Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-03-02
A TRUE LOVERS KNOT.
Louise Stockton Tells How, in Fact and in |
Fiction, He Does and Does Not Tie 1t.

A TRUE LOVERS KNOT.
Louise Stockton Tells How, in Fact and in
Fiction, He Does and Does Not Tie IT.
Not long ago somebody started an inquiry into
the methods employed by lovers when they ask
their ladies to marry them. The inquirer made
one discovery instantly. and that was this: No
one would tell. The wouldn't. If they
had been accepted they didn't dare to, and if
they had been rejected they didn't want to. As
for the ladies, they laughed at the editor. If he
wanted to propose that was one thing, but If he
wanted to know what other men said let him
ask them. They wouldn't tell? Neither would
shel Now, it is all very well to say that
no woman of spirit would tell such thing
as this; that if she refuses a man it is
his secret, and if she accepts him. it is hers; but
women very commonly have another reason for
reticence which the editor never guesses. They
are ashamed because their lovers so often are so
stupid! If man should ever rise to occa-
sion, it is this occasion; but the pebbles are
usually still in his mouth, when he makes this
fatefUl speech. 1t is not an easy undertaking,
and none the easier because a girl likes it
favored with romance as well as sentiment.
When it is commonplace it implies that she is
not inspiration. It IS one of the things that
man had best not plan too much for, but.
waiting for the moment OF inspiration, take the
plunge. and hoping to come up nnstrangled.
Next to good deal of experience.
there notnng ns 1e eve com mp e d
with mother love, and who believes that his di-
vinity is divinity to all the world is apt to go
through his first experience admirably. His
modesty and his forwardness make capital
mixture, and, as he speaks from the fuliness of
a very abundant heart, he is as eloquent as ex-
citement can make him. He is always so fright
fully in earnest, He never sim ply declares his
love, but he asks her to marry him. He has no
vision of life unspared by her, and even if he is
sri q a a
study them better if she looked over the books
with him. But this vision of young love is brief.
She usually refuses him, and if she accepts him
she may, some fatal hour, dance with another
fellow, or he may go home with another girl,
and all is over! Rings go back, letters are
burned and two hearts would be broken if two
hearts were not SO mad at each other. Good
clothes, like religion, is said to be great con-
soler, but nothing carries one over rough places
porting consciousness of being ill-treated.
The youth second lover is likely to be older
her circle. There comes a time when he tells
her that she is nobler for having known her,
This is when she refuses him, and offers to be
his sister: He never says this to the girl who
accepts him. But when he does say it the girl
to whom he says it may prepare to speedily hear
on the stepping of his dead self to higher
man idlaa'' to emulate the little girl who who
prayed: 'EPlease, Lord, make Ethel
good gtrl and if at first you don't succeed, try,
try again. At any rate, he tries again. But
he does not always want to make this third affair
serious, and sadly mistaken is the girl who mis-
takes this declaration of love for an offer of mar
riage! This little episode is generally the effect
of some dancing, some ocean, some moonlight,
and the exhilerating experience of knickerbock-
ers, a flannel shirt, leather belt, and possibly
Tam with flowing tassel. He is sure to
make love under such enticing circumstances,
but the girl to whom he makes it had better
laugh than think of it.
A young lover also writes better love letters
than the older one, but as man grows in years,
the more ink does he use in his loYe-making.
Bat if were juror in breach of promise case,
1 should pray that the defendant should be
young. His love letters would then, perhaps,
be a little interesting. There will be love in
them, but there may be news, and some base
ball gossips, and story OF Joe or Sam now and
then. You never find anything of this in the
old DEFENDERS letters. He is probably estima-
his years with heavy dignity. His love
letters to Mile. May, however, ought to send
him to home for imbeciles: He calls her pet
names, his ''dovey' his hearts treasure -
He tells her not to eat late at night and wonders
if her headache is not due to ice water. He al
ways tells her he is going to buy her sealskin
coat, and counts the hours before the 18th inst,
when he is coming by the 4:42 train to see her,
and does she love him as he does her. Thus
does December WOO his second wife, and if May
does not want to tell how he does it, who can
blame her? As long as ne is faithful, she keeps
the secret Of his proposal. When he recants, the
jury hears 1t.
And so the editors, finding doors shut, took
stock of their own experience, and in time were
reticent, and nothing was left but to fall back
on the novelists and see how they got through
Now the novelist has it all his own way, and his
villain generally carries the boldest and best
hand, just as in opera the successful basso al
ways has the nine points which make the law
In Anthony Trollope the villain is the only one
who is ever quite sure Of himself, and
ike to go love-making with Trollope
It is like buying carpets when you
know just what colors you want, and how many
yards. and what the price is to be, and your
only establishment is choosing the wrong color,
and paying more than you meant. 1 like it,
rvh hon hn f1raCc oil faV,1i
asks them to go out, so he may speak to the
heroine, and then like to go upstairs and sit
with the sisters and wonder what he will say and
II she viii refuse him. And like him to talk
about he- to her cousin, and hear her cousins
opinion about the whole affair; and wonder
why in the same story one girl marries well
On HOO pounds year and why her sister
is not allowed to have the man of her choice be-
cause she has but eight. When you go counting
arithmetic in your pocket, but never with
Frenchman. Arithmetic in q French book comes
IN when marriage is in question, but not love.
why do love your cries the Latin. Be
cause were made for each otheri'' tfAnd
l. says the Englishman, 'sbecause we belong
to the same circle and are ground out alike. y
loverG Why-in books-does he love his lady!
Because he cannot get heri She is N
other; he has TO overcome obstacles to convince
her, TO win her! In French and English books
they look, they love, and then the fates con-
spire agsinst them; but not SO in the Anne riean.
He viii not; she VIII not. It is the toss of
penny which will not; but the other has the
game at last, unless, indeed, one or the other
never catch Howells, or James, or stockton
killing off their heroes or heroines. You
so tired of them, but he does not.
In the American novel the women
to serve up death beds as an entertainment and
why do they ask you to weep when you have
come with them, page after page, hoping for
amusement. And this is the queerer because. as