The Washington herald., 1918-04-15
The Danger of Calf Love
By DOROTHY DIX,
THE WORLDS HIGHEST PAID WOMAN WRITER.

man who is In love with him will ind
himself. before he knows It. murmur-
ing words Of devotion that he never
intended to say. Also to his amaze
ment and despair he will ind himself
engaged to her.
There is no safety for him except IN
flight. Nothing else will preserve him
from saying and doing those things
for which a cold and unfeeling jury
will assess damages against him in a
breach of promise suit. or that will
result in his being dragged against
his will to the altar. There are times
when a man must take the risk OF be-
ing called a coward II he doesn't want
/ to be called husband.
The third and perhaps the most fatal
| temptation OF all to a boy is to make
love to some girl merely because she
is Sally-on-the-Spot. Propinquity is
ever the greatest match maker. Throw
two young people of opposite sexes to-
gether and they win talk sentiment
for lack of other topics OF conversa-
| ton and because they know IN their
hearts II is a perilous subject to dis
cuss, and we all like to play with fire.
This danger OF making love 70
girl merely because she is handy is
always hanging over the boy like the
sword OF Damocles. suspended by a
single hair, and there are two occa-
sions when the hair is especially liable
to break.
Obe OF these is when the boy Is
leaving home to seek his fortune in
the city. His heart swelIs with ten
derness toward all from whom he is
"a hnIf hn oTfn1 Tho nlI hnr,,a
| takes on an aura of beauty and dear
ness that IT never had before. Peo-
pie whom he has regarded with utter
| difference become suddenly precious
to him. For the moment his mind is
clouded and his judgment obscured by
the romantic melancholy OF the last
time" sentimentality.
1t is then that unless a boy has a
guardian angel who is working over
! time on its job that he imagines him
self in love with some neighbor girl
of whom he never thought before and
commits the asinine folly Of asking
her to wait for him, and thus goes out
| into the world burdened with a long
engagement chain that fetters him
and keeps him from climbing.
First in the Book OF Martyrs must
be written down the names Of the
calf love victims who, after they de-
veloped into polished and accomplished
men Of the world. went back to their
native villages and married the pro-
vincial sweethearts whom they had
long outgrown. but to whom they had
given their word of honor in their un-
formed youth.
If the boy escapes the neighbor's
daughter he is almost sure to fall prey
TO the landlady's daughter. This is
unintentional also, but when the
| strange boy goes to the strange city
there comes an hour when he is home
sick. lonesome. yearning for compan-
ionship and sympathy. The boarding
! housekeeper's daughter is the only
woman he knows. She is on the spot,
] and into her ears he pours the senti-
| ment with which he is brimming over
! and the deed is done. Mother attends
| to all the details OF the wedding.
The number of boys that get engaged
without knowing it and married with
out wanting to is appalling. How
they are to escape is past finding out
since youth is the time when the love
game is the most alluring of all sports
and one at which every boy and girl
must play.
We older ones can only warn them
that it is always a hazardous game
that neither side ever plays fair and
that Cupid had better be watched as
he shuffles the cards.
! Copyright. 1913. by the Wheeler Syndicate, Ine.)