Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1891-12-16
A FIRST OFFER.
DeplOrable Mistakes Which Young WOmeE
Int In

OeplOrable Mistakes Which Young Women
Are Apt to Make.
There are two deplorable extremes,
into one of which young girls usually
falls on receiving her first offer"
The worse and moro frequent of these
is that of fancying herself in love,
when in reality she doesn't care fig
| for her lover. The other consists in q
coquettish pride which leads her,
against the dictates of her Judgment
and the inclinations of her heart, to re-
ject sutton, however worthy.
When an honest man offers a woman
his hand, with all the accomplishments
of heart and name and fortune-wheth-
er these be exalted or lowly. he pays
her the highest compliment in his pow
er. Undeniably. she has right to feel
complimented, and she must be untrue
to her womanhood does she not in some
measure feel so, even though her sutton
be beneath her regard; and the compli-
ment will be valued very much in pro-
portion to her estimation of the man.
But take a young girl whose imagina-
ton is colored with the hues of a sum-
mer's surprising, whose dove-like soul
is waiting on quivering wings for loves
safes in anticipation of loves ecstasy.
When IN her May morn some one comes
offering her the sweetest and brightest
of life's fragrance and beauty-does she
pause to see whether there be any dust
on his garments, any stain on his hand,
any film on his eyes, any baseness in his
heart?
No! Intoxicated with the perfume
and bewildered with the beauty, she
stands in the radiance of her rising sun,
and sees her lover beneath it's golden
light.
Many woman has blighted her own
life and that of the man she loved by
indulging passion for coquetry. Hav-
ing charms of which she is fully con-
scious; endowed, perhaps, with the ad-
vantsges of wealth, position and accom-
plishments, she proudly measures her
power and says to herself:
II am equal to great conquests; and
shall 1, thus early, submit to be con-
quered? / have cords with which to
lead many captive; and shall yield nv
hands to be manacled? have power
to bring the proud herd low-to melt
the heart of stone-to wiring the nerve
of steel; and shall put my own head
on the block-my own heart in the
crucible-my own nerves in the vice?
No! When l have had surfeit of these
delights-then-"
But the time referred to in the long
futurity of the little word then"
seldom comes to the coquette. It will
always be then" The accepted time"
is never near when once we have let
the opportunity pass. At eighteen the
coquette asks: "Who is hep" At
twenty-eight: "Where is hep"
Assuredly, to be loved implies some
degree of loneliness, and she may be
pardoned for feeling gratified with this
highest of all compliments-this sub
tlest of all flattery. But why should
she unhesitatingly throw herself into
arms that may be extended only to en-
snare her? On the other hand, why does
she turn proudly from the embrace of
one who may be fitted to meet every
want of her womanhood?
Young girl, answer these questions
to your own heart, and when you re-
ceive your first offer" be not so fat
tered or self-deceived as either to &C
cept or reject without careful delibera-
ton.
Don't imagine that this is the last
''chance" that you will ever have; nei-
Their, for the sake of flirting, throw it
awaY,-St, Louis Globe-DemOcrat