Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1894-11-29

3
s'Tilt you be mine? promise to care
for yOu most tendeily."
cEced. Don't YOU think it would be
better for you TO trust your happiness III
lay keeping: Don't mind grandma.
Index! her presence should assure you
as to the purity Of my motives.
Its proposal.'' thought Harold.
las sure as live it is q proposal, .
He could with difficulty restrain his
laughter. bat he remembered that she
v'aB :. woman, and although ridiculously
eccentric not to Ice laughed at. He
wished he might think Of some easy
way OF putting her off. believing that
one so weakminded would not long re-
member having mentioned such sub
ject.
"Madam.'' he said, suppose you try
to forget -
Does that mean you cannot accept
my love- asked Mary, who was quite
infatuated with him.
Il am afraid it does, - replied Har-
old, struggling with his mirlh. In all
his life he had never had SO funny an
experience.
And you can laugh"' 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.
lit wonld 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 4 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 proposal seriously was too pre-
posteIous to be ente1 tanned for mo-
ment. He concluded that his call had
been quite long enough, and that he
should take his departure as soon as he
had made sure that she could tell him
nothing more about dining.
"Did I understand you to say he
asked, that no one eats anything but
broth and--ah. air?'
i said, nothing about eating air.
There are nuts and fruits. They are
produced ID great quantities, and grow
ers vie with each other IN starting new
varieties. And, by the way, must
warn you not to present q basket of fruit
to any one. | mention it, boring
that IN your day it was done as mark
of friendship and even OF love. How
dreadfully coarse it was! In this day it
wonld be considered as insulting as the
presentation Of a 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. 1t would be considered a mark
Of immodesty. They do not seek ladies
in marriage. It would be highly i'm
proper for them to show any affection
until the lady has offered them some en-
enlargement.
Am I to understand that women
now do the lovemaling?'
why, to be sure''
And the men wait TO be courted?'
"How else could there be marriage
Harold stared at the old lady for fully
five minutes before replying. Such
state of affairs was quite beyond his
comprehension. It was too serious to
be laughahle.
1T used to be different, / know"
added the old lady, "but it was no more
satisfactory.
"Wasn t it. thought" exclaimed Har-
Old Permit me to say that do not
agree with you. But let us not quarrel
on that subject. At present | am more
interested i'll the food question than in
the fact that women have corner on
the business of lovemaking. Can you
tell mo why the change was made in
regard to the habit of dining?'
Because women could not 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 one 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 in 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. All, they did
not hive in the days when there were
men like you'll"
why are all the men so small?"
asked Harold hastily. He feared an
other proposal.
1T is natural result of generations
of dissipation. I have been told that in