The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1890-10-11
SECONDHAND LOVE.
A Pernicious Code That Rules the Rcls
tions of Many Young Mon and Women.

A Pernicious Code That Rules the Rela-
tions of Many Young Mon and Women.
May Russell, after two or three win
ters Of bellehoodF in her native town,
went to visit her cousins in Blankville.
She was not twenty-one years old, and
was q pretty, sweet-tempered vivacious
girl. Her friends soon saw that Doctor
Holmes, the physician Of the village,
meant to win May for his wife. and that
May was ready to be won. For the first
time in her life she had found man
who appealed to her highest nature,
and in whom she could find her own
better self.
Doctor Holmes was an honorable man
| Of great depth and tenderness of feel
ing, who had been faithful son and
loyal friend, and who would give his
whole heart to his wife.
HE is too good for May" said her
cousin, Mrs. Russell, to her husband.
"The girl began her flirtations at school,
when she was ten years old. The doc
tor has never before wished to marry
any woman. She is skilled in the con-
duct of sham love affairs"
''The fooling is real with her now,"
repl1eu Mr. Russell.
Doctor Holmes was grave, quiet
man. The step he was going to take
was for life; he would not allow himself
to be rash. Yet surely he could make
no mistake in taking this apparently in
nocent, artless, sweet-natured girl into
his heart and home forever?
At last he resolved to hesitate no
longer, and one evening went to the
house determined to ask her to be his
wife. A young girl, one of Mays COM
panions, was in the room with her, and
both were looking amusedly at large
card, on which were fastened six locks
of hair, each labelled with a name and
date. u. .
"What have you there?" asked Doc.
tor Holmes.
May laughed saucily. ~ call them
my scalps-tokens of my victories" she
said. ''They are locks of the hair OF
men who-shall / confess it-have pro-
fessed to be my admirers"
Doctor Holmes was silent. Her friend
soon afterward left the room Then he
said, "Are you serious?, Do you mean
that these men have becn so much in
terested in you and have professed such
regard for you as to give you locks OF
their hair, possibly at your request?"
Eyes, indeed, y she said laughing. 'In
my part of the country girl would feel
neglected If she had not received some
such tokens of personal regards, per-
haps of love, from gentlemen who had
offered her special attention. She never
means really to marry them"
"But she allows each man to look upon
her as possibly his future wife, probably
to kiss her?"
Yes There does not to me seem to
be any harm in it.
81 think / can not agree with you,"
he said. gravely. He left her and never
May Russell's code rules the social re- |
lations of many young men and women.
They hold familiar intercourse or form
engagements which they know are not
founded upon love or esteem, and which
they never intend to fulfill No young
girl can pass through one of these Sex
periences," as they are called, without
and taint She goes to her
husband battered, secondhand thing,
which no art can restore to its first in
nocent purity.
We speak plainly, because the evil
exists and the danger is great.
Companion.