The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-04-12

Have Secured Husbands.
As in all other manufacturing towns,
the factory girls of Reading, Pa, have
lots of fun inserting little notes in pack
ages or articles they manufacture and
send out to all parts of the world The
best fun of this kind is enjoyed by the
girls who work in factories turning out
articles used exclusively by men. Hence
hat factory girls receive possibly the
largest mail
81 have known at least dozen girls
who became the wives of men who
found their little notes in the hats they
bought, )" said the forewoman of hat
factory. Several girls have their sis
tiers at work at home making copies of
the following note:
Sc L hope you will be we'll pleased with
this hat. I have tried to line and trim
it satisfactorily. If you have few min
utes' time to spare, and care to do it,
please write and tell me how you like
your hat OF course you must be a sim
gle man, as / am a single girl. Lovers
are scarce in this town.
1.-The girls slip the notes under the
lining of the hats, allowing just an end
to stick out under the sweat band. A
note SO placed would not be seen unless
the sweat band was turned down. Of
course hundreds of hats are sent out,
and possibly the notes are never seen,
but very many are found and answered.
The girls receive answers from all over
the United States, principally the west.
The letters they receive would make
quite a collection. Generally they are
read out aloud in the shop. Very many
replies from the west say that girls are
very scarce out there. Some men want
to correspond with a view to matri-
mony; others just for pastime. One
man recently wrote that he wanted a
hat trimmed by the same girl.
eff a girl exchanges a few letters
with an unknown correspondent, and the
mans answers suit, she generally sends
a letter to the towns chief of police or
mayor and asks confidentially all about
the character of her correspondent. In
nearly every instance the officials send
courteous replies and tell all the girl
wants to know. Photographs, are ex-
changed and little gifts are received,
generally curiosities from faraway
states. One of our girls receives letters
from man up at Puget sound, and
and from another IL Havana, and from
another now in Yucatan The girls have
gone into the stamp collection business,
and our factory album is quite curios-
ity in its way. OF course the girls can't
answer all the letters they receive. The
cowboys write very odd letters One
ranchman says he owns 1000 acres and
5000 head of cattle and wants wife
The letters generally have full descrip-
tions of the men. They all ask for
photographs of the girls. Some of the
girls send pictures of actresses, as hand
some as they can get them, but very Of
ten the girls depend upon their own
faces, because many of them are really
pretty and winning. One factory girl
made practice of sending photographs
of deceased maiden aunt, with side
curls and fancy headdress, telling her
correspondent she had kind heart and
was very respectable. One correspondent
returned the picture, saying he was not
making a collection of freaks
''Some girls who have been married
a few years receive answers to their
notes.
81 know two young Indiana men
who came east for brides and secured
them. In all other instances the girls
went west or south and became happy
wives, SO far as know. Last year two
girls who made vests for wholesale
house and had slipped notes into the bot
toms of the watch pockets secured hus-
bands. Another girl of my acquaint-
ance, who works in a stocking factory,
slipped note into the toe of a No. II
sock, and about Is months later heard
from the buyer, who was an iron ore
miner up in Michigan. They are still
corresponding, I think Girls who pack
note paper occasionally write their
names and address with lead pencil on
one of the sheets. Sometimes they get
replies, if the note paper falls into the
hands Of romantic young men, but fire.
quently married men answer these
notes. New York Sun
Easter Eggs.
1. LI1A