Best thanks for dear letter. Drive to-day. A thousand kisses.—L.
“Good Report.”
A letter will be found addressed to “Sophie G.,” post restante, Vienna, I/1, principal post-office.
M.S.A.
To-day, 4. Please bring news. Most intimate.—K. D. D.
A. 15.
Je n’oublie pas et j’espère.
Very frequent also are requests from male advertisers, addressed to ladies they have chanced to meet in the railway, electric tram, etc., asking where the latter may live. These advertisements give a description of the appearance, costume, time, and place of the first meeting, and beg the lady to give her address “in confidence,” or to come to some specified place of meeting. A very large number of letters addressed post restante are of an erotic nature, and belong to this category.
7. Private Inquiries.—Under this heading persons advertise in the newspapers that for an honorarium (usually a very high one) they will undertake to watch secretly any desired person—and almost invariably such watching relates to the sexual life and activity of the person under observation; when employed, they use all the methods of the most unscrupulous detective. These individuals play a principal part in divorce proceedings, and in conjugal quarrel based upon jealousy; they are a cancer of our time[775] which cannot be too energetically suppressed. A detective advertisement of this character is the following:
Private Inquiry.