The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-08-29
THE MARRIAGE TRADE
WORK OF BUREAU FOR PRorEC-
 TON OF MATCHMAKING.
A Big Concern Which Makes a Busi- ness of Bringing Together Parties
 Matrimonially Inclined.

New York Tribune.
 An institution flourlshes in New York which gives the lie to two well known and more or less accepted axioms-"mar- riages are made in Heaven" though marriage is lottery" Any one of the twenty clerks employed by this particular institution will tell you that marriage Is a business just as much as selling groceries or dry goods The proprietor of the concern. if he wants to take you into his confidence. can tell you that it is an exeremely profitable busi- ness.
 Life is before you" he says in his off, cial announcement to the world. Your happiness and your prosperity depend largely on whom you marry. While you are waiting. for just the right one to cross your path a hundred are ready to be in- troduced if we have your permission. Broader fields and greater opportunities are opened up for you. Marriage and the selection of the right partner for life's joys and sorrows are by no means a mat ter of minor importance. By these meth- ods certainly in a few weeks more oppor- tunities are furnished both the judgment and the heart for a wise selection than by a lifetime of ordinary opportunities. !"
 This aluring prospect is held out to both men and women on the payment of an initiation fee of S. In addition one prom
  ment the amount of half one months in- come or wages In case an engagement does not result. the preliminary $5 is not returned.
 The marriage bureau operates on a wholesale scale. It has introduced one hundred thousand men who were hanker- ing to become benedicts to one hundred thousand women who were not nverse to changing their names. From fifteen 10 twenty marriages a week. it is said, re- suit from the bureaus efforts. Two large buildings are necessary for it's offices, the storage of cabinet photographs and de- scriptions, and for the reception rooms in which patrons meet and look each other over. The bureau can make acquaint- ances ''of any religion or nationality, among laboring or literary people. rich or poor young or old, and in almost any locality" Besides, 1t claims to be "the surest, most direct safest, and by all means the most economical"
 There are thorns in every path, how ever and there are several in the road to rich husbands and wifes. The first and most striking is that charge for ex- tra service" is demanded from those who are intent on marrying money.
 q want rich husband" says the shop girl. who calls at the bureau after a hard days work.
 How rich?" questions the man behind the desk.
 One with a million will do fne," she smiles.
 You cannot get something for noth- ing" the man reminds her gently. and he hands out a scale of prices.
 "Persons requesting that they be intro duceds only to those possessing means pay an additional advance fee of g for each $1.000 required not in excess of 5000, and $1 for each $1.0O0 in excess of s, ,O0O and receive extra attention" Is the way it reads.
 The girl began to figure on the rrouo- sition. She found that it would cost her no less than $1,015 for a millionaire hus- band It was too much! She figured then on half a millionaire. but he was out of reach. She returned to the man at the desk.