The following petition was signed by sixteen girls of Charleston, S.C.,
and presented to Governor Johnson in 1733, and was no doubt thought to
set forth a serious evil.
"The humble petition of all the maids whose names are under
written. Whereas we, the humble petitioners are at present in a
very melancholy disposition of mind, considering how all the
bachelors are blindly captivated by widows, the consequence is this
our request that your Excellency will for the future order that no
widow presume to marry any young man until the maids are provided
for, or else to pay each of them a fine. The great disadvantage it
is to us maids, is that the widows by their forward carriages do
snap up the young men, and have the vanity to think their merit
beyond ours which is a just imposition on us who ought to have the
preference. This is humbly recommended to your Excellency's
consideration, and we hope you will permit no further insults. And
we poor maids in duty bound will ever pray," &c.
It is almost impossible to limit the number of influences, which affect
our appreciation of the ludicrous. "Nothing," writes Goethe, "is more
significant of a man's character than what he finds laughable." We find
highly intellectual men very different in this respect.
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