JAPANESE BRIDES AWAIT GROOMS

Bevy of Pretty Maids Held at Immigration Station for Identification of Husbands, Whose Pictures They Married

With a dusky bevy of forty-seven Japanese picture brides to find husbands for, the immigration office at Smith Cove has work enough cut out for it to engage the time of a special inquiry board until the Tosa Maru of other passenger ship from the Orient next month brings a fresh batch of aliens to be examined for admission or deportation. The collection of Japanese women now at the detention station is one of the largest to arrive here for some months and illustrates the manner in which the work of the local immigration office is increasing.

The women are, according to the customs of old Nippon, married to Japanese citizens of this country, although they have never seen the faces of their husbands except in the photograph which acted as the groom's proxy when the wedding ceremony took place in the Orient. Bringing the picture of their husbands with them, the brides have journeyed across the Pacific and if the groom turns up, is identified by means of the pictures and establishes his right and ability to support the bride, the happy couple will finally be united at the immigration office and leave on their honeymoon, following a supplementary marriage service here.

The most desirable class of proxy brides of which every ship from the Fr East has its quota, come from Yokohama where they are as a rule of a higher intelligence and education than from Kobe, where the majority of the women on the Shinano formerly lived.

During the last two years the work of the immigration office has grown so rapidly that in spite of additions to the force it is almost impossible to handle all the business of the office with the desired dispatch. A board of special inquiry is at work on various cases practically all the time from the arrival of one ship to another and it will be only a matter of a few months before a special board will be delegated to devote all their attention to this work.

The other work of the office is gradually being divided into departments, with special men to attend to the Chinese cases, the clerical work and other details. The local office was closed yesterday owing to the observance of Memorial Day.