The Aberdeen weekly. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1878-1933, 1903-04-17

DO these men think I'm run
ming . matrimonial agency ?" asked
Mayor Conwell of Vineland, N. j.,
of a press correspondent as he
looked at a great stack of letters
on his desk. with an accompanying
pile of photographs.
OF course, I'm glad to help this
joining Of young hearts, and others
not so young. especially in view of
what President Roosevelt has said.
But there wasn't line in my oath
of Office pledging me to run a mar
riage bureau"
The mayor has been placed in
the position of an unwilling
schatchen-without fees-through
the recent announcement of sew
eral young women of Vineland's
upp-rmost circles that they were
going to become trained nurses.
Naturally these bellies were ques-
toned about their reasons for pre-
ferring dispensaries to dancing
floors.
Lack of young men," was the
prompt explanation of one pretty
girl. II mean eligible young men
Weddings are getting fewer and
fewer The men just won't pro
pose, that's all, and l, for one,
don't mean to waste my life.
Think of the prospect. To stay
in Vineland year after year, grow
ing yes (defantly) = growing
older. Worse--to come at last to
come at last to the position of a
Vineland old maid" She shud-
dered at the spectacle her fancy
had conjured.
While the maids were thus be
moaning their future fates the
news of their plight was spreading.
The New York papers printed the
sad facts; the Western papers
copied the stories. Men in the
Montana mines, where nice girls
are far scarcer than royal flushes,
read the dispatches. Lonely ranch
men ditto.
Girls they cried. At least.
it's fair to suppose that they utter
that word of joy. Girls looking
for husbands! And here we've
been pining for the hand that
| rocks the let's writer'
And that WAS the beginning of
Vineland matrimonial agency, un-
incorporated - uncapitalized, too,
! unless skirted stock in trade be
rated as capital.
Letters? An avalanche of them
They came from the orange groves
of California, where the right kind
of blossoms grow; from the woods
OF the Northwest. where. it is said,
the choppers at once took to cut
ting hearts transfixed with arrows
on the trees, and from the region
of Butte, where they demanded
more beauts.
Farmers all over the West were
early in the field.
Il see the Vineland girls can't
get married." wrote f. b. Marsh.
He lives in a town in Wisconsin
that bears the deliciously appro-
pirate name of Spooner. There
are plenty Of chances for them
here. | am ID years old. L have
homestead clear and mony in the
bank. ! want a good woman. |
am not particular whether she is a
blonde or brunette. / rely entirely
upon your judgment in picking
me out wife from Nlneland's
many unmarried women. will
send whatever sum you name to
pay her travelling expenses. y
Mayor Conwell pondered long
over this epistle He sympathized
with Marsh. He drew mental
picture of the son of unspooney
Spooner driving to a railway sta
ton every day to await consign-
ment from the East. said consign-
ment being labeled: "One bride to
be. Right side up with care. c..
Q. d. But Conwell did not make
the letter public.
IF let the news of this offer
get around town. said he conf
dentlally to q friend, "Whered my
office be? Swamped. sir. swamped!
Think of the rush of spinsters.
every mothers daughter of them
demanding a ticket for Spooner"
Marsh did not wait for an ans
wer to his letter; he wrote another i.
Apparently he thought a Vineland
girl would be more willing to go to
him if she could have the compan-
ionship of other Vineland girls
bent on similar errands. So in
his second letter he said:
There are plenty of prosperous
men living near here who want
wives. If you will send on several
girls / will guarantee they get good
husbands. You will be paid lib
orally for your kind services. >