d
marriage, giving their credentials, obtaining a hasty consent, and
sending in their "publishings" to the town clerk, all within a day's
time.

The "matrimonial" advertisement did not appear till 1759. In the _Boston
Evening Post_ of February 23d of that year, this notice, for its novelty
and boldness, must have caused quite a heart-fluttering among Boston
"thornbacks" who would try to pass for the desired age:

"To the Ladies. Any young Lady between the Age of Eighteen and
twenty three of a Midling Stature; brown Hair, regular Features and
a Lively Brisk Eye: Of Good Morals & not Tinctured with anything
that may Sully so Distinguishable a Form possessed of 3 or 400L
entirely her own Disposal and where there will be no necessity of
going Through the tiresome Talk of addressing Parents or Guardians
for their consent: Such a one by leaving a Line directed for A. W.
at the British Coffee House in King Street appointing where an
Interview may be had will meet with a Person who flatters himself
he shall not be thought Disagreeable by any Lady answering the
above description. N. B. Profound Secrecy will be observ'd. No
Trifling Answers will be regarded."

Hawthorne says: "Now this was great condescension towards the ladies of
Massachusetts Bay in a threadbare lieutenant of foot."

Other matrimonial advertisements, those of recreant and disobedient
wives, appear in considerable number, especially in Connecticut papers.
They were sometimes prefaced by the solemn warning: "Cursed be he that
parteth man & wife & all the people shall say Amen." Some very
disagreeable allegations were made against these Connecticut wives--that
they were rude, gay, light-carriaged girls, poor and lazy housewives,
ill cooks, fond of dancing, and talking balderdash talk, and far from
being loving consorts. The wives had something to say from their point
of view. One, owing to her spouse's stinginess, had to use "Indian
branne for Jonne bred," and never tasted good food; another stated that
her loving husband "cruelly pulled my hair, pinched my flesh, kicked me
out of bed, drag'd me by my arms & heels, flung ashes upon me to smother
me, flung water from the well till I had not a dry thread on me." All
these notices were apparently printed in the advertiser's own language
and individual manner of spelling, some even in rhyme. "Timothy hubbard"
thus ventilated his domestic infelicities and