The Welcome back, everyone to one thousand one classic short stories and tales. This is your host, John Haggardorn.

Today, a Christmas Eve suit by Edward Payson Row.

Edward Payson Row was an American novelist born in New York who studied at Amherst, then

theological seminary to become a Presbyterian pastor.

In 1874, he moved to Cornwall on Hudson to write fiction and practice horticulture.

His stories were very popular with the American and English middle class

with themes of strong, moral, and religious purpose.

During the American Civil War, he wrote for the New York Evangelist and lectured in the war.

If you recall the story, Susie Raleff's Christmas,

that was also written by Edward Payson Row. So we have some good

Christmas stories out there. A Christmas Eve suit was published in Edward Payson Row's

Taken Alive in other stories in 1902. This is a great story for the holidays at a mischievous pun about

which kind of suit the title refers.

It's about a young, almost constitutional lawyer who considers his prospects to woo the best woman to be his bride.

Falling helplessly in love with one girl simplifies matters.

But, indeed, he was level-headed enough to believe that he would never capture any such

girl.

He invites two sovereign potentates for a sleigh-ride to determine the better match.

An icebreaker aids in his decision. But can he win this suit? The Christmas holidays had come,

and with them a welcome vacation for Headley Marston. Although as yet a briefless young lawyer,

he had a case in hand which absorbed many of his thoughts, the conflicting claims of two young women

in his native village on the Hudson. It must not be imagined that the young women were pressing

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