Huntsville. Utah,
Dec. 27. 1902.
Mrs. Ellen Marion.
Grant Works, Ill.
My Dear Lady:
I wish to beg your pardon if I appear rude in trying to personally introduce myself, but allow me to assure you that I am sincere in my quest for a kind friend, and it is nothing but the purest and holiest motives of the human heart that prompts the intrusion.
I saw your advertisement in the Valley Farmer, and in it I seem to behold the image of an ideal lady, who is well worthy of the highest esteem and admiration from a true gentleman, and how happy and thankful should the man be who is so fortunate as to captivate the love and heart of so noble a prize. Among many others your advertisement to me seemed to be the most suitable and impressive. While it would not be within good taste to express a great love for you at present, yet I believe that I could come as near living and dying on love as the next one. My object in writing you is to find if there should be a chord within our natures that could be touched mutually to harmonize with the word love.
I have been married and know of the joy and happiness of a kind and loving companion. Two years ago death robbed me of my greatest prize in life. Since then I have been baching it. I am tired of roughing it alone, and if there were only some one to meet me with a kind smile of approval I could work much harder and be a better man for it, and I do most earnestly and sincerely solicit your correspondence with a view to closer ties should our natures prove congenial.
Should you feel inclined to favor me I would certainly feel highly flattered.
Not a Flirt.
Please do not rank me with the ordinary flirts and adventurers, for I assure you that I am honest in my intentions and would not mislead or advise anyone wrongfully. My age is thirty-seven, height five feet nine inches, weight 175 pounds, have a good moral character in every respect, honest and industrious, without any bad habits, total abstainer from liquor and tobacco, move in the best society, am of a quiet, kind and loving disposition. Home is the dearest place to me on earth and I know how to make it happy. I can appreciate and know the real value of a kind and loving wife, and the dear lady that becomes my wife will find in me a true and honest husband, a kind and loving companion, one whose greatest aim and object will be to make his home and loved ones happy.
To you the above may have a smattering of self-praise and flattery, but the facts are wholly true, which I hope in due time will be fully demonstrated. Should you wish to hear further from me I shall be quite pleased to furnish any information desired.