PROMOTING PATRIMONY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 9183, 6 April 1910, Page 2

PROMOTING PATRIMONY.

A SALVATION ARMY BUREAU

Dan Cupid i's a base pretender. Tho only real, genuine promoter of matrimony is the Salvation Army. Cupid only adds the finishing touches after tho Army has done all the hard preliminary work. And Cupid, pretender that ho is, has been taking all tho credit. The Salvation Army, says a writer in tho Chicago Tribune, makes marriages that count and last. It is no trouble to bring about a marriage in the upper, fashionable world, where tho young men and women have nothing to do eavo think about love. Tho Army promoters of matrimony confine their efforts to tho busy folk —the men and women who_ do things. They make it a. point to join the young folk who have no social opportunities, and who otherwise might miss the blessings that go with doublo harness. . . , * The Salvation Army maintains a sociai department, at tho head of which i 3 Staff-Capt. Miss M. Louise Coggeshall. Tho duties of the social department consist chiefly in promotiug and maintaining marriages. Unlike Cupid, the Salvation Army makes marriages that last. Tho Army matrimonial promoters stick to tho married couples, aiding them when, they have difficulties. advising, encouraging, and in all ways making their married progress easy. Tho social department of tho Salvation Army is the greatest and most successful matrimonial agency in tho world. And it is strictly legitimate. The police never mako inquiries concerning the matrimonial bureau. The police, in fact, do quite the contrary. It is the police who aid and abet the agency in every way possible. Not a few of those young men and women who want to get married, but have no way of finding a mate, arc directed to the social department of the Salvation Army by tho police. A POPULAR FEATURE IN THE WORK. The first year tho Chicago branch of the Salvation Army directly was responsible for 367 marriages. And in all of these not one couple has sought relief in thtdivorce courts. Can Cupid eay as much of the marriages he claims to be responsible for. The Salvation Army matrimonial bureau has only been organised a, little over two years, and now tho Army officials are wondering what they were thinking about not to have started it before. They say it is tho most successful and popular feature of their work, and they are planning to extend its benefits as rapidly as they can. . Miss Coggeshall. head of the matrimonial department of the Army, is a motherly, soft-voiced woman of much experience and many sorrows. Sho is just the • sort of woman that a young man or woman seeking advice or counsel in tho affairs of the heart could go to for aid and without fear of being disappointed. All of those who ask her to find them a husband or wife are told that everything possible will be done for them, and it is seldom that she fails to make a match when only sho starts out to do so. " There arc so many loneaome and heart-sick people in the world, she says, that little outside influence is necessary to bring them together in marriage. Just a friendly third person to break the ice for them is what is mainly needed, according to her theory. STRICTLY BUSINESS PRINCIPLES.

I Miss Coggeehall has applied strictly business principles to her matrimonial bureau. She keeps all the applicants for husbands and wives tabulated by a card system. On each separate card she writes* the name, residence, occupation, and description of the young man or woman seeking a mate. She also makes each applicant eay what sort of a lite partner he is looking for; whether of light or dark complexion, blue or brown eves or of whatever qualifications desired. When this is done she simply runs over the cards until she finds a couple that she thinks would go .well I together, and then she begins her real i business of marrying them. After satisfying hereolf that the young man and woman in each instance are worthy of each other, sho writes to the young man, suggesting that he start a correspondence with the young woman sho has pick&d out for him. She tells him to mention her name in his latter, and to tell his prospective bride that ho has the Salvation Army's sanction of anv action he may take in the matter of "winning her friendship. Invariably tho girl writes back a friendly letter, and after that it is easy. Miss Coggcshall arranges a meeting between them as soon a« she thinks the time is ripe, and then she leaves it to the young people themselves. Miss Coggeehall requires all applicants for the benefits of the Army's matrimonial bureau to furnish first-class references. Each of these references she traces to its source, and if sho finds that tho applicant has made false pretences he is rejected until he can prove to the eatisfaction of Miss Coggeshall that ho has duly repented. Ecach young man is required to furnish at least a half-dozen good references, and if he hasn't that many ho is told to wait until he can 'make some more friends. The Salvation Army social secretary does not j believe in taking any chances of gettino, the wrong sort of man. A LITTLE ROMANCE.

When Miss Coggeshall was revested to tell about some of the couples sho had brought together she said there wero so many that she could not think of any particular ones. By coaxing- her memory, however, she was able to recall the cause- of a young man who married a Scandinavian girl and afterwards took h«r to Minnesota, where they have a fine farm. "The- young man's name was Fetor Andersen," she said. "He said he first heard of tho Salvation Army social department when ho was coming to this country from Sweden. When ho got to Chicago he came to the headquarters, and with much blushing and stammering made it known to me that he was seeking a wife. I told him I would sec- what I could do, and I will confess that I began to wonder, as eoon as I found out

what he wanted, if I could arrange to mako him acquainted with a. remarkably pretty little Swedish girl who worked on the north side. I told him to come back to seo me in a few days, which he did. "In the meantime I spoke to my little friend on the north side, tolling her that I know a fine young fellow who was looking for a wife. When I told her that eho threw her arms around my neck and began to cry, so-1 knew right away that she, like Barkis, was willin'. Then 1 told the young man to write her a letter, and to tell her that he would like to meet her. He eat right down at my desk and wrote the letter after my dictation. A day or eo later he came to me, all smiles, with his answer. Then I arranged, unknown to them, to have them meet each other in my office. I told Tillie, the girl, to come down at an hour that I previously had arranged for him. When they mot they seemed to know, before I had introduced them, that they wore the ones that had written. NEARLY ALWAYS HAPPY. i "Well, they were married within two months after they met. They waited to got married the next week, but I mado them wait until they were sure. Andersen had some money, and with this he bought a small farm'in Minnesota, where ho has relatives. Tillio, now Mrs Andersen, writes mo regularly every, week, and sho never forgets to remind mo that she thinks mo tho best woman on earth for having found her such a fino husband. I never saw a girl so supremely happy ae Tillie after sho met the young man who later became her husband. Before that it was nothing but a dull round of work for her. She had few friends, and more than once sho was eo sorely disappointed and discouraged that I often feared sho would do away with herself. Now she is happy, and I am happy for having made her so." Most of those who seek the benefits of the Salvation Army Social Bureau are young men. Every day they write to Mies Coggeehall or visit her personally wanting to know if there is any chance for them to win a wife. Through hor work in the army Miss Coggoshall has mado tho acquaintance of hundreds of young women who either arc or ought to bo on the look-out for a husband, and sho makes it her duty to put theec in touch with each other.

Miss Coggeshall requires all her married couples to write to her regularly. In this way she kcepe tab on them, and whenever thoro is a note of complaint she hurries to the homo in question to see what tho trouble is. Often, sho says, there is a littlo outbreak that can be quelled by a good friend of the married couple, such as sho is known to be by all of those whom eho has been instrumental in marrying. When she goes out on trips of this kind she tries to get to the bottom of the difficulty, and then, step by stop, tho obstacles arc cleared awav.

This certainly is a practical ri'iitrimor.ial bureau. It is ono that is 6ingle in its purpose, and whose chief prido is the excellence of its work. It is one thing for a matrimonial bureau to marry a couple, but it is quite another thing for the matrimonial bureau, or any one else, to keep the couples married. That is tho real work, and that is just the point whore Cupid shirks his duty. "While the majority of those whom we marry are of foreign birth,"said Mies Coggeshall, "you would be surprised to learn of the extent to which young fo\ks are seeking our aid. Chicago is a big place, and there are countless thousands of young men and women here who come from the smaller cities of the surrounding States. It takes them a long time to get acquainted, and in many instance* they do not get acquainted at all. If they go to any place, it is to the saloon and dance hall or theatre, and they do not have an opportunity to meet persons of tho opposite ecx. What we are aiming at is to give these young folks a chance to meet each other. Hundreds of young men live here who arc earning good salaries, and who might just as well be supporting wives as not. Also, there are hundreds of young women working as clerks and stenographers who much rather would be keeping houso for some young man. The problem is to get these together. If they can be brought into each other's socioty there will be a. great increase in the ra-to. and that eurely is to be desired. Miss Coggeehall, rival of Cupid, has Ktartod out with a vengeance, and if th« single blessedness fallacy isn't disproved, it will not be the fault of the bureau of which sho is tho directing head.