Today In Nellie Bly History — Wanted, A Few Husbands

New York World, Sunday, December 4, 1887

Nellie Bly’s Strange Experience at a Noted Matrimonial Agency

Some of the Men Were Bashful, Some Were Bold, Some Poor and Some Rich, But All Were “the Favorites of Their Circle” — Queer Letters — Husbands That Cost $100 — Quick Proposals — Meeting One’s Fate.

he New York woman can hardly have a single desire that cannot be gratified through some bureau or agency of this town. Through them she can get a house, have it furnished, secure new wardrobe, a good form, a clear complexion, the latest shade of hair, and a loan to start the wheels of the concern in good running order. If she desires a husband, and a family warranted to have a marked resemblance, they can be had through the same channels at a nominal price. This husband-getting interested me. I did not want to marry but I was as curious as a little boy with a dynamite cartridge. I wanted to investigate. But how? A woman always hesitates about telling that she wants to marry. She would not confess to the lack of opportunity under any circumstances.

I saved the address of a Matrimonial Bureau which does business now in East Thirty-first street, and late one evening I called. I was ushered into a parlor and was soon…