| OCR Text |
Show a 'marriage LOTTERY.' London' Queer Mixture of Dowry, Matrimony Matri-mony and Hebrew Philanthropy. "Michael Harris and Nancy Jacobs having polled the higheBt number of votes were duly elected to receive a dowry of 23 and marriage fees, and a vacancy was again declared for a couple." So ran a paragraph in a Jewish paper recently, and a reporter was fired with an ambition to learn more about these folks who give couples dowries, and more about the conditions under which euch dowries are won. The benevolence, it appeared, emanated from the Society for Allowing Marriage Fees and a Portion Por-tion to Young Men and Virtuous Girls of the Jewish Faith. The president of this society one would imagine would be a patriarchal sage with grandchildren grandchil-dren in scores about his knees. But Mr. A. Swaab, who is the head of the society, so-ciety, is a3oung man with a slight black mustache, a clean shaven chin and certainly cer-tainly no grandchildren. When not hymeneally occupied he is engaged in his business as a diamond merchant in Hat-ton Hat-ton Garden. "The society," he said, in reply to the interviewer, "has been in existence nearly near-ly 50 years, and has done no small amount of good. It was started among a few friends in quite a small way, and a dowry of 10 only was all that could be afforded at first. But 10, if not exactly a drop in the ocean, was not quite sufficient suffi-cient to answer the purpose in view, and as the fund grew the dowry was increased to 23." "Are the operations of the society confined con-fined to London?" "No. They extend all over England, j The funds are recruited by subscriptions of all amounts, from a penny a week upward, up-ward, and by donations." "It gives them a prior claim on the dowry perhaps?" "No, it doesn't. I will make that clear in a moment. We assist about a dozen couples every year, the dowries and marriage mar-riage fees coming to over 300. The object ob-ject in giving the dowry is to enable the young couples to 6tart a little business together. Before becoming candidates for the dowry toward which they need not have subscribed a farthing they i have to be possessed of all home neces- I saries and furniture, and the man has to . j prove to the satisfaction of the commit- - tee that he is in a position to maintain his wife." I "Only virtuous girls are to be befriend- ! ed by the society, I gather from its title. Y Does it not become rather a delicate mat- ) ter to adjudicate upon the qualifications ' of young lady applicants?" "Every case is investigated by two members of the committee, appointed annually for that purpose. The' make their inquiries with proper tact and discretion, dis-cretion, and they also investigate the character of the man. Let us go through the entire procedure. Say a vacancy ha3 been declared, which means that we have sufficient in hand to put another dowry up for competition. We 6end out notices to that effect and supply forms of application. appli-cation. We get four, five, six, perhaps a dozen couples contesting for the prize. They all come before the committee in couples, and are asked questions concerning con-cerning the money they have saved, the nature of the man's work, and so on. j Once, I sup)ose, I must have been press ing the prospective bridegroom pretty hard, for the young lady spoke up sorrowfully, sor-rowfully, 'Well, sir, you got married once, and we want to too!' " ' "Wei, as soon as they have been ad mitted as candidates, what follows?" "We give them a book of members, and tell them to go and canvass for votes, I the members possessing votes in propor tion to the amount of their subscriptions." subscrip-tions." ' "Have you yourself many votes?" "Yes, I hold something like 80 votes." "Then you are the target of plenty of beseeching brown eyes and persuasive glances?" I "No, nothing out of the way, because as president I take no part in choosing the recipients of the dower." "Can you give me a specific instance ' of the good the society has donef ' "I can, and a striking one, I think. I There are three members of the cOmrait- tee of the society, now men of position j and well to do, who were embarked up-I up-I on life with dowries from, the society." i-Pall Hall Gazette. , I i i ! ! i ! 1 |
