The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1899-04-15
DO WOMEN PROPOSE?

v
Dix" treats her readers to the fol
lowing interesting colloquy:
Gone of the things" said Elsie
the other day, "that no woman ever
fails to resent is the suggestion that
she had anything whatever to do
with marrying her husband. She
may be as meek and humble as the
traditional worm, but let anybody
hint that she did the proposing and
she turns on you with a swapping
denial. So we'll understood is this
feminine idiocyncrasy that we have
tacltly accepted a polite, if ridicu-
lous theory, that it is only by dint
of the most persistent persuasion
that a woman is ever induced to
forsake the state of single blessed
| ness. We even carry the idea SO
far that we say girl is married to-
man, and that she Is 'led' to the
altar, as if she was more or less of
a victim, instead of being pleased
to death at her good luck in catch
ing the man she has been out for"
"Well," said the practical wo-
man, ''inasmuch as a woman is al
ways about twice as much married
as a man is, and that matrimony
makes or mars her happiness SO
much more than it does his, the
old custom that makes her merely
negative tn the matter isn't fair,
anyhow. We wouldn't sit down
and wait on the chance of any
other good thing being brought to
our dooreand offered to us. We
would go out and hunt for it,
81 don't know but what we do"
put in the woman in the tulle hat.
.'Sometimes l think that the reason
we deny the charge of doing the
proposing SO bitterly is because we
have a bad conscience in the mat
ter. Look about you. Don't you
know dozens OF men, whom you
are morally certain were proposed
TO, instead Of doing the proposing ?
OF course, the women didn't so
to them and say My adored Alger-
non, l love you. Let me ask your
mother for this precious hand
Give me the privilege Of seeing that
your socks are darned, and your
buttons are on, and of protecting
you from erdone meat and un
der done bread and the other vicis-
STUDIES and hardshiPs of a single
life Oh, no. Any such fiat
footed propositions as that would
scare man into blue fits, and she
knows better. She gently insinuate S
the idea into his consciousness I'M
til he believes it originated with
him, and he spends the balance of
his days congratulating himself
upon his superior astuteness in Sc
lecting that particular woman from
out all the millions of her sex. And
in reality he never had anything TO
do with it, and never would have
noticed her if she hadn't called his
attention to herself.
Then take the bashful man. If
left to do the love m aking and pro-
posing would he ever reach the al
tar? Not in a thousand years! 1t
is astonishing, too, how many really
desirable men suffer from this afflic-
ton, and, for my part, l am never
more pleased with the determina-
ton and enterprise of my sex than
when 1 see some woman secure
bashful man for her husband. I've
watched the process a hundred
times, and it always ends the anne
way. If the shy man leaves home
while he is young, he is dead sure
to marry either his landlady's !
daughter or girl who boards in
the house. If he stays at home the |
girl who is the jolly goodfell
gets him. He begins by treating
her like boy. She is chum-
my and easy to get &C
quained with, and by and by he
finds she is the best of COM
pany. There's no nonsense about
their conversation. Good heavens,
1 should say not! She knows her
business. To drag in sentiment