Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1874-05-29
Popping the Question.

4
POPPING the question has always been
matter of considerable importance
among lovers. Swift, who had no more
tenderness than one of his own Yahoos,
indited the most brutal proposal we know
of. Tired of his shilly-shallying, Miss
Varying seems to have insisted upon his
speaking out, and Swift spoke out with
vengeance. After protesting he is too
just to stand in the way of her accepting
a more advantageous offer, he saws he
must ask her q few questions-question
he had long since resolved to ask of the
woman with whom he meant to spend his
life: care you in condition to manage
domestic affairs with an income of less
than $500 year? Have you such an in
clinatiOn to my person and honor as to
comply with my desires and way of living,
and endeavor to make us both as happy
as you can? Will you be ready to engage
in those methods shall direct for the i'm
provement of your mind, so as to make
us entertaining company for each other,
without being miserable, when we are
neither visiting nor visited? Can you
bend your love, esteem and Indifference
to others the same way as | do mine?
Have you so much good nature as to en-
deavor by soft words to smooth any rugged
humor occasioned by the cross incidents
of life? Shall the place wherein your
husband is thrown be more welcome than
courts and cities without him?"r Surely
never was a lady so catechised by sutton
for her hand. When Jane Varying felt able
to answer every question in the affirma-
tive, then, and not till then, her lover SAYS:
/ shall be blessed to have you in my arms,
without regarding whether your person
be beautiful or your fortune large. Clean
illness in the first and competency in the
second is all | look for!'' This unique
epistle ends: 81 single you out at first
from the rest of women, and expect rot
to be used like common lover" Swift
was evidently enough very uncommon
one. CAV 4
There is world of difference between
the love making of morbid, self-loving
Swift and that of CHEEKY hearted Richard
Steele; the ravens croak and the lark's
song are not more unlike The Christian
hero made love like lover and a gentle
man. He never dreamed of plying his
mistress with doubling question upon
question. Believing his Prue to be as
beautiful witty, prudent and good
humored as woman could be, Steele was
contented to know she loved him and
took the rest upon trust. "Instead of
saying | shall die for you, I profess |
should be glad to lead my life with youp'
That is the way he pops the question.
A Frenchman smitten with the charms
of fair Lydia Sterne, instead of trying to
secure her goodwill, wrote to her father
desiring to be informed what he was pre-
pared to give her upon marriage, and
how much he intended to bequeath her.
He thought he would be able to say to
Miss Lydia as Petruchio said to Kate the
curst: & 80
Your father has consented a
That you shall be my wife: your dowry greed on,
And will you, Mill you, will marry you.
But Sterne was not so eager to get rid of
his girl as was Signor Baptisa, and re-
piled; Sir, | shall give my daughter ten
thousand pounds the day of marriage.
My calculation is as follows: She is not
18, you are 62-there goes $1,000.
Then, sir, you, at least, think her
not ugly; she has many accomplishments,
speaks Italian and French, plays upon the
guitar; and as | fear you play on no in
strument whatever, / think you will be
happy to take her on any terms, for here
finishes the account of the Gt0,000."
Whitefeld asked the hand of young
American lady of her parents, without
troubling TO ascertain her inclinations,
and was good enough to let them know
they need not be afraid of offending him
by declining the honor, since he blessed
God he was free from the passion called
love.
Miss Kenrick, the beautiful heiress eel
ebrated in the ballad of "The Berkshire
Lady's Garland" adopted a singular
method of winning the handsome young
attorney, Benjamin Child, with whom she
had fallen in love at sight. She sent him
an anonymous letter, demanding satisfac-
ton for injuries received. After vainly
puzzling himself to guess whom his
challenger might be, and how he had
offended, Child betook himself, duly pro-
vided with a second, to the place of meet
ing, near pleasant crystal fountain.
There he saw no fierce gallant, only a
masked lady, who asked him his business
there. He told it; whereupon his fair
questioner, flashing rapier she carried
for her security, said:
500 1t is that did invite you;
sfts~ You shall wed me, or I'll fight you, &
Underneath those spreading trees;
Therefore choose from which you pleased
Rather taken aback by such a summons
to surrender, Benjamin asked to see his
~ 11o,, nrorSc face ora ha danidad Thjp