An Agnostic Marriage

1901

First Ceremony of Its Kind Performed in Cincinnati.

The much heralded marriage of agnostics, declared to be the first marriage of the kind to be celebrated, took place the other day in College hall, Young Men's Mercantile Library building, in Walnut street, when Frederick Federle, employed in a very modest capacity by the Pittsburg Coal company, and Miss Martha Seaman were married according to the pledges and rites prescribed by the new agnostic society of Cincinnati, of which Charles S. Sparks is the head.

At the conclusion of the agnostic Sunday school services the couple were made man and wife on the stage of the hall, which was decorated with the American colors and mottoes of the society, says the New York Times. Mr. Sparks acted as master of ceremonies. Mr. Federle and Miss Seaman repeated the pledges after Sparks, and acquiesced in them by spoken words and by nods. The voluminous pledges were in effect that they be frugal in habits, that the man at once insure his life for the benefit of the woman, that they avoid wrangling, and if they found in time they were not "mated" that they separate. The woman also repeated the words: "I will not bring children into the world not born of affection." Both promised to rear their children, should children be born, in the agnostic faith and after the teachings at the agnostic Sunday school.

Magistrate Alexander Roebling took the couple after they had taken the agnostic pledges and completed the ceremony, according to the civil law requirements as administered by magistrates. The magistrate, however, according to instructions from Mr. Sparks, did not use the word "obey" in his form of ceremony. After the magistrate Mr. Sparks again stepped to the front and in loud tones declared, "These who have thus bound themselves together in a marriage contract let no man or woman put asunder, or seek so to do under pain and penalties of dishonor and of the law."

Took Ghost's Word for It

Took Ghost's Word for It

1914

New York Woman Declares Father's Spirit Told Her That Friend Had Purloined Ring

Through the proxy of Mrs. Ida Shapiero of Brooklyn, the ghost of her father appeared as a witness before Magistrate Miller in the New Jersey Avenue police court of that borough, alleging that Mrs. Clara Steiner, who occupies an apartment on the same floor with Mrs. Shapiero, had stolen a $150 ring belonging to her.

Mrs. Shapiero charged that Mrs. Steiner had visited her on July 3 and was upward of an hour in her bedoom, which Mrs. Shapiero had occasion to leave once or twice. In a drawer of the dresser reposed the ring. On July 4, when Mrs. Shapiero missed her ring she went looking for Mrs. Steiner, and learned she had gone to Paterson, N. J.

"But sure as I am here, your honor," said Mrs. Shapiero, "the figure of my departed father appeared to me. I could see him as plainly as you yourself sitting before me. He spoke slowly. He said: 'Mrs. Steiner has your ring. She took it from a drawer in your dressing table. Take her into court and recover your property.' "

Whether Magistrate Miller pinned faith in the evidence of the astral father of Mrs. Shapiero or was unsatisfied with the answers made by Mrs. Steiner, who, among other things, declared most earnestly she did not steal the ring, does not appear as a matter of record, but he held her in $500 bail for the grand jury.


Mayor's Pleasant Duty

A pretty ceremony took place at Newcastle, England, recently, when the customs of "Barge Day" were observed, and the mayor and corporation sailed up the river to "claim the soil" of the Tyne. The great moment of the ceremony is the landing, when the mayor has the delightful, if invidious, privilege of selecting any young lady he pleases from the assembled crowd and giving her a kiss and a sovereign. The sheriffs also choose a fair lady on whom to bestow a kiss and a gift, and the mayoress is expected to make some useful present to the damsel kissed by his worship.