Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 January 1885 — Some Views on Flirtation and Platonic Lore. [ARTICLE]

Some Views on Flirtation and Platonic Lore.

If a fellow felt quite sure that he would be deolined when he proposed, what a lot of innocent fun we might have. But that is not the nature ot things. But between the danger of being grabbed np and the danger ol being nut ont, the present young gentleman’s position is altogether a profoundly uncomfortable one. I was once on the most delightful of terms, with a young lady. We laid down a basis of neutrality. Flirtation, freedom, and friendship were the mottoes. We got along swimmingly. She flirted with other fellows, and I —well —I was supposed to be free to flirt with other girls. I nevor kicked, but she objected to my paying somebody else attention, and—well—l had to give in. Having thoroughly conquered me, she went ofl and married somebody else, and everybody condoled with me on {getting left. I make no more compacts. Then there’s that confounded arrangement known as platonio love. Platonic love is a relation in which both parties are on the defensive. It is a condition intermediary between happiness and misery. When you are platonically related to a girl you are in a constant worry in case she is in love with somebody else, while you hope to goodness she is not so far gone on you as to expect you to marry her. The plantonic relation is one created to minister to the emotional, as distinct from the matrimonial wants of human nature. It satisfies the craving all men and women have to hug one another without responsibility and without prejudice. It is eternally selfish. It really allows nothing to the other party. It serves to fill up the gaps between the fits of grand passion. Of course, I know that people who believe in platonic love will say it is nothing of the kind; that if is based on liking and respect, and all sorts of pure things. All the same, if you will excuse me, I and not going to confide my future happiness to a young lady who has a platonio affection for any other young man. There is nothing in which theory and practice are so widely different as platonic love. I know it.—“Understone,” in San Francisco Chronicle .