The Savannah morning news., 1904-05-15
WOMAN'S WORLD

4
marriage The woman who marries
for a home, or money, or position. has
| no right to draw her skirts aside from
| the woman of the streets.
! But, l take II, you are one of the
1 fortunate ones, who has drawn one OF
! the capital prizes in the matrimonial
! lottery-and there's nothing better
! than good husband that life can give
| any woman-so 1 congratulate you
with all my heart But don't brag.
! Crow gently. You are not the first
| girl who was ever engaged. Every mar
| ried woman. and many old maids, have
/ been there before you.
| BE merciful to your family. When
! any of your sisters or brothers come
! into a room where you and Jack are
engaged in telling each other for the
millionth time how perfectly unalter-
ably you adore each other. and how
| certain you are that yours is the first
| authentic case of true love on record,
don't make them feel like interlopers
who must back out with hurried apol"
ogies. Don't always be fiinging Jacks
opinion in your fathers face, or get
/ huffy when you mother fails to see in
| him the incarnate perfection you do.
They are not in love with him, you
known. Be very tender and very low
ing to your mother, little sister. Try
to think what it must be to a mother
when she sees the daughter that she
has Graded in her arms, that she has
loved, and nursed, and wept and pray
ed for, and guarded by daily and hour
ly sacrifices every minute of her life,
turning from her to give her love and
life into strangers keeping.
Don't spoon in public. IL has been
said that all the world loves a lover,
but it likes them at a distance. No
body wants living pictures of affection.
It is disgusting and vulgar and ridicu-
lous except engaged people who can
find no pleasure in other peoples so
ciety. and no amusement but gazing
rapturously into each others eyes,
should at least stay at home, where
they will not affiict the general pub
lie. Overly denonstrative people al
ways arouse suspicion in the beholder,
anyway. They are like poor shop
keepers, who have all their goods of
display in the windows.
Don't make yourself cheap to the
man you love. Never forget that no
man ever cared for the thing he OBJ
tanned too easily. OF course the old
theory that a woman never thought
of loving a man until he asked her
hand in marriage, is all nonsense.
Hearts, unfortunately, are run on the
surprise party plan. where the UNI
expected guest enters in just as often
as the hidden one. but all the same,
there is no use in a woman jumping
at man and being too pleased.
have never vet known a single man
who didn't take a girl precisely at the
valuation she put on herself. Keep
your dignity and be very chary of
caresses. Nothing is so easy as to
surfeit man on sweets. If girls could
only realize the fascination that the
mystery and reserves and Illusions of
maidenhood have for men, there would
be fewer of the bold, slangy young
women Of the period. They may be
peaches, but they are peaches that are
shop-worn, and every connoisseur
wants his with the down still on it,
Don't trifie with the man to whom
you are engaged. 1t is poor sport
hurting an honest heart. Besides. not
every FISH that is hooked is landed;
sometimes in being played it escapes
the fisherman. l have seen girls amuse
themselves by putting petty tyrannies
on man, and make him the victim
of their whims and caprices just to
show their power. l have seen them
tiirt with other men simply to make
him jealous. No man of spirit will
submit to being played fast and loose.
or allow himself to be led about on
string like a pet bear, that must
dance at somebody elses pleasure 1t
is a dangerous game, Maud. People
WHO pay Will IRE SeneTdliy get Dufnt,
and many an engagement has gone
up in smoke because a silly young
woman pushed her power too far.
When Jack goes away from home
and you are under the necessity of
communicating with him through the
mails, l beseech you to write as
though your letters would one day be
read aloud in a breach of promise
case. Don't, for heavens sake, plas-
ter them all over with terms of en-
dearment and slushy ordinations of
devotion. There is never any telling
who will read a letter, and men only
too often have absolutely no sense of
honor about showing their sweetheart's
letters. Even when they don't intend
any breach of confidence, they leave
them around in old coat pockets. Say
what you please, but don't write it.
Just think how such expressions as
Your little Tootsey- Wootsey," or your
'Itty ducky daddle,' sounds to people
who read them in cold blood, and for
bear. Talk, telegraph, but don't write
sentiment.
Furthermore, beloved, don't spend
all the time you are engaged in telling
each other how much you love. Come
down to facts, and try to get acquaint-
ed. Find out what you really think
about everyday living. That is what
is going to count in the long years to
come, for after all, the engagement is
just the prelude to the march of life
when you will have to learn to keep
step with another. and fight with him,
shoulder to shoulder, If you win the
battle of life.
Try to get the engagement over with.
A long engagement is unnecessary
cruelty to dumb beasts. Cynics have
observed that a family is habitually
more cheerful at a daughters wedding
than sons This is because by the
time girl is ready to march to the
altar her immediate relatives have
been through such an ordeal they are
reconciled TO anything that has the
promise of peace in 1t, and are buoyed
UP by the prospect of being able to re-
turn to their former way of living.
! know you feel that the universe
is trembling in the balance while you
try to decide whether you will have
a church wedding, or be married at
home under floral arch in the back
parlor. 1t isn't, though, Things will
go on just the same, business will be
done at the old stands and your in
terest in shopping will be undated,
therefore / would urge you not to
make the period OF preparation. as so
many girls do, one of turmoil and
dressmakers. and nerves, and argu-
ments with mamma and protes from
paDa but one of love and peace and