The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1911-05-18
The Petition Was Granted.

The Petition Was Granted.
Twenty years ago in Alabama
divorced persons could not marry
again without separately obtaining
the leave of the court. This petition
prayed that Judge II. A. Sharpe
would grant the privilege of remar-
rage to an old negro, whose wife had
tired of his company and had secured
divorce. In the divorce decree
Judge Sharpe had granted that privi-
lege to the complaining wife, but not
to the respondent. The old negro,
whose name was Samuel Rice, secured
the services of Jabez B. Parker of
Mobile, then one Of the most eminent
lawyers in the state. He drew up
Rice's petition to the court in the
following form:
lex parte, Samuel Rice. To the
Honorable H. A. Sharpe, judge of
the city court of Birmingham, in
equity: Your petitioner, Samuel
Rice, of Mobile, Ala, would deferen-
TALLY represent that on the 10th day
OF January, in the year of grace 1891,
your honour dissolved the connubial
ties heretofore existing between petit
toner and his consort, Annie Rice,
granting her divorce vinculo matri-
monli, with the beatifc privilege
thereto annexed of marrying again,
privilege, it goes without saying, she
awaited herself of with an alacrity of
spirit and a fastidious levity dis
daining pursuit. On this vital point,
your honour extended to petitioner,
however, only the charity of your
silence. Petitioner has found in his
own experience trustful exemplifca-
tion of Holy Scripture that it is not
we'll for man to be alone, and, seeing
an inviting opportunity to superbly
ameliorate his for]orn condition by a
second nuptial venture, he finds him.
self eircumvallated by an Oss-Pelion
obstacle which your honour alone has
power to remove. His way of life
rapidly verging on the sere and yell
low leaf; the fruits and flowers of love
all going; the worm, the canker, and
the grief in sight, with mono to love
and none to caress him, petitioner
feels an indescribable yearning to
plunge his adventurous prov once
more into the bevexed waters of the
sea of connubiality. Wherefore,
other refuge having none, and wholly
trusting to the tender benignity and
sovereign discretion of your honour,
petitioner humbly prays that in view
OF the accompanying fats of a great
crowd of reputable citizens giving him
a phenomenally good name and fair
name, you will have compassion on
him and relieve him of the mortifying
hymenal disability under which his
existence has become q burden, by
awarding him the like privilege of
marrying again, thus granting him a
happy issue out of the Red Sea trou-
bic, into which pitiless fate has
whelmed him. For comforting as is
the velvety touch of an angels palm
to the fever-racked brow, and sooth-
ing as the strains of an Eolian harp
when swept by the fingers of the night
wind; and, dear as are those rudy
drops which visit these sad hearts of
ours, and swept as sacramento wine
to dying lips, more comforting and
soothing, dearer and sweeter still it
is, when LIES fitful fever is ebbing
to it's close, to pillow ones aching
head on some fond wifely bosom and
breathe ones life out gently there.
And, as in duty bound to attain the
possibility OF comprising such
measureless henediction, petitioner
will pray without ceasing, in accents
loud and earnest as ever issued from
celibatarian lips. Samuel Rice, petit
TONER"
1t scarcely need be added that the
court granted the petition without de-
lay.
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