There are today in the United States no less than 50,000 women who have been married, robbed and deserted by "professional bigamists." This fact represent the most serious phase of the matrimonial agency swindle, for it is the history of nearly all noted bigamists that they secured their victims through the matrimonial agencies. Of the thousands who become subscribers to these agencies, however, comparatively few ever proceed far enough to encounter the tragic features of the swindle. It might be inferred from this that women are much easier to entice into matrimony than men. Probably, however, this is an untenable conclusion. When a woman does start on marrying bent, mere men fall before her like grain before the sickle. Miss Marion Rapp, arrested at Philadelphia, is known to have secured eight husbands in three years, and is suspected of having captured six or eight more. Miss Rapp is still young, and if her career had not been untimely cut off she might have made a record that would have done credit (or discredit) to her sex.
PUTS A SNAFFLE BIT ON THE OLD MAN
The sad experiences of people who have been victimized by gay deceivers, male or female, perhaps contain a lesson to persons who carelessly contemplate matrimony. When a stranger proposes marriage at first sight it may possibly be well to take a look into his or her antecedents. This is not the most romantic way to proceed, but it is a way that may have a great practical advantage. It probably would be endorsed by every one of the 50,000 women in this country who are now looking for professional bigamists who married them and ran away with their cash.
That the matrimonial agency business is not confined to Chicago and dupes of the system are found elsewhere than in rural communities and among the poor and humble is demonstrated by recent revelations in Europe. During one raid I seized a large quantity of literature in the offices of a swindling concern doing business under the name of Mason, Brown & Co. The "firm" advertised itself as the largest of its kind in the world and the only one "indorsed by press and public and patronized by royalty," adding that its "clients and representatives were to be found in every land."
In extra large type the information was conveyed to the victim that he or she need not be ashamed to resort to the agency method in order to secure a life partner, as the royalty of Europe used this means exclusively in contracting marriages, especially in cases where American heiresses were sought as wives for titled but impecunious foreigners.
When it was casually remarked during an examination of a wagon load of Mason, Brown & Company's advertising matter the reference to the titles and heiresses was the only true statement it contained, there were smiles of incredulity. American millionaires were said to be too shrewd and level-headed to enter into deals with marriage brokers when the life happiness of their fair and independent daughters is concerned.
(Divorce Decrees; Spring)
It was but a short time after this conversation, however, that the following cablegram was published: