ADVERTISING FOR ROMANCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23599, 8 September 1938, Page 19

ADVERTISING FOR ROMANCE

Are you lonely? Do you want a husband —or wife? Then in matrimony, as in all else, it pays to advertise; and you can do it in any language. Will you have a brunette with sympathy or a blonde with cash? The following article is condensed from “Trips, The Magazine of Travel.” We read: — In any Continental news stand one encounters him: Love’s messenger boy, Europe’s postilion d’amour. His message, printed at so much a word, is simple: "Boy wants to meet girl. And even more often: “Girl wants to meet boy.” . „,, , .. None offers a richer field for the student of advertised romance than France. But it requires more than a knowledge of French to read the matrimonial columns of a weekly like Candide. French frugality is not only notorious: it is consistent. The solitary soul who advertises his yearning is not so romantic as to forget the practical economy of abbreviation, and thus does Jeune femme become j.f., and brunette, br. The following is typical of the Candide type of cryptogrammic but completely respectable matrimonial advertisement: . . Reg. Lyon. bel. j.f., 25 remarq. int. cult. br. af. sens. esp. d. mar. harm. of.

fonct. car. lib. qu. mor. reg. md. P. ser. div, abs.—ssll. Put 5511’s petite annonce (allowing for one or two wrong guesses at the abbreviations) into English and it becomes: Region of Lyon, pretty young woman, 25, intelligent and cultivated, affectionate, sensitive, will inherit, desires harmonious marriage with officer functionary, or professional man; moral qualities essential. Triflers and divorced men are not wanted. —5511. A good ad.—yet one suspects tnat Soil did not receive many replies from moral fonctionnaires. For to omit the amount of money you bring into matrimony is poor tactics. A Dr Joachim Werner made an analysis of 1300 Continental matrimonial ads., and found that three times as many advertisers bragged about their financial condition as about their appearance, education, or the more spiritual virtues. This may sound hopelessly mercenary—yet as Dr Werner points out, money is concrete, whereas the less tangible assets often exist only in the imagination of the good people. . It was the same German doctor who inserted an advertisement —a _ highminded appeal for the ideal girl, so idyllic in language that finances were not mentioned. Result: Three replies. He. repeated his romantic appeal, casually stating that his annual income was 30,000 marks. Result; Seventyfour answers. While Candide deals with matrimonial advertising incidentally, the most successful are Hymen and Marriage Moderne. By subscribing to Hymen one becomes a member for three months of France’s most respectable matrimonial club. In addition to a tastefully worded advertisement, your subscription will give you the right to correspond freely with other members. At no extra cost you may leave your photograph at headquarters, there to be “ communicated with the greatest discretion, with the view of establishing contacts.” To escape the stuffy respectability of Hymen you need only turn to Sourire, and, presto! the cautious Cupid changes into an appalling little rogue, whispering, leering, bidding you to chance encounters, to easy liaisons, bordellos, and forbidden Edens. A typical petite annonce in Sounre read as follows; I should like to leave the pleasure of the surprise to the sympathetic and delicate visitor. All the attraction of a first meeting, is it not there? Noting brunette slender educated. —Write Mile X. Occasionally Cupid advertises in English in Sourire. Thus: Young English girl in Paris for a short time, 25 years old, very good education, fair complexion, lovely blue eyes, tall attractive figure, sport, and smart altogether, wishes _ to meet a gentleman in order to enjoy pleasant moments.—Marylou Marylou seems almost genuine—until you encounter her, two pages later as Madame Marylou, announcing her return to her clientele This time her ad. is in French. The matrimonial agency is a flourishing institution in Germany, as it is throughout Central Europe. Brokers depend with few exceptions, on commissions—usually 2 per cent, of the joint dowry. The selbstinserate (selfadvertisements) are apt to be from people of no great social consequence. The following advertisement was inserted by Frau Helene Arden, one of Germany’s more successful matrimonial agents: Relatives have requested me to find husband for 22-year-old beautTul blonde with dowry of 100,000 marks. —Blonde, middle twenties, elegant, well-built type, with dowry of 60.000

marks, wishes well-situated partner in life.—Doctor’s daughter, with sizeable income and real estate, middle twenties; young lady, manufacturer’s daughter, with cash dowry of 100,000 marks and private income; these and many others, with large, moderate, and small dowries. In England Cupid is at his ambiguous best when he appeared in the famed agony columns of The Times and the staid Post. Here are. unquestionably his most cryptic messages—the astounding “personals” printed at the top of page one’s classified columns. In almost every case they are intended for one person, and one person alone. It is the air of mystery which surrounds these messages, the strangely esoteric language of them, which flavours London’s agony columns. “Mr Doldrum has arrived.” “Door Mat to-night.” “ STOP THAT PIANO " “Little one. Hoop came. Heartsick. Cold letter. Weary of life. Old Man.’ “Where are Truth and Honour?” These are actual announcements, typical of the compressed drama of The Times agony column. The “ agony ’’ —a name obviously suggested by the pathetic little messages between separated lovers —has been an almost integral part of The Times for more than a hundred years. . The style of British matrimonial advertising is a curious mixture of restraint and bonhomie. There is a constant harping on “happy natures, and a rather pathetic attempt to make quite clear that these happy natures are at once jolly, but not flighty. English matrimonial advertising has decorum. Certainly it is more dignified than the American article.

Here, for instance, is one of the “ better-class ” announcements in the English manner: Bachelor. 46. still presentable, personality, seeks wife not wearing glasses, slim, not noisy nor talkative, kind, honourable, and intelligent, but not necessarily learned and accomplished (though she must haye a university and professional education), and must be essentially a lady, having a young mind. and. If over thirty, some income.

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