Chapter V: Preface (5)

There are today in the United States no less than 50,000 women who have been married, robbed and deserted by "professional bigamists." This fact represent the most serious phase of the matrimonial agency swindle, for it is the history of nearly all noted bigamists that they secured their victims through the matrimonial agencies. Of the thousands who become subscribers to these agencies, however, comparatively few ever proceed far enough to encounter the tragic features of the swindle. It might be inferred from this that women are much easier to entice into matrimony than men. Probably, however, this is an untenable conclusion. When a woman does start on marrying bent, mere men fall before her like grain before the sickle. Miss Marion Rapp, arrested at Philadelphia, is known to have secured eight husbands in three years, and is suspected of having captured six or eight more. Miss Rapp is still young, and if her career had not been untimely cut off she might have made a record that would have done credit (or discredit) to her sex.

The sad experiences of people who have been victimized by gay deceivers, male or female, perhaps contain a lesson to persons who carelessly contemplate matrimony. When a stranger proposes marriage at first sight it may possibly be well to take a look into his or her antecedents. This is not the most romantic way to proceed, but it is a way that may have a great practical advantage. It probably would be endorsed by every one of the 50,000 women in this country who are now looking for professional bigamists who married them and ran away with their cash.

That the matrimonial agency business is not confined to Chicago and dupes of the system are found elsewhere than in rural communities and among the poor and humble is demonstrated by recent revelations in Europe. During one raid I seized a large quantity of literature in the offices of a swindling concern doing business under the name of Mason, Brown & Co. The "firm" advertised itself as the largest of its kind in the world and the only one "indorsed by press and public and patronized by royalty," adding that its "clients and representatives were to be found in every land."

In extra large type the information was conveyed to the victim that he or she need not be ashamed to resort to the agency method in order to secure a life partner, as the royalty of Europe used this means exclusively in contracting marriages, especially in cases where American heiresses were sought as wives for titled but impecunious foreigners.

When it was casually remarked during an examination of a wagon load of Mason, Brown & Company's advertising matter the reference to the titles and heiresses was the only true statement it contained, there were smiles of incredulity. American millionaires were said to be too shrewd and level-headed to enter into deals with marriage brokers when the life happiness of their fair and independent daughters is concerned.

It was but a short time after this conversation, however, that the following cablegram was published:

THE CASE OF COUNT LARISCH.

"Aug. 25th, 1905: The alleged attempt to blackmail Count
Franz Joseph Maria Von Larisch Monnich out of 200,000 marks
on a pre-nuptial note alleged to have been signed by the
count, and the implication of army officers and members of
the aristocracy in the marriage brokerage business, has
caused more talk in high circles than anything which has
happened since the elopement of Crown Princess Louise of
Saxony."

It is said the Kaiser had to take a hand in the matter, and insists that this business shall be stopped finally and effectively on the ground it is bringing the army and nobility into disrepute and ridicule.

The harm done by these agencies is almost incalculable. Foolish women having money at their disposal fall easy victims to the many scheming scoundrels who make a practice of subscribing to the matrimonial agencies for the purpose of securing the addresses of prospective victims.

As instances of the harm done by these matrimonial agencies the case of Johann Hoch, who married fifty women, and after securing all their money, either poisoned or deserted them. He was captured in New York City, January 30, 1905, after he had married a woman in Chicago, Mary Schultz, alias Brees, alias Bauman, poisoned her, then made love to her sister, married her, secured what money she had and deserted her. Hoch was brought back to Chicago, tried for murder, convicted and hung February 23 1906. This is a glaring example.

"Ten dollars extra, cabby. If you catch the train with her. She's my mother-in-law."]

The case of Fredrick Carlton, indicted on two charges of grand larceny in Brooklyn, New York, July, 1905, is another.

It is stated on what seems to be reliable authority this man made the acquaintance of women in various parts of the country through the medium of matrimonial advertisements, married them and decamped with their money at the first favorable opportunity. Still another:

Dr. George A. Witzhoff, champion bigamist, arrested in Bristol, England, October, 1905, for bigamy and given a long term in prison. He was wanted in many cities in the United States.

Witzhoff confessed to marrying and robbing thirty-two women. Most all of the women he married lived in the United States, and were secured through the matrimonial agencies.

WITZHOFF'S CONFESSION--BOUGHT FIFTEEN WIVES FROM ONE AGENT--TAKES $4,000 FROM HIS FIRST WIFE.

"Then, one night, after indulging in plenty of wine, she
confessed she had a child in Pittsburg. I left her there,
telling her I was going to bring her child, which was nine
years old. Instead, I went to New York with her money
($4,000), and paid my friend part of his money, and started
a practice as a dentist in Fourteenth street as Dr. A. R.
Houser. I went to see a matchmaker. He introduced me to a
widow of means. We got married in two weeks at the City
Hall, New York.

"She had all her money loaned away, so I was compelled
to seek another one, as Sig. Badillo was hard after his
balance of $1,000.

"I went, to Philadelphia and got a Jewish matchmaker again
on Fifteenth street and Fairmount avenue, and he introduced
me to a Miss Jocker as Dr. A. Houser.

"I got $800 from her. I paid Badillo $500 and left for
Springfield, Mass., where a woman answered one of my ads. I
inserted an 'ad.' as follows:

"'A professional gentleman of nice appearance, aged
thirty-two, desires the acquaintance of a sincere,
affectionate lady, with some means; object, matrimony;
triflers ignored. Give particulars in first letter. Address
Busy Bee, the Journal.'

"I had about twelve answers to this advertisement, and I
picked out a boarding house mistress, and ten days after
she was Mrs. Westfield, and as she was a vulgar woman,
I left her two days after. She had given me $500 before
marriage.

"I returned to New York to wife No. 2, and a week after I
went to St. Louis and inserted an 'ad.' as previously, and
got fifteen answers. There I selected a farmer's daughter
and married her as Dr. Doesser. I married and left her all
within a week.

"I came to Detroit, and with her money, $350, I started
a dental practice as A. Houser. In answer to my
advertisements in a German paper, Mrs. Piser came.

"We went to Toledo, O., five days after our first
interview, and we got married. I left her six days after.

"I came now to Pittsburg, as Dr. Wolfe, got a furnished
room in Allegheny. In answer to an 'ad.' in a German paper
a sexton's daughter answered, the ugliest I ever had. Three
days after we went to the justice of the peace and got
married."

DESERTS WIFE AFTER THE FIRST DAY.

"There I slept the first night, and the next morning I
was on my way to Cleveland, and started a nice practice
with the $150 I had left. I paid the balance to my friend,
Badillo, and inserted an 'ad.' in the Plain-Dealer.

"I had two answers to my 'ad.,' and selected a Mrs. Moore,
a nurse, and a Mrs. Kreidman. I got from the nurse $100,
and was making love to Mrs. Kreidman and Mrs. Moore, when I
got a letter from wife No. 3, with whom I corresponded all
the time, telling her I traveled for a firm.

"So I left, and forgot that I left in Cleveland a paper
under the tablecloth which had my address in Brooklyn. One
morning (ten days after I left Cleveland) two detectives
came to the house in Brooklyn and arrested me. As there
was no bail for my offense (obtaining money under false
pretenses), I returned to Cleveland a week later, and there
I married a bad woman in jail, Mrs. Kreidman.

"She gave $200 bond, but I left her four days after, as she
was a bad woman. I slept one night at her house, and three
days after I went to Chicago and went to see a matrimonial
agent at 55 Washington street.

IDENTIFIED IN CHICAGO; WEDDING STOPPED.

"He introduced me to a nice Jewess, and her father gave me
$400. I started an office on Fourteenth street, when a man
from Philadelphia recognized me, and told her father, a rag
dealer, that I was a married man, named Hausen, just in
time to prevent the marriage.

"I left Chicago as Dr. Weston and went to St. Louis, where
I started an office in Olive street as Dr. A. Dresser, and
there I advertised and selected from a number of letters
that of a farmer's daughter that had $1,000, and married
her (Katie). Six days after I left her and left America and
went to Roumania, and married a girl, a Jewess, in Pitest,
and lived in Roumania as Dr. F. A. Shotz.

"Happy six months; I got 3,000 francs, and we left for
Germany. There we had a quarrel, and she returned to her
parents."

Dr. Witzhoff further states that the number of all the girls and women he merely promised to marry and secured money from would reach over one hundred.

One of the women Witzhoff married lived in Chicago, Ill.

May 13, 1903, John J. Marietta (alias Homer C. Reid, Harold C. Mills, A. S. Anderson, C. H. Huston, C. B. McCoy, H. C. Jones, Harold C. Reed) was arrested through exposure by Laura E. Strickler, a beautiful young girl from Cincinnati, Ohio, who boarded at the Young Women's Association, Chicago. She had been lured to the Newport Hotel, 73 Monroe street, where he proposed marriage and attempted liberties. Miss Strickler became frightened, jumped from the second story window and was badly injured.

Marietta married no less than six women, three of whom, Sophia Headley, Marie Butler and Flora Beals, appeared in court to prosecute him September 28. He was convicted. Judge Brentano's court of bigamy, and given five years in the Joliet penitentiary.

Marietta said he secured most of his wives through the marriage agency. Mills said to Miss Headley, after meeting her the second time: "How anxious are you to marry me? Make me an offer in cash of the sum you are willing to settle on me." "Three thousand dollars," she answered. "All right," he replied, "but you know I am from Missouri, you will have to show me." She gave him the $3,000 and they were married.

At the time of his conviction Marietta had in the bank $25,000, said to have been secured in the above manner.

BREAKING INTO THE NOBILITY.

HOW TITLED RAKES USE THE AGENCIES.

The marriage bureau is not a distinctly American institution. They know the animal in Europe, only there the operators refer to themselves as marriage brokers, and are decidedly more careful than their American prototypes to steer clear of crime.

The idea of marriage broking has thoroughly permeated the effete nobility of Europe. The broken-down "nobles," out at heels and buried under a mountain of debt, look to America for a rich heiress to whom their titles may be sold. For many years they looked to the brokers on their own side of the water to provide them with golden girls; but of late years they have been mixing with the American Matrimonial Agencies, sometimes to their sorrow, as attest the case of Count Larisch.

WOES OF COUNT LARISCH.

The story of the attempt on Count Larisch is not an unusual one. Briefly, the count, who is an Austrian, but who has estates in Prussia, was anxious to replenish his treasury by marrying an heiress. A syndicate composed of the men now under indictment, it is said, financed him. He set out to marry the daughter of Faber, the multi-millionaire pencil manufacturer of Nuremberg, giving his notes for $50,000, payable upon his marriage to Fraulein Faber. The venture was a failure, for Fraulein Faber did not care to become Countess Larisch. The noble fortune-hunter then went to America in quest of a bride. Whether it was on his own account, or under the auspices of another marriage syndicate, does not appear, though it is hinted the latter is the case. In any event, he was successful, and married Miss Satterlee, of Titusville, Pa.

On his return the members of the first Faber syndicate demanded payment, and presented a note purporting to have been given by Larisch without the qualification that it was payable only after his marriage to the pencil manufacturer's daughter. Larisch, regarding the Faber affair a closed incident, and declaring the note presented a forgery, refused to pay. The matter got before the public prosecutor and the exposé resulted.

LORD BERTIE CAVENDISH--CHAMPION MATRIMONIALIST.

Oct. 24, 1905, Miss Gladys Simmons, Hot Springs, Ark., married Lord Bertie Cavendish after two days' acquaintance. He represented himself to be of noble birth, son of the late Marquis of Queensbury, and to have immense possessions in South Africa and Mexico, which he was unable to obtain on account of his banishment from England for serving against the British in the Boer war, due to the activity of British army officers against him.

Miss Simmons' mother received information that her son-in-law's name was not Lord Bertie Cavendish, but Douglass. By photographs and further investigation his identity was established as that of an adventurer.

Following is a partial list of his wives, several of whom have asked the court to grant them divorces:

Miss Louisiana Hobbs, Lambert Point, Va., near Norfolk.

Mrs. Mabel Duncan, Denver, Colo.

Mrs. Scott, South Bend, Ind.

Mrs. Beatrice E. Anderson, Fort Worth, Texas.

MARKET FOR AMERICAN HEIRESSES.

There has been more than one similar scandal involving members of the high nobility and rich American girls.

It will be remembered last year there was a stir created by The broadcast announcement that Prince Hugo Von Hohenche-Oehringen, Prince Heinrich Von Hanan and Baron Berhard-Muenhausen, accused an Englishman, O'Brien, who was alleged to be the agent of Berlin marriage brokers, of attempted blackmail.

Among the Americans whose names are said to be on the list of this marriage syndicate, without their personal knowledge or consent, are the Misses Angelica and Mabel Gerry, the Misses Nora and Fannie Iselin, the Misses Adeline and Electra Havemeyer, Mrs. Lewis Rutherford Morris, formerly Miss Katherine Clark, daughter of Senator Clark, of Montana; Mrs. Francis Burton Harrison, formerly Miss Mary Crocker, daughter of Mrs. George W. Crocker; Miss Dorothy Whitney, the Misses Beatrice and Gladys Mills, Miss Gwendolyn Burden, and the Misses Florence and Ruth Twombly.

GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS ROUSED TO MANY FRAUDS BY THE MATRIMONIAL AGENCIES AND BUREAUX THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY, "AGENCIES" TO PUT UNDER BAN THE SWINDLING OPERATIONS.

MRS. JENNIE SCOTT, ARRESTED BY POSTAL INSPECTORS, TELLS SECRETS OF HER MATRIMONIAL AGENCY.

The second blow has been struck against the affinity trust, of Chicago, and the second member of the alleged trust in Chicago, Mrs. Jennie Scott, a woman of many aliases, by Postoffice Inspector James E. Stuart.

This woman was arrested at her home, at 214 Thirty-second street, her "Cupid shop," where she received thousands of letters, descriptions and photographs of affinity seekers from all over the United States and Canada. She received them in the name of "Glinn's International Corresponding Association," to join which from $2 to $5 was drawn from each affinity. Thousands joined.

SAME LITERATURE USED AS IN MARION GREY CASE.

Postoffice Inspectors A. E. Germer and Frank Sheron worked up the case against the woman and discovered that the same literature was used by this woman as was used by Marion Grey, convicted for the misuse of the mails in operating an affinity matching business at Elgin.

There were some changes, however, in the method. This is shown in the literature sent out by this woman. Her literature explains to the affinities that the business is absolutely honest and above board, and must be kept so. Under "special reduced rates," she drew in hundreds of women clients, many of whom sent in their pictures.

Mrs. Scott operated also at 2208 Wabash avenue, where she had a room for receiving mail. She was known not only as Mrs. Scott, but as E. L. Glinn, Mrs. Jennie Call, Mrs. A. M. Harvey and Mrs. E. L. Glinn. She lived on Thirty-second street, with her young daughter.

CLIENTS ALL WEALTHY; TAKE THEIR WORD FOR IT.

Almost every client on the books of this marriage-fostering concern claimed to be worth from $5,000 to £1,000,000 sterling.

Many of them were alleged to have large incomes. Some were said to have children and are not to be divorced, but still seek life partners.

WITNESSES NEED A SHEPHERD.

Then, from among the queer little party huddled together on the benches at the rear of the big court room--a helpless, shepherdless flock--Mr. Shirer began to call out his witnesses.

First of the hungering souls who sought life companions through Mrs. Scott came Mrs. Mary Quinn, of Trenton, Ill., a short, dumpy little person of about thirty-five or forty, who was chiefly remarkable for the white hat she wore.

"I saw the ad.," she whispered--it was with the greatest difficulty that Judge Bethea induced her to talk so she could be heard ten feet away--"and I answered it. They sent me back a circular and a photograph of a nice-looking fellow who was said to be rich.

"I sent my $2 and wrote that I would like to get into correspondence with him. They sent me back word that he was corresponding with another lady just then, and didn't want any more names at present, but there was another one just as good.

NICE LETTERS LACK RICH TONE.

"I corresponded with him until three weeks before I remarried my divorced husband, last December. He wrote very nice letters, but he certainly didn't sound rich."

"You got what you asked for, didn't you?" asked Mr. Murphy.

"Oh, yes, I guess so; I'm not complaining."

The uncomplainingness of the alleged victims is the odd feature of the case.

Marion Grey, Pretty Love Broker, Who Was Sentenced to a Year in Prison]

Dr. Montgomery Porter, a graduate of the University of Arkansas, came all the way from his home in Pine Bluff, to say that he had answered one of Mrs. Scott's advertisements but had not paid the $5 fee, "which she charged the men members."

Porter C. Dyer, a graduate of the Ohio State University, who lives in Austin, O., said that he paid the fee and was disappointed, "because the names sent were not those of refinement and culture, as promised in the circulars."

Mrs. Flora Scott, a restaurant keeper at Middleport, O., tall and not particularly stylish, couldn't recall what any of the circulars said, but she was quite sure she hadn't landed a rich husband yet.

SOUTHERN BEAUTY SENDS $2.

The handsomest of the witnesses was Miss Avis Christenberry, a stately brunette from Memphis, who rather liked the looks of the rich young man's photograph used for bait and sent in $2.

"They told me he was corresponding with some one else just then," she testified, "and I corresponded with two substitutes, but they didn't entertain me much."

Wilson Schufelt, a real estate man, said that he had rented the matrimonial headquarters to "Mrs. A. M. Harvey" for a mail order house business. Mrs. Harvey got her mail under the names of Glinn and Hill, and when the postal authorities became interested in her she told Schufelt that her name was Jennie Scott. At her home, 214 East Thirty-second street, she is known as Mrs. Jennie Call.

She was indicted under the name of Glinn. It was testified by E. J. Beach, superintendent of the Twenty-second street sub-postal station, that the matrimonial agency received from 50 to 200 letters every day.

She was arraigned before Judge Bethea and found guilty, on April 25, 1908, and was sentenced to one year in the House of Correction, and was fined $500.

THE HORRIBLE GUNNESS FARM.

THE RIPENED FRUIT OF THE MATRIMONIAL AGENCY.

But the giant blossom of this plant of hell is not bigamy, not swindling, not desertion; it is murder, wholesale, ghastly murder. For it is the matrimonial agency, nothing else, which is directly responsible for the unbelievable horrors of the Gunness Murder Farm, at Laporte, Ind., the revelation of the existence of which shocked the entire civilized world as it has not been shocked since the time of the Borgias.

This wholesale murderess invariably lured her victims to their fate through advertisements in a "matrimonial paper," or through an agency. She would insert the usual stereotyped "ad." of the wealthy widow lady who desired a mate, but always a mate with money.

Always being able to produce proof that she was well-to-do, it was an easy matter for her to persuade her victims to visit her at the Laporte farm. She invariably stipulated that they should bring a substantial sum with them.

Arriving at the Gunness farm, the prospective suitors were invariably impressed with the evidences of wealth and luxury. After a stay of a few days, during which time the cunning murderess would find out how much money her victim had, and whether he could immediately procure more in the form of cash, the victim would be invited to supper and his food drugged.

He would then be escorted to his room, where he would soon become unconscious. Chloroform was then administered, the body hurled through a chute to the basement, where it would be dismembered and placed in a gunnysack.

The sack would then be taken out and buried in a convenient spot on the farm. It was an inquiry from the brother of one of the victims, Andrew Helgelein, which revealed the whole horrible affair.

A Crop on the Gunness Farm.]

It is estimated that this woman, through the aid of the matrimonial agencies, murdered more people than any other human being that ever lived. She exceeded the records of the Benders, Holmes, and even those arch-assassins of the middle ages, the Borgias.

LOMBROSO DISCUSSES MONSTER.

Dr. Cesare Lombroso, of the University of Milan, the world's greatest criminologist, in discussing this woman, said:

"In general the moral physiognomy of the born female
criminal approximates strongly to that of the male. The
female criminal is exceedingly weak in maternal feeling,
inclined to dissipation, astute and audacious, and
dominates weaker beings sometimes by suggestion, and at
other times by muscular force; while her love of violent
exercise, her vices and even her dress, increase her
resemblance to the stronger sex.

"Added to these virile characteristics are often the
worst qualities of women; namely, an excessive desire for
revenge, cunning cruelty, love of dress and untruthfulness,
forming a combination of evil tendencies which often
results in a type of extraordinary wickedness. Needless
to say these different characteristics are not found in
the same proportion in everybody. One criminal will be
deficient in intelligence, but possessed of great strength,
while another, who is weak physically, triumphs over this
obstacle by the ability with which she lays her plans.

"But when, by an unfortunate chance, muscular strength and
intellectual force meet in the same individual, we have a
female delinquent of a terrible type, indeed.

"In short, we may assume that if female-born criminals are
fewer in number than the males; they are usually much more
ferocious.

"What is the explanation? We observe that the normal
woman is naturally less sensitive to pain than a man, and
compassion is the offspring of sensitiveness. If the one be
wanting, so will the other be.

"We also find that women have many traits in common with
children; that their moral sense is deficient; that they
are revengeful, jealous, inclined to vengeances of a
refined cruelty.

"In ordinary cases these defects are neutralized by piety,
maternity, want of passion, by weakness and an undeveloped
intelligence. But when a morbid activity of the psychical
centres intensifies the bad qualities of women, and
induces them to seek relief in evil deeds; when piety and
maternal sentiments are wanting, and in their place are
strong passions, much muscular strength and a superior
intelligence for the conception and execution of evil, it
is clear that the innocuous semi-criminal present in the
normal woman must be transformed into the born criminal
more terrible than any man.

"What terrific criminals would children be if they
had strong passions, muscular strength and sufficient
intelligence; and if, moreover, their evil tendencies were
exasperated by a morbid intellectual activity! And women
are big children; their evil tendencies are much more
numerous and more varied than men's, but generally remain
latent. When they are awakened and excited they produce
results proportionately greater."

LIST OF THE VICTIMS.

Below is given a partial list of the victims of this inhuman monster, as it appeared in the Chicago American, Sunday, April 26, 1908:

PARTIAL CATALOGUE OF MRS. GUNNESS' 180 VICTIMS.

1. Max Sorenson, Mrs. Gunness' first husband--whom she
poisoned.

2. Peter S. Gunness, second husband, whom she killed with a
meat axe.

3. Her infant child, whom she strangled to death.

4. Miss Justina Loeffler, of Elkhart, Ind., believed to
have been married to Johann Hoch and sent by him to Mrs.
Gunness to be murdered and buried.

5. Olaf Limbo, Norwegian farm hand.

6. Ole Budsberg, a hired man, from Iola, Wis.

7-9. Three well-known men of Fort Wayne, Ind., who have
disappeared in the last two years.

10. A horse trader from Montana.

11. Jennie Olsen, eighteen years old, adopted daughter of
Mrs. Gunness.

12. Henry Gurholt, left Scandinavia, Wis., on March 12,
1906, saying he was going to marry Mrs. Gunness.

13. George Bradley, forty years old, of Tuscola, Ill., went
to La Porte, Ind., October 20 of last year.

14. Olaf Lindboe, farm laborer, of Chicago, employed by
Mrs. Gunness.

15. Lee Porter, of Bartonville, Okla., quarreled with his
wife and answered one of Mrs. Gunness' matrimonial "ads."

17. Crippled man from Medina, N. D.

18-20. Three children of Mrs. Gunness killed or burned in
house--Myrtle, aged 11; Lucy, 9; Philip, 5.

21. Body of unidentified woman found in ruins of burned
house.

22. Strange baby left last fall by man and woman, as told
by Ray Lamphere, arrested as accomplice of Mrs. Gunness.

23. John O. Moe went to La Porte from Elbow Lake, Minn.,
day before Christmas, 1906, with $1,000.

24. Armat Hartoonan, wealthy Armenian rug merchant of
Binghamton, N. Y., who went to La Porte in 1906 in answer
to a matrimonial "ad."

25. Charles Neuberg, of Philadelphia, took $500 and went to
visit Mrs. Gunness in June, 1906.

26. George Berry, of Tuscola, Ill., went to work for Mrs.
Gunness July, 1905. He took $1,500, expecting to marry the
widow.

27. John A. Lefgren, aged forty-eight, disappeared from the
Chicago Club, and is believed to have gone to Mrs. Gunness'
farm.

28. E. J. Tiefland, retired railroad man, of Minneapolis.

29-30. A Los Angeles college professor and wife--names not
yet ascertained.

31. Andrew K. Helgelein, Aberdeen, S. D., ranchman, the
last victim, whose fate led to the discovery of Mrs.
Gunness' crimes.

32. Charles Edman, farm laborer, from New Carlisle, Ind.
Took $3,000 in savings to Mrs. Gunness' home.

33. Frank Riedinger, young German farmer, of Delafield,
Wis., went to La Porte in February, 1907.

34. Babe seen by a neighbor, Mrs. William Diesslen, which
afterward disappeared.

35. Unknown young woman visitor, seen to go to Gunness
house; never accounted for afterward.

36. Unknown man, a widower, and his young son, went to Mrs.
Gunness' house a year ago--never seen again. One of the
bodies found on farm was that of a small boy.

37-57. Twenty-one babies entrusted to Mrs. Gunness' care
while she was running a "baby farm" on the outskirts of
Chicago all disappeared mysteriously.

57-180. Other unknown men, women and babies, who went to
Chicago and La Porte homes of Mrs. Gunness, and were never
seen again, are estimated to bring the grand total of
victims up to 180.

This, then, is the crowning work of the matrimonial agency; this horrid burying ground of dismembered bodies, this ghastly charnel pit on an Indiana hillside. By their fruits ye shall know them. In the dread Gunness Farm behold the ripened fruit of the matrimonial agency.

IN LIGHTER VEIN.

The Funny Side of the Matrimonial Business.

There is necessarily the amusing side in all this miserable trading upon the affections of fools. Some of the letters sent in to the matrimonial agencies are little less than "screams."

Imagine, if you can, a big, husky farmer, a collarless, coatless son of the Utah deserts, gushing forth that he "could live and die on love." Think of a staid and sober trained nurse who has arrived at the ripe age of forty pouring into the ears of the matrimonial agent that she "wants a man who is a flower," and also saying confidingly that she believes that she requires a few more years in which to prepare for the "solemn step."

One who is 39 and dark, blushingly admits that she is a "young girl" of loving disposition, and, since love is the destiny of us all, prays for a husband of fifty or thereabouts.

One who describes herself as "lively and frolicsome" frankly admits that she is out for the money and can get along without the love end of it at all. It is needless to say that this letter comes from the Pennsylvania Dutch regions.

Here are a few of the gems:

COULD LIVE AND DIE ON LOVE.

Huntsville. Utah,
Dec. 27. 1902.

MRS. ELLEN MARION.
Grant Works, Ill.

My Dear Lady:

I wish to beg your pardon if I appear rude in trying to
personally introduce myself, but allow me to assure you
that I am sincere in my quest for a kind friend, and it is
nothing but the purest and holiest motives of the human
heart that prompts the intrusion.

I saw your advertisement in the Valley Farmer, and in it
I seem to behold the image of an ideal lady, who is well
worthy of the highest esteem and admiration from a true
gentleman, and how happy and thankful should the man be
who is so fortunate as to captivate the love and heart of
so noble a prize. Among many others your advertisement to
me seemed to be the most suitable and impressive. While it
would not be within good taste to express a great love for
you at present, yet I believe that I could come as near
living and dying on love as the next one. My object in
writing you is to find if there should be a chord within
our natures that could be touched mutually to harmonize
with the word love.

I have been married and know of the joy and happiness of a
kind and loving companion. Two years ago death robbed me of
my greatest prize in life. Since then I have been baching
it. I am tired of roughing it alone, and if there were only
some one to meet me with a kind smile of approval I could
work much harder and be a better man for it, and I do most
earnestly and sincerely solicit your correspondence with a
view to closer ties should our natures prove congenial.

Should you feel inclined to favor me I would certainly feel
highly flattered.

NOT A FLIRT.

Please do not rank me with the ordinary flirts and
adventurers, for I assure you that I am honest in my
intentions and would not mislead or advise anyone
wrongfully. My age is thirty-seven, height five feet nine
inches, weight 175 pounds, have a good moral character
in every respect, honest and industrious, without any
bad habits, total abstainer from liquor and tobacco,
move in the best society, am of a quiet, kind and loving
disposition. Home is the dearest place to me on earth and
I know how to make it happy. I can appreciate and know the
real value of a kind and loving wife, and the dear lady
that becomes my wife will find in me a true and honest
husband, a kind and loving companion, one whose greatest
aim and object will be to make his home and loved ones
happy.

To you the above may have a smattering of self-praise and
flattery, but the facts are wholly true, which I hope in
due time will be fully demonstrated. Should you wish to
hear further from me I shall be quite pleased to furnish
any information desired.

Anxiously awaiting your acquaintance, I am,

Yours sincerely,
JENS WINTER.

With best wishes and compliments of the season.

LOVELORN WAILS.

I want a man who is a flower, with love and affection oozing from all its petals. Maybe, however, I need a few more years' preparation for the most solemn of steps--matrimony. I admire a man of good physique, kind, gallant, conscientious, of good morals as can be expected nowadays, home-loving, and fond of children.--Application for a husband from Catherine M. Barnes, trained nurse, aged 40, Indianapolis.

* * * * *

Love is the destiny of us all. At times it seems it is going to side-track and pass us. Therefore, I ask you to help me to find a handsome man of 50 or over who has some money and can make more.

I am a young girl of loving disposition; do not powder, except on special occasions; can cook, and know how to dress on nothing or little. I want love and fidelity. Do not send me the name of any traveling men.

I am 39 and dark.--Miss Ella Miller, 837 Spring Garden street, Philadelphia.

* * * * *

Introduce me to a widow with money who wants a good entertainer and honest man. I have no funds, but don't tell her that. I play, sing and recite well.--Adam Werker, Glen Ellyn, Ill.

HER IDEAL HUSBAND.

"My ideal must be tall," suggests Miss Mary Hester, from Wayland, N. Y., "and a gentleman in every sense of the word. He must be of good standing socially and morally. He must be of temperate habits, kind, generous, affectionate, devoted--a man of ability, who would be a companion socially, intellectually and morally to a true, pure, devoted wife."

She says she would ask for no more.

THIS ONE IS REAL FRANK.

Here is another letter from Reading, Pa:

Dear Sir: I notice by Sunday's paper that you are looking
for a wife. Now, strange to relate, I am looking for a
husband. I don't know what your requirements are, but I do
know mine, and the chief ones of them are money, a good
home, less work and worry, and happiness. If love comes,
too, I shall not object, although I have lived long enough
to realize that there can be a sort of lukewarm happiness
without love.

Be that as it may, I judge my capacity is sufficiently
large to satisfy the sort of a man I judge you to be. Now,
for the next item of importance--myself. I am tall and
slender, five feet six inches high, and quite "figuresque,"
as one of my girl friends tells me. I am of the
Irish-American type; hair medium in shade and profuse as to
quantity; deep-set, very bright gray eyes; good carriage,
on account of which strangers often consider me haughty--an
entirely erroneous idea.

Am of a lively, frolicsome nature. I am full of fun, and
no matter how black things are I always find something
to laugh at. I am twenty-three years old, and decidedly
domestic, that being, in fact, my only accomplishment. I
am artistic only along some lines; have no musical talent
and am not an artist, but I love both devotedly. Am very
practical, in fact, and a good housekeeper. There is lots
more I might tell you, but we will call this enough for the
present. Should like to know something about you, and hope
you will be as truthful and frank as I have been.

Sincerely yours,
MARY ANDERSON.

ONE OF THE LUCKY ONES.

A Matrimonial Agent Captures a Rich Husband and Retires from Business.

Mamie Marie Schultz, a matrimonial agent, outwits the police and postal authorities after being raided and broken up, moves to other quarters, continues business, finds a rich man seeking a wife among her patrons and marries him.

September 11, the German-American Agency, run by Mamie Marie Schultz, 3150 Calumet avenue, was raided by Detective Wooldridge, the literature seized and destroyed. Mamie Marie Schultz was fined $25 by Justice Hurley. The evidence obtained was submitted to the postal authorities for action.

Mamie Marie Schultz fled to Oak Park, where she continued her matrimonial agency. After she moved to Oak Park she was notified "by order of the town board" to vacate, but she laughed at the order and enjoyed the newspaper notoriety she attained, for it only increased her business. It is said she made thousands of dollars out of her matrimonial agency.

With a stealth that is characteristic of his art, Cupid has accomplished what Oak Park officials had been trying to do for two years. He has closed out the Oak Park matrimonial agency by making a victim of his promoter in that vicinity, Marie Schultz, manager of the matchmakers' concern.

The postmaster, United States marshal and several of the town officers yesterday received letters signed "Mrs. J. D. Edwards," announcing that Marie Schultz "had been caught in her own net" and had deserted the village for a "palatial" home in Seattle, Wash., where her new husband, J. D. Edwards, is a wealthy lumber dealer.

SWIFT COURTSHIP BY EDWARDS.

Edwards, it is said, arrived in Oak Park on Tuesday, and after a whirlwind courtship this "Lochinvar who came out of the West" had won the whole matrimonial agency.

"Marie," the name in which all her extensive advertising was done, has defeated the officials of Chicago, Oak Park, and even the United States postoffice inspector, in every effort they made to suppress her enterprise.

To Postmaster Hutchinson she wrote requesting that all letters addressed to the agency be returned to the writers, as she didn't "want any more of their money." The postoffice force was burdened with the task of mailing back to some 500 lovelorn men and maidens the letters which had accumulated in "Marie's" postoffice box.

But the bleatings of the overgrown calf from Utah, and the wails of the maiden lady who desires a "flower" for a mate are both eclipsed by the mushy outpourings of a Chicago business man.

This fellow evidently possesses the artistic temperament. Not only is he moved to write prose poetry, "to bay the moon of love," but he insists on inserting illustrative sketches of an ardent wooing.

He has forged the white heat of his passion, which evidently puts Ella Wheeler Wilcox at her fiercest to shame, into pictures. Here we behold him, hand in hand with his beloved, under the kindly stars. There, more prosaic, it is true, but still quite passionate, is the drawing room scene, with the lady seated on his knee. Behold the works of genius when love impels.

THE FESTIVE FARM HAND FRIVOLS.

Among the hundreds of applications for a wife Detective Wooldridge found one from Jacob C. Miller, of Martinsville. Pa. Miller filled out the application blank as follows:

Q. Where born? A. Lancaster, Pa.

Q. What language do you speak? A. English.

Q. Nationality? A. White.

Q. Weight? A. 130.

Q. Color of eyes? A. Greenish blue.

Q. Color of hair? A. Brown on a little patch.

Q. Complexion? A. Fair.

Q. Circumference of chest? A. 36 inches.

Q. Circumference of waist? A. 36 inches.

Q. Circumference of head (just above ears)? A. 13 inches.

Q. Circumference of neck? A. Wear 15-1/2 collar.

Q. Profession? A. Farm hand.

Q. Income per year? A. Nothing.

Q. Extent of education: common, high school or university?
A. Common.

Q. Do you use tobacco or liquor? A. I use a little tobacco,
but no liquor.

Q. How much real estate do you own? A. Nothing.

Q. Do any of the pictures we have submitted to you suit,
and will you marry? A. Yes, the one with the turned-up nose.

Q. If we secured you a wife worth $250,000 would you be
willing to pay us a small commission for our trouble? A.
Yes.

THE FAKER AND THE PRESS.

SOME NEWSPAPERS ARE BUNCOED, WHILE OTHERS WILLINGLY ASSIST RASCALS.

Strangely enough, the abomination known as the "matrimonial agency," bureau or what-not, has succeeded in hoodwinking the great American press to a certain extent.

Advertisements appear in leading journals all over the country. Without this the great fraud could not exist ten minutes. There are numberless instances, we are quite sure, where the publishers have no suspicion that they are furthering the cause of scoundrels. In others, we regret to say, the motive for accepting these advertisements is traceable to nothing more or less than just the plain greed of the publisher.

It is impossible for a private citizen to prophesy whether the entire power of the government of the United States can purify the columns of some of our greedy newspapers.

These matrimonial agencies are frauds. The newspaper man knows this and takes their money for the advertisements, and becomes a messenger of a crime for a paltry sum, and if I were the District Attorney I would get busy and call the attention of the Postmaster General to these alleged newspapers for the purpose of shutting off their distribution through the mails.

Here are a few samples of the ads appearing in the reputable daily press of the country:

MATRIMONIAL AGENCIES' ADVERTISEMENTS FOR RICH WIVES AND HUSBANDS.

They Appear in All the Leading Newspapers Throughout the Country.

This is a very select list of ten ladies picked at random from our books by one of the leading newspaper reporters of this city, February 1, 1904:

Minnesota Maiden--30 yrs., 5 ft. 2 in., weight 128 lbs.;
brown hair, blue eyes; has $10,500.

Missouri Maiden--28 yrs., 5 ft. 7 in., weight 150 lbs.;
blonde, blue eyes, German; has $4,800.

Pennsylvania Maiden--20 yrs., 5 ft. 4 in., weight 132 lbs.;
light hair, blue eyes; will inherit $30,000, provided she
is married on her 21st birthday.

BEFORE.

"When he was wooing her, Romeo devoted his time to thinking of delicate little attentions that he could pay Juliet, and of things he could do to make her happy."

AFTER.

On Christmas he is liable to shove a dollar or two at his wife, remarking: "Get yourself something. I don't know what you want, and I haven't time to fool with it."]

Wisconsin Widow--49 yrs., 5 ft. 3 in., weight 130 lbs.;
black hair, black eyes; no children; worth $15,000. Will
marry elderly man.

Indiana Maiden--29 yrs., 5 ft. 4 in., weight 122 lbs.;
brown hair, blue eyes; pretty and worth $7,000. Would marry
farmer.

Illinois Maiden--21 yrs., 5 ft. 8 in., weight 140 lbs.;
chestnut hair, blue eyes; worth $40,000; is a cripple. Will
marry kind man who will overlook her misfortune.

New Jersey Widow--28 yrs., 4 ft. 11 in., weight 150 lbs.;
brown hair, blue eyes, one child; worth $35,000. Will marry
and assist husband financially.

Ohio Farmers Daughter--Orphan, 25 yrs., 5 ft. 7 in.;
brown hair, gray eyes; has large farm. Alone, will marry
immediately, farmer preferred.

Montana Maiden--Half-breed Indian, age 25, 5 ft. 4 in., 130
lbs.; black hair, black eyes; has large ranch. Will marry
honest white man.

Illinois Bachelor Girl--Age 35, 5 ft. 7 in., 160 lbs.;
black hair, brown eyes; owns fine estate, valued at
thousands. Would marry gentleman of equal wealth.

PENNSYLVANIA.

Beautiful maiden lady, refined and well educated; American;
blonde, age 37 years, height 5 ft. 4 in., weight 106
pounds; worth $30,000.

NEBRASKA.

Stylish young brunette, fond of society; American; age 28
years, height 5 ft. 3 in., weight 135 pounds; Baptist, and
worth $25,000; income $3,000 a year.

OHIO.

Stately widow, age 49 years, handsome and remarkably
well preserved; height 5 ft. 6 in., weight 160 lbs.; no
children; worth $5,000; wants elderly husband.

KENTUCKY.

Beautiful blonde Southern girl, educated and refined; age
21, height 5 ft. 2 in., weight 115 lbs.; American, and
worth $10,000; wants nice-looking husband.

Pretty little girl, age 19 years, height 5 ft. 3 in.,
weight 112 lbs.; American; worth $10,000. Says she is very
anxious to marry.

BOSTON, MASS.

Fine-looking lady, age 37 years, height 5 ft. 3 in., weight
140 lbs.; American, Protestant, and worth $20,000.

Young lady, blonde, age 25 years, weight 128 lbs., height 5
ft.; American, Methodist; income $720 a year; worth $25,000.

CHICAGO, ILL.

Maiden, age 26 years, height 5 ft. 4 in., weight 140 lbs.;
Scotch, Protestant, Methodist; income $1,200 per year;
worth $75,000.

MONROE CO., PA.

Young lady, age 23 years, very pretty, height 5 ft. 5 in.,
weight 150 lbs.; German, Methodist; worth $12,000.

DOVER, N. H.

Stylish, brown-eyed lady, age 24 years, height 5 ft. 6 in.,
weight 135 pounds; American, Methodist; worth $50,000.

NEW YORK CITY.

Young widow, age 32 years, height 5 ft. 5 in., weight 140
lbs.; Irish Catholic; worth $40,000.

UTAH.

Maiden lady, age not mentioned, height 5 ft., weight 120
lbs.; worth $35,000.

And all this, ridiculous, murderous and otherwise, is all outside the pale of the law. The matrimonial agency is a crime _per se_. It is a criminal institution. It has been pronounced to be such by the best and foremost judges of the United States, Germany and Great Britain.

Judge Klerbach, sitting in the case of a marriage broker at Goettingen, Germany, in 1903, declared that the marriage broker was a criminal in intent, from the very nature of his business.

In the celebrated case of Alan Murray vs. Jeanie McDonald at Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1898, Justice Grahame pronounced from the judicial seat one of the most scathing arraignments of the marriage bureau ever delivered. "Leeches upon the body social, blood-suckers, destroyers of womanhood, abominations of the bottomless pit," were some of the phrases used by Justice Grahame in denouncing Murray.

In the petty sessions at Tinahely, Ireland, Justice O'Gorman in May, 1905, is reported in the Wicklow People, a newspaper which has a wide circulation in the South of Ireland, as fiercely denouncing the marriage broker business. The Justice declared that the marriage broker was a wolf, "preying upon the weaknesses of humanity, a pander to the lowest instincts"; that he had no right to demand the interference of the law in his behalf, but rather that the law should always be exercised for the suppression of his nefarious traffic.

SAME THING NEARER HOME.

To get nearer home. In the Chicago American, February 12, 1903, Judge Neely, in the case of the State vs. Hattie Howard, declared from the bench that to "sell men and women in marriage is the height of crime." Judge Neely further said:

"Men and women who engage in this business of promoting
matrimony for money are guilty of crime. It is opposed to
the fundamental principles of society. Such a practice
should under no circumstances be tolerated. This practice
should be stopped. The trade should be killed. The courts
should make it their business to discourage this thing in a
way that may be easily understood."

Judge Kohlsaat, of Chicago, has inveighed against the practice in equally vehement terms. Judge Kohlsaat declares that "the Police Department of Chicago is entitled to great credit for what it has done in discouraging this business. I hope it will continue its vigilance until every promoter of marriages of this character has been compelled to leave the city. They should make such criminals give the city a wide berth."

There, then, is the law. The business is a crime in its very nature. It leads to bigamy and wholesale murder. It is made the instrument of the thief, the swindler and the murderer. How much longer will the American people look with calmness upon these practices, upon these abominations, which make a stench of the very air of the great and free country in which we live? The answer is up to you.

THE GREAT MISTAKE.

OUR PENAL SYSTEM IS A RELIC OF EARLY SAVAGERY.

Our whole penal system needs changing. It is a relic of barbarism, and stands a monument to the early savagery of the human race.

How is it possible for a man or woman to lead an upright, useful life after they once come under the ban of the law? Society combines to hound them down. They are forbidden to place themselves on an equality with others by narrow, human prejudice--the "holier than thou" attitude of that portion of the public which has not yet been "found guilty."

We are Pharisees, all, and sit in judgment on our fellowman, because we do not yet realize the mixture of evil and good that is in every man--none are exempt--only some are caught and punished.

Men have come to us, desperate, despairing men, crying: "For God's sake, what are we to do? If we get a job someone will tell our employers we have 'done time,' and we are fired. If they find us on the street, we're arrested. Where can we go and what can we do?"

A man may commit murder and not be a criminal, and yet a sneakthief is always a criminal and every burglar a potential murderer.

Social conditions produce criminals. As well expect a rose to bloom in a swamp as human nature to flower in the slums.

All our prisons are hotbeds of tuberculosis and most prison physicians hold their positions through political pull.

In our opinion a greater distinction should be made between the penitentiary and house of correction. Petty misdemeanants should not be branded with the prison stigma. We also favor suspended sentence for first offenders.

The crime and its punishment should be separated. At present the personal equation does not enter into the case when a judge imposes sentence. The man's environment, what leads him to break the law, and how best to help this particular man, all are questions that should be carefully considered before sentence is pronounced.

INTELLIGENCE IN PUNISHING CRIME.

A student of prison affairs once said that the prison population consists of two classes--people who never ought to have been sent to prison and people who never ought to be allowed to leave it. It is unfortunate that students interested in either one of these classes are too often apt to forget the importance of the other.

There are many habitual criminals, weak persons readily giving way to temptation, who should not be classified as professionals. The professionals are only those who deliberately set about supporting themselves by crime. These are the ones who are among all criminals most unlikely to change their ways, and it was for their control that Detective Wooldridge suggested some years ago that after several convictions such criminals should be given a special trial to decide whether they were true professionals or not, and if they were, they should be imprisoned for life.

If more attention were given to professional crime and if harsher methods were used in protecting society from it, the result would be merciful in the end--merciful both to the citizens protected from such crime and to the men who, as conditions now are, graduate every year into such careers.

THE "SILENT SYSTEM" IS A CRIME AGAINST CRIMINALS.

The penitentiary for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, at Philadelphia, in 1907, was the only prison in America conducted on what is known as the "silent system."

In this grim edifice a man sentenced to twenty years imprisonment might pass all of that time buried from sight in his cell, seeing only his keeper, the chaplain, the doctor and the schoolmaster, and for twenty minutes in every six weeks he would be allowed to talk with a near relative.

This man loses his identity the moment he enters the prison gates. A black cap is drawn over his head and he is led to a cell in one of the many corridors that radiate from the central tower like spokes from the hub of a wheel. He is known thereafter by a number.

The cell in which he eats and sleeps and works is a little larger than the average prison cell, and more completely furnished--as it must hold his bed, his lavatory, his dishes and a place for eating, his work, his every possession, and such books as he may secure from the prison library.

His front door opens on a corridor and is kept ajar on a heavy chain so the prison guards may watch him.