Year: 1869

About Filtration.


The Saturday Reuieao contains
an article on the subject Of flirting,
not inappropriate to the season.
We need not follow the writer
into the picturesque details of the
topic, but refer to the point with
which the paper closes, that "firt-
ing with intent is cruel, a false,
and a heartless amusement and
time was when. cruelty and false
hood were essentially sins that
vitiated all claims to gentlehood." "
We are quite disposed to agree
with this sentiment. But in the
same breath the essayist says.
"And yet the world would be very
dull without that innocent kind of
nonsense which goes by the name
of firting--that pleasant some
thing which is more than mere ac-
quaintanceship and less than for.
nal loverhood-that indefinite in
terest by which the one man or
the one woman becomes a kind Of
microcosm for the time, and cpl
tome of all that is lovely 1t is
hard to get a glimpse in this way
of undefnable interests, and of all
that is lovely, and to be informed
that we should on no account,
without vitiating our claim to gen
tlehood, atleast grasp at the pleas
ures within our reach. The fact
is, to call flirting "an innocent
kind of nonsense" is to talk light
ly of every poisonous folly. 1t is
too often the wicked diversion of
thoughtless women and silly
men, or of women of designing
temper, and men of a disposition
to match. The sighted young
women who have been disappoint-
ed and thrown over by artists in


filtration are not at all to be re-
garded as suffering angels, but it
is useful to consider that after
their eyes have been dried, a little
hardening of the heart will set in,
not at all likely to make them
more angelic than they were born
to be. Men who consider women
fair game for attentions that mean
nothing desire particularly to ex-
ercise their cultivated gifts of fas.
eination upon first year-belles, and
the effect of the process upon these
ladies is often of a very injurious
character. A male fiirt is a stupid
coward, as a rule, who leads wo-
man into personal compromises
with him, and, although he may
not boast of his intimacy, the con-
sciousness that it is in his power
to do so is torture enough to the
yictim Of his attentions. Ofcourse.
when there are really two parties
to the sport it becomes q different
thing, although the word innocent
is not applicable to any variety Of
the amusement. There are many
women who are born flirts,. who
are quite equal to every turn ot
| the pursuit, and who will battle
the oldest hands at it. There are
| women, also, semi-detached wives


who apparently exchange license
with their husbands in such mat
ters, the gentleman giving leave
to his wife to walk and to ride
with whom she will, the wife, or
her part, never troubling herself


about her husbands going anc
coming, or with the genial notice
he may happen to bestow upor
the good.looking girls of their mu


tual acquaintance. These people
can take care of themselves. The


Saturday Reuiev. a short time ago
pleaded for the emancipation O


the ':bored" husbands, when th'
bored wife insists on the same lat
itude we can scarce see how it cal


be. reasonably denied her. Thi


system of endeavoring to escap'


marital responsibility, and to shirE


the duty of forbearance incumben


upon married people, is distinctl!


evil, and flirting is far too mild al
expression to apply to the com