Part 11

"What is the explanation? We observe that the normal woman is naturally less sensitive to pain than a man, and compassion is the offspring of sensitiveness. If the one be wanting, so will the other be.

"We also find that women have many traits in common with children; that their moral sense is deficient; that they are revengeful, jealous, inclined to vengeances of a refined cruelty.

"In ordinary cases these defects are neutralized by piety, maternity, want of passion, by weakness and an undeveloped intelligence. But when a morbid activity of the psychical centres intensifies the bad qualities of women, and induces them to seek relief in evil deeds; when piety and maternal sentiments are wanting, and in their place are strong passions, much muscular strength and a superior intelligence for the conception and execution of evil, it is clear that the innocuous semi-criminal present in the normal woman must be transformed into the born criminal more terrible than any man.

"What terrific criminals would children be if they had strong passions, muscular strength and sufficient intelligence; and if, moreover, their evil tendencies were exasperated by a morbid intellectual activity! And women are big children; their evil tendencies are much more numerous and more varied than men's, but generally remain latent. When they are awakened and excited they produce results proportionately greater."

LIST OF THE VICTIMS.

Below is given a partial list of the victims of this inhuman monster, as it appeared in the Chicago American, Sunday, April 26, 1908:

PARTIAL CATALOGUE OF MRS. GUNNESS' 180 VICTIMS.

1. Max Sorenson, Mrs. Gunness' first husband--whom she poisoned.

2. Peter S. Gunness, second husband, whom she killed with a meat axe.

3. Her infant child, whom she strangled to death.

4. Miss Justina Loeffler, of Elkhart, Ind., believed to have been married to Johann Hoch and sent by him to Mrs. Gunness to be murdered and buried.

5. Olaf Limbo, Norwegian farm hand.

6. Ole Budsberg, a hired man, from Iola, Wis.

7-9. Three well-known men of Fort Wayne, Ind., who have disappeared in the last two years.

10. A horse trader from Montana.

11. Jennie Olsen, eighteen years old, adopted daughter of Mrs. Gunness.

12. Henry Gurholt, left Scandinavia, Wis., on March 12, 1906, saying he was going to marry Mrs. Gunness.

13. George Bradley, forty years old, of Tuscola, Ill., went to La Porte, Ind., October 20 of last year.

14. Olaf Lindboe, farm laborer, of Chicago, employed by Mrs. Gunness.

15. Lee Porter, of Bartonville, Okla., quarreled with his wife and answered one of Mrs. Gunness' matrimonial "ads."

17. Crippled man from Medina, N. D.

18-20. Three children of Mrs. Gunness killed or burned in house--Myrtle, aged 11; Lucy, 9; Philip, 5.

21. Body of unidentified woman found in ruins of burned house.

22. Strange baby left last fall by man and woman, as told by Ray Lamphere, arrested as accomplice of Mrs. Gunness.

23. John O. Moe went to La Porte from Elbow Lake, Minn., day before Christmas, 1906, with $1,000.

24. Armat Hartoonan, wealthy Armenian rug merchant of Binghamton, N. Y., who went to La Porte in 1906 in answer to a matrimonial "ad."

25. Charles Neuberg, of Philadelphia, took $500 and went to visit Mrs. Gunness in June, 1906.

26. George Berry, of Tuscola, Ill., went to work for Mrs. Gunness July, 1905. He took $1,500, expecting to marry the widow.

27. John A. Lefgren, aged forty-eight, disappeared from the Chicago Club, and is believed to have gone to Mrs. Gunness' farm.

28. E. J. Tiefland, retired railroad man, of Minneapolis.

29-30. A Los Angeles college professor and wife--names not yet ascertained.

31. Andrew K. Helgelein, Aberdeen, S. D., ranchman, the last victim, whose fate led to the discovery of Mrs. Gunness' crimes.

32. Charles Edman, farm laborer, from New Carlisle, Ind. Took $3,000 in savings to Mrs. Gunness' home.

33. Frank Riedinger, young German farmer, of Delafield, Wis., went to La Porte in February, 1907.

34. Babe seen by a neighbor, Mrs. William Diesslen, which afterward disappeared.

35. Unknown young woman visitor, seen to go to Gunness house; never accounted for afterward.

36. Unknown man, a widower, and his young son, went to Mrs. Gunness' house a year ago--never seen again. One of the bodies found on farm was that of a small boy.

37-57. Twenty-one babies entrusted to Mrs. Gunness' care while she was running a "baby farm" on the outskirts of Chicago all disappeared mysteriously.

57-180. Other unknown men, women and babies, who went to Chicago and La Porte homes of Mrs. Gunness, and were never seen again, are estimated to bring the grand total of victims up to 180.

This, then, is the crowning work of the matrimonial agency; this horrid burying ground of dismembered bodies, this ghastly charnel pit on an Indiana hillside. By their fruits ye shall know them. In the dread Gunness Farm behold the ripened fruit of the matrimonial agency.

IN LIGHTER VEIN.

The Funny Side of the Matrimonial Business.

There is necessarily the amusing side in all this miserable trading upon the affections of fools. Some of the letters sent in to the matrimonial agencies are little less than "screams."

Imagine, if you can, a big, husky farmer, a collarless, coatless son of the Utah deserts, gushing forth that he "could live and die on love." Think of a staid and sober trained nurse who has arrived at the ripe age of forty pouring into the ears of the matrimonial agent that she "wants a man who is a flower," and also saying confidingly that she believes that she requires a few more years in which to prepare for the "solemn step."

One who is 39 and dark, blushingly admits that she is a "young girl" of loving disposition, and, since love is the destiny of us all, prays for a husband of fifty or thereabouts.

One who describes herself as "lively and frolicsome" frankly admits that she is out for the money and can get along without the love end of it at all. It is needless to say that this letter comes from the Pennsylvania Dutch regions.

Here are a few of the gems:

COULD LIVE AND DIE ON LOVE.

Huntsville. Utah, Dec. 27. 1902.

MRS. ELLEN MARION. Grant Works, Ill.

My Dear Lady:

I wish to beg your pardon if I appear rude in trying to personally introduce myself, but allow me to assure you that I am sincere in my quest for a kind friend, and it is nothing but the purest and holiest motives of the human heart that prompts the intrusion.

I saw your advertisement in the Valley Farmer, and in it I seem to behold the image of an ideal lady, who is well worthy of the highest esteem and admiration from a true gentleman, and how happy and thankful should the man be who is so fortunate as to captivate the love and heart of so noble a prize. Among many others your advertisement to me seemed to be the most suitable and impressive. While it would not be within good taste to express a great love for you at present, yet I believe that I could come as near living and dying on love as the next one. My object in writing you is to find if there should be a chord within our natures that could be touched mutually to harmonize with the word love.

I have been married and know of the joy and happiness of a kind and loving companion. Two years ago death robbed me of my greatest prize in life. Since then I have been baching it. I am tired of roughing it alone, and if there were only some one to meet me with a kind smile of approval I could work much harder and be a better man for it, and I do most earnestly and sincerely solicit your correspondence with a view to closer ties should our natures prove congenial.

Should you feel inclined to favor me I would certainly feel highly flattered.

NOT A FLIRT.

Please do not rank me with the ordinary flirts and adventurers, for I assure you that I am honest in my intentions and would not mislead or advise anyone wrongfully. My age is thirty-seven, height five feet nine inches, weight 175 pounds, have a good moral character in every respect, honest and industrious, without any bad habits, total abstainer from liquor and tobacco, move in the best society, am of a quiet, kind and loving disposition. Home is the dearest place to me on earth and I know how to make it happy. I can appreciate and know the real value of a kind and loving wife, and the dear lady that becomes my wife will find in me a true and honest husband, a kind and loving companion, one whose greatest aim and object will be to make his home and loved ones happy.

To you the above may have a smattering of self-praise and flattery, but the facts are wholly true, which I hope in due time will be fully demonstrated. Should you wish to hear further from me I shall be quite pleased to furnish any information desired.

Anxiously awaiting your acquaintance, I am,

Yours sincerely, JENS WINTER.

With best wishes and compliments of the season.

LOVELORN WAILS.

I want a man who is a flower, with love and affection oozing from all its petals. Maybe, however, I need a few more years' preparation for the most solemn of steps--matrimony. I admire a man of good physique, kind, gallant, conscientious, of good morals as can be expected nowadays, home-loving, and fond of children.--Application for a husband from Catherine M. Barnes, trained nurse, aged 40, Indianapolis.

* * * * *

Love is the destiny of us all. At times it seems it is going to side-track and pass us. Therefore, I ask you to help me to find a handsome man of 50 or over who has some money and can make more.

I am a young girl of loving disposition; do not powder, except on special occasions; can cook, and know how to dress on nothing or little. I want love and fidelity. Do not send me the name of any traveling men.

I am 39 and dark.--Miss Ella Miller, 837 Spring Garden street, Philadelphia.

* * * * *

Introduce me to a widow with money who wants a good entertainer and honest man. I have no funds, but don't tell her that. I play, sing and recite well.--Adam Werker, Glen Ellyn, Ill.

HER IDEAL HUSBAND.

"My ideal must be tall," suggests Miss Mary Hester, from Wayland, N. Y., "and a gentleman in every sense of the word. He must be of good standing socially and morally. He must be of temperate habits, kind, generous, affectionate, devoted--a man of ability, who would be a companion socially, intellectually and morally to a true, pure, devoted wife."

She says she would ask for no more.

THIS ONE IS REAL FRANK.

Here is another letter from Reading, Pa:

Dear Sir: I notice by Sunday's paper that you are looking for a wife. Now, strange to relate, I am looking for a husband. I don't know what your requirements are, but I do know mine, and the chief ones of them are money, a good home, less work and worry, and happiness. If love comes, too, I shall not object, although I have lived long enough to realize that there can be a sort of lukewarm happiness without love.

Be that as it may, I judge my capacity is sufficiently large to satisfy the sort of a man I judge you to be. Now, for the next item of importance--myself. I am tall and slender, five feet six inches high, and quite "figuresque," as one of my girl friends tells me. I am of the Irish-American type; hair medium in shade and profuse as to quantity; deep-set, very bright gray eyes; good carriage, on account of which strangers often consider me haughty--an entirely erroneous idea.

Am of a lively, frolicsome nature. I am full of fun, and no matter how black things are I always find something to laugh at. I am twenty-three years old, and decidedly domestic, that being, in fact, my only accomplishment. I am artistic only along some lines; have no musical talent and am not an artist, but I love both devotedly. Am very practical, in fact, and a good housekeeper. There is lots more I might tell you, but we will call this enough for the present. Should like to know something about you, and hope you will be as truthful and frank as I have been.

Sincerely yours, MARY ANDERSON.

ONE OF THE LUCKY ONES.

A Matrimonial Agent Captures a Rich Husband and Retires from Business.

Mamie Marie Schultz, a matrimonial agent, outwits the police and postal authorities after being raided and broken up, moves to other quarters, continues business, finds a rich man seeking a wife among her patrons and marries him.

September 11, the German-American Agency, run by Mamie Marie Schultz, 3150 Calumet avenue, was raided by Detective Wooldridge, the literature seized and destroyed. Mamie Marie Schultz was fined $25 by Justice Hurley. The evidence obtained was submitted to the postal authorities for action.

Mamie Marie Schultz fled to Oak Park, where she continued her matrimonial agency. After she moved to Oak Park she was notified "by order of the town board" to vacate, but she laughed at the order and enjoyed the newspaper notoriety she attained, for it only increased her business. It is said she made thousands of dollars out of her matrimonial agency.

With a stealth that is characteristic of his art, Cupid has accomplished what Oak Park officials had been trying to do for two years. He has closed out the Oak Park matrimonial agency by making a victim of his promoter in that vicinity, Marie Schultz, manager of the matchmakers' concern.

The postmaster, United States marshal and several of the town officers yesterday received letters signed "Mrs. J. D. Edwards," announcing that Marie Schultz "had been caught in her own net" and had deserted the village for a "palatial" home in Seattle, Wash., where her new husband, J. D. Edwards, is a wealthy lumber dealer.

SWIFT COURTSHIP BY EDWARDS.

Edwards, it is said, arrived in Oak Park on Tuesday, and after a whirlwind courtship this "Lochinvar who came out of the West" had won the whole matrimonial agency.

"Marie," the name in which all her extensive advertising was done, has defeated the officials of Chicago, Oak Park, and even the United States postoffice inspector, in every effort they made to suppress her enterprise.

To Postmaster Hutchinson she wrote requesting that all letters addressed to the agency be returned to the writers, as she didn't "want any more of their money." The postoffice force was burdened with the task of mailing back to some 500 lovelorn men and maidens the letters which had accumulated in "Marie's" postoffice box.

But the bleatings of the overgrown calf from Utah, and the wails of the maiden lady who desires a "flower" for a mate are both eclipsed by the mushy outpourings of a Chicago business man.

This fellow evidently possesses the artistic temperament. Not only is he moved to write prose poetry, "to bay the moon of love," but he insists on inserting illustrative sketches of an ardent wooing.

He has forged the white heat of his passion, which evidently puts Ella Wheeler Wilcox at her fiercest to shame, into pictures. Here we behold him, hand in hand with his beloved, under the kindly stars. There, more prosaic, it is true, but still quite passionate, is the drawing room scene, with the lady seated on his knee. Behold the works of genius when love impels.

THE FESTIVE FARM HAND FRIVOLS.

Among the hundreds of applications for a wife Detective Wooldridge found one from Jacob C. Miller, of Martinsville. Pa. Miller filled out the application blank as follows:

Q. Where born? A. Lancaster, Pa.

Q. What language do you speak? A. English.

Q. Nationality? A. White.

Q. Weight? A. 130.

Q. Color of eyes? A. Greenish blue.

Q. Color of hair? A. Brown on a little patch.

Q. Complexion? A. Fair.

Q. Circumference of chest? A. 36 inches.

Q. Circumference of waist? A. 36 inches.

Q. Circumference of head (just above ears)? A. 13 inches.

Q. Circumference of neck? A. Wear 15-1/2 collar.

Q. Profession? A. Farm hand.

Q. Income per year? A. Nothing.

Q. Extent of education: common, high school or university? A. Common.

Q. Do you use tobacco or liquor? A. I use a little tobacco, but no liquor.

Q. How much real estate do you own? A. Nothing.

Q. Do any of the pictures we have submitted to you suit, and will you marry? A. Yes, the one with the turned-up nose.

Q. If we secured you a wife worth $250,000 would you be willing to pay us a small commission for our trouble? A. Yes.

THE FAKER AND THE PRESS.

SOME NEWSPAPERS ARE BUNCOED, WHILE OTHERS WILLINGLY ASSIST RASCALS.

Strangely enough, the abomination known as the "matrimonial agency," bureau or what-not, has succeeded in hoodwinking the great American press to a certain extent.

Advertisements appear in leading journals all over the country. Without this the great fraud could not exist ten minutes. There are numberless instances, we are quite sure, where the publishers have no suspicion that they are furthering the cause of scoundrels. In others, we regret to say, the motive for accepting these advertisements is traceable to nothing more or less than just the plain greed of the publisher.

It is impossible for a private citizen to prophesy whether the entire power of the government of the United States can purify the columns of some of our greedy newspapers.

These matrimonial agencies are frauds. The newspaper man knows this and takes their money for the advertisements, and becomes a messenger of a crime for a paltry sum, and if I were the District Attorney I would get busy and call the attention of the Postmaster General to these alleged newspapers for the purpose of shutting off their distribution through the mails.

Here are a few samples of the ads appearing in the reputable daily press of the country:

MATRIMONIAL AGENCIES' ADVERTISEMENTS FOR RICH WIVES AND HUSBANDS.

They Appear in All the Leading Newspapers Throughout the Country.

This is a very select list of ten ladies picked at random from our books by one of the leading newspaper reporters of this city, February 1, 1904:

Minnesota Maiden--30 yrs., 5 ft. 2 in., weight 128 lbs.; brown hair, blue eyes; has $10,500.

Missouri Maiden--28 yrs., 5 ft. 7 in., weight 150 lbs.; blonde, blue eyes, German; has $4,800.

Pennsylvania Maiden--20 yrs., 5 ft. 4 in., weight 132 lbs.; light hair, blue eyes; will inherit $30,000, provided she is married on her 21st birthday.

Wisconsin Widow--49 yrs., 5 ft. 3 in., weight 130 lbs.; black hair, black eyes; no children; worth $15,000. Will marry elderly man.

Indiana Maiden--29 yrs., 5 ft. 4 in., weight 122 lbs.; brown hair, blue eyes; pretty and worth $7,000. Would marry farmer.

Illinois Maiden--21 yrs., 5 ft. 8 in., weight 140 lbs.; chestnut hair, blue eyes; worth $40,000; is a cripple. Will marry kind man who will overlook her misfortune.

New Jersey Widow--28 yrs., 4 ft. 11 in., weight 150 lbs.; brown hair, blue eyes, one child; worth $35,000. Will marry and assist husband financially.

Ohio Farmers Daughter--Orphan, 25 yrs., 5 ft. 7 in.; brown hair, gray eyes; has large farm. Alone, will marry immediately, farmer preferred.

Montana Maiden--Half-breed Indian, age 25, 5 ft. 4 in., 130 lbs.; black hair, black eyes; has large ranch. Will marry honest white man.

Illinois Bachelor Girl--Age 35, 5 ft. 7 in., 160 lbs.; black hair, brown eyes; owns fine estate, valued at thousands. Would marry gentleman of equal wealth.

PENNSYLVANIA.

Beautiful maiden lady, refined and well educated; American; blonde, age 37 years, height 5 ft. 4 in., weight 106 pounds; worth $30,000.

NEBRASKA.

Stylish young brunette, fond of society; American; age 28 years, height 5 ft. 3 in., weight 135 pounds; Baptist, and worth $25,000; income $3,000 a year.

OHIO.

Stately widow, age 49 years, handsome and remarkably well preserved; height 5 ft. 6 in., weight 160 lbs.; no children; worth $5,000; wants elderly husband.

KENTUCKY.

Beautiful blonde Southern girl, educated and refined; age 21, height 5 ft. 2 in., weight 115 lbs.; American, and worth $10,000; wants nice-looking husband.

Pretty little girl, age 19 years, height 5 ft. 3 in., weight 112 lbs.; American; worth $10,000. Says she is very anxious to marry.

BOSTON, MASS.

Fine-looking lady, age 37 years, height 5 ft. 3 in., weight 140 lbs.; American, Protestant, and worth $20,000.

Young lady, blonde, age 25 years, weight 128 lbs., height 5 ft.; American, Methodist; income $720 a year; worth $25,000.

CHICAGO, ILL.

Maiden, age 26 years, height 5 ft. 4 in., weight 140 lbs.; Scotch, Protestant, Methodist; income $1,200 per year; worth $75,000.

MONROE CO., PA.

Young lady, age 23 years, very pretty, height 5 ft. 5 in., weight 150 lbs.; German, Methodist; worth $12,000.

DOVER, N. H.

Stylish, brown-eyed lady, age 24 years, height 5 ft. 6 in., weight 135 pounds; American, Methodist; worth $50,000.

NEW YORK CITY.

Young widow, age 32 years, height 5 ft. 5 in., weight 140 lbs.; Irish Catholic; worth $40,000.

UTAH.

Maiden lady, age not mentioned, height 5 ft., weight 120 lbs.; worth $35,000.

And all this, ridiculous, murderous and otherwise, is all outside the pale of the law. The matrimonial agency is a crime _per se_. It is a criminal institution. It has been pronounced to be such by the best and foremost judges of the United States, Germany and Great Britain.

Judge Klerbach, sitting in the case of a marriage broker at Goettingen, Germany, in 1903, declared that the marriage broker was a criminal in intent, from the very nature of his business.

In the celebrated case of Alan Murray vs. Jeanie McDonald at Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1898, Justice Grahame pronounced from the judicial seat one of the most scathing arraignments of the marriage bureau ever delivered. "Leeches upon the body social, blood-suckers, destroyers of womanhood, abominations of the bottomless pit," were some of the phrases used by Justice Grahame in denouncing Murray.