Maggie, 25, would like a professional gentleman of moderate means (1886)

Middle class (feminine)1886

Maggie, aged 25, loving disposition, attractive, domesticated, well educated, true, and honourable, would like to meet a professional gentleman of moderate means. Maggie is fair, medium height, dark brown hair, and deep blue eyes. Please reply early, and inclose photo to Editor. Address, Box 1074, Matrimonial Journal Office, Toronto.

The Anglo-American Matrimonial Journal, Toronto, Vol. 1, No. 1, December 1886, p. 3. View the original page on Canadiana

In plain English

Maggie, 25, describes herself as loving, attractive, good at running a home, well educated, truthful, and honourable. She would like to meet a professional man of moderate means. She is fair, of medium height, with dark brown hair and deep blue eyes, and asks men to reply soon and send a photograph to the Editor.

Who wrote it, and to whom

Newspaper	The Anglo-American Matrimonial Journal, Toronto
Date	December 1886 (Vol. 1, No. 1), page 3
Section	Middle class (feminine), at two cents a word
Written by	A woman, 25, signing Maggie
Addressed to	Professional men of moderate means
Where	Replies to Box 1074, Matrimonial Journal Office, Toronto

Context

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.

Middle-class ads cost two cents a word. Maggie asks for a photograph sent to the Editor rather than to her, and the issue’s notice to private clients, who could have the Editor arrange a match without advertising, asks for the same details she gives: age, appearance, and social position, with a description of the partner wanted.

In the Personals Dictionary

Of loving disposition Moderate circumstances Photographs exchanged

Tagged

matrimony written by women

How to cite this ad

“Maggie, 25, would like a professional gentleman of moderate means.” Matrimonial advertisement, The Anglo-American Matrimonial Journal (Toronto), vol. 1, no. 1, December 1886, p. 3. Transcribed in The Personals Archive, AseeksB, https://www.aseeksb.com/archive/1886-matrimonial-journal-maggie-aged-25.html.

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.

← 1886: A gentleman of 28 and the soul he longs to meet 1886: A real good girl wanted at once, by a steady man in the North-West Territory →

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