The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-01-04
LOVE AFFAIRS OF THE
WARMED-OVER VARIETY.


satisfactory and palatable as warmed
over Welsh rabbit or the second OPEN
ing of bottle of champagne. Yet it
is strange how many men and women.
with too much common sense to at
tempt to enjoy a cold rabbit or to re-
vive a glass of dead champagne. will
doggedly persist in trying to bring to
life love that has been killed in an
hour of forgetfulness or folly. Two
amusing attempts to warm-over mari
tai affection which have been very re-
Gently brought to light in the news
papers are examples of this blind en-
deaVor on the part of men and women
who should know better. The first is
distinctly humorous. A fashionable
young couple who separated with
threats and epithets last August were
rejoined again on Thanksgiving Day,
only to part eternally three days later
The second instance was rather more
pathetic. An inventor, now rich and
famous, who left his wife a little over
a year ago in order to make a fortune,
returned to find her estranged from
him, and is now spending his days re-
counting her with the fOrlOrn hope of
winning back her love.
But love. flowers, champagne and
Welsh rabbit are of an essence so
peculiarly delicate that once they have
lost their sweetness and life nothing
will bring them back again. They are
not to be confused with coarser things
like cider and ham and cabbage, which
are often better on the second days
serving. The man or woman who
fancies it possible to cast love aside
for while like a garment that is out
or season and then to drag 1t out of
the closet again will find that in the
interim it has become discolored and
moth-eaten beyond recognition. There
are some men who on leaving for Eu-
rope spend more time in seeing that
their wine cellars are securely locked
and their strong boxes properly closed
than in seeing that their wives hearts
are carefully shut to all intruders.
They will waste hours over a new COM
bination paddock and leave their wives
with a casual peck on the cheek and
a few conventional phrases as to how
to exercise the horse and keep the
baby from taking cold. They will
spend whole night giving a farewell
supper at the club and five minutes
saying farewell to their wives on the
pier. They will tip every servant on
the place and give the pretty type
writer at the office an extra five-dollar
bill, and forget to send the woman
who holds their honor in her hands and
heart a box of flowers.
The wife does not, of course, know
of the lonely hours the husband spends
walking up and down the deck of the
steamer thinking of her and passion
ately wishing he could kiss the little
curl that hangs over her ear. She can
not see him looking straight through
every pretty woman on the streets of
Paris because he can see only her face
and her figure and the dress she wore
last time. But she does remember the
peck on the cheek at the pier and the
bitterness of 1t enters her heart and
burns deep. And she does remember
the abstraction and the last hight at
the club and the few words about the
horse and the baby and the flowers
that never came; and the iron enters
her soul. Then the mischief is done.
Afterward the unfortunate husband
comes back from Paris or Greece or
Constantinople and cries out because
he finds a desolated home. He wants
to know what he has done that God
or the man across the street should
bring this curse upon him. He was
dutiful and devoted, and that wom-
an'-But why repeat it; the reports of
the divorce courts spell 1t all out every
day. Sometimes the two between whom
the grave of love rises like a Chinese
wall have sense enough to remain
apart and make their lives all over
separately. But very often we hear,
as in the two cases cited, of an at
tempted reconciliation. 1t looks very
pretty this effort to warm over the
cold love and it sounds very romantic.
All the neghbors rejoice and come in
to help. But they go away again feel
ing the chill of the atmosphere; for
the matrimonial fire that has died out
is as unhallowed as the ashes of the
dead fire on the hearth of the vestal
virgin. Yet it was not because the man
left his wife that her affection was lost
to him. He could have kept that af-
lection glowing had he remained in
coal added now and then to the fire of
womans love will keep it bright
The trouble is that most men are too
stupid or too lazy or too Indifferent or
too busy to add the coal.
All the instances of warmed-over
love are not on record in the divorce
courts, however. Most married couples
try to get along somehow on the ash
heap without airing their unhappiness
before the public. More love has been
killed by harsh words, curl papers,
awkward remarks, stupid evenings and
soiled wrappers than absence or in
fidelity has ever butchered. Love is
like a white dress. The least speck
on its pristine front spoils the effect.
The woman who comes down to break
fast in a tattered kimono and no cor
sets and goes to bed in curl papers and
cold cream is feeding love with slow
poison. The man who is rude to his
wife, swears in her presence without
begging her pardon and smokes a
filthy pipe is rubbing stains on loves
white garment. These are the things
that make married couples forget the
and make love lose the spar
kle. Unless love, like champagne, is
kept well bottled, it will grow stale.
The bottle may have the spider webs
of time on it, but the thing inside must
be kept untouched and as hallowed as
an altar Once desecrated an altar
loses it's power to awe or inspire the
worshipper Once soiled with the in
timacy that breeds contempt, love be-
comes tawdry and uninteresting. Az
ter that there is no use trying to trim
II I'D or make it over. 1t is quite dead,
and the best thing for those who have
lost il to do is to tactily acknowledge
the loss and go on living without try
ing to pretend they are happy. The
pretense is apt to induce ructions and
Misunderstanding which will end trag-
ically. while the fully understood agree
ment to disagree is only a farce at the
worst.
It is very amusing to see engaged
couples who have outlived their TO-
nance trying to patch up the old af-
fair and appear enthusiastic over the
It is amusing, however,
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