The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1916-06-21

ana DeSSeQ nlm u MAKE IL oHe year
in four.
"Ah, Bridget, St. Patrick is said
to have replied. squeeze me that
way again and I'll give you leap
year, the longest one in the lot"
Then the future st. Bridget, en-
couraged to this extent, thought of
her own husbandless condition and
popped "the" question to st. Pat
rick.
But st. Patrick had already taken
the VOW Of celibacy, so he had to
patch up her wounded heart with a
kiss and a silken gown. And ever
since that time if a man refuses a
leap year proposal he must pay the
penalty of kiss and a silken gown.
This quaint legend, of course, has
the earmarks of a myth tpure and
simple, but it is recorded in several
old books, and must have been taken
seriously in several countries. !
Scotland has a leap year law in
1888 which was actually enforced.
Here is the English translation of
the curious edict:
>'1t is statute and ordained that
during the reign Of Her Blessed Ma
gesty for every year known as leap
year every maiden lady of both high
and low estate shall have the liberty
to bespeak the man she likes, and
should he refuse to take her to be
his lawful wife he shall be fined in
a sum of pounds, more or less, as his
estate may be large or small, unless
he can prove that he is already be-
trothed to another woman, in which
case he may 60 free"
Not many years after this there
was similar law in France, which
received the kings approval. I The
story is told that numbers of maid
ems took advantage Of it.
In Genoa and Florence there was
a law of this sort in effect during the
days of Christopher Columbus and
one of his biographers hints at the
time, during leap year, when several
ladies proposed to him, but as he
was already betrothed he Escaped
their wiles." -.... ..
In England during the early eigh-
teenth century the men made merry
on the 29th Of February, often
climbing on barrels of liquor to
drink the health of the women they
expected would propose to them. In
the rural districts homely men pa
raded the streets, signing as they
passed the girls: "Woe is me, no lady
will propose to meW =.
Were Turned Down.
In the days of King Henry VIII.
Will Somers, the court jester, fur
nished merriment for the king by
having the maids at the royal palace
propose to him in the presence of
the king. OF course the jester re-
fused, but he presented each one
with kiss and silken gown, ac-
cording to the custom.
Even as late as the nineteenth
century leap year entertainments
were held, and women proposed to
men in public. Skating parties,
where the women called for the men
and took them to the frozen pnods,
were the fashion. The men would
give exhibitions of skating, after
which proposals of marriage were in
order. Sometimes the best skater
was proposed to half a dozen times.
Leap year parties were quite the
thing also and Merrie England
seems to have been 8 gay old place
in those IL months.
According to quaint book, pub
lished in London in 1906 under the
title of 'Love, Courtship and Mar
riage," the English seem to have
taken the leap year custom as an un.
written law, for the author says;
"Albeit it nowe become a part of the
common laws in regard to social re-
lations of life, that as often as every
leap year doth return, the ladyes
have the sole privilege during the
time it continueth of making love,
either by wordes or lookes, as to
them seemeth proper; and more.