Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1892-12-01
AL Men Are Fiirters And There
Is No Kelley Cure For
it Either.
The Devil Never Flirts But He
Likes to See 1t Developed
III others.
What Bob Burdette and Others
Say on the Subject OF
Flirting.

how he obtained his clear ideas, Ii
2 replied, ByattentioR to definitions.
Long years ago / saw this definition
by Robert Burdette' Filtration j
f attention without intention /
struck me as the best definition pos
] sible for this very questionable prac
r tice SD common in life. The simplesr
, and ~silliest form of flirting is will
! strangers, and consists of the waving
j of a fan or handkerchief, a look, ;
smile, a side remark These many
! people will give to one on a train, o.
! in a carriage, OF walking if with
! valise, n whom they are sure they
will never see again, who would not
for any amo1ht of money do these
things to one whom they counted or
: becoming acquainted with. That
this is only too true assures us that
Burdette was exactly right in his
definition: w ought never feel free
to do to a stranger what we would
not do to a neighbor."
Webster strikes deeper into our
subject when he says: 'Flirting is
playing at courtship." OF such fiirt-
ing l cannot do better than quote
another: ale who does it is a
wretch. He should be ranked with
thieves, robbers, Williams, murderers.
His theft is a robbery of the heart.
1t is a vulgarism and wickednesS to
be compared only to blasphemy. 1t
is awfully demoralizing in its ten
dency and low and base in its charac-
Ter" A case was recently tried in
Rutland, Vermont, in which a Miss
Munson recovered fourteen hundred
and twenty-five dollars of a Mr..
Hastings for a breach of marriage
contract. The curiosity of the thing
is this: The Vermont judge charged
the jury that no explicit promise was
necessary to bind the parties to a
marriage contract, but that long ON
tinued attentions, or intimacy with
a female was as good as evidence Of
ihtNIiuSu IilOiy as opSNhoi NSh
tract. The principle of the case, is
that if Hastings did not promise, he
ought to have done so. A most ex-
cellent decision! If every young
lady treated as was Miss MunsOn,
acted as she did, and every judge
would decide as this judge, it would
not be long before this kind of flirting
would become extinct. "We cannot
hope reasonably to have the married
relation held in right esteem until
our young men and women cease "to
play at courtship."
The flirt, male or female, is no bet
ter, because no different from a pro-
fessional gambler, for like the gam
bier, their joy is produced by the
exquisite pain of another. That that
pain is inflicted as a kitten scratches,
without thinking of the claws under
meath the velvet touch, makes it more
the easier to forgive or to forget.
The flirt inflicts pain and as often
suffers pain, for it is just as true of
this offender as any other: "He made
a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into
the ditch which he made. His mis-
chief shall return upon his own head,
and his violent dealing shall come
down upon his own pate"
Once a fllrt always a fiirt, is only
TOO near the truth to be of much COM
fort. | knew a man who was a pas
senger conductor or a Michigan rail-
way for long years. He went to
farming, bat he never could work if
a train was in sight, and if near
enough, he wanted to call, "All
aboard" andg get on the train himself.
l knew another man who was very
profame for years, after his conversion
and church-membership would swear
like an old tar, even when in
conversation with his own pastor.
He did it Internationally, even
unknowingly. The dirt is like both
of these men. They never see an
opportunity to fiirt but what they
stop from their work and think of it,
and if possible occupy the privilege.
Yes, often do il merely from force of
habit, would deny all knowledge of it,
and rightly too, if they never accused
of it. / am aware this is a gospel of
despair to husbands and wives tied to
an old firt, still it is only too true,
and must be declared in order to
keep those still uncursed by it from
its immediate and lifelong cursings.
No Kelley Cure has as yet been
discovered for the flirt. Berware!
Quit before beginning. Water now
and then destroys a human life, but
day by day the multitude. And
yet some men forswear water.
Happiness has been brought to a few
by flirting, but to the many it has
brought only cursing, why not for
swear it, with strangers, with friends,
in long and un~intentional court
ships?
S~hakespeare's Liman of Athens sets
out to prove that each thing in the
universe is a thief. | can with
better hope of success set out TO
prove all men and women flirters. A
lady whore marriage was soleminized
by Rev. ! d. Maurice, after it was
all over turned to him and said:
''now, Nj. Maurice, l call you to
witness that | entertain no intention
of obeying.n In the services, her
attention was without intention.
If all men and women were as
honest in all they engage in would
not their n answer to nearly all
actions be the same as hers?
Taking Durdette's definition of
Irritation, are not all shoppers, all
who entertain agents, all parents,
promising and threading their
children, merely fiirts? Attention
with no intention. Most public
speakers entertain no intention of
making their hearers think as they
think, hence are engaged in flirting
with the great public Most school
teachers give their attention to
teaching with no intention of MAX
ing it their life work.
Most husbands and wives are firts,
for telling a woman you love her
when you don't, and loving her with
$3.50 k~IJ.-.