Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1871-11-03
An Afflicted California Damsel.

A young lady, in communication to tn
San Francisco Chronicle, makes indignan
complaint of the unreasonableness Of men il
asking women to marry. She says:
I am pestered with offers. Now, lik
men I like gentlemen's society better thar
that of my own sex. like them because
their association is to me pleasing and prof
table. [ want information and knowledge
of the world, and all the wisdom, [ can &C
quire, and this I can better derive from per
sonal association, and masculine association
at that, than from all the books or the wo
men in the world. Not that Pm going tc
put myself up as thorough blue-stocking
angular, shrunken, sharp-featured, wither'
ed, specialized, and strong-minded. My
blood circulates pretty lively, and | am not
averse to the feel of coat-sleeve or the
sweep of a moustaohe to fill up the pauses
in the conversation But moderation,
judgement, and prudence in all things, say
I. Because champagne is exhilarating that
is no reason why any one should drink
themselves into any sort Of gutter. Now
| never offered to marry man never had
the presumption to say to gentleman: eff
you will be my exclusive companion for life
I will support you; [ will be mother to
your children. As to congeniality, why I've
only seen you in company dress, but you
please in that, and Til take it for granted
that in all their intricacies and complications
our natures will come into perfect sympathy
and consaguinity with each proposition af-
ter six weeks acquaintance, when IN real
ity they know no more of the woman whom
they ask to marry than they do of the man
in the moon There are men who will pro-
pose marriage to us, whose business would
keep them two-thirds of the time in the
wilds of the continent They seem to i'm
agine that the honor of their name and
alliance would be sufficient compensation
for life spent two-thirds in the condition
Of grass .widowhood, or of one entirely sub
ject to the privations of the backwoods.-
There arc others, confirmed invallds, who,
because we arc pleasing to them, elect us to
the station Of their nurses for life. Others
are poor as poverty, yet not for moment
do they hesitate to offer us shares in their
like poverty. SO they go. None of these
gentlemen in the matter Of association are
unpleasing. All are possessed of qualities
which render association with them agreea-
BILE. But the law of to, day seems to be that
the moment single lady sees in man
something to admire, and allows him to be-
come aware of such admiration, that mo-
ment his lordship must imagine that she is
head over heels in love with him. It is
then that he either demands or importunes
return of his passion it is then that he
becomes furiously jealous of all her other
male associates, whom she may have known
and esteemed for years; and, to be sure, if
she doesn't comply with his demand Or i'm.
portunity-if she doesn't feign an affection
which she may not teel-his lordship goes
into spasms either of despair or rage. He
threatens either suicide or revenge. (Mr.
Editor, I've got trunk full of just such
desperate letters, and I'm half inclined to
publish one occasionally, without signature,
of course, just in order that some of their
lordships who daily carry heads very high
on Montgomery street, may see how their
insanity looks in print.) I ask, again Why
may not lady enjoy congenial masculine
association, based on propriety, which might
prove mutually profitable, without being
continually pestered to marry Marry!
marry marry That's mans eternal cry.
''Marry and settle down" Settle down in
to house-'tw two story back perhaps
settle down into kitchen, cookstove,
wash-tub, a-cradle and so keep settling,
settling, settling into a weary, worn, faded
l-womaR-on whom the male importuner, af-
ter five Or ten years of his exclusive COM
partnership, may look and congratulate him
self on having accomplished successful
ruin! You men are deluded on this sub
ject of matrimony You meet woman at
tractive to you, and forthwith you conclude
that the be-all and end-all of her existence
here is q place in your own privite cage,
where she is to sing for your own exclusive
benefit. You conclude because she is out
wardly pleasant in your company that all
is serene and quiet within. You have yet
to learn that the best specimens of woman.
hood among you are fast cutting loose from
this old-fashioned idea that marriage is the
sole end and aim of her life.
~ n H.