YOUNG LADY TO BE-RAFELED FOR

Dunstan Times, Issue 592, 22 August 1873, Page 3

YOUNG LADY TO BE-RAFELED FOR

In hymeneal matters, as in other things, the Americans are ahead of us. ‘ Our cute cousins appear to have commenced raffling for their wives. The brilliant idea first entered the head of a Chico belle, and she at once used the local journals to inform the ' male sex on what terms she was at their disposal. She announced that she was to be raffled for, and in a business-like way went.on to describe the charms and qualities that made her a desirable prize. We find from her advertisement that she is just twenty-one and a brunette ; handsome, talented, and attractive. Indeed, her reason for putting herself up to be raffled for is not, she assures the public, a lack of offers iff marriage, but merely her fastidious taste, which is tickled with none of the eligible husbands ready to her hand. Then follows the plan she proposes to adopt. She proposes to give the male public 100,000 chances, at a dollar a chance, thus valuing herself at about 20,000/., which is no doubt a moderate price fur such an original young lady. Directly the chances are disposed of the drawing is to take place, and the gen-' tleman holding the lucky number will bec ime her husband, it—and here comes an important reservation she approves of him. If not, it is arranged she shall pay him a solution of 500 dollars, and see what she thinks of the next on the list. In any case, this ingenious young lady of Chicago is likely to make something out iff her original proposal, and it is not surprising to hear that the dollar, chances are being rapidly disposed of. It remains to be seen whether this latest Yankee notion will reach across the Atlantic. But, however much it may shock our insular susceptibilities, we must remember that the Yankee girl who puts herself up to be raffled for of her own free will is not in reality so bad a case, after all, us mony an English girl who is taken by her mercenary parents iuto the marriage market, and deliberately sold to the highest bidder.