The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-09-24
THREE GIRLS RAFFLED.
The Plan of Their Father to Make
Some Money.
From the New York Times.

Maple, Wis. Sept. u.-During the past
few days the Finnish settlement. a few
miles south Of Maple, has been in state
of great excitement over a remarkable
succession of events. There are about 200
residents in the settlement-all farmers,
thrifty, and nearly all in comfortable cir
cumstances. There is a large surplus of
unmarried young men in the community
and a scarcity of marriageable young wo-
men, so that every fema.e, old enough to
be courted, receives tho attentions of from
one to a dozen rival lovers. A widower
named Hanes Dorfkie Is one of the settlers.
and has been living since the death of his
WlIe, with three pretty daughters in a
little log house somewhat removed from
the main settlement. Lately, Dorfkie met
with number Of reverses, which crippled
him financially. He had accumulated
enough money since his residence there
to pay for a forty-acre tract of farming
land, and to equip the farm with stock and
the necessary implements for tnling the
sou and harvesting the crops but this year
his crops We're poor, his oxen died, and his
poultry was carried away by hawks. so
that while his neighbors saw plenty on
hand TO carry them through the coming
long winter the old man saw starvation
looking into the faces of himself and three
the wary old Finlander set to thinking out
a scheme for replenishing his depleted ex-
chequer. At last an idea came 10 him,
and he lost no time in shaping it into a
lucrative scheme. He loved his three
daughters, and they loved him dearly, but
they had dozens of young men lovers. and
sooner or later they would leave him to
live the remainder of his days in poverty
and loneliness Why not realize some
thing tho danobtprsP II tUoa srohd
scheme, and he proceeded al once to carry
ii out.
The old man-Dorfkie-held a confer
ence with his three daughters, and UNI
folded 20 them his plan for making money.
He proposed at first to have an auction,
and to sell them, one by one, to the
highest bidder, but the young women
shrank from such a barbarous suggestion,
though they signihed their willingness to
acquiesce in any legitimate scheme of
money making that the father might de-
wise. At last the old gent thought 1t
might be a good scheme to have rattle,
and so informed the three dutiful young
women. They objected at first, on the
ground that they might be obliged to ac-
cept men as their husbands who were UNI
satisfactory to them, but when the father
promised that the tickets should be sold
TO persons only who were acceptable in
all respects, there was nothing left for
the girls to do but to assent and this they
readily did.
So it was whispered about the neighbor-
hood one day last week that Farmer Dorf-
kie had decided to rattle off his daugh-
ters, and the day later the whisperings
We're confirmed for Mr. Dorflxe himself
appeared among the people with a bas-
ketful of pasteboard cards upon each of
which the information wos contained that
the holder thereof was entitled to one
chance on one or another of the three
maidens fair. The tickets went like hot
cakes at 81 apiece. and within a few days
the loving father had exchanged his bas-
ketful of pasteboards for a like measure
of shining silver and gold. In his anx-
iety to dispose of all the tickets, Mr..
Dorfl<ie forgot his promise to discriminate
in favor of the best looking and most pros
porous suitors in the settlement He took
everybody's dollar in exchange for a tick
ct and the consequence was that every
man in the village, married or single rich
or poor, homely or handsome, had possess
ed himself of one or more chances for the
hand of one of the fair daughters long
before the time set for the rattle.
The day came for the great event, and
the schoolhouse was packed to the outer
door with men, women and children. Peo-
pie in the neighboring towns had heard
of the novel affair, and came from all
Two hundred and fifty tickets upon each
girl had been sold and the arrangement
was that each prize should be disposed of
separately, under the auspices of a COM
mlttee selected out of the audience.
Tickets numbered to correspond with
those sold were placed in one box, and
another box contained 249 blanks and one
number marked Prize"
Two young girls were then selected to
preside over the boxes, and the drawing
commenced, the tickets being removed
from both boxes simultaneously until the
lucky number drew the prize. For half an
hour the audience sat IN suspense, while
the two girls slowly withdrew the numbers
and compared them under the vigilant
eyes of the committeeman, but at last
the number rs was responded to by the
exclamation "Prizer' and the first rattle
was over. Then followed a wild skirmish
for the owner OF the lucky ticket, and
when found he was carried to the front,
over the heads of a good-natured crowd
The holder of the winning ticket proved
to be a thrifty young man of the settle
ment, who had long sought for the hand
of the eldest Observation-Disclosures hus-
band he was now to become.
Next came the rattle for the second
daughter, a rosy-cheeked lass Of % sum-
mers. This time the winning ticket was
held by one of the richest men in the town,
but, unfortunately, he was a married man
with large family. This caused a long
delay in the proceedings, during which the
entire audience entered into heated dis
cussion as to what disposition should be
made of the ticket, but 1t was finally
agreed that the lucky number should be
sold at auction then and there. This was
DONE and, after considerable spirited bid
ding, Miss Minnie, the second daughter
became the prospective bride of a middle
aged widower, who paid $50 for the prize
Then came the rattle for the youngest
and things were progressing
smoothly enough, when an error was dis
covered which caused a bitter alteration
btween two ticket holders, and came near
precipitating a free-for-all fight among
the spectators. Through carelessness the
winning number had been duplicated, and
there were two claimants Tor the hand of
daughter No 3. At length general row
was averted however, by the adoption Of
a happy suggestion. The two claimants
resorted to a game Of freeze out" for a
Of the matter and for two
hours they sat at card table, surrounded
by an excited crowd Of friends, manipu-
.ating the pasteboards for a bride Slowly
the stack of chips IN front of the unlucky
player dwindled to a paltry few, and at
last his opponent swept the board, and
the game was decided in favor of a young