The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-08-14

cribe state of your teeth. Are your feet and
hands small or large?
Where WIRE you educated. and what Is
your education? Give an outline of your
character. What are your particular viz
tues? DO you acknowledge any faults?
Vices? What are your tastes? Name your
accomplishments. Give some account of
your duels. Were they published in news
papers? What is your religion? Politics?
If ever employed, at what?
Have you any fortune? What is the
amount of your income, and it source? De-
tail your possessions in land, houses, fur
niture, pictures, horses, carriages, bonds
or stocks, mortga ges-in short, all your
possessions, of whatever nature, and the
amount you can depend upon for support.
What are your expectations? What is the
amount of your debts, and how much of
the amount may be discounted? What
amount of these debts is to be paid from
your brides dowry?
Give your preferences in regard to the
person with whom you seek to contract an
alliance. OF what birth must she be;
what sort of face and figure; what color
of hair and eyes? What tastes accom-
plishments and education must she have?
What is the lowest amount you require as
dowry? In what-in cash. real estate or
securities? Must she have the whole
amount in her own right, or will it be suf-
ficient to have part in expectations?
Where would you expect to live after mar
riage, city or country? In what city?
Would you ever require your wife to leave
France? Would you desire to live out
side of France?"
1t might be imagined that the somewhat
free revelations necessary in filling in this
circular would deter applicants from pro-
ceeding further; yet as matter of fact,
that particular agency was the intermedi-
IL. % ~g,r-1 20 H.,
better class during 1897, according TO its
report submitted to the project of police.
Then it must also be remembered that
marriage in France is hardly ever an af-
fair of sentiment. The notaries employed
by a prospective brides parents would
make inquiries just as comprehensive,
and they are often even stricter.
No matrimonial agency will ever consid-
er an application from dOwerless woman,
no matter how beautiful, no matter what
advantages she may have in the way of
position or education. There is no market
for the product. Every girl who desires
10 marry must have some money, even
if it be only a pittauce. The French con-
vents are full to overlooking Of high-bred
girls, many of them pretty, whom reversal
of family fortunes has driven into the sis
terhoods That career, lacking dowries,
is the only one open to them. They can
not marry and they cannot seek self
maintenance. Ii is a very sad chapter in
French social life.
AS has been remarked the abuses prac-
ticed by the matrimonial agencies who
deal exclusively with women with past,
are constant and fragrant, and they are
very easy of accomplishment from the
very nature of the business. But even
among the other, and more respectable,
agencies, there IS a good deal of deception
and some downright swindling. An agency
in the Avenue Wagram has, for instance,
worked a scheme for many years. which
the police have been powerless to break
up, Notwithstanding the complaints This
agency is managed by an old Marquise,
whose husband was a man of some prom
inence under the second empire. She has
a magnificent apartment and fine equip
ages, ind is said to have been instru-
mental in several noble marriages. Ordl-
narily her business is conducted hOnoraby
but one branch of it is this She sub
scribes for one of the baignoire boxes at
the opera. This costs her $2S a night.
After receiving the application of a man
for a wife, she tells him that she has the
very girl he is looking for. He arranges
that he shall visit her in her box at the
opera, where he may be presented to the
girl The man-and there are usually five
Or six of him for every night each uncon-
scious that his fellow is on the same err
rand-goes to the opera, meets the girl,
who is in reality the married niece of the
Narquise, and that is the end of it, Each
man has, of course, paid for the box be-
forehand, and the crafty Marquise clears
from 500 TO $3.50 on the nights work-and
no harm done.
1t is probably very seldom that a pros
pective bride is aware that her marriage
is the outcome of agency INTERPRETATION
Sometimes her parents make application
for her, ana it is only in the case of a
widow that she offers herself personally
Oftener. still, however, not only the wo-
man, but also her family, are entirely ig-
norant of the fact that she is bid for from
the agency. AS all marriages in France
are arranged" and as there are so many
persons mixed up in the matter it is very
easy for the astute matrimonial agent to
accomplish her designs without fear of
compromising discoveries. She may APP
preach the matter not only through the
girls immediate family, but also through
any of her relatives or the relatives ac-
quaintances. This is in no wise strange
when il is considered that a Frenchman
if dissatisfied with the political course of
his newspaper or the fit of his trousers
consults all his uucles and a cousin or
two before stopping his subscription 10
the one or having the other remedied.
When man has finally decided upon the
girl who is-Or rather whose fortune is
satisfactory TO him, the work of the
agency usually ceases. He has been prop
erly presented. and is henceforth upon a
favorable footing in the house. The rest
of the bushes goes on in the regular way
which IS. after all, a way NOT so different
from the matrimonial agency way itself
Upon declaring himself he is closely ques-
ton by paterfamilias, who afterwards
takes him to his notary, where the profess
sional thumbscrews are applied. If salts
factory the father accepts him, and finally
the girl herself is notified that she is to be
married. Sometimes she is surprised, but