Otto Hake Gets Engaged

Among the newspaper clippings that one may find, crumbling and yellowing, in the archives of the P&C are a pair of articles pertaining to the leap-year wedding engagement of Otto Hake (b. 1876, Ulm, Germany, d. 1965, Chicago). Here's one of them (date and newspaper unknown):

ONE ARTIST'S MODEL POPS AT LEAP YEAR DANCE
Palette and Chisel Club Bachelors Otherwise Go Free Because Girls Shyly Ignore Their Rights

The Palette and Chisel Club's leap year dance and proposal bee stung just one bachelor. The bachelor girls, most of whom were professional models, proved shy.

Otto Haake, an artist, was the single victim of girlish wiles. Miss Olga Ponorska, a Russian art student and model, who has posed occasionally for Haake, arranged a pillow in front of his chair and popped down on her knees.

This was the form of her proposal:

"Otto, despite your imbecile smile, your many shortcomings in personal getup and your paucity of intellect, I love you. Will you be mine?

And Otto in his best manner responded, "Chass!" meaning "yes."