Matrimonial Agencies’ Advertisements for Rich Wives and Husbands
They Appear in All the Leading Newspapers Throughout the Country.
This is a very select list of ten ladies picked at random from our books by one of the leading newspaper reporters of this city, February 1, 1904:
Minnesota Maiden—30 yrs., 5 ft. 2 in., weight 128 lbs.; brown hair, blue eyes; has $10,500.
Missouri Maiden—28 yrs., 5 ft. 7 in., weight 150 lbs.; blonde, blue eyes, German; has $4,800.
Pennsylvania Maiden—20 yrs., 5 ft. 4 in., weight 132 lbs.; light hair, blue eyes; will inherit $30,000, provided she is married on her 21st birthday.
Wisconsin Widow—49 yrs., 5 ft. 3 in., weight 130 lbs.; black hair, black eyes; no children; worth $15,000. Will marry elderly man.
Indiana Maiden—29 yrs., 5 ft. 4 in., weight 122 lbs.; brown hair, blue eyes; pretty and worth $7,000. Would marry farmer.
Illinois Maiden—21 yrs., 5 ft. 8 in., weight 140 lbs.; chestnut hair, blue eyes; worth $40,000; is a cripple. Will marry kind man who will overlook her misfortune.
New Jersey Widow—28 yrs., 4 ft. 11 in., weight 150 lbs.; brown hair, blue eyes, one child; worth $35,000. Will marry and assist husband financially.
Ohio Farmers Daughter—Orphan, 25 yrs., 5 ft. 7 in.; brown hair, gray eyes; has large farm. Alone, will marry immediately, farmer preferred.
Montana Maiden—Half-breed Indian, age 25, 5 ft. 4 in., 130 lbs.; black hair, black eyes; has large ranch. Will marry honest white man.
Illinois Bachelor Girl—Age 35, 5 ft. 7 in., 160 lbs.; black hair, brown eyes; owns fine estate, valued at thousands. Would marry gentleman of equal wealth.
Pennsylvania
Beautiful maiden lady, refined and well educated; American; blonde, age 37 years, height 5 ft. 4 in., weight 106 pounds; worth $30,000.
Nebraska
Stylish young brunette, fond of society; American; age 28 years, height 5 ft. 3 in., weight 135 pounds; Baptist, and worth $25,000; income $3,000 a year.
Ohio
Stately widow, age 49 years, handsome and remarkably well preserved; height 5 ft. 6 in., weight 160 lbs.; no children; worth $5,000; wants elderly husband.
Kentucky
Beautiful blonde Southern girl, educated and refined; age 21, height 5 ft. 2 in., weight 115 lbs.; American, and worth $10,000; wants nice-looking husband.
Pretty little girl, age 19 years, height 5 ft. 3 in., weight 112 lbs.; American; worth $10,000. Says she is very anxious to marry.
Boston, Mass
Fine-looking lady, age 37 years, height 5 ft. 3 in., weight 140 lbs.; American, Protestant, and worth $20,000.
Young lady, blonde, age 25 years, weight 128 lbs., height 5 ft.; American, Methodist; income $720 a year; worth $25,000.
Chicago, Ill
Maiden, age 26 years, height 5 ft. 4 in., weight 140 lbs.; Scotch, Protestant, Methodist; income $1,200 per year; worth $75,000.
Monroe Co., Pa
Young lady, age 23 years, very pretty, height 5 ft. 5 in., weight 150 lbs.; German, Methodist; worth $12,000.
Dover, N. H.
Stylish, brown-eyed lady, age 24 years, height 5 ft. 6 in., weight 135 pounds; American, Methodist; worth $50,000.
New York City
Young widow, age 32 years, height 5 ft. 5 in., weight 140 lbs.; Irish Catholic; worth $40,000.
Utah
Maiden lady, age not mentioned, height 5 ft., weight 120 lbs.; worth $35,000.
And all this, ridiculous, murderous and otherwise, is all outside the pale of the law. The matrimonial agency is a crime per se. It is a criminal institution. It has been pronounced to be such by the best and foremost judges of the United States, Germany and Great Britain.
Judge Klerbach, sitting in the case of a marriage broker at Goettingen, Germany, in 1903, declared that the marriage broker was a criminal in intent, from the very nature of his business.
In the celebrated case of Alan Murray vs. Jeanie McDonald at Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1898, Justice Grahame pronounced from the judicial seat one of the most scathing arraignments of the marriage bureau ever delivered. “Leeches upon the body social, blood-suckers, destroyers of womanhood, abominations of the bottomless pit,” were some of the phrases used by Justice Grahame in denouncing Murray.
In the petty sessions at Tinahely, Ireland, Justice O’Gorman in May, 1905, is reported in the Wicklow People, a newspaper which has a wide circulation in the South of Ireland, as fiercely denouncing the marriage broker business. The Justice declared that the marriage broker was a wolf, “preying upon the weaknesses of humanity, a pander to the lowest instincts”; that he had no right to demand the interference of the law in his behalf, but rather that the law should always be exercised for the suppression of his nefarious traffic.
Same Thing Nearer Home
To get nearer home. In the Chicago American, February 12, 1903, Judge Neely, in the case of the State vs. Hattie Howard, declared from the bench that to “sell men and women in marriage is the height of crime.” Judge Neely further said:
“Men and women who engage in this business of promoting matrimony for money are guilty of crime. It is opposed to the fundamental principles of society. Such a practice should under no circumstances be tolerated. This practice should be stopped. The trade should be killed. The courts should make it their business to discourage this thing in a way that may be easily understood.”
Judge Kohlsaat, of Chicago, has inveighed against the practice in equally vehement terms. Judge Kohlsaat declares that “the Police Department of Chicago is entitled to great credit for what it has done in discouraging this business. I hope it will continue its vigilance until every promoter of marriages of this character has been compelled to leave the city. They should make such criminals give the city a wide berth.”
There, then, is the law. The business is a crime in its very nature. It leads to bigamy and wholesale murder. It is made the instrument of the thief, the swindler and the murderer. How much longer will the American people look with calmness upon these practices, upon these abominations, which make a stench of the very air of the great and free country in which we live? The answer is up to you.