Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-05-23

! sitting in the parlor, and talking, and
going to the theater. and buying candy
and that sort Of thing.
And three were q crowd. The affair
even in its preliminary stages, was q
lighter version Of the old Boer court
ship. We were reading in . book oil
Olive Schreiner's the other day about
the Boer courtship.
If the young man had serious inten-
lions, he rode across the ve!dt many
miles to the home of his intended. AL
was formal and very solemn.
The couple sat up together all night
and In the morning, If their nutua,
talk had been satisfactory, the youns
man formally asked for the girls hand
Otherwise he simply rode away, and
that was that.
The American idea of courtship, be
ginning with the Gibson girl era, was
much mere extensive in scope. At nc
time before or since, in the history oil
the world, did going with a girl. as IL
was phrased, involve such vast amount
Of talk
There was q certain patter, or Zine, .
as it came to be known later, expected
from each party. This was typical
small talk, but quite distinguished BY
its utter lack of sense.
Let no one hop UP to inform us that
young people still talk so. No doubt
they do, to some extent, but we re-
main firm In our conviction that in
the old days. when you and I were
young. the bcys and girls could use
more words end say less than at any
other period In The earth's history.
X X
II young man Of that era wanted
to call up young lady and invite I1el
to the next dance of his college fraternity
it took him at least q solid hour on
the phone to say, II would like to take
you to the Greta Carlo Pie dance next
month"
OF course, he actually said mich
more, but il YOU had asked him after
ward what the rest Of it could have
been. he would not have been able to
tell you syllable of 1t. or II you had
been curious as TO what the young lady
could have found to say for one solid
hour, plus perhaps 1914 minutes, he
could have told you no more Of that
either.
Yet at the time their conversation
seemed quite normal and satisfying ia
each one of them, as no doubt 10 was
In the main. 1t was just the old way
Of doing things. Notice that we have
resisted the temptation Of saying "oi
going places and doing things.")
Today the boys would come along In
the flivver at about 10 pm, and give
several startling and vicious honks on
the horn. II Myrtle were in, she would
stick her head out the window, where
upon the invitation to the dance would
be given without apology If Myrtle
chose, she would go. and II she didn't
she wouldn't. What could be simpler
than that?
Perhaps some one will insist on tell
ing us that life, after all, is not bit
different from what it used to BE-. cid
that we should see the cars parked
along the country roads at night. No
doubt this is all true, but we ere deal
ing with the FIRST and superficial aspects
of courtship. and steadfastly refuse 10
consider the other matter here.
There can be little doubt that times
change, and that we, human beings all,
change with them. Perhaps most OF
these changes are superficial Which
Of them are for good, and which for
ILL., 1t is difficult. If not impossible, TO
tell All those who value independence
will b. willing to say, in the case Of
the bcvs and girls (and especially the
girls that here is step forward.