QUEER WAYS OF PROPOSING

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1618, 4 March 1903, Page 27

QUEER WAYS OF PROPOSING

According to feminine opinion, the art of proposing is one in which the average man does not excel. When he is not nervous and awkward at the supreme moment he is, so it is said, uniiatteringl.y cool and matter-of-fact. Many and curious are the methods of proposing that have been- put on record. One country swain chose a rather grimly suggestive way. Taking his sweetheart to the churchyard, and pointing out the spot where his relatives were buried, he said:—“Wad ve like tae lie there, Mai'get?” Marget answered, “Ay.” and the compact was sealed. A certain young man got very easily over the dahieuiiw. When out walking with his sweetheart he said: —“Lae ye ken what the folic’s sayiiT, Jess? They're sayin’ we’re get tin’ mairrit.” “An’ is’t true, Tam ?” the innocent J ess asked, and Tam answered:—“Gin ye like, Jess." Thereupon the maiden remarked, “Fm no mindin’, Tam,” and the matter was thus amicably settled. Though women are said to admire a masterful wooer, they don’t like to be treated with too much cocksureness. Few would respond so humbly to a lover’s advances as did a certain young woman who, when a young man abruptly said to her. “I think I’ll marry ye, Betty,” meekly answered, “I’ll be muckle obleeged to ye, Geordie, gin ye wull.” If long delay m bringing' matters to a point is objectionable, almost equally so is the too premature “popping of the question.” A young woman who, without any -preliminary love making, was suddenly asked the momentous question, promptly answered. “I’ll talc’ ye, Dave, but ye maun gie’s ma dues o’ coortin’ a’ the same.”

Proposing by letter does not generally commend itself to women, who feel, and rightly too. that they are in tliis tv ay defrauded of one of life’s sweetest experiences. The most evidently composed letter falls far short in effect of tiie spoken word and loveiit glance. Still less romantic than proposing by letter, however, is proposing by telegraph. A London gentleman while spending a holiday in Scotland fell in love with a Scottish maiden, hut could not quite make up his mind whether he ought to go the length of proposing marriage. No sooner, however, had he returned home than lie bitterly repented of his.unloverlike dilatoriness. Absence made his heart groAV fonder, and further delay was intolerable. So he immediately wired: "Will you he my wife? Yes or no!” And quickly there was flashed back to him the welcome ans Aver, short, hut to the point—" Yes.” Of all the times and places for making a proposal of marriage surely the most aAvkAvard that can he imagined is in a room full of people and a h'ig dinner party in progress. Yet that was the occasion chosen by a certain impulsive gentleman for putting his matrimonicfll fortunes tothe test. Scribbling on a scrap of paper the words, "Will you marry me?” he adroitly slipped the note into a servant’s hand, signifying his desire that it should be conveyed to Miss A . avlio Avas seated further doAvn the table. The lady was doubtless astounded by this strange manner of proposing, but sbe Avas equal to the occasion. "Tell the gentleman r Yes/ ” she said to the servant, and the gentleman received the momentous ans Aver with perfect calmness. and*boAved politelv to the lady across the table.