Jasper Banner, Volume 2, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 May 1855 — Marriage Under Difficulties. [ARTICLE]

Marriage Under Difficulties.

A few days since I was present at a marriage which had something about it so new and romantic, that I am tempted to give you a short description. For a day and nighture ueeding the appointment, there had been an incessant fall of rain, which added to the deep enow in the mourltains, causd* a rapid rise of water. Parson 8.,0f Bath county, had been invited to perform the ceremony.— Anticipating difficulty—and.perhaps, remembering defeat in days of yore, he set out from home early in the morning, with the hope of passing the water courses before they were too full. Vain hope! When he reached the neighborhood, he was told that the river was swollen beyond the possibility of crossing with any safety. It is often hard td start <a wedding, but when started, it is a great deal harder to stop it. The parson having secured the company of a friend in the neighborhood, determined to make every effort for accomplish his mission, and if there must be a failure, let it be after a fair trial. By a circuitous route, he and his companion succeeded in reaching the bank of the river opposite to and only a few hundred yards distant front the house. A loud halloo soon brought the wedding party to a parley on the bank of the river. The whole difficulty was before them; the parson could not advance a step further without swimming a dangerous mountain torrent, covered with huge sheets of floating ice. But “where there is a will there is away,” though there be neither bridge nor boat. It was proposed that the parson should many them across the rolling flood. This proposition was acceded to. Yet the parson declared that it behdoved them to act lawfully, and insisted on his warrant being transmited to his hands. Happily for us in this free country, the law does not prescribe how this is to be accomplished; neither dbes it state» at what distance the officiating officer shall stand. In this case the license was bound close round a stone of suitable size, and the whole being wrapped with thread so as to. make it tight and compact, was thrown across the river. The feat of throwing it was performed by the bridegroom, while his young bride was standing by him. — And it was a throw with a hearty good will. That man knew he was throwing for a wife, and the only question with him was, vj’ifr, or no wife. There stood the anxious group —what suspense! it might miscarry —it might be turned by some overlianging limb, and and find a watery grave! -W*th =s w k powert^'iwriftg the arm it started, and I had learned long before that “whatever goes up must comedown,” but I felt some misgivings as to where the come-down might be in this case. The moment of suspense was soon over. The missile, freighted with a document so important, sped its way through the air in a most beautiful arch, high over the wide waters, and a shout of triumph, announced its fall upon terra firma. To unwrap and read was the work of a moment. The parties were already arranged, with joined hands, and Parson B„ with uncovered head, stood as gracefully and as lightly, too, as he eould upon a quicksand at the edge of the river; and with voice distinctly heard above - the roar of the waters, the marriage was consumated. Well pleased at so favorable a termination of what a little beforehand been a forlorn hope, the groups on either bank took off their several ways Whatever else I may forget, I never can forget that throw.—-Slauntoa ( Fa.> Spectator. , DCr’The Boston Telegraph, alludIhg to the suppression by the public prints of the name of a “highly respectable merchant” in new York, who got into trouble in a house of ill fame, says: “Respectability” was long ago defined in England as “keeping a gig?’ High respectability, it seems, consists in being robbed of $2,500 m a house of prostitution. fICTTn Sullivan coiinty, 0.,0ne OjT the candidates for county clerk was pledged to give one-half of the proceeds of the office to ,foe widow of the late clerk; and the othcr.promised in ! foe event of. his- election to marry the widow.