Year: 1879

l Always LOOklmS Lttlc Fafther.


If man has right to marry, why has
not woman? If a man may ask woman
to become his wife, why not a woman
suggest to a man how lovely it would be
to become her husband? But nav. Society
by its usage which is stronger than writ
| ten law, says that such proceeding is OBJ
jectionable. and that lovely woman must
not practice it. We bow to the dictate of
socicty's usage, and the woman who rebels
against it is voted rude forward and un
womanly. And yet the honest desire for
a companion and partner for life is i'm
planted in the feminine heart as deeply
as in that of the man. 1t does not find
expression in the same manner.


The woman who has reached maturity
without ever having desire to marry, is
either mentally or physically imperfect.
or else is, as it were, a wooden doll, or a
partially animated piece of wax work.
She may pride herself on what she thinks
is her excessive modesty, but her ardent
sister, who honestly longs for a real and
live man to be her comforter for life, is
just as modest and quite as sensible. 1t is
not always the case that the longing of the
girl who wants to marry assumes the form
of outward and verbal expression.


There are thousands of bashful fellows
who have had on their tongues the propo-
sitions they would fain have uttered. but
were frightened by the fear that the girls
refuse them, when at the very time the
dear creatures were hoping and longing
for the same individuals to give them an
opportunity to accept.


But there are at least thousand and
one ways in which a girl may with pro-
priety communicate to almost any bright
young man her ideas concering him. These
are not set down in the guide books. They
are not part of our written literature. They
come not by rule and regulation. They are
above and beyond all these and are re-
sponsibls to no law. Impossible though
it be to define them in words,
the language of love speaks
them more plainly than
cornet voice. Hardly any young man ask
ing young lady to marry hum ought to
be refused. If he has all the component
elements of sound good sense, he knows
before he asks the question what its ans
wer will be. If he is refused, it shows that
he is not quite as smart as he thought he
was. His defeat is mortifying. The girl
may have wanted to marry, but he was not
the man of her choice. She will leave
him to heal at his leisure the wounds of
his suffering heart, while she takes her
chances that somebody else may offer who
will prove to be more acceptable. The
y
after his first grief is assuaged, which may
possibly be not very long, he seeks per-
manent consolation in some other direc-
ton, this time taking his steps with such
careful caution as to prevent him from
repeating the blunder.
There are girls who start out in life
with an underlined idea that they will mar
ry somebody. and then keep looking
through the matrimonial market just as
they would look through the stocks of
silk on the shOpman's counter. Taking
down piece after piece they find the shade
of this too dark, or of that too light, or of
the other not exactly what they think il
| ought to be. After putting the salesman
to much trouble they say they will call
again, and leave the place not knowing
what they want. So the girl who wants
to marry looks around to see what offers
and finds that this mans beard is too red
that ones eyes too blue and the other ones
ears too long. She will look a little father
She examines all that are in market anG
concludes to look farther yet And when
after haajng almost uncOnsciously become
a ffirt and having broken the heart of hal
the young men in the neighbOrhOod, SHE
keeps ON docking little farther" She
finds herself going alone down the hill OF
the shady side ofthe way, still with ar in
definable longing to marry somebody, and
wondering who will come along to propose
| to her.


1t would be rash to advise the young
lady to accept the first marrying man who
Offers. 1t is equally rash to advise her te
wait, and wait, and keep on waiting and al
last marry nobody. Perhaps it is MOI
necessary that all should marry. Some ol
the noblest women in the world are whal
the world calls old maids; vet that is 8
lonely way of getting along. If the gir
wants to marry, the young man will find
1t out, and her soul will look out of tht
windows of her eyes in an unmistakablt
manner when the right man comes along
And all this without any lack of mOdesty
or breach of decorum on her part. 81