The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1883-11-01
Tha Marr;ad Flirt.

Now is the winter of her discomfort
made glorious summer to the married
flirt. - <s
Conjugal jars are forgotten, marital
misery is banished. household woes are
hushed. In fact, connubial cares gem
orally are put away in camphor, SO TO
speak, to be resurrected, unfortunately
fresh as ever in the fall. sF&
Though, like death, she has all seasons
for her own, the married flirt has seized
upon the heated term as her special and
peculiar opportunity. AS an army of
banners, she goes forth conquering and
to conquer. While her undulating laces
and cool muslins modestly invite, her
feathers and furbelows watt a warning
and her ribbons rustic defiance. She is
a coquette armed cap-a-pie.
But there are coquettes and coquettes,
and the married hirt is not to be mis-
taken for the single specimen of the
same species. From the tops of her abb
normally long gloves to the tips of her
preternaturally short slippers she is
Su-generis. Even such light things as
the needless wave of hand, the freak
ish fall of fan show her for what she
is. The giddy girl recognizes her with
CINl huu bu0
! with discreet detestation. Both mother
and daughter know her and fear her.
She has marred many a match, destroy
ed many an air-castle, ruined many sea-
son.
If genuine cursing not loud but deep.
could kill she would have been dead
long ago. But she is perennial. She
pervades all places and spoils all plans.
Gha 81,
ment of others, and, like the vampire.
feeds upon the heart blood of young
hopes. No summer resort is without
her. From the hotel of high degree to
the mock and lowly camp-meeting she
is omnipresent. The trail of the serpent
is over them all.
The married fiirt is not only multi
tudinous, but multifarious. She is of
all ages and degrees, of all classes and
conditions. One season she is languid
and languishing, another she isfast and
furious Now she is demure and devote,
and again she is flighty and frivolous.
You like her limp and lymphatic, and
are surprised to like her better brisk
and soubrettish. One day she is shrink
ing and skittish, the next she is auda-
cious and impudent- She takes her
cue from Cleopatra: Age cannot wither
nor custom stale her infinite variety"
She is absolutely apostolic; she is all
things to all men, and, although the
danger signals are always out, she finds
o fool every time she takes the trouble
to open her eyes. f-'s8@ 4l
And then the whole thing is so easy;
it is part of the general summer
scheme-no care, no worry, no fretting,
but plenty of folly.
1t is no wonder the young girl is
distanced.. There is no risk, no danger
of falling. Breach-of-promise suits, are
as foreign to the married flirt's thoughts
as genuine sentiment. She is fascinat-
ing but you cannot call her false. She
is evidently fitted TO conjugate love in
all its moods and lenses; but the sense
of safety makes her cruel.
Tying her bonnet under her chin,
She ties young mans heart within.
Just as remorselessly as though she
meant to marry him.
Possibly, however, it is waste of
feeling to think of the other side. Both
parties probably enjoy the little pretense
of sentiment all the more from the very
impossibility of its bringing them to the
altar. At all events the thing is likely
to last A woman should never be too
old to try to please, and all woman love
to be loved. 1t is more likely that the
soul survivor, Macaulay's New Zeal
ander on London bridge, will not only
be a female, but married fiirt