Los Angeles herald., 1905-12-10

| typhoid fever and an enforced resi-
dence il. Bellevue hospital during three
months of convalescencc had brought
home TO him the tragic need of wife
or folks ito visit fellow when he
is sick"
The Third One
Here the tap, tap, tap of the hand OF
the door interrupted Mr.. Mudge's flow
of tallS-for Nudge was his name-and
after promising that ] would give his
| proposition due consideration he de-
parted to make way for Mr.. Cornhill.
Mr.. COrnhill was a ministerial look
ing young man who wore eyeglasser
and a pale blue necktie. He earned a
| livelihood by collecting outstanding
debts for doctors and dentists. Like
the others I had met, he was affable,
respectful and sef-respecting. Before
| he departed he also had extracted q
promise that | would consider his Gre
dentials as "a possible husband. l told
| him | would, and so ! did.
Mr.. Cornhill was succeeded by an ell
derby thin gentleman with a wen on
the top of his head. He kept a small
shop he told me, and his name was
Griggs He had not much to offer d
woman either in wealth or good looks
but he was honest and had no bad
habits, and such as he was he was
willing to offer for better or worse. But
| told Mr. Griggs, as gently as possible
that his age was against him, as L had
placed my maximum at forty-five years,
and his We're sixty and odd.
After Grlggs came a nOndescript
young man who sold groceries in a de-
partment store and was very lonely
He extracted promise that 1 should
| enter into correspondence with him.
Then came Mr.. Merrill travelling sales
man for hardware firm. He had not
been in the city long and he offered a
neat little flat and loving heart to al
most any sort of good woman to
whom such commodities might be ac-
ceptable.
The Last Seems Best
The last candidate, one named Will
liam Catlin, seemed the most feasible
Mr.. Catlin was good looking, talked
| well and dressed even better than he
talked. He was a mechanical draughts-
man, made good wages, and gave a
thousand evidences of having come
from family of gentle birth and breed
ing. Whatever brought him to a matrl-
| monlal bureau to seek a wife will al
ways remain a mystery to me. He him
self explained it by the very plausible
theory that marriage is a lottery any
way and you cannot take any more
of chance in patronizing matri-
monial bureau than if you had courted
a girl for five years in her own par
lor."
And perhaps William Catlin is right
l do not know. | went to the matri-
monial bureau to scoff and | came
away from it that night tentatively en-
gagged to three men quite up to the av-
erage in good breeding, looks and gen
eral intelligence.
These three men have all written me
since that night, They have written
me through the matrimonial agency
and in the letters they have given me
their real names. Those they used
when introduced in the parlors OF the
bureau We're fictitious, as is allowable
under the rules and regulations. IN
yestigating their several cases | have
discovered that each one of this trio
turns out to be the man he claimed
to be. Each name Is I'm the directory
with the corresponding address at.
tached.
/ do not know what To do. They
seem decent, honest and eminently in
earnest, and l am twenty seven years
cid and have never before had a pro-
pOsal of marriage. Truly matrimonial
temptations of the penniless spinster
are manifold and all compelling. !
certainly should not blame any other
spinster, similarly situated, We're she
to accept one or the other of this trio.
l may do so myself before l am through
negotiating with Sharp and Williams.