Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 85, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 April 1910 — Rensselaer’s Dry-Land Fleet or Courtship Simplified. [ARTICLE]

Rensselaer’s Dry-Land Fleet or Courtship Simplified.

[Contributed by a High School Girl.] Although Rensselaer is a strictly inland town, it certainly can boast of whole fleets of courtships. (Anyone not understanding what courtship is, may consult the dictionary, or better ask one of the parties that may be mentioned herein.) It is carried on in Rensselaer, principally in and about the high school building. Stalling toward the school at about 8 o’clock, you ma> see numerous couples, ranging from the ages of thirteen to eighteej, slow y meandering and mincing their way in the direction of the school house, and stopping frequently, probably at some exceedingly interesting point in their very confidential conversation. As you come upon them suddenly, you may hear them break off abruptly in the, middle of a sentence, while their faces look very telltale and conscious, and after you have passed on, they may be heard to resume their talk in the same confidential manner. This is probably while the first bell is ringing; after it s stops, the beforenamed couples quicken their pace until they reach the building, where they go in very slowly to the most secluded corners of the cloak rooms, and the girl removes her hat and coat in the slowest manner possible, and the boy hangs up his cap with great deliberation. Then they stand by the window and continue their colloquy, with one eye skinned foi| the teacher, while they regard each other affectionately with the other. They remain here until the last bell commences to ring then with very slow steps and many stops, they start toward the door. Once at the door, they make a final halt and with a few whispered words and smiles and nods understood by themselves, they pass in to their seats to spend the period in writing sugarcoated notes to each other, and to resume their interrupted courtship at the next intermission.