Morning journal and courier., 1882-05-26
Marriage Brokers at Home.
The ParIors Where wIfeIess Men and Husbandless Women May Seek Part
 
From the New York Sun.

HusbandIess Women May Seek Part
 
 From the New York Sun. In a large double parlor of an old fashioned house in a once fashionable downtown street | an old gentleman with a white moustsche and | a spsrse thatch of white hair on his head sat l at g table opposite a younger man, with | bushy brown hair and moustache and imperi- | al Two large piles of circulars lay on the | table by some bundles of cards printed in | English, French and German There was very little furniture. Four chromos gave | questionable adornment to the walls. On a | round table in the back parlor were two la, ge l photograph albums, one of them entirely | empty and the other containing half a dozen | photographs of young women. The two | gentlemen spoke with foreign accents. They | were waiting for bachelors or maidens They | constituted the National Matrimonial Alliance l bureau, which has been organizing in this l city for two months past. The promo'ers of | this benevolent enterprise have been engaged l in business of similar kind in Vienna, and
 have undertaken to reproduce here a matri- | monial exchange such as has existed in Berlin, l Paris and London for years. Their purpose is ito facilitate acquaintances between ladies and gentlemen as a means to lead to happy matrimonial alliances" A reporter who thought he might possibly desire to undertake "a happy matrimonial alliance'' called at the office of the Bureau. ''How is your bureau conducted ?" he asked, bashfully, of one of the managers 'Not only respectfully, but with great cir cumspection, discretion and delicacy. We seek to engender confidence in ourselves as mediators, and we promise happy results" ''I want a wife, for instance"
 The affable mediator opened the empty al bum, closed it quickly, and opened the other one at the tintype of healthy-looking Chi cago girl who wants a husband. She is g years old and large for her age. The other pictures in the album were of fair German girls All of them were of modest faces and comedy.
 "You want wife," the broker continued. ''You pay B and register your name, address and business I look up your reference and put yoTr photograph in the album. Then you pick out by the pictures the girl you think you'd like to marry. She looks at your picture, and, if mutually agreeable, you meet her on Sunday afternoon. If the promises of the photograph are made good in person, you two are left to conduct your future nego- tiations as you please, and you pay me one or two per cent on the money you give your wife or the dowry she brings you. See 2"
 ''Do you find that the people who come to you have much money?'
 Not as a rule"
 ''Who are they ?"
 "People of all sorts"
 It was noteworthy that the photographs on file were all of young women. Separate days are set apart for men and women to call and a woman is in charge of the rooms on the days that the women may attend. Nego- tiations may also be conducted by letter, and correspondence may be carried on in almost any modern language. The managers appear to be perfectly honest in their expectations that their matrimonial enterprise will thrive in New York.