Hearts West (14 page)

THE NEW PLAN
Magazine for Matrimony

T
ears slid down widow Mabel Haskell's face and fell onto the blank piece of paper in front of her. She sat poised, pen in hand over the monogrammed stationery, contemplating her life and lamenting her cheerless state of affairs. The sad but striking-looking woman in her late forties had no family, no children of her own, and had lost her husband of twenty-three years ten months earlier. She was lonely and fearful that she would always remain so.

Desperate for companionship, Mabel decided to advertise for a partner. She knew other women whose solicitation for a spouse had been answered and a handful of those were fortunate enough to marry the men who replied. Mabel wondered if she would be as lucky. Blinking away tears, she decided the time was right to submit an ad to the popular publication
The New Plan
. Perhaps an equally lonely gentleman would read the personal plea and seek her out. Perhaps she would find love again.

Helping eligible men and women find one another, correspond, and marry was the main goal of
The New Plan
. Published in Kansas City, Missouri, the magazine's purpose was to unite lonely hearts, with various monetary and social backgrounds, who were unable to find a desirable life partner.

Ladies especially, whose opportunities are somewhat limited as to forming acquaintances, seek the method (proposed in
The New Plan
) knowing that in no other way have they so much advantage. Don't think because you are not wealthy yourself that you cannot get a rich party to marry you. Love is not measured in lucre. Morality, fidelity, respectability, ambition and beauty often tip the opposing weight of wealth on the matrimonial scale. Women in affluent circumstances are not usually seeking an increase of wealth in marriage. The self-respecting man of means, in seeking a wife is not seeking her for the property she may have.

We get many inquiries from both sexes who have plenty of means for two and who seek life companions of true worth and not for means. We do business with such people constantly and know whereof we speak.

The New Plan Notice
—1917

A list of the magazine's aims and methods of business were listed on the back cover of each edition. The simple and easy-to-follow plan promised speedy and satisfactory results for all who submitted an advertisement.

Our time and money is devoted entirely to the interest of the unmarried; to elevate and promote the welfare of marriageable people and furnish a safe, reliable and confidential method at a nominal cost, whereby good honorable people, of sincere and moral intentions, may better enable themselves to become acquainted with a large number of such people of the opposite sex as they may deem worthy of consideration, which may lead to their future happiness and prosperity.

The New Plan
—1917

The personal ads listed in the publication were genuine, and ladies whose advertisements were published signed a statement in which they agreed to answer every letter received from interested gentlemen readers who enclosed postage, either accepting or declining correspondence.

The cost for each advertisement was $1.00. The magazine's editors boasted that this offer was “the greatest bargain in the world for the money.”

The New Plan
was in circulation from 1911 to 1917. The following are samples of advertisements found in the September 1917 edition of the periodical. The first advertisement was submitted by Mabel Haskell.

I am a lonely, unencumbered widow; age 48; weight 165; height, 5 feet 6 inches; big blue eyes; brown hair; fair complexion; American; religion, Methodist. I have property worth $30,000. A sunny disposition; considered very good looking. Would like to hear from some good business man. Object, matrimony.

A very stylish and attractive widow by death, with property worth $3,000. Age 33; weight, 125; height, 5 feet 5 inches; blue eyes; brown hair; complexion, fair; American; good housekeeper and cook. Would marry if I can find a congenial companion. Either city or country life. Will answer all letters containing stamps. Will inherit $6,000.

I am a good looking young lady, a brunette, with velvet brown eyes, brown hair and fair complexion; height, 5 feet 6 inches; weight 141; age, 20. I have a college education and am highly accomplished in music and voice. Have a kind and cheerful disposition and am a lover of home and children. Have means of $20,000 and income of $100 per month. I desire the acquaintance of good moral men. Any age.