The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1867-05-11
For the BOIiUar Bulletin.
OLD MAID.

What girl can hear this opprobrious title
in connection with herself and not feel an
instructive shudder and an involuntary
shrinking from the very name
| Old maid how fraught with meaning
these two monosyllabIes; and yet how often
do we hear it fall in tones of derision from
the lips of both sexes, &" oh, she's nothing
but an old maidP The very term is in itself
a reproach, and seems to combine at once
all that is peevish, shrewish and vixenish in
the female character.
As for ourselves, we consider old maids an
excellent institution, and we hold, moreover,
that there is not one perhaps in this much
abused class that might not have been a
aCife if she had so chosen.
However, if a woman wills to be her own
mistress, manage her own property, spend
her own money, to 60 through life heart
whole and fancy Free" to think, speak and
act for herself without subjecting her wishes
to the will of petty tyrant dignifed with
with the name of husband, we would ask,
whose business is it? Why the matter is
with himself, of course, and if from pruden-
tial motives she prefers to pass by the many
heart pangs, cares, trials and disapp0int-
ments incidental to welded life, why insist
she be eensured for it2
The eye of public ridicuIe has long been
directed to old maids as the chief object
upon which to vent their satire. We seldom
pick up newspaper, a periodical, or ajour-
Il L,,A -1o+ = c+oI
some paragraph, anecdote or comic cutting
derision of woman's single blessedness
These burIesques we would remark gene
rally accomplish all for which they are sent,
namely: to excite aversion and disgust in
the minds of the unlearned and ignorant ;
and though, in some instances, their darts
are pointed, yet they always fall harmless at
the feet of the victim.
The odium which idle prejudice, seconded
by public opinion, has heaped on the devoted
heads of old maids, is, if we must own to
weakness, hard to bear; yet we occasionally
find woman who has common sense enough
to disregard it.
As particular as an old maid has become
proverb, and what could be more compG-
mentary? What is sooner calculated to ex-
cite the vanity of those to whom it is ap-
piled?
Old maids are indeed the very personif-
cation Of neatness and exactly, and their
habits of system, order and regularly are
such as Braaozing and sloUenly housewives
would do well to copy.
Hurrah, then, we say for old maids 7
What pity the worlds not blessed with
more of them, particularly since marriage
has gotten to be anything more than mat
ter of SpecuIatjOn-R mere traffic in dollars
and cents. Sensitive as we are to ridicule,
we would rather be an old maid to the end
of time than sacrifice our hearts best and
pure8t affections on the cold and formal altar
of mammOn.
But we come now to another feature. Is
is not supremelY ludicrous when bachelors
the very name of which is a 5yl0Ord and
libel upon the male gender-set themselves
up to criticise and lciticise upon the unmar-
ried of the other sex ? oh, consistency
Let us contrast the two for moment Old
maids are useful in a thousand ways They
have learned the lesson of seIfdenial; con-
sequently they give up their own pleasures
to purchase the relief of suffering and dis
tressed humanity. On the other hand, all
admit that bachelors are the very quintes-
sence of abomination, a worse than nui-
sance, a kind of masculine nponstrosity, only
to be packed away with miIldewed rubbage
and refuse pIunder in coblCeb6y gaTrets and
musty cellars.
1t has been said and truly, we presume,
by those eminently qualified to judge, that
marriage makes men more interesting. In
view of this who would be a bachelor
But think not gentle reader that in trying
! to sustain the reputation of old maids we
have been acting only on the defensive.
Notwithstanding thirty gears have told their
/ story, though the furrow upon the cheek,
with here and there line of grey amid the
profusion Of our once auburn hair, tells US
that the evening of life is approaching, still
despite of all we are young, " with heart as
/ light and eyes as bright " as when more
/ than score of years ago we rejoiced IL
( sweet sixteen. Thirty, and not married !
! We know that some school miss is already
/ on tiD-toe breathless to excIaim old maid
but in the general acceptation of the term,
we reject it as an insult The mantle of a
spinster sets not gracefully upon our shoul-
ders, for we are resolved, in the language Of
Fannie Fern, that zee can't be an old maid,
/ and lgbafs more zee 'front.'.
New Castle, May 6, 1867.
A great number of refugees are arriving
In New \ ork from ireland, They give very
discouraging accounts of the state Of the
country, and say that the Fenian movement
in Ireland is entirely abandoned. 1t is said
that Col. Roberts has made a speech. caIIina