Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1911-08-30
BY DOROTHY DIX

termine whether we have succumbei
to the tender passion, or are merely
ailing in some other way?
BY what means are we to gauge the
feeling that other men and women en-
terrain for each other, and tell wheth-
er their affection is purely platonic, or
Of the burning, sizzling, never dying,
life everlasting brand?
No other problem with which human
pity has ever grappled is so difficult of
solution, for love is not only like the
chameleon in its ability to change it's
color to match its environment, it also
resembles the Dutchman's wicked flea
in that when you try to put your fin
ger on it, it generally isn't there. There
fore it is not more difficult to tell
whethe2 our neighbors are in love than
it is to decide whether we are in love
ourselves, and the wrong guesses that
are made on the subject strew the
shores of time with matrimonial
wrecks, and furnish business for the
salvage corps of the divorce courts.
All of this makes it of the utter
most Importance that we should have
some authoritative standard by which
We can measure love, and this long
fit want has just been supplied by
MIR. Newell Martin-let his name be
emblazoned in letters of gold in the
Temple Of Fame.
Discarding the highfalutin visions
and dreams of angels and seraphs and
ever-blooming Edens watered by crys-
tai streams of the poet, and the thrills
and chills and hectic fushes of no
mances, Mr.. Martin comes right down
to brass tacks and hands out a certi-
fed foot rule by which any man can
take the accurate dimensions of an
others affection for him or her.
According to Mr.. Martin the homeIy
garbage pail is the real measure of
mans love for woman, and every mar
ried woman at least will agree with
him
Mr.. Martina second Daniel come to
Judgment, if there ever was one-was
the referee in the Gaylord divorce case,
in which the testimony showed that
Thomas G. Gaylord, banker, carried
home the groceries and sent out the
garbage pail for a woman who he said
was only his landlady
In commenting upon this evidence
and finding for the wife, Mr. Martin
said:
"A mans affection for woman is
shown by his willingness to take trou-
bic in her behalf, to do little services
for her, to decorate her rooms, and 20
do with a willing hand that which Il
man not in love would deem tiresome,
troublesome and disgusting. 1t was
the hand of Gaylord that set out the
garbage can. Nobody would set out
woman's garbage can for her but her
servant, he husband or her sweet
heart"
These words are apples of gold set
in pictures of silver. and they are only
too true, for what wife is there among
US all, who is past her honeymoon,
who would dare to apply the acid test
of love, even to her husbands affec-
tiOns, by asking him to set out the gar
bage pail? Truly, only a lovers hand
could be trusted to find pleasure IN
that task.
But testing aside, Mr.. Martin has
gone to the very root of the matter
and named the only test of love that
is worth button. All the oaths of
devotion that have been sworn by low
ers since the world began are nothing
but hot air. All of the leaping of the
pulse at the touch of a particular hand.
the clinging arms, and kissing lips are
matter of personal magnetism that
is gone when the spell is broken. Even
the inability to find happiness out Of
some one particular individuals pres
ence is immaterial, irrelevant and in
admissible as evidence of love.
The only real genuine test of love is
unselfishness toward the beloved one.
and desire to be of service to him or
her. Whenever the time comes that
you think of somebody elses happiness
and pleasure before your own, then
Cupid has hit you for certain.
When man is in love with woman
ne doesn't sit around telling her SO,
and wasting time writing sonnets 10
her eyebrows. He rolls up his sleeves
and tackles his job with forty horse
power more energy than he ever put
INTO his work before, because every
lick brings nearer to him the little
home he can see her in, and every bur-