The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-08-28
WORLD

I in love With some unromantic freck-
/ led-faCed. honest hearted man to think
what would have happened to her il
she had married the first hero of her
untaught. childish imagination.
Don't think you are in love with a
man because he is in love with you.
This is a PECULIAR dangerous and in
sidiOus error. because 1t is so easy to
fall into. You are bound to have a
I tenderness for anybody that is fond of
you. 1t shows so much good taste and
good feeling and appreciation that you
can't help liking them for it. It is
hard to be firm with them, and it
hurts you 10 hurt them. 1t is infinite
iy appealing 10 a woman to know that
she is making a man unhappy, and
when she sees the look of dumb pain
i'm his face that some word of hers has
caused. she feels exactly like she had
hit a baby in the face with her fist
She simply lacks the courage to re-
peat the offense and by and by she
comes to believe that her pity for him
and her sympathy for him is love. 1t
isn't though, and some day, after she
is married to him, and wakes up to
the fact that he wouldn't have died
for her even if she hadn't married him.
she knows in all it's bitterness that she
has sold her birthright for a mess of
pOttage.
Z
undoing, and the nobler she is the
more apt she is to make a mistake in
love. This is why so many good wom-
en- are married to drunkards and
thriftless ne'er-do-w wells. The man
throws himself upon her mercy. He
makes her believe that she alone can
save him, and that if he only had her
influence he never would thirst for
highball again. or desire to see the po-
mics Ia Dir iG of " Aat
I tered. There is a strong element of the
reformer in every womans nature. and
Just as every boy passes through the
period Of life when he yearns TO go
forth and fight Indians or be a bold
pirate, every girl has a period when
she dreams of becoming a missionary
or sad. sweet faced sister of charity
Here is her opportunity of saving a
soul. besides, there is something ro-
mantle in a man with a dark past
and she easily fancies herself in love-
and by the time she finds out that she
isn't ii is forever too late. There ought
to be state asylums in which a girl
could be safely inCarcerated and iSo-
lated who has been bitten by the mi
crobe of reforming a man until she
has chance to get over it.
My dear girl. if you ever happen to
think you are suffering from a blight
find that work is an unfailing specific
for it. The reason men never die of
such complaints is because they have
something to do besides sit and think
of the state of their affections. Love is
an exotic that requires leisure in which
to grow. 1t is only the idle who are
overly sentimental and the girl who
finds that she is a victim of unrequited
affection has only to get busy in order
n n Of
her heart left in good working order.
In all seriousness-for there is no
other thing in life so important to
woman would say to guard well the
heart and to keep its treasure safe for
the right man. Don't think a passing
fancy for a man. because he dances
the two-step in time with you, or has
dark eyes or curling hair is the love
that makes the world go round. Don't
mistake pity of a desire to help a man
for the affection that will make just
being by his side one long picnic of
life. But when the time comes, when
one mans faults are dearer to you
than another's virtues, when you new
er weary of being with him, when
you think his commonplace utterances
the embodiment of wit and wisdom,
when you don't care whether he is
handsome or romantic or distinguish
ed. or rich or poor, but only that he is
he when you want to tie blue rib
bons on his cigar stumps and hang
them on the wall. and when you have
heart failure every time he leaves you,
for fear he will get lost on the streets
then my daughter you are in love
for sure. 1t is the real thing. Go ahead,
and may heaven bless you and pre-
serve your illusions!
Dorothy Dix.