New Orleans Daily Crescent

Courting in Broadway

A very singular wedding, says a New York paper, transpired here this week. A young and very pretty Irish girl, the sister of one of our common council men, was walking up Broadway, New York, when she attracted the attention of an elderly gentleman of large wealth, who had lived all his life a bachelor and an ascetic. Rumor says that he was foiled in an affair du coeur, and carried thenceforth in his breast a heart impenetrable to the sweet influences of the tender passion.

Well, this gentleman on the promenade was attracted by this Irish girl to such a degree that he arrested his steps and ventured to address her:

"Will you pardon the liberty, Miss, if I ask your name?"

The girl timidly surveyed him, and apparently satisfied that not mere curiosity prompted him in the query, and that he was a gentleman, she acceded.

"My name is Mary O'K, sir."

"Dare I ask you another question, Mary—I mean Miss O'K."

"Proceed, sir," she replied, very good humoredly.

"Then I should like to ask you—and you will confer an infinite obligation upon me by answering truly—whether you are engaged in marriage to any one, or whether your feelings are interested in any person."

The question was decidedly a home one, but there was so kind and gentle an expression in the old man's eye, and such an evident earnestness in his tone, that she answered him freely—

"Not in the least, sir."

"Then allow me without any further ceremony, to place my card in your hand and with it the offer of myself and fortune. Commission any friend you please to make whatever inquiries concerning me you may deem proper, and let me know your determination to-morrow."

The girl, overwhelmed with surprise, deposited the slip of pasteboard in the reticule and passed on. On Wednesday afternoon her brother called at the hotel where her admirer resided, and informed him that Mary had concluded to accept him. They were married the same evening at the residence of the bride's mother, and the old gentleman settled on her one hundred thousand dollars on the spot.

This gentleman—he would not like me to give you his name—has held a great many public offices in his time; was formerly a Major in the United States Army, and afterwards Assistant Indian Commissioner. His real estate in this city is worth more than two hundred thousand dollars.

Mary and the Major started the next morning for New Orleans, where the latter has a brother who is a sort of pecuniary nabob in that city.