Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1915-06-10
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Objections to Sealed Proposals
of Marriage.
speeulatIons as TO Some Of the Re-
suits II Proposed New York
State Law Should DO
Put Into Effect.

The attention of all single men and
maidens, and Of widows also, Is d.
rected to a bill introduced into the
New York legislature providing that
no agreement shall be enforced by the
courts unless they have been reduced
to writing and signed by the parties.
This is subject worth consideration
at all times, but 1t is especially appro-
pirate at the season when young
mans fancy lightly turns to thoughts
of love-"
The purpose of the bill, ostensibly,
is to protect men from suits for breach
OF promise which are, strictly speak.
ing, matchmaking enterprises. But it
would serve equally well to protect
men whose favorite recreation Is to
make love to women, and when that
has been accomplished, make some
more love to some other women. The
written proposal Of marriage, duly
signed, has several points of advan-
tage about 1t, but it is important that
all manageable persons should be
well informed of the measure IL It
should become a law, and be on their
guard. II the rules of the game are
to be changed there should be full no.
tice for the protection Of all concerned.
The change would probably reduce
the marriage rate In q notable percent
age. There are some bashful men who
find 1t easier to propose by letter than
orally, but most men glide gently into
on avouyol Of fbair ofPaotiop VDdar tho
personal magnetism of the charming
creature, and are liable to be scared
of by the production of blank form
looking like an income-tax return,
with the request of the girl that they
fill 1t out and sign it while she Is COM
muning with her soul whether to add
her signature,
When Sir Something Orother pre-
posed to Peg o. My Heart. who had
already received matrimonial over.
lures from two undesirables, she
asked: Are you making a proposal Of
marriage to me?" Whereat the man
she was dying to marry stalked off to
the window and looked gloomily into
the river, and the alarmed girl up
braided herself for her folly In talking
too much.
In this case the man had to get over
his alarm at the gross, open and pal
pable naming of the transaction, be.
cause the play could not have gone on
otherwise; but many proposal off
the stage has been permanently
wrecked by the injection of too much
common sense into an affair usually
described by others than the partici-
pants as a piece Of Stiffness.
How many men would sign and seal
a written agreement of marriage If the
girl, upon receiving the tender avowal,
had promptly gone to her fathers desk
and obtained sheet of paper and a
pen and ink and asked the infatuated
man to please reduce his pleasant re-
marks to writing?
Perhaps 1t would be just as well to
leave the proposal to oral or oscula'
tory terms and merely abolish suits
for breach of promise of marriage. Nc
woman really wishes to marry the
man who has thrown her off, or II
she does, 1t is only for the possession
of some of his money. The modern
woman sneers at the idea Of mar
riage as a career; she can make heI
own career, just as her brother does
Therefore, pecuniarily, she is not in
jured by broken engagement, and
the law undertakes to indemnify the
woman, not for her injured feelings
but for the substantial, material LOST
when a good catch gets away from
her. The suit for breach of promise
is an anachhronisyn. - Philadelphia
| Record.