The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1900-01-05

That girls engagcd!' My dear, it was
packs of fun. She wore lovely gray
trimmed broadcloth with fur, and her
for an engagement present. Our pew
is away up in front, but / sat in the
very back of the church, so 1 could
watch her when she came in. tell you
everybody stared when she rustled in
late with Jack Jones following her!"
us he nice, Mr.. Jones?" Lucy asked,
family.
mo, not very. Grace didn't like him
much and she was awfully stuck on a
fellow in Harlem; but, of course, Jack
proposed and he didn't
Il think that is perfectly dreadful!
Don't northern girls have more than
one man in love with them?"
one" Hildegrade said, frankly. "Id be
glad enough if l thought there was
some fellow gone on me. 1t must be
loads of fun to be engaged, shouldn't
you think so, Lucy? How did your sis
tiers act before they were married?"
II tell you we didn't know they were
engaged till a short time before their
weddings, and they had just as many
beauX up to the last as they ever had
in their lives. Eliza was engaged to
several men, and to one of them till
ii few weeks before she was married,
but Annie Lee had right peculiar ideas
and wouldn't engage herself to more
In, n,~n OF &c lxx-oH rN1n C
ant TO Il girl to know she is admired,
and she doesn't believe for a moment
that every man who says: Il love you,
really means it. 1t is nice little at
tention, fiatters her vanity and certain
ly does him no harm. Those three
words don't necessarily mean: Will
you marry me-? and often it goes no
further. When it does, if she accepts
him, they are engaged-both sides are
probably already engaged to other peo-
ple-and it is the easiest thing in the
world to break it off if they get tired
of it,
"Well, 1 never in my life heard of
anything so queer, Lucy. Up north a
broken engagement stamps girl for
life. l have never known but one, and
everybody thinks there must be some
thing wrong with the girl, or he
wouldn't have broken it,
Hep" the southern girl exclaimed,
Mortified. ''At home no honorable gen
tleman ever breaks off an engagement
himself. There are plenty of ways he
can make her do it, and give her the
credit for it. You remember in Kip
lings poem how Sleary rubs lather over
his mouth, and pretends he has fits, so
Miss Bofkins will give him up, which
she does, and all her friends have the
satisfaction of thinking that she Tilted
him"
But, Lucy, how about being engaged
to several men at once? 1t seems to me
horrid to kiss four or five men and tell
them all how you love them"
81 don't understand you," the south
ern girl said, blushing very red, ''of
course she doesn't kiss any of them, and
as for saying those things, there are
lots of ways of letting men think what
they please without a word on your
part. If man is conceited enough to
think just because you engage yourself
to him that you love him-well, it isn't
your fault. Mother never told father
she cared for him till after they were
married. There is a dear old lady at
home, as ugly as sin, and wrapped up,
heart and soul, in her uninteresting old
husband. One day she told me about
some of her love affairs, and finally 1
said: That makes nine men you have
admitted you were engaged to. Did you
intend to marry any of them?' We'll,
honey she answered, demurely, 4 hope
L intended to marry most of them
My aunt was engaged to her husband
seven years, and in all that time she
never once allowed him to kiss her.
The night before the wedding, she went
with him TO the door, and in rash mo-
ment, he stopped and kissed her lightly
on the cheek. She said her face burnt
for hours with shame and modification,
and she was so angry that she cried all
night. 1t was all her mother could do
to make her go on with the marriage"
"Lucy, all this sounds like a fairy
tale. Such things may have been true
so years ago, but are they at all like
that to-day?" the Brooklyn girl asked
with great curiosity.
''They are just the same in 1899 as
1899, Hildegrade. L told you about my
sister just now. Two months before
she was married, we had big reunion
at Christmas, and while we were at the
table, my brother-in-law rose and pro-
posed toast to the bride-elect. Annie
Lee turned such vivid scarlet that
every eye was fixed on her, and before
she could speak, she burst into pas
sion of tears and left the room. Eliza
was engaged to number of men, and
I'm afraid she never broke off with poor
Frank Joyce at all. He came on from
Kentucky to see her, aud while he was
on the way, mother was taken very ill,
and insisted that Eliza should be mar
ried at once by her bedside, There was
no reason why she shouldn't, as the
wedding was set for two weeks off, and
the cards all engraved; so Jim was sent
for post-haste, and they were married
about four o'clock, the 18th of last
June. In the meantime, Frank, who