The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1894-06-21


my lover asked Mary, who was quite
infatuated with him.
81 am afraid it does" replied Har
old, struggling with his mirth. In all
his life he had never had 80 funny an
experience.
"And you can Taught exclaimed
Mary reproachfully. "You are heart
less, absolutely heartless She turned
and left the room without another word,
and Harold INDUCED in unrestrained
laughter until suddenly made aware
that the old lady was regarding him
with great seriousness.
"It would have been BETTER" she
said, eff you had been little more
manly. You might at least have offered
to be brother to her. You have hurt
a very warm heart and lost . good
chance to marry. Mary could have re-
lieved you of many vexations.
The old lady's seriousness irritated
Harold. The idea Of any one taking
such a proposal seriously was too pre-
posterous to be entertained for mo-
ment. He concluded that his call had
been quite long enough, and that he
should take his departure as soon as he
bad made sure that she could tell him
pothing more about dining.
"Did / understand you to say" he
asked, "that no one eats anything but
broth and-ah. air?"
- said nothing about eating air.
There are nuts and fruits. They are
produced In great quantities, and grow
ers vie with each other IN starting new
varieties. And, by the way, l must
warn you not to present a basket OF fruit
to any one. mention it, remembering
that in your day it was done as mark
Of friendship and even Of love. How
dreadfully coarse it wasl In this day it
would be considered as insulting as the
presentation of beef roast would have
been hundred years ago."
MAY / ask, said Harold, smiling
at the thought, "what young men do
offer the ladies of their affections?"
What do young men-oh, now see
why you laughed at Mary! No. In
these days, my dear sir, young men offer
nothing. Ii would be considered mark
of immodcsty. They do not seek ladies
in marriage. 1t would be highly I'M
proper for them to show any affection
until the lady has offered them some en-
couragement.
"Am I to understand that women
now do the lovsmaking3"
"Why, to be sure.'
"And the men wait to be courted2"
''How else could there be marriages?"
Harold stared at the old lady for fully
FIVE minutes before replying. Such
state of affairs was quite beyond his
comprehension. 1t was too serious to
be laughable.
1T used to be different, l know"
added the old lady, but it was no more
satisfactory"
"Wasn 1t, thought" exclaimed Har-
old. Permit me to say that l do not
agree with you. But let us not quarrel
on that subject. A. present am more
interested in the food question than in
the fact that women have q corner on
the business of ievemaking. Can you
tell me why the change was made in
regard to the habit OF diningi"
Because women could net use their
precious time in cooking, setting tables,
washing dishes, hemming table linen
and doing the thousand and one other
tasks which the old habit Of dining
made necessary"
"But how do women employ them
selves?"
Keep your eyes open for ons week,
my dear sir, and you will not need to
ask. Although the character of the
work has changed, there is still plenty
to do, and, as you can see, men amount
to little i'm these days. That is my opin-
ION at least, and think it will be yours,
but women do not seem to agree with
me. They consider me very odd for not
attaching myself to one of these little
specimens of humanity. Ah, they did
not live in the days when there were
men like you'll
"Why are all the men 80 smallY'
asked Harold hastily. He feared an
other proposal.
1T is a natural result of generations
Of dissipation. / have been told that in
1899 there were many miniature spsci-
mems of masculinity to be seen on the
streets, but the people did not seem to
realize or even to recognize the danger
which they heralded. There was an oc-
casional prophet who spoke of the dan
gers of cigarette smoking, for instance,
but Notwithstanding two-thirds of the
boys smoked cigarettes and wondered
why they did not grow to be as large as
their fathers. We're you as large as
your father?"
Harold admitted that he had not been,
and that it had been source of regret
to him.
Had you not gone to Sleep" contin-
ued the old lady, II presume you would
not have been so good or so much Of a
man in any way as your father. Men
INDUCED in all sorts of dissipations,
which had their effect both mentally
and morally. As they became less man
ly women became moro 80. Women
took up all sorts of self culture and be-
came mans superior In every way long
befora evau fbev mr. fha men prnized