The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1916-01-20
leap Year ProposaI Said 20 Have
Been Established by Good St.
Bridget IN Years Long
Como BY.
ST. PATRICK REFUSED
and SILK Dress-This Custom
Long Since Disearded,
However.

To learn the origin Of the leap year
custom OF women proposing marriage
10 men you must go back to Ireland.
The Emerald Isle was the first home
OF originality.
There the legend still IL told OF the
good st. Bridget going to the good St
Patrick In tears. The inmates OF her
nunery. prototypes OF the modern
sufrragette. by the way, had risen In
anger because they were denied the
privilege OF popping the question,
then solely appropriated by the men
as has been the vote In modern times.
st. Patrick. says the legend, thought
while and proposed to allow the
women every seventh year But st.
bridget, throwing her arms around the
neck OF Ireland's patron saint, begged
for every fourth year. to quiet her
charges
And 1t is recorded that st. Patrick
not only yielded. but said he would
give the women the longest year in
the calendar. leap year. st. Bridget
was 30 delighted that ste proposed to
St Patrick on the spot, but as he had
vowed celibacy. he was Obliged to de-
cline. and in lieu OF. a husband St
Bridget received kiss and q silken
@own
Designing Women Win.
So for centuries the custom thus
established continued, and the woman
who proposed and was rejected was
entitled to kiss and silk dress.
unless the man already was engaged
10 marry another. AS far as history
shows. it was not until the preroga-
hue In n
set out to replenish their wardrobes
by proposing to one man after an
other, that the custom fell into dis
use. Down-trodden man rebelled at
last. and with the custom went wom-
ans emancipation for one year in four.
But this leap year custom was by
no means confined to Ireland. There
actually was law passed in Scotland
in the thirteenth century which gave
women the right to propose marriage
in leap year and provided that the
man who YVES free TO marry but re-
Jected such a proposal should pay to
the woman a certain amount Of money
in proportion to his wealth.
Tho law must have been popular.
for In France one like IL was enacted
after 1t had been tried out in Scot.
land, and the king promulgated 1t in
a royal decree.
The cities OF Genoa and Florence In
italy passed similar laws later. and In
the fifteenth century, 1t Is said. they
were still in vogue. Columbus him
self liz said to have received proposals
from several women, but as he had
already selected the woman who was
70 be his wife, he escaped
Custom Is Only Joke.
There is no record that England
every dealt legally with the custom.
but in the time Of Henry VIII 1t was
an unwritten law that woman had the
right to propose in leap year and that
the man who rejected woman's pro-
posal had to provide her with kiss
and a silk dress. AS late as the efgh-
teenth century fomely men paraded
English streets, waiting: No lady
will propose to US"
In America leap year has been kept
only In Jest and the right conferred
upon woman to propose every fourth
year Is regarded largely as a Joke, but
every bissextile years sees leap year
parties OF all sorts and leap year has
come to be synonymous with feminine
proposals. although the kiss and the
silken gown have long since been for