The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1884-03-28
THE LEAP-YEAR QUESTION.
DO OR DO not woMEN MAKE THE
MATRIMONIAL MATcHESp
A Writer who Argues Tcrsely and
Vigorously That They DO -B1Ow
They 60 About the Matter.


Vigorously That They DO How
They 60 About the Matter.
There have been many able writers on
the subject, and nearly all agree on one
issue, and that is, that women are placed
at decided disadvantage in making a
choice. There is just where the writer,
though he may have no great experience,
proposes not to agree, but on the other
hand to argue against the opinion. Mag
azines and other periodicals publish clab-
orately written articles deploring the al
legged fact that woman has no voice in
the matter; that, however much she may
adore a man, she must hold herself in re-
serve and patiently wait for him to pop
the question. Perhaps he never does it,
but she waits all the same, and finally,
after long years of waiting, she marries
some man she doesn't care picayune for,
or becomes the proverbial dried up old
maid. A leading metropolitan journal,
in fervid editorial on leap-year, says
"Gct the unwrittcn laws of society, as I'M
changeable as those of the Modes and
the Pcrsians, hold the woman back under
penalty of social ostracsm. She must
wait until some man coudescends to be-
tons. If she finds him worthy and Iowa
BILE, and well suited for husband, she
must keep her mouth scaled. 1t would
be highly improper to indicate by word
or action that she would be pleased to
walk side by side with him for life" This
is all very fine. But it is bosh. Pure I'M
adulteratcd nonsense, and every married
woman, every married MN, and Il good
many single people will agree that the
author knew nothing about it, or wa,
talking for effect. Directly contrary to
this fact, the fact stands out in bold re-
lief that the women make nine out of
every ten matches. If she makes up her
mind that she wants man and goes for
him, she gets him if she ever stood any
show at all.
A woman is the possessor of a thou
sand little arts by which she makes a
those little articles and those pretty lit
tie ways are displayed so dclicately that
the gentleman sees nothing wrong about
it. In nearly every instance the man is
pretty certain that he will be accepted,
as the woman has shown during the
courtship that she cares for him.
What married man will deny that his
wife during the balmy, romantic days of
the courtship did not, in the ways for
which the sex is noted, make it apparent
to him that his attentions were relishcdl
That she liked to have him come to see
her. and showed her preference for him
i'll numberless little ways, about which
there was not shadow of indelicacy? If
a man is naturally modest and bashful a
good, sensible girl can make him feel so
perfectly at home, and show that she APP
preciatcs and esteems him so much and
would like, perhaps. to be more to him,
that he finally throws off all reserve. feels
perfectly at home, and the proposal is
made in way so easy and natural that
1t comes as matter of course to both.
Continuing, the inexperienced or hypo-
critical writer says: "Unless he speak
the necessary words, it is all as if it had
never been. He goes away free to choose
some other woman, while she must wait
to be chosen by some other man." Poor
thing. hard must be her lo;, but if she
wants the man, and he has any idea that
he wants her, it can be bet on as a dead
moral certainty that she is going to get
him, and she don't say: "Will you
marry me, John" either. There are
cases when woman who has nor spoken
word of affection considers that she
has been rejected by a man she has made
love to. She knows that she has given
him every reason to believe that she loves
HIM, and if he keeps his distance and
doesn't invite closer friendship, she feels
that her affection is not reciprocated, and
ninety nine cases in hundred she has
hit the nail squarely on the head.
A woman can show her esteem in a
hundred ways a man cannot. No matter
what her walk in life, if she really feels
as if she wanted man for a husband,
and would like the prerogatives of Il man
to tell him so, she can proceed and pro-
pose to him in dcmeanor without ever
suspecting it, and he, if he is matrimoni-
ally inclined, feeling and knowing that
his affection is reciprocatcd, proposes
and is accepted. - CiacinaaN NeloS-Jour.
nat