PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLES.
INTRODUCTION.
The contents of the little volume now presented to the public have been taken from the second column (commonly called the “Agony Column”) of the Times newspaper, from the commencement of the present century to the end of the year 1870.
Readers of newspapers (more especially of the Times) cannot fail to be struck by the mysterious communications which daily appear, and I venture to hope my selection of some of the most remarkable may interest those who peruse these pages.
Most of the advertisements selected show a curious phase of life, interesting to an observer of human existence and human eccentricities. They are veiled in an air of mystery, with a view of blinding the general public, but at the same time give a clue unmistakable to those for whom they were intended.
At the early period of 1800 the “Agony Column” seems to have been the chief medium for matrimonial advertisements; but, unfortunately, we are left considerably in the dark, and our curiosity as to whether the young nobleman (in advertisement [No. 2]) eventually married the unknown “Catholic widow” is not gratified; but we do learn something, namely, that love at first sight was not so rare in those days as it is supposed to be in the present unromantic age.
There is little doubt that lovers separated by unfortunate circumstances, or by angry parents, as well as bachelors meditating matrimony, have found in the “Agony Column” a safe means of secret correspondence. With what despair did “One-winged Dove” (advertisement [No. 214]) beseech her lover, the “Crane,” to return to her! Sorely must her patience have been tried as she scanned the paper in vain day after day for four months. The answer came at last (advertisements [No. 234] and [235]), but only to kill every hope.
I do not know how this portion of the Times newspaper came to be called the “Agony Column;” but when we read advertisements like the one quoted above, and which is only one in a hundred, I think all my readers will agree that it is an unquestionably appropriate name.