The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1867-02-18
re Peril. Of ..Payinx A,,enhon.yu

fAe Pcriis Of "Psyiny Attcnfion.ru
Eligible bachelors complain, says the
Saturday Rerisac, that scarcity of marry
ing men has much the same effect upon
the matchmaking mother as scarcity Of
food upon the wolf. 1t makes her at
once more ferocious and more cunning.
Her invitations to croquet parties and
little dinners are so constant SO
pressing that It scarcely possible for her
destined prey to refuse them all without
manifest rudeness, and yet it is equally
hard for him to 90 without being judi
eiously unanswered into "payins atten-
tom to the n young lady who has
been selected to make him happy for
life. The chiyalrous and graceful syn
onym for courtship in itself speaks vol
umes for the serious nature of the risk
he runs. The truly gallant as
sumption which underlies it, that an
English.nan only "pays attention to a
woman when he has a solid business
like offer of marriage to make her, not
only puts Q formidable weapon into the
hands of the matchmaker, but also
leaves her victim without q most effect
ual means of protection. The national
gallantry toward women upon which
q Frenchman so plumes himself may be,
as your Briton declares, a poor sort of
quality enough; a mere grimmace and
trick of the lips-not genuine stuff from
the heart; having much the same rela-
ton to true chiyalry that his biere has
to beer, or his potage to soup. But at
any rate it has this advantage, that it
enables him to pay any amount of flow
cry compliments to q woman without
risk of committing himself, or of being
misunderstood.
If an E%nglishman asks n young lady
after her sore throat, or her invalid
grandmother, and throws into his voice
that tone Of eager interest or tender
sympathy which a polite Frenchman
would assume as a matter Of course, he
is at once suspected of matrimonial de-
signs upon her. He is obliged to be as
formal and business-like in his mode of
address as the lawyers clerk who added
at the end of a too ardent love-letter
the saving clause without prejudice"
We have heard of a young lady who
confided to her bosom friend that she
that morning expected a proposal, and
when closely pressed for her reason
blushingly confessed that the night be-
fore n gentleman had twice asked her
whether she was fond of poetry, apd
four times whether she would like to go
in the refreshment room.
The problem would be to determine,
not what is the Least, possible number
of dances, calls or compliments which
may Justify the intervention of n big
brother or heavy father, but what num-
Der warrants the assumption that the
Irritation has passed ont of the frivolous
into the serious stage. Three dances,
for instance, may expose a man to being
asked what are his "intentions," where
six dances need not imply that he really
has any. The mercenary matchmaker
only tie first point; our ideal
matchmaker would lay far more stress
upon the second. But still, in any case,
this growing tendency to treat the prac
tice of paying attention in the spirit
Of exact science offers at least one ray
Of hope to those who complain that, do
what they will, they cannot escape hav-
to pay this dangerous tribute. The
tendency must o n or later bear fruit
in n generally recognized code or court
(whether written or unwritten does
not much matter), prescribing the pre-
Use number and character of the sat
tentions"-in their adoption to dancing,
croquet playing. cracker pulling, and
other conventional pretexts for flirta-
ton, which virtually amounts to IN
,ffar of mnrria ne