The marriage bureau is not a distinctly American institution.
They know the animal in Europe, only there the operators refer to
themselves as marriage brokers, and are decidedly more careful than
their American prototypes to steer clear of crime.
The idea of marriage broking has thoroughly permeated the effete
nobility of Europe. The broken-down "nobles," out at heels and buried
under a mountain of debt, look to America for a rich heiress to whom
their titles may be sold. For many years they looked to the brokers
on their own side of the water to provide them with golden girls; but
of late years they have been mixing with the American Matrimonial
Agencies, sometimes to their sorrow, as attest the case of Count
Larisch.