Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 May 1877 — Results of a Secret Marriage. [ARTICLE]

Results of a Secret Marriage.

A bkcknt cowhldiug scrape, in which a distinguished New York lawyer figures, has for its basis the terrible conseifuences which result from a young and wilful girl having her own way. For a couple of years past a young lady, the only daughter or a very wealthy man, has been a central figure in fashionable New York society. She was very handsome, not twenty years old, and the heiress to a large fortune. Of course, she was courted, flattered, followed. She organized a “ coterie,” of which she was made President. She received tbe attention of titled foreigners, and wa* the envied A her set. But one morning during the past winter the intelligence came like a shock that she was married, had been married a year, and to a worthless young fellow scarcely older than herself—poor, but already a drunkard and a gambler. The marriage ceremony was performed at the Mayor’s office, the infatuated girl having been made to believe that this was only a civil contract, and did not constitute a real marriAge, and that she could disavow it at the end of a year, during which time it was to be kept a profound secret. Before the year expired, however, the husband grew jealous, threatened, and finally claimed her, treating her parents with the most impertinent* rudeness, and, to her horror, the unhappy girl found herself tied for life to a person without ordinary decencv or manhood. Probably a divorce would have been obtained had it not been for the interference of the relatives of the young man (his family is a respectable one), who finally prevailed upon the parents of the girl to extend a sort of sanction to the marriage, w hich they did by issuing invitations to a grand parte, to which 300 guests were invited, of whom only fifty were present. A house was bought and furnished by the father of the bride, and the young people went to housekeeping. The other day the motner called, found that her daughter had been struck and beaten, and was summarily ordered down-stairs and out of the house by the scapegrace son-i D-law, who, mad with drink and rage, himself put her out, and told her never to darken At* doors again. The next day he was cowhided in the street by an indignant nephew of his mother-in-law and cousin of his wife, who is now out on bail. So much for a secret and hasty marriage. —Jennie Jane.