The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-02-16
LUCRE LURING LOVE.
A wife-Seeking Michigander With
Hall a Million.
From, the Pittsburg Dispatch.

wi
~ $500. 600. is as peculiar, in many respects,
&C tne aged bachelor who imposed these
Conditions upon him. Luther James, the
davisor of the property which Babcock may
,,ossess by marriage, was one of the oldest
Of men. and his nephew, who was always
at his side during the later years of his life.
germs to have acquired many of his pecu-
lorities. The strange pair lived here to-
+-ather in a very plain fashion, and no one
5,onld have ever suspected, from the ap-
,,aorance eff either of them, that they could
have raised 800 to save their lives.
KEEPING HIM QUITE BUSY.
Since the death of bachelor James, young
pohcock has lived at a hotel here and de-
-5oted most of his time to the opening, an
swerinp and filing of the letters which he
daily receives from young women IN all
narts of the Uuited States. Babcock re-
minds most people of his uncle. He was
with the old man so long, and was so care
mi at all times to humor every within of
the old gentleman that he actually came to
look to talk, to dress and to walk like him.
He is to-day simply a younger edition of
the bent and decrepit old man whose face
and figure were so familiar to the majority
of the people of Ann Arbor.
Toward the close of his long life, bachelor
lanes
made a serious mistake in Understanding
the charms of women and overeStimating the
vaIue of money 1t is related Of him that
some watching was necessary at this time
70 prevent the old man from offering him
self and his fortune to various young women
whose beauty and accomplishments had at
tracted his notice.
WANTED TO SAVE HIS NEPHEW.
The peculiar will that the old man made
was dictated with the avowed purpose of
preventing his favorite nephew and princl-
pal heir from following i'll his footsteps. 1t
is supposed that he had seen enough of
Babcock's resemblance to himself to awaken
a fear that as age grew upon him he would
be like him in avoiding women and falling
into hopeless and miserable old bachelor
hood. At any rate, he concluded to give
the boy the greatest possible incentive to
matrimony, and the will, whose terms sur
prised no one acquainted with its author,
was duly signed and attested.
No one pretends to say what Babcock' s
original intentions may have been. At first
he accepted the will as a matter Of course,
and evidently was prepared to drop out Of
sight and think the matter over But the
publication of the instrument caused some
attention to be paid him by the correspond
ents of city newspapers, and he at length
developed an exceeding fondness for the
nOtoriety which he saw he was gaining. He
enjoyed being written up, and on more
than one occasion he sought publicity in the
press.
Presently letters from women, young and
old, began to pour in upon him, aud to this
correspondence he now devOteS the greater
part of his time. He takes the keenest en-
joyment in the attention which he receives,
and the one fear of his life Is that some
thing will happen to break up his fun, as he
puts it.
AN INTERESTING COLLECTION.
The letters are carefully fled away, and
the photographs, of which he had hundreds
are preserved in such order that any one
can be found at a moments notice. These
pictures are of women of all ages, but by
far the greater part of them are of girls
ranging in age from 16 to 20, most Of them
good looking.
The letters which Babcock receives are in
every conceivable vein, and from women
in almost every state and territory in the
Union. Hundreds of them come unsigned
or signed only by a given name. Many
are evidently written in good faith, those
from widows coming under this head in
most cases. Persons who have had an OPP
portunity to get at the letters-no one can
now to hope to read them all-are forcibly
impressed with the similarity in tone which
the missives bear. They can be divided
into four classes-the gay and jocular; the
serious and plaintive; the buSinesslike and
emphatic, and the sentimental and advisory
About one-half of them express great fear
that Babcock will finally marry some one
who will care only for his money. Don't
marry a fortune hunter" For PHYS sakes
whoever you marry, don't marry one of
those women who think only Of money!
II write only to warn you against fortune
hunting women; there are a great many of
them; marry no one whose love for yourself
you are not sure Of"
ALL THINKING ALIKE.
These are specimen expressions from let
tiers written by women living hundreds and
thousands of miles apart, and all to the
same man.
Singularly enough, the women who al
most without exception, feel that Babcock
may fall victim to fortune-hunting hus-
sy, are the very young girls and the ad-
mtted old maids. Not one of the widows,
and not one of the girls ranging from 20 to
70, speaks with so much rapture of the bliss
OF true love, the happiness Of being loved
Tor ones self alone, and the joy of love in a
cottage, as do the young misses Of 10 and Is,
and the stately old maids of 35 or d who
write to Babcock, generally over their own
name and address, simply to advise him to
oe careful. The young girls and the old
AA@'J 10 o1AdllJ NAlSlnbSi SobSA DuG ~ ID
TIE free confession of one who has seen
many Of Babcock's letters that there is just
little more sentiment IN the old maids
letters than is to be found in those from the
school girls, and that the productions Of the
latter breathe more of an "Ah there ~
spirit than is to be met with in those from
the spinster
WHERE THEY CONE FROM.
Massachusetts furnishes more of the let
ters from old maids, and Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa are repre-
sented chiefly by the school girls, many of
whom write evidently for love of fun and
adventure, and without signing their names.
1t has been urged that, as the old maids
give their real names and addresses, they
are the most serious-minded Of Babcock's
this
ne letters above described as serious,
ana plaintive, and business like and en-
pnatlc come almost without exception from
WIDOWS. They are generally long, occupy
Ing from two to four full sheets of notepa-
per, and as rule they are signed by the
real names of the writer's. In nine cases out
OF ten they open with description Of the
last illness and death Of the departed, and
Iully one-half of them contain some modest
reference to the esteem in which their
authors were held by the late husbands.
Some OF the mournful letters are unbroken
ny a ray OF humor, but many OF them express
toward the close a willingness to consider
any pTOpOItiOn which Mr. RahCock NAV