| Show A MARRIAGE LOTTERY london queer SI liture of dowry and hebrew michael harris and nancy jacobs baving polled the highest number of votes were duly elected to receive a dowry of 35 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 loam more abent these folks who give couples dowries and more about the conditions under which such dowries are won the benevolence it appeared emanated from the society for allowing marriage fees and a portion 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 in scores about his knees but mr A who is the head of the society is a young man with a slight black mustache a clean shaven chin and certainly no grandchildren when not occupied ho is engaged in his business as a diamond merchant in hatton garden the society ho said in reply to the interviewer has been in existence nearly CO 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 bo afforded at first but 10 if not exactly a drop in the ocean was not quite sufficient to answer the purpose in view and as the fund grew the dowry was increased to 23 are the operations of the society confined to london no they extend all over england the funds are recruited by subscriptions of all amounts from a penny a week upward and by donations it gives them a prior claim on the dowry perhaps no it I 1 will make that clear in a moment we assist about a dozen couples every year the dowries and marriage fees coming to over the object in giving the dowry is to enable the young couples to start a little business together before becoming candidates for the dowry toward which they need not haye subscribed a farthing they have to be possessed of all home necessaries and furniture man has to prove to the satisfaction of the committee that he is in a position to maintain his wife only virtuous girls are to be befriended by the society I 1 gather from its title does it not become rather a delicate matter to adjudicate upon the qualifications of young lad applicants 4 every case is investigated by two members of the committee appointed their inquiries with proper tact and discretion and they also investigate the character of the man let us go through the entire procedure say a vacancy has been declared which means that we have sufficient in hand to put another dowry up for competition we send out notices to that effect and supply forms of application wo 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 the money they have saved the nature of the mans work and on once I 1 suppose I 1 must havo been pressing the prospective bridegroom pretty hard for the young lady saoko up sorrowfully row fully well sir you got married once and we want to tool well as as they havo been admitted as candidates what follows we give them a book of members and tell them to go and canvass for votes the members possessing votes in proportion to the amount of their eions have you yourself many votes yes I 1 leold something liko 80 votes then you are the target of plenty of beseeching brown eyes and persuasive glances no nothing out of the way because as president I 1 take no part in choosing the recipients of the dower can yon civo me a specific instance of the good the society has done 1 I can and a striking one I 1 think there are three members of tho committee of the society now men of position and well to do who embarked upon life with dowries from the society pall mall gazette |
