THE MATRIMONIAL NEWS.

Auckland Star, Volume II, Issue 352, 24 February 1871, Page 2

THE MATRIMONIAL NEWS.

(FBOM THE " SFECTATOB.") The l'ttle boys who started out of the mud when the Echo was born to sell that paper, and who constilute a'ready a feature in London )'fe, p~e getting overloaded with odd publications. They are not bed little though they iright pay more respect to civilization in the matter of breeches, and have not quite pi adequate sense of the dignity of labour, ha\ing advised a vei/ advoit method of beg o lng. They don't beg, they despise that: but if a " black," that is pn individual in broad cloth, buys an Echo and stops for his change, they suggest in the most insinuating of whines that he had better ta'ce two copies, a hvit on which ho often 8 3ts by walking off without Ms copper, whereupon tholutle salesman winks, exultlngly executes a war dance, and if we are not utterly mistaken, proceeds to some kind of a division of spoil, the financial principle of which we should exceedingly l;ke to understand. However the " Echo boy :> is not a bad Hfclle fel'ow, though troublesome; he always does give change "if you ask for it; he is never insolent, considering himself in the light of a tradesman and you bis customer ; and he ha 9 a notion of keopiug b's capital moving, which inspires vivid hopes as to hisfinancirl future. If he would only leave offselling illustrated papers, al< legs aud garters vilely draw,), he might become quite a respectable institution. Turning over nine penced three times a day, as some of these children do, is hard work, and it is hardly the fault' of a chid at seven yenrs of age that he makes such a profit out of the very doubtful publications included v, Ith" :a his stock-in-trade. Eecently he has taken t, selling.alt plong the Strand a publication called the Matrimonial News, which we advise any reader cuvlous in sociil oddities t, buy and lock up for a gonerafon. It wi'l then bo worth money to pny histoiiun or man curious in customs, who will doubtless base on it very learued end very erroneous ideas as to the manners of the English in 1870. It is a very little paper, not by my meeus too well printed, costing 2d, filled with advertisements alone, and with advertisements of one kind alone, namely, people who want to be raaivied ; yet it is, as far as we can gather, perfectly "respectable." There is no trace in it of New York Herald ways, noue of the advertisements of assignations, or demands for mistresses which thatjouvanl in its colutriu of " personp.V 1 does not, or recently d'd not, scruple to publish. The editor, perhaps instmietcd by some experience iv the NorJh ofEnglpnd, where most respectable journals have been compelled to give way to an incessant demand, seems to have formed a notion that t>n enormous number of persons of both sexes me

inclined to rnrr 7, aud cannot get nia::ied for want of introduction-. He accordingly mates introductions the purpose of bis paper, tnvas it into a kind of Matrimonial Exchange pnd Barter Gazette, or as lie put 3 it, " a journel devoted to the promotion of Mairiage and Conjugal Felicity;" and he succeeds. Week after week the papers comes out, -with one page filled by a wasky feui'.'eton —usua^y full of vulgar abuse of rearriage, but otherwise unobjectionable,—and of old news, end seven pages of advertisements from people who wont to get married. It is quite impossible that these seven pages e.~ c filled wltb. clirnsy jokes, that anybody should be fool enough. 1o spend his money in circulating a paper which, as a joke, would not sell, f.nd as a paper could not be read, and there 13 nothing in them to attract any but those interested. I'any value is to be attached to intern rl cv.den"?, the advertisements are genuine ; and if they are genuine, hundreds of men and women in this London of ours adveiiise for wives and husbands in the most direct style, in a badly-p;inted little paper, sold by ragged little boys up and down the Strand. What do they do it for ? We repeat, for it is eesentie! to our puvpose, there is no tra^e fn the Matrimonial Neivs of any improper or illicit purpose whatever. The paper itself, though vulgar, is es clean as Islington could desire, admissable in any family under any theory of manners j and in the three numbers before us, out of many hundred edverlieemeuts, only two even suggest a doubt as to their purpose and those two may be, and posibly are, as honest as the remainder. The mass of advei tisements, if we can judge at 9.11 of such documents, are honest, thickskinned advertisements for goods—namely, husbands and wives — inserted by people who rea"'y want the avcicles they profess to want. Wuy do they want them, or rather, why do they adopt this singular means of rnak'ug known their want ? That a s.ray man here and there should be so cut off u'om society by circumstances, or habits, or temperament as to welcome the Matrimonial Newi as a method of introduction i 3 easily conceivable, and that a pprt'.cula" class of women should be tempted by it we can, without much effoit, believe. The world at largo scarcely knows how life, iv the nvddle class, sometimes closes up, how utterly without s quir'nt^'ico, or ■"riends, or change a family of girls may be. The father is, perhaps, a retiring miin, the mother content with home, the tone of the house evangelical, aud the whole house, consequently, as secluded as ?£ its inmates were vowed to some Order. The proportion of girls, too, who not only never ran »y, but never receive sn offer, is now so vevy fe"*e^t, the well-known dispouty of the sexes being mainly in one class, that we can scarcely wonder at any effort, however outre, to widen the area of chance ever so little. We csm perfectly imagine an exceptional effoifc to break up that 9tate of affairs by breaking through, rules ; but it is not equally easy to divrie why men, presumably educated cid able to niariy, should in Bcores be driven, or allow themselves to be driven by others, tro so unusvial and iuipei&et a device. There have been dozen?, we spe^k literally, of advertisements from clergymen, professionals, well-to-do people of a" sorts and kinds, in the Matrimonial News. What, for example, can be the meaning of this advertisement ?—

" A gentlenipn holding tlie rank of Major in the Indian army, having on income of £1200 per annum, wishes to meet with a lpdy, aged from 25 to 30, who would not object to go to India in a fesr months. She must be a lady by bl' ih and education, musicf 1, of an affectionate disposition, who could appreciate a kind husband, with private me-ns, which would be settled on herself. As this ; i a lon-x fide advertisement, every inquiry will be accorded to the family solicitor." The Major may bo a little getting into years, but an Indian Major ought not to be above 45, and majors of that age are not habitually rejected by women of 30, with no objection to go out to India. What brings lrm down to an advertisement which, though in itself unobjectionable, is, after all, a very stupid mode ef avoiding rather than securing the privilege of selection ? Or, supposing the advertisement genuine, what can by possibility be the meaning of this ? " A gentleman aged 37, barrister-at-law, hold? ig a very important appointment (upwprds of £1500 a year) in jl.M.'s Civil Service, aid having early prospects of yet higher distinction, would be happy to correspond with any lady (not a widow), who would appreciate a really good husband. This a lvertisemont being genuine, the -advertiser will afford the utmost facility for p.ny inqui"y through the agency of solicitors." Just reflect for a moment what the English middle-clr^s is like, what hundreds of givls there must be in it who, if that advertiser is not rnendurably hideous, or utterly tainted in character, or subject to some equal disqualification, would be only too happy to be the objects of bis choice. We venture to say he bos only to go to 9ny county town in England, fo tell anybody who knows his position, no matter how d'stant an acquaintance, his object, and he w'U be overwhelmed with iui 'oductions to g'Hs much n:cer than a iy he is at p..l likely to come across by advertisement. But still he advertises. At least that is the statement of the editor, who follows up firs bn't with one st'U mor6 tempting :— "A young merchant in Manchester, aged twenty-four, and having a comfortable income, wsuts to settle. He would like a young lady about twenty, fair and nice looking ; must be of good family, and well educated." Manchester man of twenty-fouv, and comfortable income, advertising for a wife ! The tlv.ag looks impossible, yet'there it is, with no appearance about ie of invention or design to swind'e. Fere Is another of the most business"ke k Jnd :— "A gentleman, aged about fifty, and having an income of about £500 a-yeai*, "would like to eoi/espoud with some lady of suitable age and position." And another, in which theadveitiser positively belongs to the olp-js most " run after'1 by marrigeable ymng women in the whole country, is a man who has only to pick and choose among the embroidered sappers sent to h;m : " A clergyman, aged 28, with a rice living, good residence, nnd well corncct.ed, wishes to roa.y, and would like to correspond with a young laly under 30 yeau of age, aud havin» some property of her own." ' A clergyman, W, da'-k, handsome, age 1 about 30, whose present ; 'icome is £150, would J'';o to coirespond with a loveable lady, from 20 to 35 ycii'-a of ago, with some means in her own r:ght. He would like to exchange cartes with 747 or 491."

Orllrs:— ' "A gentleman, aged 35, highly connected and in bu*; uess as a wine-merchant, would lit' io coiTespond with some lady under 30. JT lias a good income, and a private country house." Or this:— " A. young gentleman, 27, Christian prnci. pies, highly respected, good appearance, and beplthy, would l;ke to correspond witli a sensible young lady, with a T.".evr to matrhnonv" Will No. 821ob'''ge?" °ny< We have taken b?1 these almost at random from a pmgle number of the Matrimonial Keitis, 29th October, and we agah ask, who can these men be Pls there someth;-jg against each of them, or is it rer'ly the fact that there are hundreds of men in England with means to mnvry, occupying positions which girls y\ t who have notthe couvjge, or the opportunity' or the acquairtance to enable them t; choow for themselves ? Wi'ich of these things, in a society choked wi'h young women who onght to be mf rrled, end pom the overplus of theinumbers never w:'l be, is it that is lackiigp After much consideration, the w Iter is com. peUed to confess that he is utterly at halt, that no answer really satisfies Fs mind. A f?;end near h-m euggests that there ere bashful yoirig men ?n the world; but, pfor a 1!, a man who advertises for a bride coiresponds with her, meets her at the office of the Matrimonial 2feivs, and commences conversation by a tacit betrothal, can hardly be seriously troubled with that disease. T There is no harm that we know of in that -- mode of obtaiuing aa introduction, even on the womau's side, nor do wo precisely see why it should be so constantly pronounced immodest. Young women do wish to many, and in saying co they break through nothing but an extremely tbm, aid on the whole, very' ' worthless conventionality. But then it is for both parties such on extremely stupid and unreasonable mode of seeking their end, involv'.ng a possibility oi scrapes, a certainty either of limited choice or of mo3t mortifying refusals. The mode is especially stupid as regards the mau. A woman's choice is plwayg more or less Umitrd, extending at the uttermost only to those who a3k her; bnt.the. " beneficed youug clergyJien of 30, with dork whiskers, and 5 feet 10 inches," has tke whole world before him in which to make his own selection, yet he advertises here. "We had intended to draw up on account of the almost equally curious qualifications demanded by the applicants to the Matrimonial News, but, afier all, it is not worth while, Three leading points only may be noted. The woman seldom asks anything in her future lover except means to marry, and " kindness," of which, by the way, his answer can give her no idea whatever, the following being almost typical advertisements : — " A young lady, age 25, well-coniected, accomplished, and of good appearance, would correspond with a gentleman hav:ng meaus to maintain a wife. She ha 3no property, but j is of an affectionate disposition, and would devote herself to the interests of a kind husband." " A young lady, under 25, of good familyl and education, amiable, cheerful, warni"hearled, and loreablc, would like to oonres*--' pond with some gentleman with comfortable means, willing to marry a lady on the basis of love only. She has no money."