Show KATHLEEN NORRIS Arranged Marriage May Succeed SCHOOL TEACHER TWO Grace and Goldie wrote me some years ago from their home in a small town near to consult me about marriages that are made through matrimonial Their parents had recently and their they had become dull and love cooking and wrote keep a nice and have But neither one of us has ever had a and we wonder Just of late it occurred to us that many an arranged marriage has terminated and that as we are too shy to let the men of our own town know that we would like to be yet we would not feel so self-conscious with men who are deliberately seeking loving We certainly would not take any and we understand that we would be free to decline any proposal that did not But we both long for for the interest of talking over our and perhaps someday children with each and we feel that a wider life would give us more chance for and eventually for Matrimonial Candidates In answer to this letter I wrote reminding these sisters being they were quite able to judge for themselves the merits and appeal of any matrimonial and that It might not be a mistake to investigate any responsible bureau in their But I also said that this line of business is a notoriously unreliable open to the unscrupulous and and especially patronized by fortune men to whom even the Brooks girls' modest com- we lov cooking fort would be worth Several happy wives wrote me that theirs had been matrimonial bureau marriages when 1 wrote of this subject some years and many European are arranged this One of my close old friends in New York was an Irish woman who had married a man on the very day set for his marriage to her The cousin drew out at the last and my then a saucy volunteered to marry Dan and go with him to America the next Seven fine two a silver and golden wedding were the happy results of this But It has to be remembered that In these European marriages the background and environment are all familiar to the arranging mothers and whereas in marriages a far greater chance is Quiet Wedding to get back to the Brooks They went into and consulted a a motherly sort of woman who never openly but has a good reputation as Cupid s After some negotiating she sent them some and the sister I have Goldie became deep ly attracted to a man from A quiet wedding Kent being introduced to friends and neighbors as man our friend Oliver Immediately a man who had known both sisters for years announced himself as extremely he he had loved Goldie for a long but had been waiting until her obligations to her mother and his to an old were somewhat less Goldie only could accept this with the complacency of a and the disappointed admirer elected himself to comfort afterward finding that she was the one he after On their wedding trip they could act as godparents for Goldie's baby the sisters between them now have five and the whole venture ended happily and successfully for Which is only to that there is no harm in breaking out of the rut into which our days sometimes This adventure usually belongs to girls and boys in their Some find congenial companions and open little bachelor-maid sometimes not far from the home but Grace and Goldie were not as love affairs They were sensible already experienced in guiding the and they knew they needn't have any dealings with charlatans and crooks and gay deceivers The real danger of these matrimonial agencies is that to the adolescent mind they present enormous |