Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1902-03-03
IS 1T A FACT THAT WOMEN
DO ONE-HALF THE WOOLNG?
BY EMEL JAY.

Is it a fact that women do half the
wooing?
This profound query, put to a variety Of
persons in Atlanta, provoked various re-
| plies.
Half the wooing? Two-thirds!" prompt
| ly replied one man Che is married). And
| it's all right" he fastened to add. why
shouldn't woman have right to pro-
poser"
'she should and she does" said an
other Benedict who Joined the group.
THAT is not my experience" said a
modest bachelor standing by.
"Oh, WELL" said the other. you don't
realize II at the time, but walt until after
you are married. and you will remember
that she did more than half of it. and you
are glad she did!
"Oh. don't quote me-" he hastily added
as he spied a pencil. II have enough do
nestle troubles on my hands,"
IT think It very conceited of men to say
things like that!' exclaimed a maidenly
maiden at my elbow. II don't believe it's
true either. A conceited man would mis-
take the frankest sort of friendliness for
something warmer. A woman may uncon-
sciously show her feelings for man, but
that she in any way consciously woos
HINT isn't true!"
THAT sounds like a page out Of the last
century" laughed a woman who is-well
10 say the ltdSl III lACSC
days" she went on, feelings never get
the best Of one. There isn't any trembling
supplication or trembling yielding. Now
adays the momentous question is crowded
into the whirl of a two-step with hum
dreds of people looking on; or it is all got
ten through with while the two are wait
ing minute for the couple ahead. You
see, there is a perfect understanding long
before the vital question is put. A man
nowadays, is not going to risk rejection
at least not many men. Occasionally
very occasionally-there comes along one
whose ardor compels him to speak In spite
of consequences. But he is a rara avis. In
nine cases out of ten, man knows what
the answer will be before he asks the
question. And how could he know If the
girl didn't help him in a thousand ways,
unspoken. if not spoken7 OF course wom-
an does half" She ended in tone or
conviction.
So went the talk, the consensus Of opin-
ION leaning clearly towards the affirmative
reply to the question at issue.
Looking into literature, too, the reply
is much the same. Novelists more fire.
quently than not represent woman as hair
the wooer. And although fiction is not
truth, IL is, as some one says, Its en-
chanted resemblance" Its testimony
counts. we need 20 no farther than Des-
demona and Priscilla to see what Snakes
peare and Longfellow thought about 1t.
DESMOND described, you remember, as
"A maiden never bold,
OF spirit so still and quiet that her mo-
ton
Blushed at herself
the modest Desdemona when the MOOT
was telling of the dangers he had passed
said to him that if she had friend who
loved her. and Othello would but teach
him how to tell that story, that would
WOO her.
Surely 1t was hint enough!
AS for Priscilla, the Puritan maiden,
her Speak for yourself, john" is part
of the immortal annals of love-making.
And then there was Henry Esmond be-
guiled by that charming widow. And
there are Charles Reade's heroines most
astonishingly ardent.
Dickens, and Scott, and Bulwer have
most circumspect heroines, but they are
not real live people. George Eliot's hero
ines are living, breathing women, and
they do not the wooing. This woman's tes-
timony on the subject is refreshing,
though Il is the exception.
But enough of literature. Let's see what
Atlanta people think about It, Ia.
Here are some spicy opinions: