Unmarried Ladies. least, into its usual antecedent. In Penn sylvania, some ten years ago, the courts con sidered the question of "courtship from which a promise of marriage may be inferred." The judge who tried the case considered that attentions paid to the lady in a quiet way — the world unseeing — were sufficient. He told the jury that although it was contended that to raise such a presumption the making of presents, the writing of love-letters, and all such things as pass between young peo ple were essential, " we have," said he, "long passed that day, so far as courtship is concerned. . . . One man may desire to court the girl he desires to make his wife in a secluded place, or he may desire to keep it quiet; another may be in the habit of keep ing company with a young lady, and appear in the public highway from time to time, that all may see him. Hence there is no standard; each case must stand on its own four legs, as the parties build it up." The court above him, however, gave him to un derstand that they had not " passed the day," that he was a little too previous, and left him not a solitary leg to stand on. They held that the charge was not only inadequate, but misleading and erroneous. The gentle man in the case, Rice by name, had been at the young lady's home on only four occa sions, and then but for a short time; true, he had met her out in the evenings, — some times at church, — walked her home, and left her at the gate (we are not told that he ever helped her to hold up the gate, as gen uine nineteenth-century lovers generally do). The court remarked that that was not the kind of intercourse that usually takes place between persons engaged to be married. Cir cumstantial evidence of an engagement of marriage is to be found in the proof of such facts as usually accompany that relation, — such as letters, presents, social attentions of various kinds, visiting together in company, preparations for housekeeping, and the like. These and similar circumstances, especially when the attentions are exclusive and con tinued for a long time, may well justify a
109
jury in finding a promise of marriage. The court would not assent to the proposition that attentions paid in a secluded place are quite as satisfactory evidence of engage ments.1 The Illinois courts have decided that an article in a newspaper may be a formal pro posal of marriage, such as will bind the un fortunate giver of the same to a young lady, if he adds thereto the marginal note, " Read this." The learned judges said : " The arti cle, ' Love, the Conqueror,' may be regarded as the defendant's own letter; it doubtless contained sentiments which he sanctioned, couched in language more choice than he could compose. It was his appeal for mar riage, — it foretold in clear and emphatic lan guage his object and intent in his courtship with her. She doubtless placed this con struction upon it, as she might well do, and laid it aside, as a rare treasure, with his other letters." This certainly does not say much for his other letters, of which thirtyone were put in evidence. The lady was "the conqueror," — the article and the let ters brought her six thousand dollars, and the court did not think the amount too much for the poor man of letters to pay for his change of feelings.2 This unfortu nate probably understood why the artists in Abyssinia, when depicting Saint George, their patron saint, represent him not as do ing battle with a dragon, but as spearing the graceful, undulating form of a longtongued woman.3 Serjeant Buzfuz, when he held in his hand the world-renowned letter containing the words, " Chops and tomato sauce," was on solid ground, com pared with those who tried to build a pro posal of marriage upon " Read this." If a young lady under twenty-one gets into a breach of promise case, or any other suit, she cannot be compelled to produce letters, billets-doux, or other papers in her possession, — she may keep them to herself to 1 Rice r. Commonwealth, 100 Pa. St. 28. 2 Richmond P. Roberts, 98 III. 472. 3 The Century, July, 1892, p. 450.
