New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-04-19
WIFE HUNTS GO ON
In SPITE OF WAR
Berlin Finds but Little
Change in Matrimonial
Advertising.
PROPOSALS CONTAIN
MONEY DEMANDS
Lack of Eligible Young Men
Makes Women Less Exacting
in Choice of Husbands.

London, March 3O.-The "Deutsche
Tageszeitung" has discovered that wife
hunting by advertising has been little
affected by the war. "The war has
changed nothing in Berlin. 1t is rs
you were for u.s." says the Berliner,
and the "Tageszeitung," quoting this
monograph phrase, adds; "More's the
pity. A Sunday excursion through the
Blessed Fields NJ 6unday newspaper
shows US how very little certain bad
customs are affected by the war. The
innocent reader must note with anxiety
ths spring boom in the marriage ad-
vertisement market"
There is no shame about the bust
ness. 1t is open and barefaced and
seems to be taken as a matter OF course
that matrimony should be openly dis
cussed as a pure question OF market
value. The ordinary advertisement,
which may fill a column or more Of
some German papers, is stereotyped
after this fashion:
DROPERTIED Company OFFICIAL tan. distinguished
appearance. ~ years old seeks suitable com
paniol for lie Must have large fortune. No
anonymous communications and no agents.
The Hamburger Fremdenblatp pub
lished a column Of these last Saturday,
but in papers where the marriage adj
vertisements do not run to column
they are apt to appear under I'm
classified Advertisements" The war
has made a considerable difference IN
their character, and the number OF
girls or women with considerable for
tunes seeking suitable mates has great
ly increased, while the offers" from
young men have decreased.
The ladies are getting less particular
in their requirements. A girl with
$4,000 would hardly have advertised
before the war for anything less than
an Office of the army or navy or "a
civil official; now she will accept what
is TECHNICAL. described as a better
gentleman" if his social and financial
position" is assured. But the ladies in
Germany have now to devise more
striking appeals if they wish to be dis
tinguished from the ruck. Here is
sample quoted by the "Tageszeitung':
7 CALL sou. you who belong 10 me IN the world.
L You too, are seeking In marriage, a sanctuary.
band the best thing In NE. Here am.
Under this advertisement in much
smaller type follows the important
part Of il:
Il IA true I am forty-two years old but present
y ! shall have considerable fortune.
However, this type of advertisement
IS not altogether confined to the fair
sex. Here is an appeal on the same
lines from man:
| SEEK you. my friend and nv Wife simple ard
sunny nature. sou Viii hate he ordinary hgmbIg
~ '-. You viii love nature and all that is natural
All that | am and desire HilI give purpose % your
existence.
This prodigy only requires a few
thousands with his wife, but the eX-
plenetion follows in the usual small
print:
81 cannot say l am without blemish,
but stilP--
"Shop-soiled, in fact, and going at
great reduction" as the "Deutsche
Tageszeitung" observes.
Some of the advertisements are su-
perbly impudent. Here is fair speci-
men:
UANTED--Noble. Christian young lazy to pro-
w vide young academician With opportunity 10
study music. Marriage Included
The marriage column is in almost al
cases followed by shy selection of pri-
vate detective advertisements Herr
SO-and-So, lately of the police force.
undertakes to discover If the goods are
up to sample and to detect the shop
soiled gentleman who has not the
honesty TO describe himself as such,
or, as the "Tageszeitung" puts it, Ito
inspect the teeth OF the young lady"