The Santa Fe weekly gazette. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.T. [i.e. N.M.]) 1851-1854, 1854-02-18
NUMBER 36
COURTSHIPS OF GREAT MEN.

II, my young friend, you desire to be-
come the husband of good wife, do not
"Stoop toconquer" the maidens. Rather
be burned by the slow fire Of love con
cealed, than cringe before a fellow crca.
ture. Never hatter. That you declare
yourself a woman's lover is proof that
you believe her to be worthy of esteem.
1t is both useless and wrong to talk to n
woman Of her virtues--l use the word in
its largest acceptation-bocause she
knows them all, and if she docs not, such
Ignorance is bliss wrong, because our
good qualities are attended by destroy.
ing devil, which, ifyou speak of them,
appears and kills them, and takes tho
place which they occupied.
In our times, all women, when in love,
are actresses; they ieign GOODNESS which
they do not feel, and often say what they
do not mean. In the days Of the ratri,
archs, q woman's conduct was the child
of her heart. But let us tell how they
were courtcd.
WILLIAM THE CoNouERoR. William,
sur.named the Conqucror, of England,
loved Matilda, the beautiful daughter of
the Earl Of Flanders, a wealthy, potent,
and polite prince. As statesman he
was desirous for a league with the father;
as man, he yearnod for a union with
the daughter. She was comely and le,
armed, ga mirror of prudence and perftc-
ton ofvirtue." She was fought in mar
riage by the greatest sovereign in Euro,
| pc. William wus a handsome man, m
able legislator, and a warrior Of renown.
But his addresses were coolly received I!
for Matilda was cnamored of young An
glo Saxon nobeman, who treated her as
she treated William. For seven years
didhe serve an apprenticeship to Cupid;
at the expiration of which, says Agnes
Strickland, he, 1917 ,waylaid Matilda in
the streets Of Bruges, as she was return
ing from mass, seized her, rolled her in
the dirt, spoiled her rich array, and not
content with these ouragcs, struck her
repeatedly, and then rode off "a full speed.
This teutonic method ofcourtship brought
the affair to crisis; for Matilda, con-
vinced either ofthe strength ofWilliam's
passion by the violence OF his behaviour,
or afraid of venturing n second beating,
consented to became his wife, How he
ever presumed to enter her presence aga
in, after such series Of enormities, the
chronicler saith not and Strickland be-
ing a woman, says she is at loss to ina
CINE
"The marriage between the royal con.
sins took place in 1850, at Williams own
Castle of Agni, in Normandy, whittier
Matilda was with great pomp conducted
by her illustrious parents and a noble
company of knights and ladies. LILIES
Of the Queens of England, vol. 1.
This unhatcring mode Of Sparkling"
is not still extinct. 1t exists among the
aboriginal inhabitants of the Australian
group, which has Justly been styled the
Country ofcontradictons." Their treat
ment of the female sex, says DR.. Hugh
Murray, in his Encyclopedia of Geogra-
ply, is of all other particulars, the most
atrocous. Their courtship consists in
the most brutal violence. The intended
husband, having contrived to find alone
the unhappy victim Of his love, begins
by beating her to the ground with a club;
then accumulates blows, till she becomes
altogether senseless, when he drags her
to his hovel regardless of her striking a.
gainst clubs and stones, till under such
promising auspices she is fixed in his es-
tablishment. All oftheirsubsequent life
is of a piece with his outset. Several of
the colonists in vain attempted to count
the scars with which the faces of these
unfortunate beings were variegated,
Sir Isaac Newton, ,--Of the courtship
of this illustrious philosopher, have
somewhere read an anccdote although
it is not to be found in several lives Of
him which have searched. 1t is well
known he was often absent.minded; that,
for example, he would sometimes rise and
sit for several hours by his bedside un-
dressed, and absorbed in thought; that
he would often forget to dine until re.
minded by his domcstics, that to live it
was necessary to eat.
Once, and once only, he loved a young
woman. One evening they were seated
by the freside together. lie sat silently
smoking. She was too proud of his love
to be offended by his conduct Atlength
he took his pipe from his mouth, and seiz.
ed her hand. She expected that he was
about to kiss it. Instead Of doing SO,
however, he stirred the tobacco in tho
head of his pipe with her fore flnger--a
rather odd substitute. for PIN Shewas
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