Page 2 - February 09, 2012


‘Mail Order Brides’ Cont. from Page 1


of the 1800s, the Civil War and the migration of men to the west created a disproportionate ratio of women to men in the eastern states. There were few careers open to women, and women who did not marry early faced not only the loneli- ness and social stigma of spin- sterhood, but the prospect of poverty. Thus, the opportunity to move west, make a life and have a family was one some women were willing to sacrifice for.


Many mail order brides and their frontiersman husbands found one another on their own, through ads in newspapers or church circulars. Other cou- ples used "The Matrimonial News," a paper published in San Fransisco specifically to run per- sonal ads for men and women seeking marriage.


Some people tried, with varying degrees of success, to organize "shipments" of mail order brides. Activist Eliza Farnham tried in 1849 to bring young women westward by ship, but recruited only three. Asa Mercer famous- ly brought two groups of young women to Seattle, as potential teachers as well as potential


Day Our Daily Chuckle


Give Us This This week, a compendium of wit,


wisdom and neat stuff you can tell at parties. Enjoy!


Why Athletes Can’t Have Regular Jobs ...


1. Boxing promoter Dan Duva on Mike Tyson going to prison:


"Why would anyone expect him to come out smarter? He went to prison for three years, not Princeton."


2. Stu Grimson, Chicago Blackhawks left wing, explain- ing why he keeps a color photo of himself above his locker:


"That's so when I forget how to spell my name, I can still find my clothes."


brides.


There was always some opposi- tion to the concept of mail- order brides. There were also occasional "horror stories" of tragedy or scams. But many mail order bride stories in the old west ended in long and seemingly happy marriages. As women arrived and men started homesteads and families, the "wild west" began to evolve from a place of saloons, broth- els, and mining camps, into a landscape of towns, with homes, churches and schools.


While some may think this to be an event of the past . . . it is still with us. Ads for mail order brides from Russia, Asia, most any place on the planet, can eas- ily be found by going to Google and typing in ‘mail-order brides.’


Surprisingly, the concept often worked. There were also dra- matic disappointments.


Ads found in the aforemen- tioned “The Matrimonial News,” often were much more direct concerning finances, these ads are remarkably similar to those found in today's singles columns. Such advertising was- n't cheap, however; rates were $1.50 per word and, if a wed- ding occurred, both parties


3. Lou Duva, veteran boxing trainer, on the Spartan train- ing regimen of heavyweight Andrew Golota:


"He's a guy who gets up at six o'clock in the morning, regard- less of what time it is."


4 Chuck Nevitt, North Carolina State basketball play- er, explaining to Coach Jim Valvano why he appeared nervous at practice:


"My sister's expecting a baby, and I don't know if I'm going to be an uncle or an aunt.


5. Frank Layden, Utah Jazz president, on a former player:


"I asked him, 'Son, what is it with you? Is it ignorance or apathy?'


He said, 'Coach, I don't know and I don't care.'"


6. Shelby Metcalf, basketball coach at Texas A&M, recount- ing what he told a player who received four F's and one D:


"Son, looks to me like you're spending too much time on one subject."


agreed to pay the magazine an additional fee within one month.


That such ads paid off is not in question. In her acclaimed book Letters From a Woman Homesteader, Elinor Pruitt Stewart, a widow who came West seeking a better life for herself and her young daughter, described a couple she encoun- tered on the road one day in 1914:


“In a wobbly old buckboard sat a young couple


engrossed by each other. That he was a Westerner we knew by his cowboy hat and boots; that she was an Easterner, by her not knowing how to dress for the ride across the desert. … It came out that our young couple were bride and groom. They had never seen each other until the night before, having met through a matrimo- nial paper. They had met in Green River and were married that morning …”


Elinor Pruitt Stewart was her- self involved in a matrimonial venture. She moved to Burnt Fork, Wyoming, in 1909 to take a job as housekeeper to a Scottish farmer whom she later married. They had only known each other a short time, but as she later noted, "The trend of events and ranch work seemed to


7. In the words of NC State great Charles Shackelford:


"I can go to my left or right, I am amphibious."


8. Former Houston Oilers coach Bum Phillips when asked by Bob Costas why he takes his wife on all the road trips,


Phillips responded: "Because she's too ugly to kiss good-bye."


The Blond


A blonde lady motorist was about two hours from San Diego when she was flagged down by a man whose truck had broken down. The man walked up to the car and asked, "Are you going to San Diego?"


"Sure," answered the blonde, "do you need a lift?"


"Not for me. I'll be spending the next three hours fixing my truck. My problem is I've got two chimpanzees in the back which have to be taken to the San Diego Zoo. They're a bit stressed already so I don't want to keep them on the road all day. Could you possibly take


completely


require that we be married first and do our "sparking" afterward. … Although I married in haste, I have no cause to repent."


Rather than take a chance on American women, many an Irish wheat farmer, Czech coal miner and Chinese merchant wrote home requesting "maid- ens of good moral character" will- ing to travel across the ocean for the purpose of marriage. Basque sheep ranchers in Johnson County, for example, had brides sent over from their home vil- lages in the Pyrenees, while Japanese miners had their brides sent sight-unseen across the Pacific.


The Mercer Girls, as they came to be called, were the result of a young man named Asa Shinn Mercer who, in 1864, brought a group of ladies to the Pacific Northwest. In Seattle they are fondly remembered as the Mercer Girls.


History, in general, tends to be remembered and told from the perspective of men, while women are sorely neglected. We find an example of this in the way the story of the Mercer Girls has been recorded through


‘Mail Order Brides’ Cont. on Page 3


them to the zoo for me? I'll give you $100 for your trouble."


"I'd be happy to," said the blonde. So the two chim- panzees were ushered into the back seat of the blonde's car and carefully strapped into their seat belts, and off they went.


Five hours later, the truck driver was driving through the heart of San Diego when suddenly he was horrified! There was the blonde walk- ing down the street and hold- ing hands with the two chimps, much to the amuse- ment of a big crowd.


With a screech of brakes he pulled off the road and ran over to the blonde.


“What the hell are you doing here?" he demanded, "I gave you $100 to take these chim- panzees to the zoo."


"Yes, I know you did," said the blonde, "but we had money left over so now we're going to Sea World."


Cont. on Page 7 ‘Chuckles’


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