MATRIMONIAL ADVERTISEMENTS.
In almost any New York journal you will find such advertisements as the following:
"An honorable gentleman, established in business, desires for a wife a lady of means and respectability. Address M. J. P., Station D, New York."
"A gentleman of the highest respectability, who has lately come into possession of a large fortune, desires to make the acquaintance of a lady with a view to matrimony. Must be handsome, accomplished, amiable, healthy, and pious, and not over twenty-five. Address Husband, Herald office."
It is probable that some of the parties thus advertising may be in earnest, but it is very certain that matrimony is the last intention of the majority of them. There are not many persons who will care to marry a woman won through the columns of a newspaper. Such simpletons would deserve whatever trouble or shame such an alliance would bring about.
Many young men and women insert these advertisements for the sake of "having a little sport," though, as we shall show, the sport thus produced is of a very dangerous character.