Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1877-08-03
summer FIIrtatIOnS-ObserVa on
Reasonable Topic.


This is the season when fiirtations
are rightly presumed to be rife by
the seaside, at the lakes, among the
mountains and at the springs. 1t is
the period of sentimental campaign
ing, of emotional skirmishing,
which is to decide the great battle
in favor of or against matrimony.
There is hardly foot of ground at
any popular summer resort that has
not been the scene of a hundred CO.
quetish conflicts. Nearly every no.
tel, villa and cottage teens with ro-
mantle associations; and young men
and young women to be left alone
where each piazza has its tale of
sensibility and where each passing
breeze is seductively soft is dangerous
to their mental peace if not to their
celibacy. No one knows tie amount
of mischief Cupid is doing-it is
pleasant to make some deity respons-
ible for any folly we choose to
commit-In these long, warm
days and luxurious nights. If we
could see all that is going on at
the fashionable watering places we
should find that human nature
has not changed since we were in
our salad days, and spooneyness
was distemper of our blood.
Managing mammas and wistful
duennas may not be aware, and if
aware, may not approve of many of
the firtations or of the direction
they take. But the young folks en-
gagged in them like them well enough
and their frtations are more their
affair, it must be allowed, than any
body's else, 1t is kindness of for
tune, greatly as some of US may de-
mur, that inexperienced couples are
pretty sure to take their inefectual
destiny into their own hands, and
regulate it according to their own
feelings. They may not be wise
they seldom are; they may not rea-
son about the future-it would be
strange if they should; but they
trust to Nature and fate in a way
that is admirable, and they are be-
trayed far less often than might be
supposed. 1t is very questionable
if tiirtations and their natural con-
sequences, when continuously and en-
ergeticaly prosecuted, would turn
out any better under the immediate
supervision of the olders than they
do when clandestinely managed.
What begins in sheer coquetry often
advances to true esteem and mutual
sympathy, and marriage regarded
as most imprudent at the time of its
occurrence, frequently proves of the
happiest.
Filtration is reckoned as legiti-
mate occupation at summer resorts,
and without it the season would be
considered very tame. 1t has many
varieties and degrees; some of them
so mild and innocuous as to be insi-
pid; others so fast and furious as to
be full of peril. These are rather
exceptional, however, and are not
tolerated, much less encouraged, by
the good society to which the writer
and reader naturally and necessarily
belong. Flirtations merely for firt-
atoms sake, between maidens and
bachelors, are of the sort that are
most common and least obiectional.
They are believed to be the safest,
too-danger being represented by
which all fiirts set aside as
at the commencement of
hostilities. But it is
Just this kind of Irritation, as expert
ence demonstrates, that has the most
serious termination. In a majority of
Eases where young men and women
they need not be SO very young,
begin with a vague mutual
,aacy, TO amuse one another emo
ionally a ring and preist are re-
Iuired soon or late.
If the combatants-for the rela-
alton of the sexes before matrimOny |
closely resembles a combat-should
et out with any aim OF definite un
lerstanding-tOuching marriage, for
'xample-they would be very likely
o forget it, or drift away from it,
n the development of their init
macy. The fact that they have no
purpose, 10 clear comprehension of
ne another, constitutes their peril.
Their hearts are unguarded, because
nprepared; they are free, because
nfettered by promises or condition;
hey are reckless, because ignorant
f what they are to confront.
Amid their fancied security they
re ever liable to surprises of the
Elections, and these make short
york OF judgment, of plans, ofprevi-
'us determinations. Hundreds of
oung people who have gone to
Watering places rejoicing in their
Iberty, and resolved to keep it, for
ONE years at least, have come awav
nth triumphant yet conquered air,
s if they had met the enemy, and
,ara his np bapc tho |