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Show J Dorothy Dix Says 'M 'i EveIT.Girl Should Constitute Herself a Perpetual Discour- ; 'm ager of the Constant Beau and Thus Solve a Most jfl Vexing Problem of the Times. ' j: By DOROTHY DIX, The World's Plighest Paid Woman Writer j JH A young woman is suing a faithless 'U swain for five thousand dollars dam- 9 ages. S4 Twenty-five hundred dollars of this amount she considers about right for the injury sustained by her young af- fections, and the other $2500 she jB charges up to wear and tear on the ' family furniture and the gas bill. Jfl For one whole, long year did this 9 devoted maiden labor and sacrifice to S please tnis youth. For him she mar- 9 veiled her hair and donned her pretti- 9 est frocks and her sweetest smiles. For 9 him she tolled at the piano, and stifled ll her yawns while he regaled himself 9 by telling her what a wonder he was. jM She also fed him upon lemonade, cake, (jfl Welsh rarebits, fudge, and dhers oth- H er comestibles, and yet, In spite of all 9 of this, he went off and manied an- 9 other. M ...... a Tjie aeceiuui, aouoie-ayea vinain: 9 This sad and oft recurring story calls 9 attention again to the parlous plight 9 of the girl of the present, and shows 9 . how much better affairs of the heart 9 were managed in the past than they 9 are nowadays. Modern progress has 9 done much for everything except for 9 courtship. In love affairs all the ad-9 ad-9 vancement has been made backward, H ' as an Irishman might say. HI In the times of our grandmothers a 91 girl was not permitted to waste her 9 sweetness on the desert air, and to sit H around growing scrawny and sallow 9tf and passe waiting for a man to speak If who never had the slightest intention H of popping the question. HI On the contrary, when a youin dell de-ll veloped a habit of hanging around Ue HI premises and of seeming to think that HI he had a meal ticket that was goou at HI a girl's house, the girl's father quietly 9 but firmly took him aside and in a 91 tone of voice that meant business in-Hf in-Hf quired what Romeo's intentions might De appertaining 10 ana concerning ju- IK IicL HI Whereupon, it was most einphatical-m einphatical-m ly up to Romeo to come across with 9 a bona fide proposal for Miss Juliet's Hf hand, or else the places that had HS known him knew him no more. Papa II didn't stand for any trifling. No idle, I selfish fellow intent only on amusing I himself was permitted to cneapen a peach by rubbing the downy bloom off I of it, and then pass on to a neighbor-I neighbor-I Ing orchard. Romeo had to put up I or shut up and move on, and a pre-I pre-I cious good rule it was, too. Unfortunately this wise custom of bringing young men to talk has fallen into disuse. In this country a father would drop head with horror if you should even suggest to him that he try to find out whether the men who camp on his parlor chairs and eat his dinners din-ners and smoke his cigars are marrying marry-ing men or not, or even In a position in which they could many if they so desired. This leaves a girl in a situation with which she has neither the knowledge of the world or the courage to cope. She has been left alono unaided and unarmed to fight the duel of the sexes ' in which woman Is so seldom the victor. vic-tor. She has the natural longings of her sex for love, and ultimately marriage, but she has no touchstone that enables her to tell which of the men that come about her has serious matrimonial intentions, in-tentions, and which are merely amus- 1 ing themselves. All that she can do in the dilema Is to be nice to them all, to smile upon all, and to spread her little net with such bait In the shape of dinners and suppers, and seats in opera boxes, and country house invitations invita-tions as the means of her father permits, per-mits, and as observation shows prove most alluring in tolling in the masculine mascu-line fly. That girls are grievously Imposed upon Is not to be denied. Only too many flies eat the -bait and then warily spread their wings and flit away, Bomotimes, alas, tnking with them the heart of the poor little innocent inno-cent spinner of gossamer webs. But what is a poor girl to do under the modern conditions of social In- k tercourse between tho sexes? She can't ask a man what his intentions aro. Neither can her father. She can't shut her door in his face. Custom Cus-tom does not permit her to pop tho question herself and bring tho matter ; to a decision, and so only too often she waits, between hope and fear, year after year, while her beauty fades, and her youth passes, waiting, always waiting wait-ing for tho words that are never spoken. About the only romody that common sense suggests for this menace to tho peace and happiness of young women ; is for every girl to constitute herself a perpetual discourager of the con- , stant beau. Three months is plenty of time for any man to find out what his sentiments are towards a woman, and six months gives him an elegant sufficiency of leisure in which to '- "" "'" Jl" .'! - . . speak. If by the end of that period ho has not come to the point and asked the girl to name the day, she can make up her mind that there is very small uso in waiting on him any longer. Possibly ho may still propose, but the chances are all against it, and in favor of his being one of those men who are a dog in the manger who does not want to marry a girl himself, but who delights in keeping marrying men away. Since their parents will not protect them, girls must learn to protect themselves, them-selves, and they will save themselves many a heart ache when they learn how to freeze out the man who tries to monopolize their time, and their thoughts, and the freshness of their charms, but who never offers marriage in return who, as a homely old lady once said to me of such a man's attentions at-tentions to her pretty daughter, "Comes and comes, but never courts." oo |