DN25

 Ruth, the Bible, & A Marriage Certificate

June 10, 1946, 10 o'clock

I went out Saturday morning to see Alonzo about doing some things for Clara and trying to get him into the printing business with her so that he could forget the girl that Sister claim is pulling him down. There was a terrible scene at the shop where Sister came in crying and threatening to brain Alonzo with her slipper heel. This was on Saturday. I talked to her and to him and sent her back home, wiping her eyes and still threatening to kill Alonzo.

I talked to Alonzo and then called up Clara and made a date to see her in town. I saw that everything seemed so messed up all around. I had just received a poem from Vi, and that let me down no end. (No it was Saturday morning while Ruth was here sneaking her things out that I went to Sister's and received the poem from Vi.) Anyway, I saw Clara, went down to her home after eating at the restaurant, and then later we went to the shop. I came away and brought some printing with me that I was trying to get Alonzo interested in.

Saturday morning I went out to see Alonzo, as I have said and got back to find that Ruth had taken her things. I went down town to see her. She was not at the place of her father's nor at her Nanan's. I went there for the first time and sat down and waited for about two or three hours and she never showed up. I left a message for her to phone me at Sister's, but after waiting there sometime left home without getting any call. 

I came back here and found that she had left two suitcases and a few other things. I have no reason to advance for her doing this, except that she is more off than I think. So I am packing up her things today -- in fact, everything that might remind me of her, and am going to either ask that she come and get them or else take them to her.

Among the things that I am discarding . . . is that old calendar (Jax) with the three long-eared puppies on it. It is a gaudy thing that was given to me by Ruth -- her first and almost her only present to me -- it is. She told Grace that since I like dogs she was giving me that calendar. I have kept it hanging in the kitchen for all of these years . . . I kept it there to remind me of what a fool I have been, and yet when she came back with . . . about having changed, and being sorry, I took her back . . . . it is no use to keep anything to remind me what a fool I am. I am packing it up with her other things and sending it to her.

I have found her Bible in which is enclosed our marriage  license . . . . Studying the calendar and the marriage certificate, I find that we were married on March 15, 1943, and that it is recorded in Book N. 58, folio 908. The number of the the certificate is No. 2802. The calendar says that this was a Monday. Ruth was then at the high, normal point. All that had been had happened on the latter part of the last month and the quarrel at home had forced her still more securely into my arms. We had quarreled about his time -- must have been the first or so, and I had asked her to release me from the affair. She had promised to do better. I warned her again, but agreed to go through with the marriage.

In the Family Register, on p. 753 she has inscribed our marriage in a steady, sure hand. The handwriting seems very certain where it is going. There is no hesitation. The letters seem to walk forward in their desire to get ahead. There are flourishes at the ending of words. Everything is there, when, where, and by whom we were married.

On the second to the last flyleaf of the book is the list of names, with the caption "Names I Like." Among the fifteen men's name, mine is sixth. Ian and Joel are first. There are unusual names like Valjean, Coidoivic, Henried, and Duval. Among the eight girl's names are Bonne, Anathiste, Athenaire, Thais, Roselyn, and Joycelin. The writing is in pencil. 

There is a cheap bookmark, advertising a Chicago evangelist, placed on the second chapter of Genesis where God creates a wife for Adam. It continues to the expulsion and a good part of where Cain kills Abel. The story is beautifully told. On the title page of the book is the filled in portion, saying that it was presented to Ruth by her mother.  

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