KinSource - Tale of the Week - Cupid Catches Limpy Joe

KinSource

Minnesota Tales

The St. Paul Globe, May 27, 1904, page 2

CUPID CATCHES LIMPY JOE.

Eliza, the Fortune Teller, Smiles On His Suit
and the Two Are Made One by Judge Finehout

"Eliza, The Fortune Teller," a familiar character on the streets of St. Paul for more than thirty years, was married yesterday afternoon to "Limpy Joe" Gerner, who has been a well known character in the Fifth ward for some fifteen years. The bride's true name is given as Eliza Becker, sixty-eight years old, while the groom is but little past thirty. Judge Finehout performed the marriage ceremony after the adjournment of police court, a dozen court attaches and newspaper reporters being in attendance.

The courtship of the couple, which had its commencement two years ago, when "Limpy Joe" made his first proposal and was turned down, began in earnest two months ago, when Joe won the sympathy of the bride by a hard-luck story. It was after his little home on James street and Pleasant avenue had burned, a fire in which "Limpy Joe" lost everything he possessed. The story appealed to "Eliza, the Fortune Teller," and a week later she promised to become his wife.

Before going to the generous police judge, the couple, possessed of the license, appeared at the office of the clerk of court, where they insisted on either being married gratis or having the $2 paid for the license refunded. Deputy Lamb, of the clerk's office, informed them that they could not secure the refundment of the money, and the woman insisted that he perform the marriage ceremony. While Mr. Lamb was endeavoring to explain that he had no authority to perform such an act the newspaper reporters induced the couple to appeal to Judge Finehout, and ten minutes later they were embracing each other as man and wife.

During the trying ordeal "Limpy Joe" appeared somewhat timid, but the more experienced bride, who had been married thrice before, spoke words of encouragement to him throughout the ceremony, and when it was over, she tickled the abbreviated groom under the chin and led him over to the judge where both were profuse in their thanks. Congratulations and good wishes were showered upon the couple.

Mr. and Mrs. Gerner commence their domestic life at "Limpy Joe's" home, where they will live in a chicken house, which is all that was left by the fire which swept away the groom's wordly possessions.

"This place is all right in warm weather," said the bride, "and when it rains we can live in the barn. As soon as we pay up about $50 that Joe owes, we are going to save enough to rebuild the house."

Woman Has a Past.

"Eliza, the Fortune Teller," as the woman is known, has a romantic past life, having at one time been an opera singer of no mean ability. Born in a pretty little cottage on the Rhine, she was sent to school in Paris, where she has a well-to-do sister, and where she was taught a half dozen different languages, along with art and music.

When eighteen years old she was an unusually pretty girl, and when she ran away from her sister's home in Paris she had no trouble in securing a place as a ballet dancer with an opera company. Later she became one of the leading sopranos of the company and was prosperous for a number of years. It is more than thirty years since she came to St. Paul where she took leading parts in many amateur theatricals at the old Atheneum, then located at Exchange and Sherman streets.

But this part of the woman's life is but a memory of more than twenty-five years ago, for hard luck pursued her, and after burying two husbands and divorcing a third, she was thrown upon her own resources, and drifted into the fortune telling business. For years and years the old woman, with her unkempt gray hairs almost covering her pinched face, has attended picnics and public gatherings, beseeching people to have their fortunes told. In forecasting futures she used a deck of cards, which she always carried in her handbag, and a fee of 50 cents is all she ever asks.

"Limpy Joe" is even a more peculiar character than the woman he married. Although he has lived in St. Paul for fifteen years, little is known of his past life. He never talks to anyone, and for years has lived alone in his little shack on James street, and since that burned he has lived in the house built for his chickens. He has a team and works when he has an opportunity, having been employed for a number of years at irregular intervals by the city.