Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-02-16

OF course. there was a time when
courtship was conducted according
TO Hoyle. In those days sutton first
asked a. father for his daughters
hand in marriage, and this having
been granted, fell upon his knees be-
fore his lady love and, taking 'her
lilly white hand in his, said: "Adored
| Clarissa, will you be mine? I swear
| by all the gods, etc, etc, ETC.
| Even as late as the early sixties
enamored SWANS still quoted poetry
and took Byron and Tom Moore for
guidance. But in these jaZzy days
they do it differently, and between
| fox-trot and a tow-step Tom casually
remarks to Maisie Say, kid, you
look good to me- My flivver is at the
door. Let's beat it to the parson and
| ioyride through life together. What
say?"
And Maisie says, "Surest thing,
you know" And alls well that ends
well.
| For it doesn't matter what you
say 1t is just the way you say it.
| Except for the high faluting and i'm
practical tips offered by novels, the
stage and the movies, there is alb
solutely no guidance for the youth
who wishes to sell himself as a mat
rimonial proposition to a girl. For
! the one thing that no man ever tells
lis what he said when he asked his
wife to marry him, and the secret
woman carries with her to the grave
| are the words her husband used
when he popped the question to her.
| Probably this is because the man
knows he bungled the situation, and
that after spending weeks thinking
up lovely, soulful speeches, when
the time came, he swallowed his
Adams apple hard two or three
times and gulped out a bald request,
unembellished by any flower Of
rhetoric or poetry.
Certainly kne reason why the wom-
an doesn't tell is because she cannot
bear to even remember her disap-
| pointment over the Shattering of the
dream of her life. Even since she
was a schoolgirl she has looked for
ward to her one great moment when
the man she loved would ask her to
be his in high romantic phrase, and
says things to her that she could
treasure in her heart as long as
she lived And then when he pro-
lposes to her, as if he were asking
for a second helping Of pie, it makes
her want to say, NO" no matter
how much she loves and wants him.
It is matter of record that when
a man asks a woman to marry him
and she accepts she invariably
throws herself into his arms and
!weArs on his breast. The man thinks
fshe is shedding tears of joy because
| he has come across at last, but such
is not the case. She is crying as if
her heart would break because OF
the way he popped the question and
trampled her fairy story under his
number ten brogues.
No. I can't tell you how to pro-
pose to a girl, son, but I can give
you one valuable pointer, and that
is to choose the psychological mo-
ment/ in which to do it if you want
to win out.
Most men are singularly insensi-
BILE to the effect that environment
and her moods have upon a woman,
and the result that many a lover
gets, the mitten instead of the glad
hand, is just because he didn't have
sense enough to know when and
| where to speak and when and where
to keep silent.
Given moonlight night with the
waves breaking on the seashore-or
a long ride in a smooth going car,
through the woods at twilight-or a
secluded corner behind the palms in
a conservatory with the music pulls.
ing in the distance-or quiet eve