The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-12-19
FLIRTING A DISEASE.
The Modern Society WantOn Analysed
as NeurOpath.

DR.. C. II. Hughes, in st. Louis Post-Dis-
patch.
Morally / do not countenance flirting:
though the fiirt to those who understand
what a flirt is, should be harmless. The
ordinary fiirt is a sort of gold brick SHE'D
by freak of nature into the arena of love-
only, passing with green ones for the genu,
passing for more than she is worth, but
not sustaining substantial test
A psychological analysis of the f1irt re-
yeals her as | have described. Besides, the
aggravated form of t1irt is usually neu-
rotic with an unstable nervous organism
and an egotism going along with 1t that
wouldn't require much to develop into hys-
terra, and even remotely into insanity.
There is really no intended harm in the
average fiirt her conduct is morhidly nat
ural to her. like q reflex, dependent upon
an awakened and diffuse morbid erotism
and not resulting from deep-seated feeling
of love. She is the poets variable as the
shade by the light quivering aspen made
style of woman. A ministering angel when
playing the mischief with hearts that too
deeply trust her love. Real, deep-seated
love tends toward concentration on one OBJ
ject while the flirting emotion tends toward
diffusion and distribution. While the firt
means no great harm and tlirts because,
under the circumstances, it is her nature
to- like the victim of St. Vitus's dance con-
vulses. she may do great harm with more
honest, sincere and deeply love-moved NOR
tails than herself
Flirts sometimes realize this in life when
they come to themselves and feel an honest.
ardent attachment unreciprocated
The idea j meant to convey concerning
the average fiirt is that she is often so or
ganically so constituted that flirting is as
natural to her as it is for the leg to kick
when tapped below the kneecap or the foot
to jerk away when it Is tickled. The fiirt
herself is often not to blame for her infirm-
ity, because it, like an elileptic fit or a
hysteria in others, overmasters her. She
is like the beautiful snow whose falling
flakes voluntarily do no harm because they
have neither will nor inclination to do
harm; but harm may come of the beautiful
snow when the wind drifts it so as to sub
merge and starve the poor unfortunate who
may be buried beneath it or drowned in the
floods that follow its melting in the noun
tainS.
/ do not justify flirting. but extenuate it,
because of the constitutional inf1rmiCy of
the average flirt The real nervy, healthy,
cold-blooded flirt who knows what real love
Isl in short, who knows better and can
do better. is despicable, desecrating the sa-
cred precincts of the heart, where no triter
should enter. But / speak by authority of
science only of the average frt. The
bosom's lord of the homeopathic fiirt "sits
lightly on his throne" In fact he is never
certain that he is there enthroned at all.
1t is not natural to the perfectly nerve
healthy to trife with the hearts tenderest
affections.
The sum of all this is that the trouble
with the average flirt is in her unbalanced
nervous system, especially her sympathetic
nervous system.
But then, how much real, sincere, ardent
love row abides In the average human
heart anyway? l am old. have made my