Miss Ot--I take pleasure in answering your "ad" in the "Hour at Home." You stated in your "ad" you were worth $147,000, and would give the man that married you $5,500 on his wedding day. You say you are plain. I am good looking, so the people tell me, and if you correspond with me we may come to an understanding. I am willing to marry you if you give me proof you have the money, and will do all that you say in the "ad." I will do my best to make your life happy. Awaiting your reply, I remain. Yours truly, W. M. M., Sheriff. BIGAMY AND THE BUREAU. Where the Professional Bigamists Find Wives. The matrimonial agencies that have been investigated and suppressed by Detective Wooldridge and the postoffice authorities have disclosed an almost incredible phase of woman's nature. There are today in the United States no less than 50,000 women who have been married, robbed and deserted by "professional bigamists." This fact represent the most serious phase of the matrimonial agency swindle, for it is the history of nearly all noted bigamists that they secured their victims through the matrimonial agencies. Of the thousands who become subscribers to these agencies, however, comparatively few ever proceed far enough to encounter the tragic features of the swindle. It might be inferred from this that women are much easier to entice into matrimony than men. Probably, however, this is an untenable conclusion. When a woman does start on marrying bent, mere men fall before her like grain before the sickle. Miss Marion Rapp, arrested at Philadelphia, is known to have secured eight husbands in three years, and is suspected of having captured six or eight more. Miss Rapp is still young, and if her career had not been untimely cut off she might have made a record that would have done credit (or discredit) to her sex. [Illustration: PUTS A SNAFFLE BIT ON THE OLD MAN] The sad experiences of people who have been victimized by gay deceivers, male or female, perhaps contain a lesson to persons who carelessly contemplate matrimony. When a stranger proposes marriage at first sight it may possibly be well to take a look into his or her antecedents. This is not the most romantic way to proceed, but it is a way that may have a great practical advantage. It probably would be endorsed by every one of the 50,000 women in this country who are now looking for professional bigamists who married them and ran away with their cash.