We have no wedding obituary to give the reader this week. The matrimonial fever is over, and, alas! We are done eating wedding cake for the present. Well, we have had our share of it. Those who have entered the matrimonial state, we now relegate to the pleasures of married life, until another episode shall occur to disturb our equilibrium.

That the Chronicle has been in demand for the last two weeks is a noteworthy fact. It has been borrowed, or taken from places of business, without […], just to see the news or to send to friends. The Chronicle can be had for one dollar a year, payable in advance, by sending to the office at Milford or D. A. C. will take your order for it. In it you will get the Milton news succinctly and truthfully, and not a pack of lies that the Philadelphia papers are in the habit of giving from this town, and from Sussex County.

A business man, who has as much right to be on the street as anyone else, tells us that in passing the business place of one of our fashionable milliners, the other evening, he saw that personage escort a lady out into the porch and bring out a “merry widow” hat to try on. In canting the hat to get it through the doorway, he got a glimpse of the lady’s face, or, he said, he should not have known her.[i]

There has been a great deal of needed work done on Atlantic Street near Parker’s Bridge. This is generally a bad piece of road and needs considerable work to keep it in repair.

Robert Walls removed, last week, from Stevensonville to the property of John Wilson on Mill Street.

The Bishop of the Diocese of Harrisburg will visit Milton on the 19^th of this month and will hold Confirmation Services at 7:45 p. m.

Goodwin Brothers & Conwell shipped canned tomatoes again last week.

A young man of Milton, a theological student at Dover Conference Academy, came home on Friday evening and was baptized by immersion, on Saturday, in the water of the Broadkiln (boat capsized). Whether his friends will consider that he has apostasized the faith of the M. E. Church deponent sayeth not.

It may not be generally known by the people throughout the State that a part of the streets of Milton are macadamized and our people are justly proud of their neat and clean appearance. Last week, someone we do not know whom, was hauling a substance we call manure, but which was, really, nothing but partly decomposed corn stalks, besmeared with ordure. The wagon was overloaded, and a part of the prettiest street in town (Federal) was strewn with this material that jostled from the wagon. Such work as this is a nuisance and a misdemeanor and the perpetrators should be attended to by the town authorities.

The property of the late Joseph E. Lank was sold by his son, J. M. Lank, on Saturday afternoon in front of the S. T. T. & S. D. Co. Bank. The house and lot on Atlantic Street was bid off to Captain G. B. Hunter for $1000. A lot containing one-half acre was bought by S. J. Wilson for $126.25.

We see it stated there will be no keiffer pears in many localities. The trees in the orchard of W. H. Chandler have plenty on them now.

An electric wire by being chafed by the limb of a tree on Chestnut Street set fire to the three early on Thursday evening but was soon extinguished. The fuses were burned out and for over an hour the town was unlighted.

Charles H. Atkins, Jr., and a friend from the Dover Conference Academy, both theological students, came to town the latter part of last week and on Sunday morning assisted the Rev. McGilton in the services at the M. E. Church. In the afternoon the young men conducted the services at Zion, while the Rev. McGilton officiated at a funeral in town. They returned to Dover on Monday.

Rev. A. C. McGilton is in attendance this week at the Methodist General Conference in Baltimore.

Prof. Brooks held an examination for teachers in the Public School Building on Saturday, at which there were seventeen candidates.

Mrs. Joseph Walls and Mrs. Fred Jensen are both sick with the measles. There are, also, one or two children affected.

The Milton colored school closed on Friday.

A petition is in circulation to present to one of the Senators, to lay before Congress, presumably with many others, asking that body to enact a law prohibiting the shipment of liquor from “wet” districts to “dry” ones.

Steamer Marie Thomas is about completed. The boat is well fitted for the transportation of passengers and freight and will be a great convenience to Milton. There is no running schedule yet. It is understood, however, that she will load with pine wood this week for Philadelphia. Thomas Chase will be her captain, Oliver Hazzard her engineer and the remainder of the crew will also be from Milton.

Portia E. Jefferson, daughter of Nathaniel Jefferson, died at the residence of her sister Mrs. Joseph Brittingham, near town, on Tuesday morning of gangrene, aged 14 years, 8 months and 3 days.[ii] Funeral services were held at the M. P. Church in Milton on Thursday by the Rev. G. R. McCready and interment made in Reynold’s Churchyard by S. J. Wilson & Son.

Comfort Jane Heavelow, a highly respected and well-to-do colored woman, died at her home in Milton on Monday evening, aged about 64 years. The funeral was held in the A. M. E. Church on Thursday afternoon by the Rev. Hill and interment made in the A. M. E. Cemetery near town by J. R. Atkins.

Sallie G. Davidson died at the home of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. P. Davidson, on Thursday of last week, aged 28 years, 3 months and 8 days.[iii] Funeral services were held at her late home on Sunday by Rev. A. C. McGilton and Rev. G. R. McCready and interment was made in the M. E. Cemetery by S. J. Wilson & Son. There were six young ladies who acted as pall bearers; each were dressed alike, wearing white skirts, black hats and jackets and white gloves, each bearing in their hands wreaths of flowers. The sympathy of the entire community is with the bereaved parents of the deceased.

Captain James M. Darby died suddenly in his yard last Saturday morning of what was diagnosed, “enlargement of the heart.” The deceased appeared to be in his usual health on that morning, as was downtown but a short time before his death. Funeral services were held at his late home on Tuesday afternoon by the Rev. G. R. McCready and sepulture made in the M. E. Cemetery by S. J. Wilson & Son, Captain Darby was 71 years, 9 months and 15 days old, and leaves to survive him four sons: Ephraim Darby and Captain Charles E. Darby, the latter of the firm of Darby & Carey, of Milton; James P. Darby, coal operator, of Philadelphia, and Captain Lucius C. Darby, of Camden, N. J. Captain Darby was, perhaps, the oldest licensed steamboat pilot from Philadelphia. He was in active service with the American Dredging Company for thirty-five years. For twenty-one years he was on one boat especially fitted out for him. After the death of his wife which occurred six years ago, he quit the pilot business, giving up his position on this boat to his son, Lucius, who now has charge of it. Captain Darby’s license as a pilot extends back forty years. The familiar figure of the deceased will be missed on the streets of Milton. He has gone to that bourne to which we are all tending, and as sensible people know, are transit is inevitable.

During the funeral service on Sunday afternoon a lady fainted and was carried out into the open air, where she soon recovered and went to her home.

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[i] The “Merry Widow” hat craze began in 1907. A hat made for the English theater star Lily Elsie as part of the costuming for her role in the operetta Die lustige Witwe attracted a great deal of attention after the show became a hit. The hat was broad, wide-brimmed, covered with filmy chiffon and festooned with piles of feathers.

[ii] There is a discrepancy in what Conner reports in the Milton News letter and what is listed in the register as the cause of her death; the latter says “consumption.”

[iii] Cause of death was consumption. Her occupation was listed as operator, which probably meant she operated a machine at the Douglass & White Shirt and Overall Factory.