GOOD WIVES AT A PREMIUM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10223, 29 August 1896, Page 2 (Supplement)

GOOD WIVES AT A PREMIUM.

BIG PRICES OFFERED FOR WOMEN.

There is a city in tho wostern part of Canada, close to the Pacific Ocean, which is lam ad by all who visit it the most desolate spot upon tho face of the earth. Its climate is good, its natural resources oxcollont, its houses fair, its streets well paved, yet within this town there is an air of forlorn dejoetiou that strikes tho mo«t careless traveller that comes within its boundary. It is on Vancouver Island, a sweet, fair spot. And the desolation is caused by one tilingonn only: the lack of women and girls. This particular town lacks women so sadly that in a recent census of the place it was found nearly 30,000 short. I'lie doorstops of these houses yawn vacantly, and tiio vines, fluttering over the portals, seem to say, 'She comes not yet.' It is not to be expected that such a condition of affairs could exist without becoming known. The thrifty 'longshoremen of the place, and the woodmen, the miner.", and the merchants have written East about it, and a few days ago the mayor of the pUco was surprised and delighted to receive a letter containing a suggestion. If wa." that, as women were too numerous in the East to find the homes they desired, ha, the mayor, should devote a part of the funds of the town to sending for a car load of marriageable young woman to come out and settle in the vacant homes. The letter suggested that, as the young women were not in affluent circumstances, most of them living with married sisters or supporting themselves, it misrlit be a good thing to provide each with a small ' dowry' with which to equip herself to come out to the frontier coast and marry one of the needy men. The letter so impressed the mayor of the place that he laid it before a committee of men and women, for there are a few women there, and they decided that nothing could be better. Their fertile brains hit upon the expedient of fitting up a hotel or 'home' for all the new arrivals, and they suggested a reception committee of men and women to meet them. ' When they get off the train,' said the chairman of the committoo, ' wo will approach them, shake hands with them, and make them feel at home at once, men as well as women being there to say, "How do you do?'" The scheme at last reports was being carried out, and a hundred little travelling bags were being filled with the small belongings of femininity, the sumo that were to transform that corner of Vancouver from the most desolate place upon the earth into a paradise. In other countries women are so much more plentiful than men that certain inducements are held out to men to marry. These people can hardly believe that there is an El Dorado for wonion, whore a woman needs only a wedding gown and a bouquet to be taken possession of by a worthy man. In these countries the men have been thinned out by emigration. Thoy have gone out to Australia, have gone upon the high seas, have come here. But the women have stayed at home. Hence the dower que.* tion became important, and grows more and mora so every year. In France the poorest girl must have her dot, and if her parents cannot give it to her sho must work until she gets ir. Here a girl, if she be poor, works only to give herself a trousseau, and is very fortunate if she comes to her husband with a £1 note in her purse. Thero are places upon the frontier, villages bordering upon rocently opened places, territories, and upon the limits of cultivation, where a woman is worth her weight in gold and a great deal more. There is a genuine bartering of women constantly taking place. Let a woman from the city go there, and the 'courtship' begins immediately, and great rivalry there is for her hand. The ni?n have gold ore to offer, they own claims,' they have partly worked farms, and they want a good home to live in. They will hire Chinamen or half-breeds, anything to do the hard work, it only a good-looking woman will light the parlour lamp at night and sit in the window and wait for them to come home. The ' price' for a pretty woman of good education and family in a constructed town is great enough to establish a man in business in the city, and introduce him to society. The agent of a matrimonial bureau, who, as much out of curiosity as for business, kept himself in touch with frontier needs, received a letter from a wealthy miner of a certain desolate territory. 'I need a wife,' wrote the miner, 'and if you can persuade a good-looking woman to come out here and take a look at me I can gamble she will have me. I won't show her my own bronzed mug, but I'll let her get a squint- at the ore. If she'll name her figure she can have it. Wines put in her namo the day before she becomes Mrs. Hawkins.' The 1 price' of a woman—for with such quick matrimonial arrangements ' true lore' goes to the wall, and poor Cupid goes home out of occupation— upon the woman and the location. In thriving villages, where every man owns his own farm, a pretty girl wants a good house 'clear,'a bis; acreage of land, and a goodlooking man. The live stock is also taken into account by her. Homelier girls get less. And so all the way down to tho woman who is angular and sour, and who must be contented with a farm hand and lots of hard work. That is the way things are managed in the woman's El Dorados, where evory woman can have a husband ' as quick as wink,' and where every man is waiting for a girl to come along. In the most desolate spot upon earth, where a delegation of women is expected to arrive almost any day, the matrons of the town are determined that there shall be romance in their city and enough courtship to make matters spicy gossip. The married men are likewise inclined to this arrangement, us part of the cost of transportation comes out of their pockets as taxpayers. The matrons propose to open tho amusement halls every night, and give sociables, fairs, and tea drinkings. They have planned an amateur dramatic company; and, as tor dances, each is to have a dancing class under her own chaperonago. The girls upon the day of their arrival are to be £*iven a reception, and all will become acquainted speedily. The greatest bargain sale of wives ever known took place upon a recently-opened domain a few years ago. A frantic cull was sent to the cities for 100 women. And poor girls, out of fun and curiosity, and willingness to have a home, went out there. The men met them at the station. Tho eirls looked them over shyly. By evening all the girls had found boarding placos in the wooden shanties of the ' town,' and by Sunday tho parson was kept busy tying the nuptial knots. The prettiest girls and the richest onos got the wealthiest men. A girl with £10 was an heiress, and a man with £20 was a prince. The plain girls took up with poor fellows with hopes and chances. It was a quick, natural selection.