Eaton Democrat

A Young Lady Drawn in a Lottery.

Nearly a year ago a young lady in France named Sophie Va Bebe, conceived the singular idea of disposing of herself in marriage by means of a lottery. She was thirty years old: tired of a life of celibacy, and in despair of not finding a husband with enough means at his command to suit her views. She announced, therefore, that her handsome but rather mature person should be disposed of on the following terms: She created a lottery with five hundred shares of a thousand francs each. Subscribers were to present themselves in person, in order that she might decide on their acceptability as husbands. The subscribers, of course, were to be single men. The subscriptions were placed in the hands of a notary as fast as made, and the drawing was not to take place till all the shares were taken, that is, when the sum of half a million of francs was complete.

Not quite a year elapsed before the shares were all taken. The drawing recently took place in the office of the notary who held the subscriptions and the money, in the presence of two magistrates. A thousand numbers were placed in an urn, the subscribers being numbered in order as their names were inscribed. The urn was thoroughly shaken up, a blind hand was thrust in and No. 499 was withdrawn. The happy individual who subscribed No. 499 was a Tunisian General who had already occupied the public attention by his oriental caprices. But the lady was neither frightened at the turban, nor the beard, nor the harem of the happy barbarian, who hastened to marry her and to pocket his five hundred thousand francs. The happy couple have left for Tunis, where they will reside.--Paris Correspondence of the New York Times.