will
have a difficult problem to convince a
judge and jury that the lady has duly
released him.