The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1870-07-22
A Good WCrd for OLE Maids.

The Baltimore Christian Advocate
has the following just and sensible OBJ
servations:
"Old Maid" is felt to be an epithet
of reproach, when in most instances it
is title of honor. 1t is accepted as a
designation of inferior, when in truth
it commonly marks the higher grade of
women. We would be untrue to the
noblest natures, from whom we have
received the purest friendship and most
enduring kindness, if we did not ex-
press at least our own opinion as to
the true character of the class of single
women so rapidly increasing in our
country. We do not doubt that mar
riage is the happier condition for wo-
men when marriage is all that it ought
to be. We never met single woman
who doubted this. But what is the
chance to any one woman of making
such marriage? Suppose that in the
short years of youth she may receive
three or four offers, what is the chance
that among these three or four a wo-
man of high intellectual character and
deep moral feeling will find the man
she can love with the devotion neces-
sary to her happiness Some doubt
less do, but just in proportion to the
profundity of nature and exaltatior of
sentiment will be the difficulty, and so
it, happens that in the accidents of
courtship the unmarried women are
not selected from the lower but the
higher varieties of womanhood. Again
we all know the power of mere person
al attraction to determine what is pop
ularly known as love, and that girls of
the more pleasing appearance marry
with greater facility. But nature is
very democratic. She divides her gifts
less partially than is supposed. The
marked features that resist the plump
padding of underlying decoration are
commonly the outheaving of q strong
nature. The fine nerves and full brain
do not advertise themselves on rosy
cheeks, and great soft eyes, and mus
cles buried i'm cellular tissue. Dolls
have no use for brains. Even where
beauty is smart land sometimes it isl,
it IS too much occupied with itself and
and its admirers to cultivate the mind.
1t takes all of beauty's time to wait Oh
beauty. So it happens that the less
attractive women, who are as q class
the more intelligent, are driven to find
occupation in reading and moral activ-
ities that improve the heart. The re-
suit is to make them yet more difficult
to please i'm q husband, and the ulti-
mate consequence is that the Old
Maids of the country are as n class the
finest women i'm it. To affect to pity
these women is mere waste of calf
power. 'Tis true that mauy
the Inconvenience of their condition;
but do no married women have cause
more bitterly to regret their own? Is
il neglected maids or neglected wives
whose cries for sympathy fall daily on
the ear? Is it the sorrow of "Old
Maids" or of deceived and broken
hearted married women that fills the
chronicle of daily distress? If it be
hard to yearn for a heart to love, it is
harder to love with the knowledge that
the one yearned for was not worth the
loving. But single women are not all
accident but an institution. They be-
long to Christianity, and verify they
have i'm it noble provision for their
energies. They are for their numbers
the most devoted and useful members
of the Church. They are everywhere
the salt of family piety, the embodied
idea of unselfish affection. To them as
class We are proud to take off our hat.
We kiss the hem of their garment. If
there were females among the angels
(which it seems there are not-that
blessing not being given to pre-human
existences), We would look for their
counterpart among Old Maids. AS it
is, we can find nothing of their kind
better than themselves.
A POINT OF HoNOR.-In the flush
times of Vicksburg, when the phrase
"hard casen meant something more
thanit does now, Harvey jenkins was
admitted one of the hardest. By some
strange accident, Harvey found him.
self at church one evening. The ser
mon being over, the preacher requested
all who were friendly to religion to rise
and hold up their right hand. The
whole audience apparently We're on
their feet. After they were seated the
minister continued
Now, if there is single one here
who desires to see Satan and his king
dom prosper, he will rise and hold up
his right hand"
Harvey, with some difficulty, got to
an erect position, and said
"Had the vote been less unanimous
j should have retained my seat; but
ma Ike it q point of honor never to aban
don a friend under adverse circum
stances"
They are TO have a street railway at
II, AArf n al 10. oil txr