Should She Have Left Him? — page 280: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

A SIMPLE SOLUTION. 267 ing, ‘‘when you made the statement to me of this most extraordinary case, the idea occurred to me that there was a short cut to the settlement of Mr. and Mrs. Trescotte’s marital troubles, doing away with the necessity of resorting to the assump- tion of a common law marriage. After thinking it over, I sent for this ex-magistrate, Ebert,and ques- tioned him. The facts were as you had stated them. He was bitter against Adams. He thought Adams wanted freedom, and that having informed Adams that he never had been married he should have received payment for his information, which he never had. Working upon this feeling, I drew a bill, confirming and legalizing all of Ebert’s acts as a magistrate for the seven days after his removal, and sent Ebert to Albany to secure its passage. His acts were few, but among them was the mar- riage of Mr. and Mrs. Adams. The bill has, after the usual delay, become a law. You hold in your hand a duly certified copy of it. The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Trescotte is therefore as valid as the rites of the church and an act of the legislature can make it, and no doubt rests upon the Adams mar- riage. I have paid Ebert twenty-five hundred dollars for his consent to this act and his services in its passage.” | “And shall be reimbursed before I leave. your office,” cried the delighted Magrane, marveling at the simplicity of the solution of Mr. and Mrs. Tres. cotte’s difficulties. Joyfully he took the law to his clients and exe GOMMGIOO cS (GO)