The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1874-04-24
The Typical Old Maid.

There are women with whom mar
rlage forms no part of their plan OF
life. Nature has provided them with
temperament fitted for independence
and benignantly denied them attrac.
| tlons which might have interfered with
| their vocation. It is said of such women
that they ought to be caught young tc
make tractable wives; but such women
fulfill their purpose best single, and in
that state only give rise to no regrets OF
mistit. Take, for example, Miss Pris,
ella, in Silas Marner-that picture OF
burly cheerfulness, undisturbed by fine
perceptions. She herself, the gentle
men of her acquaintance, and the reader
! who recognizes the truth of the portrait
must all be of one mind as to her fit
ness for the calling she chose for her
self, and for no other. Witness heI
satisfaction, not assumed, in her own
plainness, and her needless cOmprehen-
sion of the Miss Gunns in her profess
sion of that satisfaction. 81 am ugly
there's no denying that; I feature my
fathers, family; but, law! l don't
mind, do you Z" Witness her native
antagonism to the opposite sex; GIVE
no opinion o. the men, Miss Gum.
don't know what you have. And as for
fretting and stewing about what they'll
think OF You, from morning till night,
it's a folly no woman need be guilty of,
il sfe's got good father and good
home. AS | say, Mr.. Have-yOur- own
way is the best husband and the only
0 e I'd ever pro Mise to obey.1 And
again, her arrogating celibacy to her.
self, as birthright and vocation, re-
preaching her pretty sister for sitting
on an added egg Gan unpromising 9
CT olce) forever. "One old maid
enough out O two sisters; and | shall
do credit to a single life, for God al
mighty meant me for it,
The highest type of old maid has
made no sacrifice, nor is she in any
sense victim, for marriage, as state,
is not necessary to her idea of happi-
ness but she has none of that antago-
nism toward half the human race which
Miss Prioilla makes her boast; nor is
she one who has set herself against
marriage, or whom no man has ever
wished to marry. She is the woman
who has never met her ideal, and who
has never been cunningly persuaded to
accept anything short of it. s15t ss..i
Some women-the charming woman,
for example-have not been allowed to
keep their ideal. They have lost sight
of it in finding themselves the ideal of
some one else. Our typical vista has
ne yer been charming woman, though
she may have many excellent gifts and
graces. Women are SO made, happily
for men, that gratitude; pity, the ex-
quisite pleasure of pleasing, the sweet
surprise Of finding themselves necessary
to anOther's happiness (orb being ffattered
inSo the notion,) altogether obscure and
confuse the judgment; they either for
get their ideal altogether, or think they
have found it in the very commonplace
mortal who is their choice. But to
some women this does not happen.
The natural instinct to please istnot
strong in them. They only care ito
approve, and their manner is cold or
Indifferent in general society.
1t is not at all necessary that this
unattraetiveness should have to do with
q conscious want of beauty. A beauti-
ful woman, as far as color and outline
constitute beauty, but falling in be-
witching qualities, may repel admira7
ton by indifference, and live to glorify
the sisterhood to which. her manner de-
votes her but it is the woman of COM
mon place exterior and sensitive mind
that is most commonly left alone with
her ideal.
We, believe that almost any woman
who is not what is called particular
may marry, if she chooses-that is. If
she does not speculate upon herself, or
share the worlds unfavorable view of
her personal pretensions.' Again, per-
sons of simple character, who don't
think much about themselves, but en-
ter cheerfully into the scene around
them, pleased, amused, contented, have
an unconscious attraetiveness quite in
dependent of laws Of beauty. But our
typical old maid is not intellectually
simple, but complex, however morally
she is above worldly schemes for her
own settlement in life. The present,
except under circumstances of rare Oc-
currenee, does not engross her or ab-
sorb her interest, She has a mind
looking before, after and about her
plans of usefulness which concentrate
her attention ON some obiect--a posture
of mind and body, we should say, which
further removes woman from her be-
witching attitude than any other.
Whatever her interests and occupations,
her own life, and what she is to make
OF it, is q present question with her.
She does not wait for marriage to solve
it; she feels it in her own hands. She
has never met her ideal, or. il she has
seen what might have been such, she
has recognized an imp0sslb lbility--co
tuted as she is--which must keep her
apart from it. In good time she makes
her destiny her choice. She will in
deed be nobody's idol. Nobody will
love her best No one will find ont
graees hid from the common gaze, but
which she does not therefore believe
non n-existent. She will occupy no such
place in society as, under favoring cir
cumstances, she believes she could fill.
She will preside over no home, eonsti-
bute no family center and guide; she
will miss what some, perhaps most
women, consider the prize of life, as
we'll as its work and reis0n d'etre. But
FOR all these prospeTities she finds in
her own eases equivalents. She knows
her observation tells her-that the
to them which other women
IRE blind to put up with, cheerfully
ignore, ride over by strong will, or by
acts which she cannot approve, would
go far to neutralize them in her case.
She perceives, in fact, that these things
ire not fer her. One prosperous, COM
Portable and blooming friend, for ex-
ample, has a husband whose faults and
qualities would keep her
and miserable. Another lives
u ease and wealth, but has no control
over the wealth she lives in-has to ask
ler husband if she wants five pounds
sor her own purposes, with @ chance of
being questioned or even refused.
Another, a doting mother, has children
whose weak health or unpremising
;empers would hold her In gnawine
anxiety. Another's time is taken up by
pleasures or cares or business, which |
would all be to her an intOlerable bond
ege.-[ Blackwood's Magazine.