The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-10-11

toners. Among them are many women.
The shopkeeper understands the CONNER
cial value of minding his own business,
and, moreover, of not allowing his letter
box customers to jostle against each other.
The presence of collateral business in
books, etc., makes it easy to blind an in
qulsitive transient" Then letters are,
by arrangement with the proprietor, re-
mailed to another address. Even
this address will probably not be
the residence of the person who
hires the box and receives the letter, but a
medium of receiving communication which
shall render the chances of detection all
the greater. Although there is nothing
essentially wicked about a private letter
box, two people who catch each other in
the act Of getting letters in that way gen.
orally feel pretty cheap.
For lovers, with eagle-eyed parents or
sinister married aunts, the private letter
boxes are ever popular. 1t is unfortunate
ly true that the boxes are used good deal
by married ladies who have correspondents
whose letters are not intended for the hus-
bands eye. 1t is urged that this misuse of
the system does not condemn it, for is not
poor Uncle Sam imposed upon without
a thought of abolishing his benevolent
services2
One of the most frequently reiterated
passages in the modern matrimonial per-
sonals is this: mo Agents" This means
that the advertiser expressly does not
want the assistance of the matrimonial
agencies which, for consideration, under
take to bring kindred souls together.
These matrimonial agencies, watching the
wants" of the lonesome with so keen an
eye, advertise a good deal on their own
account, and several of them in New York
are now publishing very neat little buile-
tins containing an extensive array of APP
peals from those unmarried who prefer
this fascinating method of changing their
conditions. These bulletins indicate that
matchmaking is likely to become much
more of an exact science than IL is at pres
ent. Even in this practical channel the
element of sentiment is present in con-
stantly increasing proportions. The IN
genuity displayed by people with fortunes
Cor at least with very remarkable expecta-
tions) in an effort to make somebody of
the opposite sex believe that they are dis
interestedly pining for conpanionship is
often delightful. The art OF graceful and
per- uaslve lying is nowhere carried to the
point of absolute art with so much nicely
as in these newspaper and Bulletin adver-
tisements.
A New Yorker who is both a philosopher
and man of the world, and who is one
because he is the other, said to me: "You
must not think of these matrimonial in
tricacies as entirely fantastic. There are
many kinds of people in the world, and
they have not all the faculty of meeting
the kind of people they really need to
meet. Thousands of people who would
otherwise remain single marry through
these advertisements. Both the timid and
the mercenary find it useful medium,
and you may mark my words that some
day or other the pairing of the human
race will not be left so much to chance as
it is now. People will deceive each other,
of course, but the matrimonial advertise
ment has q wonderful facility in clearing
the ground, as it were. l have heard of
many q happy marriage as resulting from
personal correspondence.