Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 November 1875 — Married in the Snow. [ARTICLE]

Married in the Snow.

A writer tells a story of a runaway couple who reached the parson’s -house in the dead of niriit, when the snow lay on the ground anti the winds howled an anthem for the wedding march. They succeeded in arousing the parson, who had been snugly tucked in his warm bed for several' hours. The good man reluctantly raised the window and asked “ who was there ?’ ’ With chattering teeth the would-be bridegroom announced his errand. Not even the piety of the parson prevented his uttering a few impatient growls at this unseasonable intemiption of his dreams. He did not tarry to put on the wedding or any other garment, but in thundering tones ordered the shivering couple to stand well off in the moonlight and clasp hands. Then he demanded theirnames. “John Williams he said, ‘ 1 doyou swear in the presence of God, as you will answer in the day of judgment, that you will take Eliza Catherine to lie your own, your true and holy wife, and that you will freeze to her so long you both shall live?” The promise was given, but the coid was growing so intense that the lady was . spared the question that had been given to and answered by the man. “ I pronounce you. man and wife and the biggest fools I have ever met,” concluded this brief and all-suffi-cient ceremony. The banging of the closing window intimated to the loving pair that they had nothing more to expect from that quarter, and they soon disappeared, wondering at the strangeness of the situation and doubtful if they were as much married as they might have been under more favorable circumstances.