The Secrets of the Great City Part 39

It is probable that some of the parties thus advertising may be in earnest, but it is very certain that matrimony is the last intention of the majority of them. There are not many persons who will care to marry a woman won through the columns of a newspaper. Such simpletons would deserve whatever trouble or shame such an alliance would bring about.

Many young men and women insert these advertis.e.m.e.nts for the sake of "having a little sport," though, as we shall show, the sport thus produced is of a very dangerous character.

A DANGEROUS PLEASURE.

A young man, not long since, advertised for a wife through the columns of a city paper, merely designing the affair as a piece of sport. His communication was answered by a woman, whose handwriting was that of an educated person. Several letters pa.s.sed between the parties, and the young man, wis.h.i.+ng to see his unknown correspondent, asked an interview with her. She demanded to know if he really meant to marry her. She would not see him without a positive answer on this point. She enclosed him her photograph. The picture was that of a young and beautiful woman, and of course inflamed the young man's desire to see the original. It would have been well for him if he had dropped the correspondence at once, but he foolishly allowed himself to be led on farther, and wrote to the woman, declaring that he was serious in his intentions, and would marry her if she would have him. He consoled himself with the thought that he had signed a fict.i.tious name to the letter. The next day he received a communication from the woman, asking him to call upon her at her residence, which was given. He did so. He found that her picture had not deceived him--that she was both young and beautiful.

She received him graciously, and in the course of the conversation asked him if the letters she held in her hand, were his. He glanced at them, and a.s.sured her that they were. After a short interview, he took his departure, promising to visit her the next day. Judge his surprise when she saluted him, upon his return, by his proper name. In great confusion, he denied his name, but she quietly told him that he had been followed from her house by friends of hers on the previous night.

She had taken good care to establish his ident.i.ty. Besides that, she had had two witnesses concealed behind the heavy window curtains during the previous day, who had overheard his acknowledgment of his written offer of marriage. She told him frankly that she had no wish to marry him, and would surrender to him his letters, and leave him in peace, if he would pay her five thousand dollars. If he refused, she would bring suit against him for ten thousand dollars damages for a breach of promise. He refused her demand, and left the house. He went immediately to a lawyer and laid his case before him. The lawyer consented to see the woman, and report the result of his interview. He did so, and the result was that, finding the woman to be one with whom no man's name ought to be a.s.sociated in such a matter, and seeing that her case was so strong, he advised his client to comply with her demand, and receive back his letters. This advice was taken, and the young man, who was, fortunately for him, quite wealthy, and able to pay the money, secured his letters and lost his money. He has not advertised for a wife since then.

Men, however, are not often caught in this way. The victims are chiefly young girls, who think it a fine thing to answer an advertis.e.m.e.nt. One of these foolish girls, living in a neighboring State, once answered an advertis.e.m.e.nt for a wife, thinking it would be fine fun to carry on such a correspondence. She received and replied to several letters, but as she signed her true name to none of her own, considered herself safe. She was surprised one day by being summoned into the parlor by her father. She there found a villainous looking fellow, who announced himself as her correspondent. He had come from New York with his last letter, and had watched the post-office, until he heard the young girl call for it, and had followed her home. He had all her letters with him, and demanded five hundred dollars as the price of them, threatening, in case he was refused, to make the matter public in the town. The girl was overwhelmed with shame and confusion at her folly, and her father was very angry with her. He threatened to have the man arrested for endeavoring to extort money in such a manner, but the fellow reminded him that such a course would only make the scandal greater. There was no help for it. The girl had been foolish, but had done nothing to merit the scandal which would ensue if the matter were made public, so the father bought back the letters at the scoundrel's price, and the affair was hushed up. The girl was cured of her folly, and will never again commit so thoughtless and foolish a blunder.

By far the greatest number of advertis.e.m.e.nts of this kind are inserted by persons who wish to levy black mail upon those who are foolish enough to reply to them. Persons unaccustomed to these wretches cannot imagine how patiently and persistently they will work to discover the names of their correspondents. Distance is no obstacle to them, for they can follow a letter anywhere. The best plan is not to notice matrimonial advertis.e.m.e.nts at all.

MATRIMONIAL BROKERS.

There are several women in the city who advertise to introduce strangers into the best society, and to procure wives and husbands from the same element for their customers. As a general rule, these women are simply procuresses. If, however, a man desiring to marry a woman in this city, seeks their aid, they will always find some means of a.s.sisting him. The charge for their services is either a percentage on the lady's fortune, or a certain specified sum. The woman, or broker, will devise some means of making the acquaintance of the lady against whom her arts are to be directed, and will proceed cautiously, step by step, until she has caused her victim to meet the man for whom she is working. The arts used vary according to circ.u.mstances, but they rarely fail of success. Men who wish to accomplish the ruin of some innocent girl, also seek the aid of these brokers, and frequently, through their a.s.sistance, effect their purpose. If it is necessary, the victim, after being allured to the broker's house, is drugged. These women are the vampires of society. It is very difficult for the authorities to make a case against them, and they generally go unpunished.

CHAPTER LX.

PERSONALS.

The first column of the _Herald_, and a prominent column of nearly all the city papers, bears the above heading. The advertis.e.m.e.nts in these columns are curiosities in their way. The most confidential communications are inserted here without fear of detection. Where meetings are desirable, and letters would be read by parties interested in preventing such meetings, these personals accomplish the object quickly and without danger. The vilest and most infamous transactions are thus arranged. Roues make appointments with their victims, thieves announce to each other some plan of action for a daring robbery, and false wives notify their lovers of the time and place of a future meeting. All cla.s.ses use the personal column for all purposes. Some of the advertis.e.m.e.nts are utterly unintelligible to any but those for whom they are intended. Others are easily deciphered.

"SERVED HIM RIGHT."

The following, which we clip from a city paper, will explain one use to which the personal column is put. We need hardly say that all such affairs do not end so harmlessly:

A few months ago, the following personal advertis.e.m.e.nt appeared in one of our morning papers:

'SWEET FACE AT THE WINDOW.--Will the beautiful young lady who smiles nearly every morning upon the gent who rides past her house on the Eighth Avenue cars, have the kindness to address a note to "Admirer,"

Station "E," stating when and how an interview may be had?'

Chancing to know the smitten youth, who inserted this amorous 'personal,' we resolved to see what came of it. He was what is generally termed a quiet man, and the last person in the world to engage in a flirtation. It seemed even strange that he should venture to such an extreme in order to make the acquaintance of any lady, and that he must have been desperately in love with that 'sweet face at the window' was the only conclusion that we could arrive at.

The next day he received nine different letters in answer to this advertis.e.m.e.nt, showing beyond a doubt that there was more than one 'sweet face at the window' that smiled on some fortunate pa.s.senger or other, every morning, and who undoubtedly imagined that her face was the one alluded to by this advertiser.

Our friend was in a quandary. Some natures would have embraced them all, but his heart only sought the one 'sweet face' that had haunted him so long, and in his perplexity he sought our counsel. It was finally arranged that he should answer the entire lot, and appoint a meeting with each at a well-known restaurant, where, unknown to all save the one he sought, he could not only have an opportunity of viewing the other 'sweet faces,' but see and recognize the one he sought for without disturbing the expectations of the others.

The evening came, and our friend entered the saloon and took a position at a table where he could observe all who entered. As the hour approached, quite a number of ladies came in, and took seats at various tables. They each bore on their 'sweet faces' looks of expectancy, and after taking a good observation of each gentleman present, they placed themselves in such positions as to be able to see whoever entered after them. There might have been a question about the peculiar 'sweetness'

of all of them, but there could be none relative to their matrimonial desires. They all, or a majority of them, had pa.s.sed that bewitching period when woman's charms are the most enticing, and seemed anxious not to pa.s.s into the sere and yellow leaf without some one on whom they could lean for support.

Finally his eye fell upon the object of his search. He left the table and his refreshments, and approached her as she came toward him. The meeting was as cordial as might have been expected, and even more so.

He led her back to the table he had just left, and, ordering more refreshments, he fell to talking in the most cordial manner, while the other 'waiting ones' looked on in wonderment. To a few of them the truth was plain, but a majority still lingered in hopes of being made as happy as the other young lady now appeared to be. But our friend soon sought the open air with his fair companion, leaving the others to whatever fate might be in store for them.

She was really a fine looking woman, and those qualities, taken in connection with a good education and a quaint brilliancy of conversation, would have made her really attractive to any man of taste, and, on this occasion, completely carried our poor friend's heart by storm. The hours glided by, like the silvery chime of bells, and before ten o'clock, the hour mentioned as the one bordering her furthest stay, she had completely won our bachelor friend, and counted him among her jewels new.

So sincere and true is he that he is too apt to look for the same qualities in others, and, in this instance, he bared his whole heart and confessed his love. But she had such a delightful way of laughing off a serious proposition, and of disserting that the lover was only trying to make himself agreeable, (which, under such circ.u.mstances, was perfect justifiable, she thought,) and that he would probably forget her when out of sight, and in the presence of a handsomer face; that, to say nothing of their short acquaintance, it could not be that he really meant anything of the kind, so that by the time he had arrived at the location of where they were to part, she had completely dazed the poor lover, and leaving him with a kind good-night, he stood riveted to the spot, gazing after her as one gazes on the track of a meteor.

No sleep for him that night. The next morning, as he rode down to business, that 'sweet face at the window' greeted him, more radiant than ever, but at the same time more puzzling; for mingling with the ripple of her smile, there was something that looked like triumph on her face. At all events, from the first hour of their meeting a capital flirtation was kept up on her part, although her victim was in downright earnest, and deeply in love.

With all the ardor of Romeo, he sought to win her love; to turn her from the lightness and frivolity of coquetting, to the more womanly aspirations of home and marriage, and to penetrate the veil of mystery and doubt in which she seemed enfolded, and into which she plunged herself the more closely if followed. But all to no purpose. Weeks and months pa.s.sed away, and she seemed to be enjoying her new sensation hugely. Drives through the park, excursions to the suburbs, b.a.l.l.s, operas, theatres, all, all in the same mode, and all seemingly looked upon as the adjuncts of a splendid flirtation.

At last he awoke from the spell she had cast so bewitchingly around him, and openly accused her of trifling with his affections, and of caring nothing whatever for him beyond the part he acted as beau and cavalier, which part he had become tired of acting. To this she plead not guilty in such eloquent terms, bringing to her aid a woman's most powerful auxiliaries, her tears, that the poor dupe repented of his accusations, and was ready to fall upon his knees and crave her pardon.

She loved him, she said, but why should either of them rush madly and blindly into matrimony, without considering or knowing each other? How could either of them be sure that their present love would continue beyond a honeymoon? In this way she paved the road for another six months' flirtation, during the continuation of which she managed to conceal her ident.i.ty as effectively as ever.

But there came a time when the mask fell, and the veil was rent in twain. A gentleman waited upon him one evening, an entire stranger, having in his hand a small box, which he placed upon the table, and accepted a seat with coldness and importance. He was, he said, and perhaps unfortunately, the husband of the young woman to whom our friend had been paying his attentions for quite a time, and, as he had been convinced that he was acting innocently and in the dark, he had come to make an explanation.

The poor fellow attempted to speak, but some emotion choked his utterance; and he reseated himself in the chair from which he had arisen. The man went on to state that he had become acquainted with his wife in a similar way to the one which had brought them together; that he had married her, and had been compelled to witness the continuation of her flirtations, and acknowledged that our friend was not the only one with whom she was maintaining such relations even then. He then coolly opened the box and handed him back the various presents he had bestowed upon his wife, after which he retired as politely as possible.

"The lover was cured. He patronizes another line of horse cars, and to this day never allows himself to be led into another flirtation, however attractive may be a 'sweet face at the window.'"

CHAPTER LXI.

SOLDIER MINSTRELS.

You may see at certain points on Broadway, maimed and battered veterans, sitting through the whole day grinding a hand-organ for a living. These men have heard sterner music than that by which they earn their scanty subsistence, and have partic.i.p.ated in a n.o.bler struggle for life.

THE STORY OF A PATRIOT.

In the spring of 1861, there went through the States of the Union a cry that had never been heard in them before. It was the thrilling appeal of the Union for aid against its foes. How it was answered, how thousands of warriors started forth at the call, all men know.

Among those who responded to this call, was a young man just entering upon the great drama of life. He had worked hard during his boyhood, and was at this time one of the most promising and skilful mechanics in one of our eastern cities. It was a great sacrifice for him to abandon all the bright prospects before him; but the love of country was warm in his breast, and he made the sacrifice cheerfully.

John Williams saw his first active service in the numerous outpost and picket encounters, which marked the autumn and winter of 1861, while the army under General McClellan was organizing on the banks of the Potomac. There he distinguished himself by his firmness and vigilance, as well as by his unfaltering courage.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Soldier Minstrel.]

When the campaign of the Peninsula began, he was with the advance of the army, and partic.i.p.ated in the great reconnoisance of the 5th and 6th of April, 1862. At Williamsburg he was wounded in the arm, and did not return to the army until the great battles of 'the seven days' had commenced. He bore himself bravely through the whole of this trying time, and came out of the fights unhurt.

During the retreat through White Oak Swamp, it was necessary to destroy a small foot-bridge over a little watercourse. The enemy were pressing on behind, and the task of demolis.h.i.+ng the bridge was one of great danger. General Sumner, seeing the condition of affairs, called for one volunteer to cut away the log that still supported the structure. John Williams sprang forward, and, seizing the axe which was held out to him, dashed towards the bridge. In another instant his heavy blows were falling on the log, sending its chips right and left. He had scarcely begun when the enemy's skirmishers appeared on the other side of the stream. Seeing him thus engaged, they opened a rapid fire upon him. The b.a.l.l.s flew all around him, two went through his hat, and his comrades looked every moment for his death. But he did not shrink from his post.

He only brought the axe down heavier and faster upon the log. A minute of painful suspense to his friends went by, and then the bridge fell, with a crash, into the stream. Waving his cap triumphantly, the brave fellow rejoined his company. For this gallant deed Private Williams was, at General Sumner's special request, made a corporal.

From Harrison's Landing he went with the army to the Potomac again, and followed McClellan to South Mountain and Antietam. Here his conduct again drew upon him the notice of his officers; and when the army lay at Harper's Ferry, preparatory to its advance into Virginia, he received his sergeant's warrant, and a flattering note from General Sumner, who, although wounded himself, had not forgotten him.