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Misc Stories BY EPHRAIM S. WILLIAMS
The official being green in office, was not in his own mind positive that the fellow "was not right. But what sort of a paper to make him next puzzled his brain. He had no idea what the law required in the way of examination of the applicant, but proceeded thus:
"What is your name?"
"Joseph Streight. "
"Your age?"
"Seventeen. "
"The woman's name?"
"Betsey Bates. "
"Age?"
"Thirty seven. "
"When is the wedding to take place?"
"Next Sunday. "
"Well, I will make out the paper and leave it at the post-office for you Saturday. I must look at the law. "
"All right, " he says, "only be sure to do it. "
The writer had a neighbor friend, who had been a justice of the peace; a comical fellow, who pretended to know more than he really did, but I went lo him for counsel. Said I, "Is a man required to have a license from the
town clerk to get married?" He believed there was such a law but did not think people paid much attention to it. "Well, " I said, "a party has applied and insisted on having one and I don't know the first word of a form or what
the law requires. "
"(), " said he, "never mind that. You know that, here in the woods, if we want a thing and haven't got it we make it, and I'll help you make the
thing. "
After a good deal of racking of brains and waste of ink and paper the following comical document came forth, written in bold hand, covering a whole page of foolscap. (It was arranged that I should write what my friend dictated):
Michigan
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