The Washington herald., 1920-01-26

4 woman who claims to know says
that this is the way In which va
rious types of men pop the ques-
tion:
The very young man offers you
his hand and heart as IL he were
proffering you a cup OF cold poison.
He is white-faced. and dry-mouthed.
and tense. and tragic. and when he
swears that he will commit suicide
III You refuse him he means ii. for
II is only when one is very young
that one believes that love is the
be-all and end-all of life.
You never remember very dis
tinctly what he says. It's something
about his never having loved be-
fore. and that he will never love
again. and you are the only woman
in the world. and of course you will
have 20 wait a while until he gets
to making as much as SEQ a week.
But two can live as cheaply a. one.
and so on; and then you kiss him
{ you are going to say no" because
you are sorry for him. and he kisses
you If you say yes and ten years
later he is wondering what was the
name of that girl he made such a
fool of himself over at the Smith
sons party. and you wonder what's
become of that nice boy that you
spooned with that summer at the
beach.
We may laugh at calf love all we
will. but the woman who has had
a boys first proposal has had an
ala baster casket broken at her feet,
and it's a pity she's generally too
young to know just how precious its
myrrh and frankincense are.
The man who is a flirt proposes
like a school Of correspondence
course of love making. He has to
have a stage setting for a back
ground and cracked ice music for
an accompaniment. He seizes the
psychological moment when you are
sitting out under the palms at a
dance and the orchestra is sobbing
a Hawaiian love plant, and then he
reaches over and takes your hand
and begins by telling you that your
eyes are wells of light. and that
there is something strange about YOU
something unfathomable. and diff
ferent from any other woman.
Then he quotes poetry-passion- =
ate sizzling Swinburne stuff-and
assures you that life will be cinders
ashes and dust without you. and
says something that sounds like a
proposal at 12 midnight. but that
does not bear the scrutiny of the
cold gray morning after. For the
f1irt loves and rides away and no
woman in her senses regards him
seriously.
The truly good young man. and
the one with mission in 'life. pro-
poses like a Sunday school tract.
He wastes no time in lovemaking
and sometimes even has the nerve
| to tell woman that his heart is
given to his work and that he
merely desires a companion to as
sist him in uplifting the world and
look after his physical comfort. for
even saints have a predilection for
good cooking. Occasionally he tops
Off the proposal. as If he were serv-
ing clans on ice. by saying that be-
/ fore he spoke he had bcsought di-
vine guidance on the subject in or
der that he might not be Influenced
by his personal preferences.
The blunt man sandbags you with
his proposal. He is liable to make
/ II on street car. or at a restaurant
and he always chooses the glariug
middle of the day. Say" he breaks
in. over the roast beef and mashed
potatoes. I'm not sentimental, or
romantic and 1 think all this talk
about love Is dope and bunk.
Now, / like you. You are no
great beauty. but I'm not strong
for looks, and you are healthy and
have good common sense and I
think we would hit. 1t off -abnt
right. What do you say? Is it a
bargain?'
The bashful man explodes his pro-
posal under your nose as IL II were
a hand grenade he had cast at you.
He doesn't lead up to the point
gradually and artfully. He fires the
question at you as IL he were hurl-
ng it out of a catapult. This is not
because he is lacking in sentiment
but simply because he Is scared to
death.
He kas spent weeks. perhaps years
in screwing his courage up to the
sickinG point and hs realizes that