The age-herald., 1902-02-09
MARRIAGE MARKET
BY ALFRED SETON.

Ring the bell. blow the whistle, hark to the crier shout: Hear ye; hear ye. The Marriage Market is open! Come ye young men of good position and better circumstances, regardless of your man ners and morals. step up and select a bride from this assortment of beautiful maidens! Step up, step up; and see them dance Hear ye hear ye! The Marriage Market for the season of 1902 is now declared officially open.'
 We do not hear the voice of the crier, perhaps, or perhaps we do not admit | that we do. But Is that not because we have become romantic and gloss over l the condition that confronts us with a glaze of sentiment, or is it because we 1 have become such rogues that we prac- tice the art of dissembling even among ourselves? But why be rogues any longer? why paint the lily? For what purpose this annual exhibition of young maidens if not to advertise their exis- tence? Oh no, ladies and gentlemen, the voice of the cricr sounds in the land at this season. We need not hear it: we know it of old. <
 
 Columbine, of pantimime, of illusion and delusion. It comes to the accompani- ment of snownakes and to the sound of music. Enter the enclosure all who may and see how in this twentieth century, good Christian mothers, mindful of the Masters injunction that love Is the full f1lment of the law. auction off their daughters. It puts the Oriental market place, glowing under eastern skies, to shame: 1t discounts the alliances of French society and tinges with the col ors of romance the severe mercantile practicalities of commercial people No; these maids. trained by patient mothers for this grand terpsichorean-gas- tromic festival and exhibitNn do not wear tickets: For sale, or Reserved or Not to be looked upon for less than sa000 0C0." There is no need of this. All of this Is understood.
 Few people realize what the cost meas cred by gold dollars, of this annual ex- hibition may be. It runs into millions. It takes about eighteen years to train a young maid-to get her ready for mar ket Preliminary expenses, however, are not to be reckoned young maids debut may cost anywhere from $25,OO0 to S100 0O0 It all depends upon. the purse of the exhibuor and the hopes and am bitions of the proud mother. Dinners, baIls;. opera boxes become insignificant when compared with the cost of main taining the house, the stable. with pro viding the necessary wardrobe. But what of that? Is it not the rule now a-days to amass fortunes and then pose as grand parsonage? To pose as fam fly of distinction, as an aristocrat- splugel Everybody goes to the Marriage Market. Have a daughter and splurge.
 Enter the Marriage Market in New York City and behold the competition or millionaires to splash gold about them It is a wonderful sight, Croesus and trassus may have been great men Tn their days but the Rockefellers. Van derbilts and Astors are great people in these days They are but suns set In a Armament of wealth. and around them swing each in its own orbit, millionaires from Cripple Creek, Frisco and the great Northwest 1t Is the Society of Bank CTS Credits The old Kniekerbockers are down and out. Some are keeping board ing houses. and others are. working on trolley lines. The family line once the pride of the descendants of the sturdy Dutch or the Colonial English is out of date; the only line that counts is that of investments.
 Well, the season of Cupid Is at hand. Venus is out of date. Her gifts of love are not desired. The boy archer is abroad, SnOOtlnH ms sHdIts nut dt htot tos but at possessions. He, too. seems to have gone into the business of making Trusts-Family Trusts. When he sets out behind some youth of vast expecta- tions he points to a maid ant says. What have you got my pretty maid "Only ten millions. sir she said. Not enough. my pretty maid" etc. And so they go around the market place. Cupid trying to find proper mate for the slim-legged. thin-chested youth with fifty millions struck by his broad shouldered father in the oil regions.
 Somewhere. perhaps, some maid sup presses a longing to be one of the fash ionable throng that crowds the ball rooms of the great metropolis. She may sigh when the teli-tale mirror whispers to her, You are more beautiful than theyr' She thinks to herself that the fashionable beauties would seem incon- siderable beside her and that the young men whom fortune has blessed with mil- lions would seek her in marriage FocI-