Year: 1873

In 1858 the owner Of thrifty little farm
in the luxuriant region of Kentucky, known
as the blue grass country, was comely widow
whose bereaved condition had tempted more
than one matrimonial pretender to offer futile
suit for the succession It was belieYed, in
deed, by the neighbors that she had deter
mined to accept no second liegelord; but one
day, in the autumn Of the year mentioned, a
dusty wayfarer on the public highway lead
ing throug gh the farm, thought he detected a
less selfish disposition in the hospitable lady
of the grange. A stranger in the place, paus'
ing at her doorway to ask for drink of wa
ter, this astute individual was asked to enter
and take temporary rest; and so ingratiated
himself by his deferential manner that the
kind hearted widow did not hesitate to give
an affirmative answer to his request for per-
mission to call again. He was respectable
educated Irishman of the better class, travel
ing in quest of some farm superintendency, and
resolved at once to remain in the neighbor-
hood for while. His second call was fol-
lowed by third, and that by another. In
short, before the neighbors had fairly exhaus-
ted their stock of wonder at the strange &C.
quaintance, they were informed that the wild
ow and the late wayfarer were engaged to be
married


When the wedding took place it was fur
ther scandal to the gossips that, as the bride
was Baptist and the bridegroom Roman
Catholic, and each firm in their respective
faiths, there were two ceremonies; one in the
Protestant and one in the Catholic church.
Unpopular as the match was in any light, this
doubling of the bond was regarded as ominous,
and public sentiment predicted that no good
would come it. Sure enough, after while
the Irish husband suddenly disappeared from
Kentucky, wrote briefly to his wife from this
city that he had been abruptly summoned to
Europe on business requiring immediate at
tention, and setsail on the day upon which his
strange letter was dated. The next news for the
deserted lady was report of the loss of his ves-
sci at sea with all on board and as FIVE or six
years past away without contrary intelligence
from him or anybody else, the widow discarded
herrobes of mourning and gave her still desira.
BILE hand to third husband. But, as the rea-
der had probably suspected, the Celtic rover
was not dead. Two or three years after the
remarriage of the lady of the grange the lat
ter learned, to her dismay, that he survived
the peril Of the sea somewhere abroad, but
would not disturb her by returning to this
country, and counseled her to make her pres
ent social status good by obtaining divorce
from him,


At once Withdrawing from wedlock, the
Mortified woman did procure divorce after
which she and her last husband were re.mar-
ried. Thus twice welded to two successive
lords the lady should have been matrimonial
ly settled in life at last. It seemed, however,
that the story was not yet ended. In 1861
she was once more a widow, and the eccentric
gentleman in Ireland, hearing of it, crossed
the sea once more upon another visit to Ken
lucky. Once more he appeared at the door
of the farm house as dusty, thirsty wayfarer,
was recognized by the same hospitable hos.
TESS and, in very penitent fashion, renewed
his old suit. Unspeakable was the fresh scan-
dal of the neighbors when they heard that the
pair were to be married for the third time !;
but, for all that, the wedding took place !;
though only in the Protestant form on this
occasion, as the bridegroom had renounced
his Catholicism and the union has been ex-
emplary in its harmony and happiness ever
since. The story is given to the Clarksville
(Mo.) Sentinel by former elder of the Bap.
tist congregation in which the three.married
husband and wife are now Jealous communi-
cants, and he thinks its illustration Of the plu-
ralities of matrimouy possible within the stat
ute. and canon laws as more curious, if not
more romantic than the average invention Of
the novelist.