MARRIAGEABLE FEMALES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1383, 1 June 1878, Page 17

MARRIAGEABLE FEMALES.

The whole art and Bcience of finding a husband by correspondence is now so well understood in Paris, that no pro-perly-conducted podular paper is without a fair sprinkling of matrimonial advertisements. The offices or houses where the happy couples are paired off are all, of course, conducted on principles of " absolute discretion. " In some of them the young ladies — or perhaps it should be said the ladies of all ages — are exhibited at fixed hours on certain days of the week. Their attractions are set forth in the "Petite Correspondence" of the Figaro, and no Parisian bachelor can be expected to look unmoved upon the lists thus published day alter day. An attentive study of these remarkable productions will show very accurately what are supposed by connoisseurs to be the relative advantages of youth, beauty, widowhood, and orphanage. Beauty, of course, ranks highest of all in order, and the " widow, pretty, 26," has a special paragraph to herself, the purport of which is that she will espouse a nobleman or gentleman having either a high position or a fortune. As for the rest of the ladies, who do not pretend to great personal attractions, they are enumerated in a list with their conditions, and the exact amount of their fortunes set opposite each name. Orphans are apparently considered the most desirable and likely subjects, the absence of a mother-in-law counting obviously for a good deal m the calculation. Thus, although a young lady of 19, having 400,000 francs of dot, can compete on equal terms with onegof twenty who haß 590,000, she would have no such chance with an " orpheline" possessed of the aame amount. In another of the lists, an orphan with 600,000 francs is placed above' a "demoiselle" having 500,000, although the latter has.two full years the advantage, and is of the altogether delightful age of 30. Widows, on the other hand, are heavily handicapped, and appear at the bottom of every list. Thus Widow, 34, 1,000,000 francs," comes below " demoiselle, 36, 800,000 francs," although it is well-known that a year more or less, when the marriageable female is over 30, becomes almost as important, and perhaps even more imSjrtant than when Bhe was under 30. n the whole, money may be supposed to be the most essential qualification ; beauty, where it can be had, ranking next ; age, and the state of widowhood or orphanage, or simple spinsterhood, coming on about equal terms, at the end of the list.