Los Angeles herald., 1906-08-19
Romantic Courtship a la Shakespeare

w THETHER Miss Julia Dean
" Porthman proposed to Edwin
L. Sherwin or not is question
which still is debated with intense feel
ing among the friends of Mr.. and Mrs.
Sherwin, in Brookline, Mass, and jest
ingly between Mr.. and Mrs. Sherwin.
Mrs. Sherwin, who was Miss Porth-
man, declares she never proposed and
Sherwin vows that she did, and their
debate of the question during their
honeymoon has revealed one of the
oldest romances ever made public. It
matters not now which proposed-they
are married and happy-but it appears
from all the circumstantial evidence OBJ
tainable that one w. Shakespeare in
troduced them, wrote their love letters,
proposed for them, and was accepted,
and that there is in the works of the
bard of Avon more interesting cryptic
grams than the Baconian theorists ever
evolved.
For the wooing was carried on en-
tirely in the works of w. Shakespeare.
It was Shakespeare who introduced
them, 1t was Shakespeare who made
them realize that they loved each other,
1t was Shakespeare who gave away"
the fact that Miss Porthman was in
love with Mr.. Sherwin it was Shakes
peare who asked the tender question
and it was Miss Porthman, through
Shakespeare, who said Yes"
The courtship started in the Boston
public library Miss Porthman was
keenly interested in Shakespeare, and,
indeed, had with her father compiled d
volume concerning Shakespeare Mr.
Sherwin, as it was revealed later, had
forgotten all about Shakespeare except
the name and the fact that he wrote
some plays and sonnets.
Interested in Tall, Slender Girl
Sherwin, as he has confessed, went to
the library one day to get some statis-
tics regarding the exports of hemp from
Manila. He secured the book he re-
quired and when he had settled him
self to copy the figures he became con-
scious of tall, slender girl, whose fair
face, puckered with a students frown
was bent over a book across the table
from him.
He suddenly found himself figuring
what 1t would cost to import 1000 bales
of golden brown hair. He admits now
that he fell in love with the top of his
wife's head while she was bent over the
book and that, when she looked I'D and
saw him staring at her, the view of her
face only served to intensity his af-
fection
The girl looked down at her book
again quickly, and resumed her reading
but she was conscious (as she after
ward confessed) that the tall, well
dressed, handsome athletic looking man
across the table was staring straight at
her. Five minutes later the girl sud
denly closed the volume of Shakespeare
she had been consulting, hastily scrib-
bled something on one of the blanks,
and arising, carried the book to the
desk.
The man across the table left staring
at the vacated seat noticed that she
had left the crawl upon the desk. and
as II inspired, he sprang around the
table, grabbed the slip and started
toward the desk. The girl already had
swept out of the room. He noticed
idly that something was written on the
slip OF paper and glanced at II to see IL
i was important. What he read was:
"cymb. 3-4-4."
That stopped Sherwin. He simply
walked to the desk and asked the young
woman in charge IL the note was inn
portant, explaining how he had found
1T is not important" the girl said: