Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-10-25

upon some lovers-strange events, unex-
pected meetings, which sometimes promotes
sometimes prevent proposals. A marriage
took place not many years ago, in the great
world, where the two lovers (long attached
but separated by the desire Of their parentsi)
met under an arch while each were taking
refuge in London from a sudden shower OF
rain. Neither of them had the least idea Of
the neighborhood Of the other, when the
sudden meeting occurred which decided the
course of their future lives. In another case
the engagement was broken off on account
of limited means, and the gentleman went
abroad. Returning after some years Of ab-
sence, he arrived late on the railway plat
form, and rushed into the first carriage he
reached, just as the train was in motion. In
it he found with her mother) the lady he
had been so vainly endeavoring to forget
and the meetiRg ended in one of the happest
of marriages.
In matrimony, as in other affairs it is all
important to put the critical question in the
way best adapted to the character and dis
position Of the person concerned. A gem
tleman who had several sisters-agreeabl
sensible, and some of them fne-looking
women-was one day asked how it happened
that they all reached middle-age unmarried.
81 will explain" he replied. Proposals
without attentions, and attentions without
single life.' To take an opposite example.
A friend of mine, with a warm heart and
quick impulses, is much in the habit of de-
cidedly negativing any proposition when
first made to her, merely on account of its
novelty. One day, while referring to her
happy marriage, inquired how it happened,
with her dislike to new suggestions, that she
did not say No, when her husband proposed
to her;
"Ahl' she said, 81 did; but he knew my
habit, and put the question in such a way
that saying no meant yes"
Lastiy-Always secure your retreat in
love as in war. This is precaution never
to be neglected. Mr.. A., brother to
the late Lord T., whose proud and
naughty temper was proverbial, proposed to
a lady in Portman-square Gardens. After
being refused, the rejected lover turned
away from her in great indignation, but,
finding the gate of the garden locked, was
obliged to return to the lady to petition for
the key. Another case, still more trying,
was that of a gentleman travelling in the
north of America, who, after being hospita-
bly, received in the house of an officer high in
command there, proposed to his hosts
daughter the evening before his intended de-
parture and was refused. A deep fall of
snow came on in the night; the roads be-
came impossible; and the poor man, to his
unspeakable modification, was detained for
a week in the house with the lady who had
rejected him.
Such are some of the incidents relating to
proposals which occur to me at this moment.
Stranger and more varied cases will prob
ably rise up to the memory of most of my
readers surrounded, in some instances, by
sad and softening recollections; embittered,
in others, by long and unavailing regrets.
Pause, then, and prosper, my young
reader. Bear with you on your pathway
the elder chaperon's best wishes for your
happy entrance into this land of promise.
Believe that marriage based on mutual
esteem, built up by lasting affection, and
crowned with heavens blessing, is the fair
remnant left us on earth of the institutions
of Paradise.