
Proposal Wrought by Sensible Girl (1870)
Tale of marital success from The Osage County Chronicle, Burlingame, Kansas, January 1870.
In one simple statement, she convinced her longtime beau to propose marriage. Sensible girl, indeed!
Tale of marital success from The Osage County Chronicle, Burlingame, Kansas, January 1870.
In one simple statement, she convinced her longtime beau to propose marriage. Sensible girl, indeed!
The Art of Courtship: Vintage wisdom relayed from the mid-nineteenth century to a newspaperman thirty years later (in 1887) sheds light on choosing a wife, beginning a courtship, different types of girls (shy, coquette [flirt], “vidders” [widows], and old maids, etc.). Victorian attitudes are prevalent, including the general idea that the sick and infirm aren’t suitable to marriage (think of the children!). Everything you wished your great-great grandpa had told you about courting… and more.
True sleigh rides are a thing of antiquity that most of us consider romantic. Did you consider how expensive such an outing could be? Or dangerous? No wonder a newspaper columnist of the day, in good humor, suggested an alternative.
Vintage paintings, photographs, and newspaper articles shed light on this sport, transportation, and social outing.