New-York tribune., 1871-01-14
SINGLE WOMEN.

The social position of unmarried women OF
middle age in this country Is an anomaly
While the matrOn and young girl enjoy
liberty of action unparalleled in any other
social system, the so-called cold maid" is set
apart in an exceptional degree of seclusion
and restriction. She is always q surplus-the
ono too many If she makes a career or a
home, it is by virtue of her own effort !;
noitbcr work nor place is defined for her in
the social machine.
In England, on the contrary, the unmarried
woman of independent means with tho safe
guard of q companion, frequently becomes
householder, and of equal weight with the
matron in society. In countries, too, whose
social organization has been nodded by the
Church of Rome, the single woman-be she
princess or peasant-finds her niche and hon
orable work awaiting her. Out of this de-
Gciency in our society grows half the unrest
and feverish scheming which make woman
nowadays its most revolutionary member.
The story of woman in a neighboring city
suggests to us this difficulty, and hints ut a
possible cure. She is about thirty, we are told,
possessed of good looks, competency, and
more than ordinary culture, but without htis-
band or any home ties CuriOusly enough, she
has taken up neither mission nor reform.
Going into an asylum for blind women, she
fitted I'D apartments with the taste and elegance
which her habits demanded, and has made the
service of these poor creatures the work OF her
life. while she does not deny herself the plea
sures of the outside world. There seems to us,
in this course, not only a high morale, but
common sense and shrcwd perception of the
atu xub bcb
our reformers might take valuable hint.
" All women" they tell us, "cannot marry.
"Let them, therefore, be carpenters, lecturers,
sea-captains, if they will" Now, work of
itself never satisfied any woman. 1t must
have certain element of devotion, romance,
self-sacrfce in it, or it is incomplete. No
Advanced Female" we venture to say, finds
in her lectures or the brokering business alone
recOmpense for the husband, the home, the
baby ut her breast, out of which fate has cheated
her. The Church of RDnie, with that
keen knowledge OF human nature from
which We may Always profit, provides for
lie "old maid' not only work and
sure and sufficient livelihood but clothes her
in uniform which hourly appeals TO her
sense of romance and devotion. 1t surrounds
her with symbols, pictures, and perfume; en-
dows her with a mystical name, a patron saint,
marries her with an actual ring to heavenly
spouse. She is not Miss Blank, nurse, needle
woman, or teacher; she is one with the great
army of saints and martyrs gone before.
Now, why cannot our theorists learn
something here2 Work both for heads and
hands and the chances for livelihood lie before
Protestants as well as Catholics; the poor we
have always with MS. On the other hand
stands the great army of unemployed single
women. When we find among them the dis
position to cooperate, to call out fthe product
i've capabilities in each other even to make
money singly, together with the common sense
to recognize themselves as women, inexorably
women, not striving to trample out the dis
tinctive elements of character by which God
set them apart as such, we discern at last a
glimpse of steps in the Slough of Despond into
which some of the sex seem TO have fallen.