The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-09-25
How Lovers Do Propose.

Statistics are at present being collected
on almost every conceivable subject. What
do you think OF an English scholar who
mas actually thought it worth his while
to collect statistics in regard TO the man
ner in which men and women make love
10 each other? He has spent considerable
time over this delicate work and now at
last he informs the world how the men
as rule. propose 10 the women, and how
the women, as rule. accept the proposals
of the men.
According to the English scholar. the
number of young Engl:shmen who embrace
their sweethearts at the moment when they
are inviting them to become their wives
amounts to thirty-s:X per cent. On the
other hand, sixty-seven per cent of the
men in love kiss their sweethearts on the
lips al the critical moment. while four
per cent shower kisses on their hair and
two per cent content themselves with kiss
ing their hands.
At one time IL was the fashion for love
intoxicated youths 10 fall on their knees
when about TO make proposals of marriage,
but this fashion is evidently dying out, for
We are assured that only three per cent
of those in love al present fail on one knee,
while only two per cent venture to sue for
their ladies' favor on both knees. A curl
Gus reason has been assigned for the de-
cadence Of this chivalrous custom, which
is. that OF late years the neither garments
OF males have been so constructed that it
is rather risky for any man to flop down
suddenly on his knees in a lady's pres
ence. Garments. when strained, will rip
and tear, and no self-respecting lover de-
sires to have has act of alteration turned
in. farc hI-o
On the other hand wooers of today seem
to be far more nervous than the gallant
men who wooed and won century ago.
Just fancy, twenty per cent of the English
lovers of today are awfully nervous when
the decisive moment comes. and in the
throat of each mothers son of them there
seems 20 be a huge lump, which it is i'm
possible for them to swallow. How they
get over this difficulty Heaven only knows.
Somehow the lump disappears after they
have struggled with it a minute or two,
after which It is to be hoped that their
agony Is at an end.
The behavior of the young women is SIM
ilariy remarkable. When the men invite
them to share their homes they by no
means act alike. Eighty-one out of every
hundred fall without a word into the ont
spread arms of their chosen ones and so
very easily put an end TO a father embar-
RAISING, if otherwise very delightful. situ-
alton; sixty-eight per cent blush very be-
comingly, and in maidenly fashion, shrink
away as though fright aned al their COM
panions' holiness; one out of every hundred
possibly more, possibly less. says the En-
glish statistic!an-fallS on a sofa as though
about to faint, and four per cent are really
astonished at receiving proposals OF mar
rage.
On the other hand. eighty out Of every
hundred know very well what the men
have come for, and hence they are not ia
ken unaware, and they behave just as
they should behave on such a momentous
occasion. Furthermore. sixty per cent look
their wooers boldly in the eyes. evidently
with the idea either of still further be-
w.tching them, or of relieving them from
their apparent embarrassment. Curious
facts these, but the most curious fact OF
all is that one maiden out of every hum
dred runs away before the young man has
finished his pretty love tale, with the OBJ
ject of telling the good news to her girl
friends
II Is pleasant to know that wooing In En-
gland is, a rule, the preliminary TO a
long and happy union. The latest statis-
ties show that the average annual num-
Der of applications for divorce does not ex-
coed 575, which is certainly small, consid-
ering that the number of Englishmen and
E.nglishwomen who marry each year is
computed at $4,000 If We take the ten
years from 1886 TO 1885, we find that the
ennua number of divorces has been about
800 and the annual number of marriages
about 10000.