, 1892-03-27
THEY ARE AFTER HIM
". QUAD TELLS OF HIS LEAP YEAR
EXPERIENCES.

Several s~ouowful Hearts Left Behina
to Pine Slowly Away One Loving
Maiden who Came Near CorraIIing
Him, but He Got Away.
Copyright. 1899, by Charles b. Lewis.l
There is no sort of doubt in my mind
that whenever the month of February has
tw~enty-nine days in it IN unmarried wom-
AN has a perfectly legal and moral right to
propose matrimony to any man she thinks
will fill the bill. In fact, no one can adj
vance any other plausible reason why
February should ever have over twenty
eight days in It. The extra day was added
to give woman a fair show.
1t has been my sad and painful duty to
reject the hearts of several females offered
me in leap year, and / never look back over
the list without wishing that 1t had been
otherwise. One leap year night, many
years ago, 1 found lodgings in the cabin OF
a Tennessee mountain widow. Next day,
when l was ready to resume my journey,
she stood before me and said:
Il am thirty-two years old, good tenn
pered, kind hearted and economical in
money matters. have been a widow for
two years and am tired Of It. Will you
marry mei"
Wasn't that nicer Could any man have
asked for anything betterl l took her
hand and told her how sorry / was that /
already had a wife, and therefore couldn't
entertain her proposal. We couldn't marry
Just then, but Pd put her name down at
the head of the list and give her the first
show. Twas living in a house next to .
church with a tall steeple which wobbled
when the wind blew, and there was no tell
ing when that steepleNSould fall and make
me n widower.
Tbo ppfInu daxv mad Che alGn Aauy for
n shotgun / likewise few away. That's
the trouble with the sex. When one OF
them is rejected she takes 1t too much at
heart. Instead OF gracefully walking away
10 pine and droop and go Into a decline,
they want to pull hair and raise a row.
On the second occasion ! was seated on .
veranda in the summer twilight with an
old maid. l was not there to press her soft,
white hand and tell her that one little
word from her would make me the happi-
est man in all creation. / was there to
offer her two dollars ash down for a dog,
which l proposed to take out and kill with
out an hours delay. Susan suddenly cud-
died up to me, and said that she had loved
me for years. but feared to break the Joy
full tidings. She could stand il no longer.
without me life would be MS dark as down
cellar at midnight; IL / would have her,
the world would at once approach paradise
within 8 per cent. i hung off till / found
that she wanted fifty dollars for the dog,
and then / told her that she had spoken
too late. Only ten mute before 1 reached
her side another girl had asked me to be
hers, and l had given her a promise in
writing. We would be brother and sister.
She might sit in our pew ut church and
play with our children, but I
gave her n splendid opportunity to re-
tire with honor, but she wouldn't take it.
She leaped up and scratched my nose and
ruined my hat, and as / fed she encour-
aged that miserable dog to follow and har-
ass me and jump me over fences. l cannot
believe that she truly loved me, and would
have given me the tender care and protec-
tion a husband expects.