3-074-828 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Striking A Match, drawn by S. O. M'Cutcheon, 1883. 'The passion of youthful love has been compared to a "flame," by at least five hundred thousand poets of all ages and nations. The process of kindling this sentiment may well, by a corresponding metaphor, be likened to that of..."striking a match."...It is allowed that some young women, for good reasons of their own, may occasionally behave with capricious arrogance to their devoted adorers, but men no longer complain of being "killed" by treatment of this sort...The young couple whose confiding attitude is delineated by our Artist seem to be in this enviable predicament of being on the fondest terms with one another. She is a frank, good-natured girl who really loves Mr. Jack, and does not mean to lose his affections, knowing as she does that he will not trifle with hers. She rather likes the scent of a whiff of good tobacco in the open air of the park; and so we see her condescend to hold his hat beneath a sheltering beech-tree, and let him dexterously "strike a match"...that his pipe may be conveniently lighted...the harmless indulgence that she permits him...is a proof of her good sense; and he is more than ever persuaded that she will be an excellent wife'. From "Illustrated London News", 1883.