Wit and Wisdom
Dublin Core
Title
Wit and Wisdom
Subject
Courtship, Marriage, Advice
Creator
Unknown
Source
http://addison.vt.edu/record=b1775388~S1
Publisher
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Date
1876
Contributor
Katie Garahan, Alexis Priestley
Rights
Permission to publish images from The Gray Jacket must be obtained from Special Collections, Virginia Tech.
Format
Text
Language
English
Type
Editorial
Identifier
LD5655.V8 L4, ser.1, v.1, no.6 (Mar. 1876), p.4
Coverage
Blacksburg, VA
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
LEAP YEAR. —In three years out of every four man has the privilege of "popping the question," and the annoyance of sometimes having a plain. spoken " No !" for a reply. On the fourth year "You shall have your private gig," woman may propose, if it so pleases her. In the event event of refusing, the penalty, we believe, is that the ungallant gentleman shall present the tender damsel with a new silk. There is 4 reservation, however that the right to claim this penalty depends on the circumstances that, when she proposed, the damsel was the wearer of a scarlet petticoat, which (or a little of the lower portion of which) she must exhibit to the gentleman, the understood idea being that the silken dress shall cover the petticoat, and thus assuage dire feminine indignation at the rejection of her offered hand.
It is stated that in a work entitled "Courtship, Love and Matrimony," published in 1660, ten years before the death of Shakespeare, is this explanation regarding ladies' privileges in leap year:
"Albeit, it is now become a part of the common lawe, in regard to social relations of life, that as often as every bessextile year doth return, the ladyes have the sole privilege, during the time it continueth, of making love unto the men, which they doe, either by words or lookes, as to them it seemeth proper; and moreover, no man will be en titled to the benefit of clergy who dothe in any wise treat her proposal with slight or contumely."
There is a vast difference in the conduct of a man and a woman in new clothes. When a woman gets a new suit she immediately prances down town, and for hours will walk contentedly along a crowded thoroughfare, receiving impulses of joy every time another woman scans her wardrobe. But a man so different. He won't put on his new clothes for town so cautiously as to almost create the impression that he is sneaking along. If he sees a crowd on a corner, he will slip across the way to avoid them, and when he goes into his grocery, he tries to get behind as many barrels and boxes as he can. All the time he is trying his level best to appear if the suit was six months old, and all the while realizes that he is making an infernal failure of it.
It is stated that in a work entitled "Courtship, Love and Matrimony," published in 1660, ten years before the death of Shakespeare, is this explanation regarding ladies' privileges in leap year:
"Albeit, it is now become a part of the common lawe, in regard to social relations of life, that as often as every bessextile year doth return, the ladyes have the sole privilege, during the time it continueth, of making love unto the men, which they doe, either by words or lookes, as to them it seemeth proper; and moreover, no man will be en titled to the benefit of clergy who dothe in any wise treat her proposal with slight or contumely."
There is a vast difference in the conduct of a man and a woman in new clothes. When a woman gets a new suit she immediately prances down town, and for hours will walk contentedly along a crowded thoroughfare, receiving impulses of joy every time another woman scans her wardrobe. But a man so different. He won't put on his new clothes for town so cautiously as to almost create the impression that he is sneaking along. If he sees a crowd on a corner, he will slip across the way to avoid them, and when he goes into his grocery, he tries to get behind as many barrels and boxes as he can. All the time he is trying his level best to appear if the suit was six months old, and all the while realizes that he is making an infernal failure of it.