Show BILL AS A JUSTICE an account of a remarkable maraffa ceremony Cere mouy tn a wild connary Con I 1 forgot to say that the office of justice of the peace was not a salaried one but dependent upon fees the county cumish ing only the copy of the revised statutes and a woolsack slightly and prematurely bald so while I 1 was called judge nye and frequently mentioned in the papers with great consideration I 1 was out of coal about half the time and once could not mail my letters for three weeks because I 1 did not have the necessary postage friends in the eastern states may possibly recall the time when my correspondence spon dence from some unknown cause seemed to flag that was the time of course I 1 could have borrowed tho money but I 1 had and still have a foolish horror of borrowing money I 1 did not mind running an account but I 1 hated to borrow the first business that I 1 had was a marriage ceremony I 1 met tha groom on the street he asked me if I 1 could marry people I 1 said that I 1 could to a limited extent he said that he wanted to get married I 1 asked him to secure the victim and I 1 would get the other ingredients he then wished to know where my office was it occurred to me at that that there was no fire in the stove also no coal also that the west half of the stove had fallen in during the night so I 1 said that I 1 would marry them at their home ha maintained that his home was over eighty miles away and that it would consume too much time to go there where are you stopping at I 1 inquired using the pike county style of syntax in order to show that I 1 wib one of the people well we met hero squire she come in on the last chance stage and fm camped up in govoent Gov ment canyon not fur from soldier crick we can go out there I 1 reckon I 1 did not mind the rido so I 1 locked my office secured a book of forms and meeting the young people at the livery stable went out with them and married them in a rambling desultory sort of way the bride was a peri from owl creek moccasins of the pliocene ago the rich castilian blood of the cave dwellers mantled in her cheek along with the navy bine blood of connecticut on her fathers side her hair was like the wing of a raven and she wore a tiara of clam shells about her beetling brow eer bracelet was a costly string of front selected from tho early settlers at the foot of independence mountain with the shrewdness of a yankee and the hauteur of the savage she combined the grotesque grammar of pike county and the charming of the cow puncher she was called beautiful snow but I 1 think it was mostly in a spirit of banter she was also no longer I 1 asked her with an air of badinage if she remembered remember od pizarro but bhe replied that she was away from home when he came through the cave dwellers were a serious people their plumbing was very poor indeed BO also were their jokes her features were rather classic however and I 1 was about to eay clean out ant on more mature thought I 1 will not say that her nose waa bright and piercing it resembled tho breastbone of a sandhill crane the groom was a man of great courage and held human life at a very low figure that is why he married beautiful snow without any flinching also why I 1 have refrained from mentioning bis name also why I 1 kissed the bride I 1 did not yearn to kiss her there were others who had claims on me bet I 1 did not wish to give needless pain to the groom and so I 1 did it he had no money but eaid that he bad 4 addle which if I 1 could use I 1 was welcome to I 1 did not have anything to put tha saddle on at home ant rather than return empty handed I 1 took it bill nye in century |