PRETTY GIRLS WHO LOVE

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6362, 17 December 1898, Page 3

PRETTY GIRLS WHO LOVE

OLD MEM. (lit-Bits.) To those who know how charming a stouthearted veteran can be when lie likes, it does not. seem surprising that the prettiest of girls should occasionally fall in love with j old men. In some people's eyes there is nothing so beautiful as a face which, though wrinkled, shines -with- the radiance of-ever-lasting youth, and the deeper the lines upon it the more attractive it becomes. I Mr Gladstone, though he probably never knew it, caused many a young heart' to beat taster for lore of him. On one o£ the last I occasions that he spoke in public, the daughter of a wealthy manufacturer would have forced her way to his side and declared her affection for him had not her friends violently restrained her. "It is his voice I love," she cried, passionately. "I hear it night and day, and there is nothing like it in the whole world." Another girl, though she had only had one fleeting glance at the Grand Old Man, worshipped him with a devotion approaching mania, and was only with great difficulty prevented from committing suicide when he died. A white-haired man of science, known xnd respected everywhere, has been the recipient of some very embarrassing attentions from pretty young women. He has a cabinet drawer which is choked with girlish letters, all breathing the true spirit of love, and he respects the confidence of his fair correspondents so much that he will not allow a single one to be seen. However, he does not attempt to deny the touching story which is. related of a certain beautiful young girl who had secretly admired him for years. She came to him one day while he was with her father, and without hesitation put her arms round his neck and kissed him. She had been married that very day, she said, and would never be able to see him again. - "My husband is a dear, good boy.*' sho went on, " but he knows I don't love him as much as I do .you. We are going to pray nightly that, when he grows old, he may be blessed with hair, eyes, and features resembling yours." When a great strike threw the inhabitants of a northern manufacturing town into a state of sordid poverty, a. benevolent old gentleman came from London to do what he could to comfort the suffering workers. He preached no cant, only the doctrine of cheerfulness amid difficulties, and crowds of admiring people flocked round him in the market-place every niaht. To the women his clarion voice, and bright, wrinkled facs appealed' irresistibly, and two handsome factory lasses were so much impressed that they fell in love with him almost at the same moment; But as time went on, and the strike still remained unsettled, the old preacher showed visible signs of weakness, and one morning the people were shocked to hear that he had been found dead in bed. Se was buried in the local, cemetery, and among the flowers strewn on his grave a beautiful cross "was found, bearing the inscription : " From his sorrowing sweethearts, Jennie and Jane." Jennie and Jane were the love : sick factory girls, and it is said that they actually lived on scanty food for weeks in order to pay for .the_co.stly flowers which formed .the -cross. . : .. ■ \ .' ...