The Agony Column of the "Times" 1800-1870

WITH AN INTRODUCTION
EDITED BY ALICE CLAY
London CHATTO AND WINDUS, PICCADILLY 1881
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLES.
The contents of the little volume now presented to the public have been taken from the second column (commonly called the “Agony Column”) of the Times newspaper, from the commencement of the present century to the end of the year 1870.
Readers of newspapers (more especially of the Times ) cannot fail to be struck by the mysterious communications which daily appear, and I venture to hope my selection of some of the most remarkable may interest those who peruse these pages.
Most of the advertisements selected show a curious phase of life, interesting to an observer of human existence and human eccentricities. They are veiled in an air of mystery, with a view of blinding the general public, but at the same time give a clue unmistakable to those for whom they were intended.
I do not know how this portion of the Times newspaper came to be called the “Agony Column;” but when we read advertisements like the one quoted above, and which is only one in a hundred, I think all my readers will agree that it is an unquestionably appropriate name.
Through our daily walk in life we brush up against millions of fellow-men, yet of how few amongst them do we know anything? We each live in a world of our own; we draw a circle, as it were, around us, within which centre all our interests. How lightly our feelings are touched by what happens outside our circle is shown by the exclamation that escapes our lips as we read a fresh tragedy in the daily papers. The actors in it are unknown to us, and in a moment or two the paper is laid aside with a smile on our lips—the news that blighted many lives forgotten! But if it comes within the charmed circle, how different our feelings!
On the other hand, how very little we know of the inner or deeper life of even those in our own little world. Romances, stranger than fiction, happen under our very eyes, and we do not see them. With hearts that are breaking men and women can go through the duties of every-day life, wearing calm and even smiling faces. He knew human nature well who wrote—