About four years ago there arrived at Grand Rapids, Michigan an emigrant from Friesland, Holland A few months later he settled himself at Coopersville. As a bachelor he formed the acquaintance of a virtuous maid-servant by the name of Grietje Kuipers. He did his utmost to ingratiate himself in her favor, and to prove more forcibly his sincerity in desiring to obtain her hand, he showed her a letter which announced the death of his father, so that, as he assured her, he should now come into possession of a large farm and three vessels belonging to the estate. Although Friesland is a long distance off from America, some of our citizens, born there, keep up a correspondence with that Dutch province. Some Dutch women in their letters to the Fatherland alluded to the good fortune the servant-girl would soon enjoy. But it did not take very long before a report began to circulate in Coopersville that "Sip," the name under which the young man was known in his native city, had no right to be making love in America, as he had a wife living in Friesland, and that the letter which made him out a rich heir was a fabrication without the least foundation. This rumor at last reached Grietje, who spoke of it to her lover, who declared it a malicious report, fabricated only to injure the prospects of the girl. The young woman was by no means indifferent to the addresses of her lover, and certainly desirous of becoming the wife of a rich farmer, a chance that did not occur every day; but although having great confidence in her intended, she could not deny having heard the report of his first marriage from more than one source. At last she and her mother consulted the Vice-Consul of the Netherlands, Mr. Steketee, and he immediately wrote to the Burgomaster of Wonserudeel, who stated in reply that the young man in question could be no other than Sipke Hessels Westerbaan, a baker, whose father was formerly a man in good circumstances, but was now very poor mostly, through the villainy of this very son. The name of his wife was Antje Harkes, who was now living with her parents. Grietje the daughter of a former school-principal in another part of Holland, has thus had her dream of becoming the wife of a rich farmer shattered, but has also escaped the fate of a bigamist's victim .
