MEN WHO ADVERTISE FOR WIVES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 109, 5 June 1909, Page 3

MEN WHO ADVERTISE FOR WIVES.

PECULIAR REQUIREMENTS 01'' WOULD-BE BENEDICTS. Some ma rrv for money, some for beauty, but all eccentric old gentleman named Tasino, who lives in a village •hard by Naples, cares for neither looks nor beauty. Tired of single blessedness, he offered his hand and purse to the lady who could best cook his pet delicacy. macaroni. Tasino was reputed the richest man in the village, sp a great flutter was caused by. his announcement, and no fewer than l-'O ladies entered the contest. Tasino himself acted as judge, and a week later led the prize-wiuuer—a respectable middle-aged widow to the altar. AX HEIRESS PUIiEEIUIED. A study of matrimonial advertisements will reveal some queer "wants'" in the shape id both husbands and .wives. This is from a Bengal journal: "Wanted

for marriage, a fair girl Hindu, kayastha, for a graduate student. Very respectable. lusircisfi-apparent preferred. Address sharp, confidentially," etc. The word "kayasUitt" refers to caste, but the idea of a "fair Hindu" who is' an "heiress-apparent'' is distinctly amusing to Hritish ideas. The following requisition appeared in a local paper hailing from the West of England: "Wanted immediately, with view to matrimony, handsome, sporting young man. hiird rider, but not drinker; must Awn hunters." If tnis advertisement is not a joke, it must have been written by a lady who knew her own mind pretty thoroughly. It is seldom that you find *'o many requisitions succinctly s et forth in three lines. < !.v^' A BUS TO COOK AND WASH. They are pnictical folk in Australia. Listen to this from a Xew South Wales journal: "Wanted a wife; inuwt be able

to cook aAd wash. Lady preferred." This man, at any rate, wars honest, and no doubt many girls would much sooner trust themselves to nn advertiser of this kind than to one who angled for looks or money. 1 1 . , t Japanese matrimonial advertisements are the wry antithesis of the hard practicality of the Anglo-Saxon announcements. The Kanawaza Shimbve, a Japanese paper, hud an advertisement from a lady who, after describing her own personal charms and fortune in flowery language, ended, "If there is a gentleman who is clever, learned, handsome, and of good taste, I will join with him for life, and sliare the pleasure of being buried in the Maine grave."

LITTLE llt'T GOOD, Workhouse guardians not infrequently receive applications for wives. The Ecclcshall liourd considered one sneli. in which a Yorkshire 'working-man. who described himself as "steady, very homely, no drinker, and not quarrelsome.'' set forth his requirements in « letter. His chief anxiety seems tn have been that his' briiletoJbe should not be 100 fall. "IT you would lie kind enouuli." 'he wrote, "to supply me with her name and height of body—l moan she Jionhl not lie taller thnn five feet or so—and with aire and respectability. I would provide her with a verv new, comfortable home."'

j, 'I lie opinion of .an Irish tramp upon | the ideal wife is distinctly amusing. She ■should be, lie savs, "between forty and .fifty years of age, not hamlsoui" but temperate. She should ho able to walk twenty miles a day, and be good at begging bottles and' potatoes, and also at ballad-singing. She should not 'he quarrelsome, tint able to light a round or two. 11l defend :her husband wlicu ill action."

WIIJIjIXC! FOR A FOURTH. One is driven to wonder whether tliwo were any replies to this curious advertisement, ivhicli appeared in a Loudon daily paper: "Wanted, a respectable gentleman widower preferred to marry the housekeeper of an a"ed gentleman, whom lie would like lo see liaopilv married before Jie dies. She lias bad three husbands, but is willing for a fourth.' 1 If anyone did volunteer io nuke "number four," he was certainly 'braver than the average man. The following. whieli is taken ifrom the columns of a Xew York paper, appears to form an aimrooriate conclusion 10 an article of this kind:—"A young man of agreeable iiresenee, and desirous of getting married, would like to make the acquaintance of tin aged and experienced gentleman who could dissuade Qiini from taking (lie fatal steo."—TitJlits.