Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1904-09-17
Received Forty Proposals.
H. 4, ,,,,, ,...,..,....,-s

Received Forty Proposals.
How do men propose:
There is one woman who knows If
anybody does. Forty men have asked
her 10 marry them
Having just announced her engagement
after eight years of unQueStioned social
>slccesSs she has consented. for purely
scientific purposes 10 discuss the mans
ners and methods of the modern Young
man when proposing marriage to the
modern Young woman.
Forty different men have asked me
to marry them' she said simply. II
am sure of the number because | thought
il was at least their due to have me re-
member always the people who have paid
me this great compliment"
The seeker after psychological data
gasped.
its not such an extraordinary num-
her" Went ON the expert" pouting Il
little Il have been out since 1896, and
that's only an average of five Il year
since. OF course the proposals didn's
all come as regularly as that, and 1t
seems brutal to speak of them in such
statistical way, IL if they were cen-
sus figures or election returns. But |
suppose that for the sacred cause of Sci
ence' such SqueamiSh feelings must be
suppressed. Even science, however, cant
make me disclose the particulars of the
first and last times that man asked
to marry me. For it happens that the
same person was the hero OF both these
happenings, and | expect to have the
honor of bearing his name after Il certain
day soon. When he first asked me to BE-
his wife | was Is ana he was Is.
said Yes but mother said No and |
was hurried off to Il boarding school,
while | was at school | received
three proposals of marriage 4 San
Francisco girl there whose father had
left her millions in sugar must have re-
ceived hundreds during the same period.
Poor little thing! She'd get these letters
from absolute strangers asking her to
marry them. and at first she used to cry
over them terribly. l found out, though,
that she had been engaged to two youth-
full C@lifornians before she was ii years
old, and | didn't waste any sympathy on
her after that. But wasn't it horribleg
Just think of the number of constituencies
fortune hunters there must be in this
country to permit one rich girl to receive
so many brazen appeals. My proposals
were of different sort. They were from
three young college lads whom | had
known at home, and | must say that OF
all the people that have asked me to
marry them always eXceptiong onel
these boys did it i'll the most attractive
manner. | don't suppose they really
were in love with me. for they seemed to
get over it easily. But they were so man.
ly and so earnest and so heroic over
it all that | really loved to have them
do it, and | felt like 4 tragedy queen
when | said No in as near an approach
to their manner rs | could The college
boy way of proposing is the Gibson way.
After that | hau an experience with
foreign men" she continued. Il little sad
~, "and they aren't nearly as nice as
Americans. An Italian wanted me to
marry him when we were at Florence.
First he spoke to mother and then he
spoke to me, but neither of us believed
him, because he talked so much about It.
He was delicately sentimental, but he
seemed eifeminate after my nice college
boys, and | sat down and wrote thea
each a long letter the night after / had
refused him. My Italian exemplified the
'sappy' school of proposal. In France we
stayed all summer III the American Pari-
sian colony, and two young men asked me
to be their wife. / hated that. One was
naval officer, and he swOre he'd commit
suicide and took on dreadfully. The 9th
or was an ariStOcrat, and he took his
congo in gloomy. blue-blooded silence, but
afterward had the impudence to 20 and
complain to the ambassador and ask him
to make me change my mind Both of
these men proposed marriage in an excit-
ed, rhaps0dical manner, but with an un-
DERIVING assurance of success that was
most diStaSteful to me. They seemed sure
that they were going to be accepted, and
no woman likes that in a man. 1t is pre-
Sumptuous.
The English are different and nicer"
said the conqueror of forty good men and
true. They make UP their minds to-
marry YOU, and nothing you can say or
do can prevent them from putting their
request into words. And. once started
they carry it through 10 the bitter end
The English style is bull headed. but it is
forccful. When | left Liverpool 10 sail
for home my total of proposals had been
swelled to twelve in all and | would
have felt conscious-stricken about it if il
hadn't been for the fact that / had hon
estly tried to nip every threatened ayowal
in the bud. It's easy to refuse an Eng
lishman. though. He's gentleman and
he's game.
My first real American proposal oc-
cured nj a time during my first season
ont, and III tell it in detail, because il
was Il model of its kind. I was al
large party with a man who had been al
tentive 10 me for some months. ! liked
him very much, and | didn't want him
to propose 10 me. but IN weak moment
| promised to sit out several dances with
him. and he took advantage of his on
portunity. He was quiet as mouse
when we first found a nook and settled
j
could and tried to make him do the
same. but he was not to he denied. lie
cleared the decks for action by firmly
telling me that he was not in the mood
for talking roolishness. Then he squared
his chin and frightened his mouth until
it was just level across his face AMI
told me without preface that he liked
me better than any other person in thu
world | thanked him without any
coGuctry, and said that / was fond OF
him and Nat we had had some cool
times together that winter.
but | mean a Ial moro than that.
be said. ! know that simply cannot
get ou without yoH. and / want you as
be my wife. | dent want 50 hold ygu
up right here and now and make you
say Yes" because ia rather never see
yon again than have any feeling Of CON
pulsion about it. - Boston Trayeie..
-~-----~----s---------------