Strange Pretexts for Breaking Off Engagements.

Otago Witness, Issue 2250, 15 April 1897, Page 52

Strange Pretexts for Breaking Off Engagements.

Many of the excuses put forward by young men and women for cancelling the marriage engagement are peculiar in the extreme, and would lead one to suppose that ecgaged people are often extremely fastidious in their likes and dislikes, as the following instances will go to prove. A young shop assistant broke off his engagement to a really pretty and intelligent young woman because, as he said, he had a strong objection to her style of walking. He stated that to perambulate the street beside her was more than he conld endure, and that, therefore, they must part. Verdict for the plaintiff, which was certainly deserved. Another young gentleman, also engaged in a large drapery emporium, found his affection cool towards his betrothed because, as he averred, she did not possess a sense of humour. The youth in question was, or fancied himself to bs>, something of a humorist, and when he found that hii quips and jects did not elicit mirth from ths young lady, he began to think that perhaps after all she was cot the wife for him. The parties found their way to the law conrts, where so many romances of this Datura have an unpleasant way of ending, and the jury considered that his reason for cancelling the engagement was not sufficiently weighty to allow them to decide in >hia favour. Verdict accordiaglj.

I An engineer pave tip tho girl whom he had 1 asked to marry him on account of her ignoranoe , on scientific subjects. Whilst he did not cxi pect, he stated, hia helpmate to be a second Edison, he certainly desired to have a wife who could to some extent enter into his plans and show a degree of interest in his schemes. But as the lady in question did nob seem to know the difference between » locomotive and a horee, he found it quite imporsible to contemplate matrimony with so great a macs of ignorance. Coming now to the pretexts put forth by the ladies, we have a less wide field for history, because the fair sex is not usually culled upon to assign a reason for its vagaries in dismissing fiinces. Still, there ara one or two pretexts which may be of interest which have been given by youDg ladies in those ca3es. For instance, a girl refused to marry a thoroughly excellent young fellow, to whom she bad been ijngaged some six months, when she found out that he was a Freemason. ; Whether sha believed that the duties of a member of this order were incompatible wi;h thoae of & good husband, or whether she had some strange views on the subject of Freemasonry, it is impossible to say ; bub the fact ■ rt mains that she broke off the engagement in ] consrquence. Another wayward maiden did the same thing because the swain was a non-smoker. She solemnly declared thib s-hs could not go through life with a man who refused to worship ] at the shrine of St. Nicotine, thus showing herself very different from the average girl, , who is suppesed to hate tobacco. In all these case 3ib sesma very hard to understand why the various objections were cot raised before the engagement was entered j into ; but perhaps this is due to the incon- { sistency of human nature, which is never more j ai^parent than when it is in love. j