A good wife wanted: twenty pounds reward

A GOOD WIFE WANTED TWENTY POUNDS REWARD, POSITIVELY BONA FIDE. I, EDWARD WILLIAM COLE, Of the BOOK ARCADE, BOURKE-STREET, wish to obtain a person for a wife with the following characteristics :— SHE MUST BE A SPINSTER of thirty-five or six years of age, good tempered, intelligent, honest, truthful, sober, chaste, cleanly, neat, but not extravagantly or absurdly dressy; industrious, frugal, moderately educated, and a lover of home. Any respectable, well-intentioned person who from the range of their observation can conscientiously recommend to me an unengaged woman answering the above description will, in the event of a marriage taking place between us in consequence of such information, receive my sincere thanks, and the above reward directly such marriage takes place. This may be thought by many an absurd, because unusual, way of looking for a wife; and I am quite sensible that I may be laughed at, but the thoughtful will not laugh, the most that they will do in that direction will be to smile good-humoredly, for they know that whilst the best thing a man can have is a good wife, and the worst thing a bad wife, yet, in most cases, a very irrational principle of selection is followed, for that nineteen out of every twenty of the unions that take place originate from the merest accidents of life, from a chance meeting at a ball, at a relation's, at a friend's, at a neighbor's &c. I take what I believe to be the more reasonable course, of looking wide around to find, and when found, of ascertaining, by inquiry, the exact character a woman bears in her neighborhood, and amongst those who know her, before I enter into indissoluble intimacy with her; and I have no more hesitation in advertising for, and critically examining into the character of one who is to be my partner for life, than I should have were I merely advertising for a business partner; and if, by advertising, I get a good, a sensible, and a suitable wife instead of an unsuitable one, which I very likely should get in the usual way, my temporary exposure is well indemnified and my twenty pounds is well spent. Please address any communication to E. W. COLE, Book Arcade, Bourke-street. N.B.—The strictest confidence is of course guaranteed to correspondents.