The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-05-16
QUESTIONS AND ANS WEBS.

QUESTIONS AND ANS WERs.
MaIdens and widows as TFlVeS.''Which
makes Ihe Better3---Tilting Hoop
skirts aud their Origin In Paris.
A correspondent of Noah's New York
Times aud Messenger asks the editor
this question: aa3 ls
"In selecting a wife, all things being
equal, which do you think preferable,
widow or n maid? And whyH"
The correspondent is sanswered as fol-
lows; 1i
"Properly speaking, we presume 1t
may be called u matter of taste. If So
ber reason, instead of love, were to con-
troll mans choice, we should think q
bachelor would prefer 'spinster,' for
two reasons, viz: because, as she had
not vet been mentally moulded to suit
another mans habitudes OF mind, he
might have a better chance OF adapting
her to his own peculiarities, and, be-
cause, as she had no previous matrlmo-
nial experience to fall back upon, she
could not be tempted to draw unpleas-
ant comparisons in eulogy of f'when my
first husband was alive for the edihca-
ton of her second. OF course, this rea-
soning does not apply to the union OF
widows and widowerS. They stand on
even ground, and both ought to know
how to take care of themselves IN the
connubial condition. We have no re-
collection of aspersing the widows.
They are frequently among the very
best of women, and many of them make
most eligible wives. They are some-
times, rs Lowell expresses it,
.tEarth's noblest thing-a woman perfected" J"
Suffering has taught them patience and
forbearance. Sorrow has taught them
to appreciate true affection. Nothing
can promise q man, perhaps, ta1rer
PROSPECT of welded bliss, If he under
stands thoroughly how TO manage the
human heart, than a union with q
widow whose first choice treated her
with sullen unkindness. The contrast
will expand the slightest good nature
on the part of her "second" into an
amiabiiity meriting all the homage of
her nature. As for the widows of bless
ed and never-to-be-forgott
goodness partners, how is il to be ex.
pected that they can ever feel contented
with new connections2
'rTis distance lends enchantment to the view,'
and when reasonably agreeable hus-
band has bid goodbye to earth, those
who really loved him forget all his
faults and magnify vastly all his vir-
tues. The want of that distance which
produces 'enchantment just as natu-
rally mngnifies all a present husbands 8
pecCadilloes into insuperable domestic
offences and diminfshes his cleyerest
qualities into almost st~inappreciable So
ciul accidents.
Another question is as follows:
"Do you notthink the prevailing fash
ions, including scanty crown pieces,
coiIed cascades and high hoOped skirts,
(Which reveal SO much of the veal) per-
iectly subversive of true modesty ?
And is il not true that all such eS-
tremes In dress originate among no.
toriouslv disreputable class OF Partisan
wOmen?"
Tho foregoing question is answered
thus:
"The prevailing fashion in respect to
head d dresses, bonnets, DC, are certain
ly not creditable to the sex, but they
might be permitted to pass in compari-
son with the Tilting hoop skirts. These
lust are an iIr modest innovation, which
considering the proverbial prudery OF
American ladies, it seems marvellous
they should have ever adopted. one
would suppose that woman who
would be shocked to say Legs would
be paralyZed at the idea of publicly
displaying her own, and that the dain-
tfness which would put pantalettes on
the limbs of n piano would go much
farther to conceal those of the fair per-
former on that instrument. But tfhcts
are stubborn things and the spectacles
to be seen every day in our fashionable
thoroughfares are bewildering, at least,
to such as have been brought up to old
fashioned notions of female delicacy
and sensitiYeness. These coarse ex-
tremes of fashion are always originated
by the demi-monde, a class of loose wo-
men in Paris, aud 1t is marvellous
thing to see American ladies submit
themselves to such gross iudeceucies of
apparel merely to rival in audacity the
moral outcasts of their own sex in the
French capital.