Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-11-14
MATRIMONIAL.


Wivcs-Castlc Garden as a Depot for
Hclpinates.
1t does at first sight seem somewhat
strange that men should write letters to
the Superintendent of Castle Garden
asking him to select wives for them
from among the cmigrants. There are
so many unattached and eager females
dying about loose, as it were, only
waiting for opportunities to pounce
s1pon unguarded men and make hus-
bands of them, that it is rather remark
able that men with rash projects of
matrinony in their minds should take
this course.
CASTLE GARDEN AS a WIFE MART.
The very idea of ordering a wife
as one would a healthy farm hand, or a
COB lot OF shoes, seems rather queer
from an American point of view. Yet
there are surprising numbers of fellows
who do that very remarkable thing.
They have been at it ever since Castle
siarden became an entrepot for emil
grants. and a lot of them have been
successful in getting wives in this a
LOOKING FOL A WIFE.
superintendent H. J. jackson saws
that a majority of these marriages occur
among Germans. A young German
will come over here in pursuit of for
tune, settle down in some Western
place where there are few or none of
his country people, and when by indus
cry and economy he has gained a foot
hold and feels that his fortune is pretty
well secured, he wants q wife. Natu-
rally. he is very likely to want one from
his part of the Old World, if posi-
bic. or at least one who he has reason
TO think will. by education, habits of
life and inherited disposition, have
tastes and purposes in harmony with
his own.
REQUISITES.
The stout peasant girl. with but
slightly developed sensibilities and
accustomed to hard work, is the one he
want An American girl who would
have to be courted and won, and whose
economy in married life would be wild
extravaganza to the German mind, is
not the sort OF helpmeet that he wants.
So he tries to catch, or. rather. to have
caught for him. an emigrant girl. And
thal the mcn who resort to this method
OF mating arc not wholly cranks is
demonstrated both by their generally
ready offer to pay for the trouble taken
o n their account and by the fact that in
almos; every instance they are ready to
furnish perfectly satisfactory reference
TO prove their sobriety, industry and
earnestness. This proof is absolutely
necessary in every case, for the great
hynleneal sharp. Mr.. H. j.. jackson,
will not take the moral responsibility of
aiding any young emigrant woman, or
any other, to make a plunge into the
sea of matrimony unless he has good
reason to hope that the step will be no
worse Tor her than it is likely to be for
anybody else--to say the least.
APPLICATIONS.
The ordinary way of treating the let
tiers Of wife-hunters at Castle Garden is
no turn them over to the reporters, that
they may extract whatever fun they
can out Of them, AMI then to let it be
known among the girls and women
waiting in the Labor Department for
employment that such an application
has been made. Some of the girls are
so phlagmatic that they seem quite in
different about including the duties of a
wife among those of a servant. and are
ready to marry on sight anybody who
wants them. So perverse is fate, how
ever, that these arc the ones least likely
so ''catch on to the fancy of the wife
Munters. The most desirable ones are,
as a rule. the hardest to capture.
When a girl signifies her willingness
TO consider seriouslythe marriage propo-
,s'tion Of some total stranger. the man
us notified, and, as a general thing. if he
'does not live too far away, he comes on
ITO see how she looks. Up to that point
the affair has been AS coldly business as
r transaction in salt fish or spring
wheat.
1 Here, HOWEVER. ROMANCE ENTERS.
The prospective bridegroom, fixed up
with that peculiar shininess and stiffness
that is SO eloquent of its being an I'M
wonted condition, puts in his appear
;ance Before he is allowed to meet the
girl she is given opportunity to make
means will permit. Whatever ribbons
she has and her best dress are donned;
her face is washed and her hair
smoothed. She has no rouge to put on,
and needs none, for health and hard
work have given her color enough. She
wastes no time in tinting her eyebrows
and shading her veins, for in all proba-
bility she has never heard of such toll
cite devices.
THE INTRODUCTION.
They are formally introduced, and
chen left alone in a corner to talk the
situation over and come to the best un-
Outstanding they may. Bushes, STAN
merrd words, desultory remarks and
covert observation on both sides gradu-
ally give way to more free interchange
of ideas, and so prompt are the business
like wooers and SO willing the maidcns
80 arrive at speedy settlement of the
pending question that almost always it
lis determined at this first interview
whether the match is to be on OF OF.