The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1904-09-08

huw co snen propoFos
\ There "A one woman In Caicngo
aho knows If anybody does.
/ FOR forty men have asAel her t.
marry shem
/ she has kept a faithful record Of
how they acted In proposing, bur she
doesn't want II kn wn. SO she went
give her nana 7nd rcfLsas % allow
her photograph to alorn this page
}. would be alpramcnt too. And her
name is one we'll known In society,
Having just announced her engage
ment after eight years Of unquss-
tened social success. she has can.
sentea "for purely scientific nurpos-
es,n to discuss the manners and
methods Of ne modern young man
when proposing marriage 10 the mod
I'm young lady.
It ii not often that such subject
Is freeiy talked Of by one qualified 10
know anything about it. Girls DO /;
among themselves, they say. bu
they do IL in fragmentary way, con
alrg many things and being afraid
to tafl OF their eonquests lest they
hou,3 be accused cf empty hoasting
by le4s fortunate compeers. A sense
Of honor not zoe often accredited to
them Ii also powerful in enforcing
reticenee. Eut To aid the ''undeyel-
opai Ecieace Of Psychology" the ex-
pert in pra-matrimonial skirmishing
las consented to disregard all these
influences and to frankly relate her
"prop1 al experiences, emitting
names and dates, as an honorable
maiden must. Her first statement
was sufficiently startling 10 make the
mere masculine man sit up and take
notice.
Forty different men have asked
me to marry them, she said, simply
II am cure Of the number, because
thought 1t was at least their due to
have me remember always the people
who have paid me this great compli-
ment
The seeker after psychological data
gasped.
It's not such an extraordintry
number" fent on the expert, pout.
ing little. I've been out since
1896, and that's only an average of
five a year since. OF course the pro-
posals didn't all come as regularly as
that, and 1t seems brutal to speak of
them tn such a statistical way, as If !
they were census figures or election
returns. But ! suppose that for the
sacred cause of science such squeam
ish fec,ings must be suppressed. Even
science, however, can't make me dis
close the particulars of the first and
the 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 tie honor of bearing his name
after a certain day soon. When he
first asked me to be his wife | was
thirteen end he was fifteen. / said
Yes, bit mother said No and / was
hurried off to boarding school,
while | was at school | received
three proposals of marriage A San
Francisco girl there whose father had
left her millions In sugar must have
received hundreds during tho same
period. Poor little thing She'd ge'
these letters from absolute strangers
asking her 10 marry them. and at
first she used 10 cry over them terri
hiy ! found out, though. that she
had been engaged to two youthful
Californiars before she was fourteen
years old and didn't waste any sym
pathy on her after that But wasn't
it horrible? Just think of ehe mum
Der Of constituencies fortune hunters
there must be in this country to per.
nit one rich girl to receive so many
brazen appeals. My proposals we're 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 expecting
onel these boys did It in the most
attractive manner. l don't suppose
they really were in love with me, for
they seemed to get over ii easily But
they were so manly and so earnest