The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1894-07-07


soon be an end Of all these fads about
higher education; and woman's mis-
sion and the emancipation of the en-
shaved sex and all tho rest or the rub
bish l hear you talk.
Thus in my hearing not long since
did certain grandmamma whom L ex-
tremely admire and love address her
namesalze, q bright girl Of about 20
summers, who at once replied frankly
and succinctly:
I'VE don't marry nowadays, grand
mamma, because the men don't ask us
to. It's out of fashion"
''Out of fashionl Nonsense. The world
isn't going to stop growing, is it? If
the men don't ask you, why, you must
ask them, that's ALL D"
cit wasn't so in your day, was 1t,
grandmamma? pursued the girl mis-
chieyously, and the dear old lady br1-
died a little and set off upon train OF
"reminiscences more exciting than fairy
story.
Nor was she q solitary instance in my
experience. Ask almost any woman Of
20 years and over as to the opportunities
of matrimony that were offered to her
before %, and if she has been pretty
girl she will tell you much the same
story, and veraciously, too, for 1 have
heard old gentlemen tell the same stories
from their own srle. If a girl was young
and comedy and gay and bright, it was
foregone conclusion three-quarters of
century ago that she would have what
they called ''beaux" in abundance and
would marry whenever she was tired Of
her position as queen of hearts. If they
did not care to abdicate too early, they
favored now one and now another CT
their courtiers, played off one swain
against another, broke hearts and caused
Wertherlike tragedies, for In those days
people read "The Sorrows of Werther"
with fearful sympathy instead of with
peals of laughter, as do we modern cynics,
If you don't believe all this, go and
ask your own grandlnamma if she ever
had an ad1nirer except grandpapa, and
if she is one Of the right sort of old
ladieS-an old lady with soft blue eyes
and pretty smile and fine white skin,
all covered with lace pattern Of tiny
wrinkles, and silvery, wayy hair-if she
is that sort of q grandmamma, you will
spend at least one delightful twilight
hour in hearing of the old times, the
good old times when girls were queens
of love and beauty and men were their
humble adorers and only withheld their
proposals from 4 very becoming sense
of their unworthiness-
To be sure, if you are girl, these
stories may have the effect that novels
did upon Gloriana, who, instead of be-
ing amused at the tales of romance she
read, only wept into her checked apron
because there were so many good times
and she not in them.
But if you are n young man You Will
feel the same sort of self congratulatior
you do in reading the Lives of the
Martyrs" You would not have liked tc
throw incense upon heather altar and
trample the cross under your feet, but
you don't feel at all sure that you would
have withstOod the temptation to es
cape the rack and the boiling oil.
Certainly the times have changed, and
men change with them, for US as well
as for Ulysses, and 1 say ''men" adj
visedly, for don't think women have
changed rs muoh Most girls-that is,
the dear, rosy, dimpling darlings, who
are papa's pet and mammals blessing
and who do not insist upon becoming
civil engineers or doctors of law, medi
cine or tneoiogy-these girls, pure an6
simple, are willing enough to marry il
sorl5 enc whom they love asks them Il
do so. But the men do not propose, anC
so the girls do not marry, If E. an S9ot
"s ore: The, .1aI16e out of vogue, and tn
times are out of joint.
Young men have extended their priv
ileges and contracted their liabilities
Formerly if an unmarried man paid pan
ticular attention to girl or u youn
widow it was understood by all obserN
ers that he was n candidate for her han
AZ he could gain her reluctant consent
nccept him. The girls parents locke
serenely on, conscious that their daugl
ter was mistress of the situation an
needed neither assistance nor protectiC
conscious, too, that the young ma
would be n very fortunate fellow If
gained so desirable q wife-and the
would not stand in his way, althoug
they were sincerely sorry to lose Il
flower of their family.
After awhile the girl shyly told h
mother that Reuben and she We're goiI
to be married about Thanksgiving tim
and although there was not often al
open announcement Of the engageme
and certainly 10 receptions or presen
to mark the occasion the brides fami
began preparations for the wedding ~
the setting up of the young couple
housekeeping. 1t was all so simple al
honest and natural that to hear of tho
times is like reading of the gold
are or the lost Atlantis, or any other
those dreams of some bygone perfect
or sone coming millennium.