A long list of his accomplishments, an income he expects her to have, and a closing verse.
Transcribed from original newspaper scans. Published by AseeksB.
A gentleman, aged 28, fair, curly hair, height 5 feet 7 inches, Christian, Conservative, very fond of music, science, literature, lawn-tennis, riding, and travelling, baritone voice, fair elocutionist, studied for M.D., adoption of profession unnecessary (through unexpected death of relatives), anxiously desires to have a young lady, with an income of not less than $2,500 a year, for a true and devoted life-companion. Would make a faithful, loving, and cheerful husband for one with a similarity of tastes. Should desire the lady to be sensible, of thoroughly healthy constitution, refined tastes, and of a blithe, loving, charitable, sympathetic disposition. In return, his whole life should be devoted to preserve the lady’s happiness. There is another soul I long to meet, without which life my life is incomplete. Oh! sweeter self! like me art thou astray, striving with all thine heart to find the way to mine; striving, like me, to find the breast on which alone can weary heart find rest! Address, Box 1129, Matrimonial Journal Office, Toronto.
| Newspaper | The Anglo-American Matrimonial Journal, Toronto |
|---|---|
| Date | December 1886 (Vol. 1, No. 1), page 2 |
| Section | Upper class (masculine), at three cents a word |
| Written by | A man, 28, unsigned |
| Addressed to | Young women with an income of at least $2,500 a year |
| Where | Replies to Box 1129, Matrimonial Journal Office, Toronto |
The Anglo-American Matrimonial Journal was a paper of marriage ads, run from an office in Toronto. Canadiana, the Canadian Research Knowledge Network’s digital collection, holds one issue: Vol. 1, No. 1, December 1886. Its ads are sorted by class and sex, and the price rose with the class: a cent a word for the lower class, two for the middle and three for the upper. Replies went to numbered boxes at the Journal’s office, and a few box numbers are printed twice.
He lists his politics with his religion: in 1886 the Conservatives, under Sir John A. Macdonald, governed Canada. His is one of the longest ads in the issue, at three cents a word, and its closing lines, about a “sweeter self” astray and a weary heart finding rest, rhyme like verse but are printed as prose.
Public domain: published in 1886.
Transcribed from the page image on Canadiana and checked against the original; spelling and punctuation are as printed, and words broken across lines are rejoined. One letter missing from the print, in the second “devoted,” is restored.
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