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Show Dorothy Dix Talks j !; By DOROTHY DIX, the World's Highest Paid Woman Writer ii HOW TO PROPOSE j A youth who signs himself ' Bashful." Bash-ful." writes me that he ls very much in love with a girl, and wants to ask hor to marry him, but he doesn't know how to elo it And he jusks mo If 1 will tell him how tp word his proposal. Why son, thero isn't any School of Correspondence course In love-making that teaches a cut-and-dried way ofj how to pop the Question A proposal should bubble right up from the In ill with the heat and fervor of a Volcanl eruption It should be something a' man can t resist doing, not something he has to have a formula for doing and, after all, it doesn't really matter how erne does it, or what he says. If1 tho sirl wants the man any old way is good enough, and works, arid if she doesn't want him, nothing he can say! or do helps. As a matter of fact. the way ini which men pop tho question depends Verj much upon the type to which the man belongs. There s tho man, for instance, who always pulls the cave-: man stuff. Ho clutches a woman to his breast with a force that loosens her back hair, and smothers her with kisses, ind mm mill s l hoi m i hoarse, passionate whisper that she lei his woman, and that he Is going te marry her whether she will have him or not. and that he will fly with her to the ends of tho earth. I his style of wooing is very effective with debutantes who are young and romantic, and with women who are verirlng on BplneterhoOd, and who have seen so much love-making that they have become connoisseurs lu it, and like it stiff and strong. Then there's the poetic way of proposing. pro-posing. Tills calls fur the proper stage setting a full moon, a sequcst-1 ered spot, secure from Interrupttoh. a bflhd playing soft music in tho dls- I ii' . At the psychological momont, , when tho girl has gotten properly doped up upon atmosphere, the man 1 t.nke.s he-r lllly-whlte hand In lil -.. and begins quoting mushy poetry to hor. and so leads her up. along flowery pathways, to the point In which he Invites her to dwell forever nioro in aj 1 fairy ca.stle with him. This la a beautiful way to propose, but H la dangerous, because If tho man I really means business he suddenly finds that ho has forgotten hla lin.s and that his Adam's apple is about to choke him. Also the modern maiden 'is a hard-boiled proposition, and she Ls mighty apt to be suspicious of a man whose proposal shows too much technique and finish. It looks to hi t as if he was over-trained, and had too much experience. Then there Ls the way the practical man proposes. He puts ihout as much emotion into asking ask-ing a woman lor hor heart and hand as he would In getting a 60-day option on a carload of pig iron. He 'v.-nerally doe it In n restaurant af'.-r a good dinner, because a full meal makes him yearn for all the comforts of home. He begins by telling the girl how much money he is making, and that he knows of a nice, little apurt-nicnt, apurt-nicnt, or a cute bungalow that would lust about suit them, and then he asks her how she would like to corne and be his little housekeeper. It is a blow to a girl who had dreamed of being wooed In beautiful, Hubert W. Chambers' language to have her proposal handed to her with a garnish of roast beef, medium done, and masiioel potatoes, but if she Is sensible, aho swallows the bitter pill of her disappointment without making faces and says, ''Yes," and lives com-fortablv com-fortablv over after. The really haHifi.il man hurls his proposal at a woman as if it were a bomb It comes to her out of a clear sky. with no preliminary flovrrlfeh 01 warning, and ?ho has got to take 1t or leave It on the spot, because he will never screw his courage up to gouiy through the ordeal a second time. Strangely enough, no woman ever fails to Interpret rightly the bashful 'wooer's incoherent, halt-uttered proposal, pro-posal, and she generally accepts it because be-cause she knows there is peace and rest In a husband who regards love-making love-making as one of the tortures of the , Inquisition There's the widower, HC always begins be-gins his love-making by telling a woman wo-man how much she ls like his late lamented la-mented Maria, and he ends by offering I her the deceased lady's shoes. I It is a marvel how dp- man can have little enough sense not to know that there never was a woman from lliucrejda Horgi down whom a woman wo-man wouldn't rather resemble tha.11 th. j first wife of the man she loves, and she wMild dearly like to say "No" ex- cepl that a good, house-broken wld-owt wld-owt r is tor. much of o preferred matrimonial matri-monial risk to let slip. Then there is the proposal by letter, Which ls a moan, dastardly trick, because be-cause It robs a woman of the one big thrill of her lifetime And there's the Platonic, near-proposal, which seems to be the real thing until a woman supplies the acid test, and finds that it makes no mention of any wedding day. There arc all sorts of proposals, except ex-cept the real, honest-to-goodness one, in which the man gets down to bras-, tacks, and makes as square a love proposition to a woman as ho, would a business proposition to a mai No iinan mak(8 tlat When the ordinary man pops the question, ho tells the girl th u she Is an .iDgel, and that he worships her, and 'that all ho asks of life ls Just the 'privilege of adoring her, and that if she will marry him, she will never have anything to do but soothe hh' fevered brow. Ho doesn't say to her, "Now, see here, Mary Jano. I am a 'poor, weak, miserable human shrimp I am cantankerous, can-tankerous, and grouchy, and fussy about my eating, and I don't make but ?10 a week, and the woman who marries me will have to work, and economize. and wear made-over clothes, and have the patience of Job. but you are no world-beater, yourself, and' if you are bound to throw yourself away on some man, It might as well )c me as anybody else. For I love you girl, and 1 will make you as decent a husband as 1 can. Are vou sport enough to give me a try?" Now that ls what I call a nice, honest hon-est proposal, but no man ever trios it. md perhaps no girl would say "Yes," ;f he did. So there you are. son |