The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1873-03-15

looking for no wine until she shall drink it
fresh from the vintage at the marriage feast
OF eternity!
Grace Darling vas an old maid when she
saved seven sailors from the raging Allan
tic. Charlotte Corday was unwed when
Marat received his bath OF blood. Rosa
Bouheur is half century old. Joanna Ball
lie and Hannah More were very old maids.
1t was the Maid OF Orleans, not the vile or
mother, who led the French to victory. Had
the heroine OF Saragossa been married she
would have fingered by the cradle side, pap
spoon in fist, instead of fastening to the
ramparts to hurl shot and shell at the De-
siegers. Good Queen Bess was an old maln'
with red hair. Nevertheless it is ire
" proach to be an Old Maid That is the
universal cry. Yes thanks to those VINO
have been trained in the creed which those
words express, and who are debarred from
marriage by an exceptionally bard fate
Without tho dignity and self.respect to ex-
tend themselves quietly and decently on the
gridiron until they are broiled into dish
lit 10 be set before The king, They must frlsk
and kick until-torn, singed, half dressed
and wholly anomalous-they escape from the
haHds OF the executloner and mince across
the Goals rejoicing that they are not yet
dished as Old Maids. There is sublime
moral heroism in accepting the situation.
None but superior souls can do it gracefully.
An iD6nite number OF foolish virgins prefer
marrying men unworthy OF good woman's
respect 10 facing the jibes and sneers Of
their mating and mated associates. 0
women who seek this so-called "respect-
liability" can you, do you, believe it decent
to marry not only without love but actually
with aversion? Is it more reputable to
marry a man for his money, than to catch
your fish with golden hooks Isit ''proper'
to marry John because Thomas is not avail
able? Is not the loveless marriage the real
reproach; harder lot than that OF an Old
Maid who buries The love God denies and
walks silently the appointed way, satisfied
that he chose for her? Henri Quatre was q
brave King, but, somehow, his glory fades
before his own declaration,
.sParis vaut bien uae nlesse ~
There are some to whom religion is worth
more than Paris and the world besides; es,
pecially if that religion, with its fundamental
truths, iuculcate the observance OF the moral
and social laws OF delicacy and pure taste.
All women cannot marry. Witness, The
seventy thousand majority OF Natures &c last
best gifts to man" in Massachusetts
alonei For them no perennial Leap year
blooms; and il it did no male stick presents
itself for them to drape themselves around.
But Dame Nature is not wholly obdurate.
Even among the army OF the unwed, grim
and silent as the ghosts that haunt the Sty-
gian lake in default OF the obolus which
shall secure their passage 10 Hades, (alas
how significantly it may we'll be doubted
whether any have reached, by compulsion,
that bourne from which no maiden returns.
Every woman has her opportunities OF mar
riage; perhaps, not always with the one she
would desire or accept. But there would
not be as many unaccountable marriages il
the mania for asking were not as common
among men as ill-assorted matches are
among women. The vast disproporlion
between the forces OF rejectors and rejected
is balanced by the disposition OF man to
solicit many maidens; restricted only by the
law which limits him to one wife ut time,
or To as many as he can successlyely dispose
of within legitimate period.
Put it 10 the vote year, month, week
after marriage and how many women would
secretly black-ball their choice! Yet these
same wives, smiling in ghastly faintness 10
conceal some hidden stroke, will scof at OLD
Maids who have no one to marry. At least
the Old Maid has no sckeniDg conviction
that only the name OF husbands love is
hers. She has no shrinking perception that
irreproachable sherry can produce an OBJ
fuscation OF intellect similar to that which
sold Rye" shall cause. She has no terror
OF the marital lion roaring for retarded
meal, or growing over on over-done roast.
She has no fear for the future; for, at the
worst, her destiny is in her own hands, and
she is not chaIned to dead hope and a
living despair Shall We laugh with the
multitude at Old Maids, or cry, Heaven help
the Wives Wonan's best protector is not
the individual man, but the opinion OF other
men in the mass. But for this, there would
be an irresistible luxury in hitting ones
wife. The day that this bond OF terror and
sympathy is dissolved, up go the switches
and down goes woman's security.
And the Old Maids, the angels with dis
jonted wings and moth-eaten feathers, de-
MED the courtesy OF men and the consider
alton OF women-what shall compensate
them for the loss OF 90 great reward as
the sufrages Of the world on the question o.
their respeclabilityf On earth they car
hope for nothing; but let US trust that it will
be with them as with the poor relations who
as Holmes thinks, shall be pardoned much
in the next world in consideration OF theil
position in this, and that Beelzebub hlmsel
will be moved to say to the humbe-mindec