St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-12-04
ABOUT LOVE AFFAIRS.
LIE Baron de Fremont Genep-
allies Upon This interest
ing Topic.
Love Is Not Always the Larg-
est Ingredient in a Love
Affair.
The Byron Tolstoi : Be5ant
Idea Of Love and Mar
rage.
Gossip About Gowns Which
Goes Well With the Intro
duetory Talk.

New YORK. Dec 1.-If you happen to
be a girl, and living in the latter END Oh
of the nineteenth century, you cannot
fail to have a love affair or two. L say
you cannot fail, and l say it advisedly,
because there was a time, the time
called in books ''good old times" when
it must have been an exception and not
the rule for a girl to have real bona
fde love affair, spontaneous and surprls-
ing and sweet-n0t arranged by hef
parents or guardians.
Now in what, for the sake OF con-
trast, we will call the "bad new times"
young men and women are thrown INTO
each others society more than they
used to be. They meet pretty OFTEN,
and they are not looked after too much.
The world is dreadfully busy. the
young men are oyer-full Of business
end the young women pickering their
pretty broWs with culture and study,
but they still find time to have love
affairs" A love affair is not, as l take
it, an affair in which love is the largest
ingredient. The term love affair" IS a
wide one. 1t covers, for want of bet
ter name, all those passages in life
time when one either feels more than
one says or says more than one feels III
connection with person OF the opposite
sex. l do not see that the word "hlrta-
ton" can be good substitute, because
that seems to signify a game with little
feeling offered on either side, and in
all love affairs some one feels and SUI
ferS.
Every girl who is not wholly cold and
unattractive has experienced the en-
counter with the sort of. man who shoots
in the dark, as it were. He is not i'll
love, he is merely attracted; but II he
can set light to the feelings OF his
temporary attraction it is not disagree
able task to him, and, as he wastes
no capital in the way of feeling, if the
result is below his eXpectatiOns-Well
there is 10 loss involved. Sometimes
the result is above his expectations.
Then his trouble is amply repaid, and
he is well amused. Pour passer lie
Temps is this gentleman'S motto, but
he doesn't wear it painted on his fore
head, and sometimes it doesn't dawn
upon a girls mind until it is very dis
hnctly explained by his flight to the
next flower.
The kind of love affairs that are re-
suits of unoccupied minds and vapld
sentimentalism, live but short time.
They are made up of kisses, candy. and
curious sense Of incompleteness,
feeling that if this is what poets write
about, and painters paint, and Romeo
and Juliet died for. it must have been
exaggerated. Like a puny child. this
kind of love affair dies young. If it ever
lives as far as the marriage service,
then alas for future happiness, domestic
bliss and all the rest of that sort OF
thing.
What about the love affair of
what is generally called the advanced
school? mean the school that is So
aWfully advanced that they know too
much-far too much for their own hap
piness. They are cheerful pessimists.
AS long as the present system OF things
lasts, they see no chance OF happiness
for them. They know by books and
married friends that where there Is
love pines. away in.the coarse
atmosphere of domeSticity. Byron says
so, Tolstoi says so, Mrs. BeSant says so,
every one says so.
They are not courageous enough to 90
without this mere matter OF form bond,
ali the same They think that there is
something radically wrong in the sys-
TEN of things something triSte-more
breadth and license ought to be consld-
cred allowable after marriage. 1t ought
not to be misunderstood and spoken of
as unfaithfulnesS, and called other ugly
names. | don't know exactly how far
this advanced sort of love affair goes Oh.
1t can't advance far, to be consistent,
without advancing too far. | don't
think it does that, as it is generally car
ried on between two young people
whose self-respect is least equal to
their conceit. which is saying a good
deal. suspect that they separate and
each marry someone with ordinary ''un-
advanced" views, and either give up the
Byron-TolStol.B esant idea OF content
themselves with 1t theoretically.
Evening dress is taking UP Redfern's
attention Just now, and, although they
are very rich in material, and very SIM
pie and elegant III style and shape,
confess | have one misgiving when [
look at them. | can't think how they
are kept up; because they are so low,
oh, yes, so very low! You see, it isn't
considered bad taste to expose portion
of the charms that Nature has bestowed,
if you know where to draw the line, or
let Redfern draw it for you. Decollete
SOWuS are HOG JuoG INV oAiy thO pllN-
iiege of soubrettLs and music hall art
lists.
Brocades seem the materials chosen
for gowns for evening wear, and the low
tight bOdiceS are almost covered with
jeweled trimming. A folded belt of silk
is worn with these bodiceS, and the
skirts are made on the principle of re-
vived ''house- maid" This is gathered
all round and very full at the back.
The skirt of the immediate future, it
is said, will have steel run all round
the hem. This will perhaps prove the
thin end of the wedge, the beginning of
the old-fashioned crinoline. No fashion
SurelM was euer 81 uGly ard so unhe-