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:

Can a Man or Woman Know Each Other Before Marriage?

BEFORE.

"When he was wooing her, Romeo devoted his time to thinking of delicate little attentions that he could pay Juliet, and of things he could do to make her happy."

AFTER.

On Christmas he is liable to shove a dollar or two at his wife, remarking: "Get yourself something. I don't know what you want, and I haven't time to fool with it."

"ONE HOUR OF IT IS WORTH LIVIN' FOR AN' DYIN' FOR."

"AN' DAT WOMEN'S CLUBS IS DE CAUSE OF ALL DE PO' LITTLE NEGLECTED CHILLEN."

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.

[THE GREAT MISTAKE.]
OUR PENAL SYSTEM IS A RELIC OF EARLY SAVAGERY.

Our whole penal system needs changing. It is a relic of barbarism, and stands a monument to the early savagery of the human race.

How is it possible for a man or woman to lead an upright, useful life after they once come under the ban of the law? Society combines to hound them down. They are forbidden to place themselves on an equality with others by narrow, human prejudice—the "holier than thou" attitude of that portion of the public which has not yet been "found guilty."

We are Pharisees, all, and sit in judgment on our fellowman, because we do not yet realize the mixture of evil and good that is in every man—none are exempt—only some are caught and punished.

Men have come to us, desperate, despairing men, crying: "For God's sake, what are we to do? If we get a job someone will tell our employers we have 'done time,' and we are fired. If they find us on the street, we're arrested. Where can we go and what can we do?"

A man may commit murder and not be a criminal, and yet a sneakthief is always a criminal and every burglar a potential murderer.

Social conditions produce criminals. As well expect a rose to bloom in a swamp as human nature to flower in the slums.

All our prisons are hotbeds of tuberculosis and most prison physicians hold their positions through political pull.

In our opinion a greater distinction should be made between the penitentiary and house of correction. Petty misdemeanants should not be branded with the prison stigma. We also favor suspended sentence for first offenders.

The crime and its punishment should be separated. At present the personal equation does not enter into the case when a judge imposes sentence. The man's environment, what leads him to break the law, and how best to help this particular man, all are questions that should be carefully considered before sentence is pronounced.