The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1857-06-30
MATRIMONIAL AGENCIES.

institutions of much Importance. A great
deal of real business is transacted, and many
matches have been made of happy issue
The grossest deception is, however, fire.
quently practised, and the principle of the
whole business is, undoubtedly. essentially
corrupt. One would suppose that in this
age of enlightenment no one could be found
willing to have recourse to such means t"
procure a partner for life, bat the fools
will never die out, and consequently, these
establishment prosper.
The following is one of the many anec
dotes of the way the proprietors OF th'
| matrimonial agencies effect their objects
At Lille, in the department of the Nord.
! there lived short time ago, handsome
young girl, who had fortune of six hun
dred thousand francs to bestow on a hus-
band of her choice. All the young men of
| that country had made efforts TO reach the
! heart of the heiress in vain. She believed
that. notwithstanding her beauty, her ad
mirers sighed more for her francs than for
her person. She wished to be loved-tbe
old story for herself-a log cabin and her
heart.
In her quality Of rich heiress, the name
of the young girl was naturally found in
scribed in the book of the matrimonial
agent. Her name stood high up in the list
of the first category-onc of the rareSt
flowers of the the matrimonial boquet. AT
that period our agent protected handsome
young fellow VIII" desired nothing better
than match such as this. The agent
pointed his finger to the young Lilloise, y
etoite Du Nord. He wrote at the same
the secret of the affair, sent him three thou
sand francs to enable him to give ball to
which was to be invited all the flower of the
town. -
The morning of the ball the young man
fell as if by accident at the correspondents
house, like friend who makes visit un-
heralded, appeared at the ball and danced
with the young girl, letting off in her honor
a whole artillery Of compliments, dwelling
especially upon his quality as stranger
He knew no one in the city. he was com
pletely ignorant of the name of the lady
with whom he had the happiness to dance;
but he had never been dazzled with such
bright eyes, he had never seen or admired
such hair. he had never seen such patrician
hands, such flexible waist, such pretty
feet, such perfect grace, &c.
After the first concordance, he solicited
the favour of a waltz, then a polka, then a
mazourka, then a schottische. He showed
himself during the whole evening so COM
pletely devoted to the young girl, that the
latter, rejecting that the good looking
stranger had only arrived in the morning
and consequently could not know the figure
Of her marriage portion. believed that at
last she had found the ideal of her dreams,
the enthusiastic Werther, the Saint Preux
of platonic love.
A few days afterwards the young man
obtained through the kind offices of his
friend, the correspondent, an invitation to
the soirees of the parents of the young girl.
and the Paris agent has just received
letter from his correspondent Lille, which
reads as follows:
"My dear sir: The game is bagged.-
Yesterday, conducted the shepardess to
the altar, and to-day pocketed six hun
dred thousand francs"
And this is one way in which young girls
are bought and sold in France, without
their knowing it.